"Can You Understand This?"

Image by tonynetone via FlickrRadio Nepal would serve the news in Nepali at seven, morning and evening, and the news in English an hour later at eight. This was during the days of the autocratic monarchy. And so there was much state propaganda. I much preferred listening to the BBC. In English, of course.

Of course no one in my village listened to the news in English. The smart ones listened to the BBC Hindi service.

But then there was always some smart alec who would turn the radio on for the eight o'clock news in English.

"Can you understand this?"

"Yes."

"Bring Home An African Next Time"

Image via WikipediaBy now people from my homevillage have gone to far away places like the Arab countries and Malaysia to do manual labor. A bunch of them are on Facebook. Like one guy said recently, brother, I can't talk to you right now, I am off to have dinner.

So going to Kathmandu, the capital city, is less big of a deal these days. But back when I was attending school in Kathmandu, it was a big deal. It was an even bigger deal when my father was doing high school in Kathmandu. At least I got to take the overnight bus, he had to fly. There was no other way to get there.

And so it was all known that I was attending school with the crown prince of the country, the future king, the same guy who in 2001 mowed down his family in a palace massacre, but then back then you could not have seen that coming, not by the furthest stretch of the imagination.

When I was home for one of my vacations a neighbor approached. He knew I had just come home from Kathmandu. Kathmandu was this mythical place far, far away.

"Next time you come home will you please bring an African?" he delivered. "I hear they are really black, I would really like to see one."

"Thanks For Asking"

This was between high school and college. I was in Kathmandu living on my own. My friends and I would drop by the British Council Library once in a while. On one of those trips a British tourist approached my friend.
Image via Wikipedia
"Excuse me, would you have change for 1,000 rupees?" the tourist asked and briskly pulled a thousand rupee note. That was a lot of money.

"Sorry, no, but thanks for asking," my friend promptly replied, feeling flattered.

"Do You Have An Email Address?"

Related articles

• Letters: British Council: Our climate change work will continue (guardian.co.uk)
• Go to Kathmandu and Enjoy Adventure Activities in The Cold Himalayas (socyberty.com)
• Artists condemn British Council's decision to axe climate programme (guardian.co.uk)
• Letters: The British Council must reconsider the axing of its climate projects (guardian.co.uk)
• Nepal Wrap-up (thethompsonstravels.wordpress.com)

Prax

Prakash and I went to the same high school in Kathmandu, and later the same college in America. He hails from the mythical Dolpo region of Nepal: much of it is behind the Himalayas. Here he is seen with his wife Chas. They have a house in St. Louis, I've been.

Australian Woes
Kathmandu Woes

"Do You Have An Email Address?"

This had to have been in 2005, 2006. I was doing democracy work for Nepal. My blog was my primary tool. And I had the largest Nepali mailing list in the world. I had managed to penetrate all the key organizations inside the country and out. And I stayed on a constant lookout for new email addresses.

So I am at this event in Queens. It has not started yet. I am working the room, meeting people, blatantly asking for email addresses.

I came across this guy who apparently did not know what an email address was. Every Nepali in the city has a phone, but only a minority even today have email addresses.

"Would you have an email address?" I asked.

"I do, but I forgot it at home," he said and saved face.

The guy apparently thought I was talking about some kind of a physical object. Like, do you have a Vespa?

Race, Gender, Tech

Image via WikipediaGroup dynamics is the number one thing I bring to the table for work. And there gender as a topic stands out. And I don't even mean in a political way. It is fascinating as a topic like stars might fascinate astrophysicists.

The zen of tech makes it even more possible to see the threads of race and gender. In a city where the subway ride is cheap, even at free events why do you end up seeing a room that is almost all people of one kind? Culture is a powerful force. Like Facebook did not create the social graph, it merely mapped it, tech in general helps you see social threads.

The other day I saw a group photo of the Tumblr team somewhere and it was an all white team, and I noticed. My teams in India are all Indian. (Doubling Down On Tech Consulting) I was at an event in Jackson Heights on Friday and it was a room full of people from Nepal.

And you come across women who would like you to believe they are on the cutting edge of things like the glass ceiling, only it simply does not involve a single white male they might personally know. Or when a white woman does her racist bonding thing with a white male to portray you as The Other. The same platform also is open to acts of sexist bonding, but do you really want to go for that? But then corporate warfare has its twists and turns. And the Internet is globalization on steroids. A billion Indians would not be my idea of a minority.

Permanent War

Doubling Down On Tech Consulting

Image via WikipediaThe immigration bureaucracy in this country is so fucked up, it's not even funny. It is like getting in line for a land line with the state ownned telco in Nepal before I left the country. It took years. Now they have mobile phones, easy to purchase, but the immigration bureaucracy in this country continues to stay fucked up. Bajeezus fucking Christ.

I once quoted Lincoln on immigration. "I will prepare and perhaps my time will come." I felt like I was about to get the paperwork sorted out. But no, they went ahead and postponed the court date.

I guess I get to double down on tech consulting and plot to become my own angel investor when the time finally arrives, if it ever does.

I also recently got approached by someone to help take Shakira to Nepal to perform for a hefty commission. I am tempted to branch out beyond tech consulting.

Bryan Adams In Kathmandu

As for tech consulting, I have three associates in NYC looking daily for projects - it is not easy - and I have three teams in India always ready to get the work done. I could so scale at both ends. This is not bootstrapping, this is flying by your pants.

I guess fate will have it that I end up my own angel investor.

Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast
Ugh, Immigration (4)
Immigration Court Date: June 6, 2011: Prepared Statement

Using Political Contacts To Beat The Immigration Beast

Image via WikipediaMy friend Jiwan who I am crashing with for now in Sunnyside convinced me yesterday that I need to go the political route to get sorted my immigration mess.

"If the most powerful person on earth can take your help, why can't you take the help of that most powerful person?"

Seeking 10 Minutes Of The Senator's Time For Personal Reasons
(To: Linda at Senator Bill Perkins' office)

Hi Bill.

I have been in an immigration mess since late 2005. A no name State Senator in New Jersey just helped another Nepali get a green card in a month, and the story circulated and a close friend of mine has been urging me to approach you to get the same done for me. If you are in a position to help, I'd much appreciate. I'd remember till the last dog dies, like Bill Clinton said in 1992.

I came to America in the fall of 1996 on a student visa to the top
liberal arts college in the South where I got myself elected student
body president within six months of landing. I finished school in May
2001. After a year I was on OPT, Optional Practical Training. .....
a green card...... Believe it or not I did not renew the card. My
lawyer says I had the option to. I was working days, nights and weekends
for the democracy movement in Nepal at the time, the only Nepali in
America doing full time work to that end. I was not much thinking about me.

I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC like you were
the first elected official in the city to endorse him. That was good
work. The day the national primary ended in 2008 they had me
disappear, machine politics at its most effective! They had me inside
for six months. Obama won. I was out a few days later. My first
immigration court date after that was in Chicago. There were two court
dates in 2009. The last one was in June, last month, that got
postponed indefinitely. This political asylum thing has been dragging
on like a bad dream. The three court dates have been about giving me a
new court date, that's it.

I am under the impression you have the option to use some political
levers at your disposal to get my original green card renewed,
backdated to the fall of 2005 when it should have been renewed. If
that can happen enough time will have lapsed that I would by now
qualify for a citizenship.

Once I have the paperwork I can start functioning at full capacity. I
am a tech entrepreneur who wants to go into microfinance in a big way.
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/02/googlefacebook-of-microfinance.html
I can do for the Arab world what I did for Nepal in 2006. This wave of
democracy, done right, could hit all of the Arab world, all of Africa,
maybe Russia, maybe China. But right now I feel like my hands and feet
have been tied and I have been thrown into a corner. Such waste. And
there is the no small matter of Obama 2012. In many ways 2012 is more
important than 2008.

My alien number is ___________.

For now I request to meet you in person for 10 minutes.

Thanks.
Paramendra.

At The Buspark

I had been House Captain of one of the four senior houses. There were two junior houses, four senior houses, and then there was Gaurishankar, where people who stayed on to do O Levels and A Levels - Senior Cambridge stuff - stayed. Back then in Nepal school was 10 years. Then you sat for the nationwide School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams. And if you passed, maybe you went to college. But high school was 12 years in places like America and Britain. And this British founded and run top school in Nepal had introduced O Levels, A Levels. Half of the students in Class 10 were selected to do O Levels. Half of those were selected to do A Levels. And this was already a school where you got into in Class 4 after sitting through nationwide entrance exams.

O Levels was two years in Britain, one year at this school. So you finished school in 13 years.

We had three vacations: summer, Dashain/Tihar, and winter. Dashain would be the Nepali Christmas. I was not from Kathmandu. Kathmandu is a valley, the capital. Half the students at school were from outside the valley. I was one of them. The valley students got to go home about once a month for a weekend. We went home for the three vacations.
Image via Wikipedia
I had given an excellent year as House Captain. We won pretty much every competition there was, academic, sports and otherwise. Morale was super high. The grades of the students went up across the board. I personally took charge of one student a year junior to me who was considered struggling. His marks were up by 20% across the board by the time I was through.

And a fight broke out on the soccer field. We won the match, there was a fight. I learned about it later. It apparently escalated. It erupted in the dining hall later, and one or two places on campus. I heard.

Our official color was blue. The red house were the sore losers.

But then things quietened down, or so I thought.

I had been the top student in my class every year to that point.

Two Chief Guests: Non Resident Nepali Gathering: Times Square: June 25

Photos

I was just texting back and forth like crazy with John's staffer Crystal. I got her two voice mails 10 hours late this past hour. And now we have confirmed, future Mayor John Liu is also coming. The Nepalis are excited out of their minds. They don't know what hit them. What hit them is the Midnight Taiwan Express.

We already had Bill Perkins. That got confirmed when I dropped by Bill's office Monday morning.

Intercontinental Hotel
300 West 44th Street
44 St, 8th Avenue
Times Square

2-3 PM

Bill Perkins: Rock Star
John Liu: Mayor Of NYC: 2013
Happy Holi
Happy Holi

Robin Hood: My German Nickname

A German newspaper called me Robin Hood On The Internet when I was in the thick of my democracy work for Nepal early in 2006. First it was a newspaper article. Apparently that drew some interest. I got an email saying a whole bunch of radio stations in Germany wanted a piece of me. So I showed up at their studio near Grand Central and did the interview. I don't have a copy. But I got told there would be voice over in German, totally understandable.

"Robin Hood Im Internet"

Around the same time I overslept through a BBC talk program where I was supposed to call in. I felt bad.

BBC Calls

When I got called Robin Hood in 2006, I was simply amused. Wow, of all things you would call me that? But now I think I could use that nickname as I gear up to do microfinance work.

If it were not for the fucked up immigration laws in this country, I'd already be on my way.

Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC

Joi Ito Goes To MIT Media Lab

My friend in Kathmandu Ashutosh Tiwari, Harvard graduate, CEO of the Nepali Times in Kathmandu, founder of Entrepreneurs For Nepal, among other hats, had a Facebook update this morning that caught my attention.

Joi Ito had just been appointed Director of the MIT Media Lab, and that was considered unusual, because the guy apparently had dropped out of not one but two colleges, Tufts, and the University of Chicago.

I left a comment. Joi Ito? The name sounds vaguely familiar. Then I went over to the Wikipedia article on him.

Questions Prepared By My Lawyer For Immigration Court Date Tomorrow

Image via WikipediaImmigration Court Date: June 6, 2011: Prepared Statement
June 3 Immigration Court Date

1. What is your name?

My name is Paramendra Bhagat.

2. Where were you born?

I was born in a hospital in the city of Darbhanga in the state of Bihar in India. I don't have a birth certificate. They don't do that where I grew up.

3. Why are you seeking asylum in the US?

I show up in Nepal and I am dead meat. My instincts tell me so. It is the same instincts that told me in February 2007 that Barack Obama was the next President of the United States.

4. By whom you fear for your life in Nepal?

There are a few different actors and groups that might want to harm me. The people who lost power in 2006, the Maoists who still dream of a one party dictatorship brought about by an armed revolution, rivals in the Madhesi groups, violent and nonviolent, who might be dead set in their own views and methods, separatist armed Madhesis.

5. Why do you think you will be subjected to political assassination?

I am high profile. I spent six months in jail in America for being the top Obama volunteer in the city of his primary rival. That was political. I was the only Nepali in America who did full time work for Nepal's democracy movement of 2006 and the Madhesi movement of 2007. That kind of visibility puts you in harm's way. If my political enemies in New York City can do what they did to me, what do you think my political enemies in Nepal will do?

My Plan For Internet Week

My plan for Internet Week - not set in stone - is to just show up and camp out in that one building and meet as many people as possible. Mind you, I did not say attend as many panels as possible, although one can expect overlap. If people are watching the panels, where you gonna go?

June 6, 7, 8, 9. I am carving out those days.

The Internet Week: The Thing To Do

Social Media Week makes you run around. I don't need to be doing sight seeing in New York City. After taking visiting Nepali dignitaries on citywide tours when doing democracy work for Nepal a few years back, I got to see everything multiple times. Enough. Now get me people.

Immigration Court Date: June 6, 2011: Prepared Statement

Image by Barack Obama via FlickrNepali Song: Lyrics By My Immigration Lawyer
June 3 Immigration Court Date
April 22 Immigration Court Date
Lingering Detail: December 18
Hello Barack, I Was In Chicago
Request For Change Of Venue
In South Africa They Had Apartheid, In America They Got Immigration
The Dong Rule
Fred, How About Some Money?
My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010

Look, you are not trying to figure out if Nepal is a high risk country. You have already established that on your own. Tens of thousands of Nepalis have been granted political asylum over the past few years, and hundreds continue to be granted every month. The country is going through a transition period. The civil war ended a few years back. But the country still does not have a new constitution. The law and order situation continues to be weak. Only a few weeks back a cabinet minister got stabbed multiple times right in front of his house, and the perpetrators are still at large. That is just one high profile example. Those who intend to do harm can do harm and get away with it. That is Nepal today. And you know it. You don't need me to tell you. I don't believe you have questions about the country.

Obama 08: NYC Video: 10 Hours

And I don't think you should have questions about me. For that you don't have to look at Nepal. You don't have to look at the fact that I was the only Nepali in America to have done full time work for Nepal's democracy movement in 2006. When you do something like that, you end up making enemies, and they are not always in the opposition camps.

You can look at New York City, a ground more familiar to you than Nepal. I was not a Barack Obama volunteer in New York City, I was not Barack Obama's one of the top volunteers in New York City. I was The Top Volunteer. That is a qualitative statement to make. If that makes you uncomfortable, how about a quantitative statement? I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in New York City, perhaps the country.

August 2007: DL21C Annual Summer Bash: Barack Won The Straw Poll
The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
Brooklyn And Santogold/Santigold
Southern Hospitality

The founder of Manhattan For Obama at an Upper East Side party in 2007 organized by a Harvard Law School classmate, later Chicago law firm colleague, and family friend of Barack Obama, said the US constitution should be changed so some day I could run for President of the United States. My personal ambitions are not to do with the UN, or the US, they are to do with the Internet, so I am not too into the details of such talk, but I appreciated the sentiment. The founder of Brooklyn For Barack at one point insinuated in a private one on one talk that I did not seem to have elected office ambitions because I don't have the option to run for president.

That is the kind of political acumen I have brought to the table when I have done democracy work for Nepal. When I first approached you about political asylum, I was thinking about Nepal and my personal safety. But what is going on in the world today as you see unfold across the Arab world, in Africa, hopefully also later in Russia and China, by now my request for political asylum is also to do with this big political tsunami that unfolds before our very eyes. I needed to be in the safety of New York City to exhibit the fearlessness I exhibited for democracy in Nepal in 2006. I need that safety to contribute to that which is 100 times, maybe a thousand times bigger than the magic that happened in Nepal in 2006. I am absolutely the top authority on the planet when it comes to political revolutions in Third World countries. I have contributions to make, and I will make them even as I work full time towards my chosen career as a tech entrepreneur.

The Long March Of Democracy
Putin Is No Different
To Zimbabwe Through Ivory Coast
A Rwanda Was Prevented
Ultimately It Is About Iran, Because That Is Where It All Started
Syria's Turn
Barack Obama Proved Me Wrong On Race And Libya
Don't Let Benghazi Fall
North Korea In Sight
Saudi Arabi Next
The Anatomy Of Revolutions For Democracy
Friday Prayer: Let A Million Libyans March In Tripoli
Nicaragua, Ortega On The Radar
Et Tu, China?

Even my work as a tech entrepreneur is to do with the Global South. After you bring democracy to a country, which you can do in a few weeks, a few months, a few years, one of the very first things you note is you face this immense poverty that will take decades to bring to an end. And my career as a tech entrepreneur is dedicated to that cause.

Look I am not someone trying to stay back for the good life. I have not had much of a good life in America, at least not yet. I mean, you had me in jail for six months with petty criminals, drug lords, half a dozen murderers. For the past 10 months or so, I have not even had my own place. I have been bouncing around like Sean Parker was bouncing around at one point in time.

Charlie Rangel was personally involved in my case. I am high profile. Some people in this town decided to press a bogus charge against me, a charge that normally might have got you 20 hours of community service if you were found guilty, but even that small charge they promptly dropped after it got me into the immigration mess, because that was the whole idea. The idea was to get me into the immigration mess. There are people in this town who never expected to see me ever again, one way or the other. This is serious business. I was in jail for six months because I was Barack Obama's top volunteer in New York City, and the dude won the Democratic nomination and that frustrated the federal ambitions of all sorts of characters in this town. They had me disappear the same day the national primary ended, they wanted to make sure I did not miss the message. That is who I am. You have to believe me when I say I am going to be very unsafe in Nepal, a country that I think about every day, a country I hope to contribute to for decades, a country I hope to visit at the first available opportunity, which might be a few years from now. But it is my predicament that for the rest of my days now I am going to have to take all sorts of safety precautions if and when I do visit Nepal. I might have to simply stay away. I might have to hire personal security, if and when I can afford that.

Third World Guy

I am someone who thinks about his physical safety every single day. It is not like I say, okay, it is 4 PM, time for me to think about my physical safety. No, it is not like that. It comes to me on its own, for a few split seconds. And it goes. And I know what it is about. It is called having sound political instincts. I have been through a lot in my life to end up with the political instincts I have today. It is with those instincts that I declared in February 2007 that Barack Obama was the next President of the United States. It is those instincts that tell me I would not be safe in Nepal today. And that is a tragedy, because I have done so much for that country. It is a country that hates Indians like me. The Tamils in Sri Lanka also have it tough. They are also Indian origin.

I Take This Threat Very Seriously
The Scary Version
The Bin Laden Operation
Barack Said In 2007 He Would Do This

There are very few people in America, politicians and non politicians alike, who understand democracy like I do. I was not born in America, but I have more than earned my right to be in this oldest of all democracies. Safety is the number one reason. But while I am here, I am also going to do work. I have already started. I am a tech entrepreneur.

New York City
My BusiCopy Cofounder Anuj Bikram Thapa
My Web Diagram
The Google/Facebook Of Microfinance
PayCheckr: Not Dead Yet

Politics is to me what sailing is to Larry Ellison, I take it very, very seriously - I mean, I am so looking forward to Obama 2012 - but it is not my career. I am a citizen of the Internet, I am a Netizen. At some level I am never going to be an American, emotionally speaking. My country is the online world. I am global. I am a New Yorker. But I will take the paperwork. I want to be safe. And I want to do some good work. I see my career as a calling.

It Will Be Barack Vs Palin
Two Terms Please
Donald Ratass Trump, And So, I Was Born In India
I Am Going To Act Like This Is 2007
Obama 2012 Is On

I ask for political asylum. What I really deserve is an honorary citizenship.

Related articles

• President Barack Obama: Pushing Congress to overhaul the immigration system ... (usapolitics2012.wordpress.com)
• Arizona immigration law upheld by supreme court (guardian.co.uk)
• Can the UK afford to tighten immigration rules? | Comment | Subhajit Banerjee (guardian.co.uk)

Southern Hospitality

Story 1

I showed up in Kentucky. For a few weeks I did not understand people. People did not understand me. I would ask questions in class. The professors would make me repeat a few times and give up. I spoke fast.

"Are you from New York?" someone asked me.

Never been was the correct answer.

Organic Growth

Image via WikipediaMy Cofounder Anuj is really something. He grew from one engineer to 50 engineers over five years completely organically. They don't do angel investing in Kathmandu. Venture capitalists live on Mars, not in Kathmandu. But so far the team has worked like hired guns for clients across the world. They have done some pretty sophisticated work on top of the regular web design and development they do on an ongoing basis.

Now that we have teamed up to do a tech startup, it is quite something to watch Anuj's thought processes. He is Mr. Organic Growth. Even for the tech startup what he has in mind is organic growth. His gameplan is sound. He is not opposed to me raising money on behalf of the company. It is just that he does not see raising money as do or die. We might as well not do it. The idea of raising money is not in his universe.

BusiCopy is a social network for businesses. No, we are not a Facebook imitator. If it is just about creating a simple page for your business, you can do that either place. But BusiCopy is more. If you are a business in NYC, and you want to list yourself on BusiCopy and also need web design, development work done, BusiCopy can help you, Facebook does not do that. If you are a business in Kathmandu, and you want to go global without getting on the plane, without getting a business visa, we will have the platform for you. We don't have it yet. But we are working towards it.

Ignite NYC Premonitions

I had a few Direct Messages from Tikva this morning. Looks like I did not make it in the first round of Ignite NYC slated for Internet Week. None of the panel people I reached out to on Twitter reached out to me either. How does this work?

Excited About Internet Week

In Tikva's case she said my description of what I was going to talk about was incomplete. So I sent her an email. She wrote back. Other than the fact that you are suggesting you are a gift from God to the world I still don't have a description of what you are going to talk about.

So my newest mail goes something like this.

The first major revolution of the 21st century happened in Nepal, and
Paramendra Bhagat was the only Nepali in America working full time for
it. In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million
people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to
shut the country down completely to force a dictator out.

"There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect.
A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the
reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006
was a political cyclone. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New
York City."

http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com http://democracyforum.blogspot.com
http://technbiz.blogspot.com
@paramendra

Namaste Nepal

Namaste Nepal from Arpan Regmi on Vimeo.

(Via Samir Shrestha)

Digital Efforts Have To Be About Transforming NYC Into A Small Town

I don't know Kirk Love. I have never met Kirk Love, although I hope to some day. The guy shows up in my Gchat window on and off, and it is because one day I pitched him to come in as an angle investor. Why not? He said, no thank you, I can't, but nice meeting you too. (The Google/Facebook Of Microfinance, My BusiCopy Cofounder Anuj Bikram Thapa)

I started following him on Tumblr because he was on David Noel's list of people to follow. David Noel is out of Berlin. (My Tumblr Just Got An Upgrade) Just from following Kirk on Tumblr I had seen many, many pictures of his wife.

Lilian Riveros met Kirk on an online dating site. Apparently they clicked enough when they met in person to end up married. Lilian is a New Yorker, of course, a Paraguay native.