They spent a gruelling nine days trekking in the Mount Everest to reach the site... the Gorak Shep plateau, at 16,945ft. Locals helped to prepare the pitch, moving stones, pebbles and rocks - sometimes with pickaxes - out of the playing area. In a highly contested game, team Hillary beat team Tenzing by 36 runs with six balls remaining.

The the Amateur cricketers entered the record books of playing the world's highest altitude game of field sport.



The teams celebrated their record with a giant bottle of champagne followed by cups of tea (much needed tea I guess ;) )



The interesting match was named as The Nokia Maps Everest Test. The team consisted of 50 people, carrying Nokia N79s with SportsTracker. (Source)

Being at 40 degree + humidity is enough torture, but add no electricity to that... hmm.. tough !!

Bangladesh is (and has been) suffering from the lack of electricity. Recently the scorching hot weather added to the pain.


It says that lamp comes with "Free !" damp heat and available for limited time until 2011 ! And guess who is that lady ;)
Hilarious!

Today, April 27, 2009, The European Union health minister advised Europeans not to travel to the United States or Mexico unless urgent. This followed the first confirmed case being discovered in Spain. One person in Spain has been confirmed as suffering from swine flu in Europe’s first case of the disease. A further 16 people are being tested for the flu.


On April 25, 2009, the WHO determined the situation to be a formal "public health emergency of international concern",


The United States of America has declared a state of Public Health Emergency. According to the New York Times, "the emergency declaration frees resources to be used toward diagnosing or preventing additional cases and releases money for more antiviral drugs," including the transfer of approximately 12 million influenza medications from a federal stockpile to states.


Mexico City, epicenter of the outbreak and home to 20 million people, looked like a ghost town. Millions of Mexicans stayed indoors on Sunday, trying to avoid a deadly new strain of swine flu.

Church services in this heavily Roman Catholic country were canceled -- the first time anyone could remember that happening.


Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are among countries screening travelers for fever, while Hong Kong raised its swine-flu response level to “serious” from “alert.”

- Gagan
April 27, 2009


P.S. Some extracts from Wall Street Journal:

Most restaurants and movie theaters closed their doors, city parks looked desolate, and normally bustling streets had only a few dozen cars. Soldiers handed out blue surgical face masks on the streets. Professional soccer matches in Mexico City were played in front of empty stadiums but broadcast on TV.

"The city is paralyzed, what are we going to do?" asked Marta Robles, a housewife who went to a local pharmacy to buy a surgical mask. The pharmacy was sold out.

Schools and universities were to remain closed in Mexico City until at least May 6, officials said, affecting more than 6 million students

The government is bracing for a big slowdown in tourism, the country's third-largest source of foreign income

"We're renting about three times our normal volume, and most families are renting about six or seven videos at a time," said Daniel Lara, a 21-year-old checkout clerk. Mexico City residents hunkered down with their families indoors, watched news updates, and tried to relax. Local video stores said they were doing a brisk business.

Anyone who sneezed or coughed in the city immediately drew stares from other residents.

one Mexican custom was alive and well: Laughing at the possibility of death. A new song composed about swine flu is circulating on the Internet. Among the lyrics: "Now who's going to help us?/ Call in Superman/ We'll all be dead by the time Indiana Jones gets here."

If you want to follow the latest news, you may check International SOS site
http://urgent.internationalsos.com/Latest%20News/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Hmm, I know I have not been posting for a really long time !! I have somehow did not get enough inspiration to post here. Now-a-days, I feel like writing in Bangla a lot, but this blog is in English. That's one reason. I guess facebook has something to do with it also.

However, let's see if I can come back to regular posting soon. I will have to post events backwards. But let me start from today.

Max (remember my 'once' room mate?) was back in Finland for few weeks only and invited us to have a dinner. He did not mention anything about his birthday, but good that I remembered ;)

We had some good time... and that's how time is passing by fast... really fast

Bangladesh has passed a law in the parliament which states setting jail terms of up to three months for begging. The new laws fix no fines for beggars, but state if anyone is caught begging in public places or shows disabilities to get alms, they will face time behind bars.

This sounded like quite an over-ambitious plan to me. Those beggars can't just really disappear from the streets just like that. For some, it's a profession I agree (you may want to watch slumdog millionaire), but for thousands, there is no other choice.

I myself cannot suggest any bright ideas to unroot this problem in a country which is devastated by nature every year. Beggars on the streets of Dhaka always raised the question to me "WHY??? Why you? Why not me?" . I myself might have personally saved a few lives by helping to set up mini business, but there are thousands others ....

However, there is always a start. May be rehabilitation should have been done first before taking actions to ban, but by setting up this law at least I hope plans will be started to be set out... and more Project Dignity like initiatives.