Ballooning Internet Craze in Nepal

- By Janak Timilsina

He Impatiently Asked to Cyber Operator: Dai How Long I Have to Wait?

Why internet?
'To be updated in the advanced world'
"Internet is a library to knowledge"
"Internet is a forum of entertainment"
"Internet is a university"
"Internet is the meet point"

These were the responses of the internet browsers encountered in the several cyber cafes around Nepalese capital city Kathmandu.
• When this scribe was at a cyber café located in Nepalese capital city Kathmandu, Umesh Dhungana and Kamal Dhungana from Achham of far west region were busy in gossip with their friends from America exchanging information regarding education system of both of the countries. Umesh happened to met with American friend Mcquail some five months back via online. They have become so closer that they are planning to travel together in Nepal once he (American friend) comes to Nepal.
• Narayan Khatiwata who was queuing for his turn at a cyber café located in Maitidevi was impatiently asking with cyber operator "Dai (brother) how long I have to wait?, Friend is online, I may not catch him, its boring." Saraswati Karki was busy at Junction Cyber at Dilli bazaar in gossiping with her friend from Pokhara. She manages to get informed about the trend of fashion across the world as soon as she sits in front of computer. 'It is urgent for me to visit cyber for modeling'- she said
• Satish Shah of Baneshwar says he feels uneasy on the day he can't manage to visit cyber. "I feel something missing if I'm not connected online" he said adding '' Visiting online has really become part of my life." Satis visits cyber saving his pocket money. Following the overwhelming presence of costumer, number of cyber café has been significantly increased.
For last few years, Nepalese people are being habituated to be connected online. The internet craze has not only been confined among the youths, the craze exceeds the boundary of ages as the significant number of adults and children are found making themselves busy before the computer screen. While visiting a cyber café located at Maharajgunj of Kathmandu, this scribe found that numbers of adolescents and adults were queuing for getting their turns.
The media technology has witnessed a drastic change. Letter Press has been almost replaced and off set press has taken its place. Though reading new stories or having glance over 'look at' material in newspaper is a different experience, online is tremendously dominating our life easing our fingers and eyes at touch screen and comfortable LCDs. Use of LCDs and Laptop is growing. In Nepali market, the price of lap top has been declined to some 40 thousands. Manufacturing companies are in tough competition. E-technology has made possible the global connection.
Internet is not only a medium to be used for information, it is also a medium from where we can express our feeling and emotion and find closure to the person we love. When Pratikshya Kattel and Anjana Kattel of Ilam miss their brother who is in India for study, they rush cyber to get connected with him.
Internet is an open library, the users say. They prefer to download reading materials from internet. Grade six student of Baneshwar Public School Roshan Pokharel was searching the materials supportive to social studies in google search while 80 years old Mahesh Katawal was busy in talking with his son who is studying Medicine in Bangladesh.
The internet which was professionally developed in 1990s was used in Nepal since 1993 when Mercantile Communication launched it for the first time in the country. Following the growing number of internet users, as the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also grew; several organizations launched online news portals, entertaining websites, and official websites. ekantipur.com, nepalnews.com, nayapatrika.com and himalkhabar.com are some of the popular news portals of Nepal while cybersansar, enasha, modelsansar and netnasha are some other entertainment-oriented online portals.
In a bid to produce skilled human resource in information technology, Tribhuvan University has already launched Bachelor of Information Technology since 2001. There are many colleges which have been offering IT courses across the nation. Interest of 11 years old Roshan and 80 years old Mahesh reflects growing internet craze in Nepal. Cashing the public demand, Nepal Telecom has extended internet service all over the country. Operator of Mero Mobile has claimed that it has been providing quality service to its over eight hundred thousand subscribers though the service of both of the companies is been always the issue of complain for their weak networks. Nepal Telecom has been distributing Sky phone throughout the country and with the help of RIM Card, browsing of high speed internet is also possible. Ã
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