About Me

Biography

I first started writing as a freshly landed international student on the campus of Salem International University in the microscopic town of Salem, West Virginia. My first few Nepali friends and I decided a campus newspaper needed re-starting so we went about spreading the word, dusting off the computers in the unused, florescent-lit office and sleuthing for stories. What we put out was modest in appearance, an 8- to 10-page double-stapled booklet, but we compensated in content by ruffling some feathers. Our foremost transgression was a front-page article about Pope Benedict XVI (better known as Joseph Ratzinger) and his involvement with the Hitler Youth organization along with the inset graphic of a bright red swastika. In our defense, it is often said that even bad publicity is better than no publicity at all!

With that auspicious start, we each went our separate ways with a taste of journalistic curiosity under our belt, onto other fields but forever hungry. It was not until 4 years later, when I joined a finance graduate program at Oklahoma State University, that I wrote in earnest again. As an opinion writer, and the only that year from an economics background, I covered such topics as the job prospects for graduates, the meteoric rise in college tuition and the Greek sovereign debt crisis. When nothing in the world of business caught my attention I turned to religion, social movements and politics instead.

Actually, religion had first grabbed (and vigorously shaken) me in the Summer of 2007. I had picked up a book about Islam written by Robert Spencer, read the inside of the dust jacket and denounced it as "biased." Thankfully, a close and knowledgeable friend would not stand for my intellectual laziness and questioned me on how I had come to such a conclusion within seconds of picking the book up. I had no answer. With many of my close, new friends (I was now in Oklahoma) leaving campus for Summer, I was given the opportunity to debate religion, and Islam in particular, with him and face my own generalizations head-on. Hopefully everyone goes through a similar experience while in university, of having one's preconceptions battered until, almost by sheer force, the brains actually engages in a meaningful dialogue that leaves nothing of what existed before. I felt better equipped as a result to use my "Baloney detection kit" (so-called by Carl Sagan) on religious nonsense and other gripping topics.

Back at OSU, I raised concerns over missionary work in Africa being a disingenuous setup, after seeing the pipeline of Baptist students sent over to do "God's work." This was not a gratuitous insult meant to rile up (although it did just that!), especially given the number of close, believing friends I know who have done mission trips and feel "bettered" as a result. My point was that religious strings come attached, causing strife, division and confusion unnecessarily; contraception is demonized in areas where the leading cause of death is AIDS and other developmental organizations, better suited to providing the aid needed, exist without the indoctrinational overhead (and need volunteers too).

Other articles about Occupy Wall Street, separation of Church and State and bans on Shar'ia law were, similarly, like taking steps through a vacated front-line where none dare tread. Maybe for that very reason, they excited me and reinforced my inclination not to listen to the common "wisdom." The response to these articles was immediate and forceful, often igniting a series of back-and-forth counterpoints or, better yet, side-by-side pieces in an upcoming edition where our audience could judge both sides.

This type of writing, where I hope to challenge a set of established beliefs, often long-held and uncritically adopted, is what I revel in. My hope is to unravel further topics which have become closely bound in societal taboos and political-correctness here. You need not agree with me, in fact my hope is you have an opposing view and that you will share it here for discussion. Thank-you!