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The concern to a pragmatic and smooth transformation in life led me raising two awesome human being, and postponing my formal education for couple of years. Since raising my kids in motherland became a complete far fetched and unreachable dream, we (my partner, I and our awesome family) decided to raise them ourselves in North American continent, the way we knew best. It was decided I would be the primary care taker for the first few years of their lives, and I love it #BreakingTheStereoType

However, not just to babysit, I chose the next best education available for me, the one that I’d always dreamt of and the one I could really combine with health/medicine. I took myself in learning coding/programming, few baby steps at a time. The Internet, is a vast open space of wonderful resources, and it has taught me few too many nifty tricks in this field. I took upon myself to learn two things – coding and statistics. Later, I added one more field – Calculus, but that topic is for another day.

It took me three years, to learn the basics of programming. Some do it in a matter of weeks, but I am lazy and as a lame excuse, I’ll say family always comes first, until all of them can walk, talk and understand basic human logics. I started with HMTL and CSS through Codecademy , and then moved to basic JavaScripts; this was early-2016. I was intrigued by Udacity and enrolled in basic Android app development. Completed that course; learned a lot of (pre-)basic Java and Android. Skipped to learning Full-Stack Development in late 2016, but dropped out in the middle as I was unprepared for becoming a new dad and time management. My first child was born in early 2017. I mostly stuck with basic python, and Android dev.

Early 2018, I got this awesome opportunity to join in a scholarship program from Udacity on Pytorch. Got a whole new perspective on AI/ML and Neural Networks, did couple of nifty machine learning projects, and uploaded in Github. Completed Deep Learning Nano-Degree from Udacity. I opted to go ahead with Deep Reinforcement Learning on Udacity, but couldn’t spend time, and had to drop out. First six month of 2019, was all about my second child. I would be lying If I say we raised our toddlers alone, we had awesome great helps from both sets of grandparents who would visited us and stayed with us, helping out the new parents.

Early 2019, second child was born. Six months later, I resumed my coding and started learning flutter, from Medium posts, and lots of StackOverflow. This was the first time I was learning through self interest and searching through internet. I started with four flutter projects, one of which finally got published in iOS and Android App Store late 2019 as an educational app – Prakash Nepali Barnamaala. It was something overdue for a long time, and I had been collecting materials for it, from 2016. I dedicate this first app to my father, and my first teacher – Prakash Khatiwada Upadhaya; though the app itself is targeted to my two kids. Hopefully, someday, soon they will be able to appreciate it, and I am still adding up new materials on to it. Recently, I just added a simple ML component through tflite plugin.

Apple iOS link – here | Google Android link – here

So I ended up learning – – > HTML –> CSS –> JavaScript –> Java (via Android) –> Python –> Pytorch (Jupyter Notebook) –> Dart/Flutter (VSCode) — before I could publish a simple app. There are so many people I’d like to thank, starting with my wife (always believed in me); my parents, my in-laws, my sister, awesome people at Udacity (mentors, and friends), the internet, and lots of StackOverflow and Medium post writers.

Todo/s – over the next three years – here

What is the App about?

Prakash Nepali Barnamaala helps you learn and understand basic Devanagari/Nepali language using reading, writing and listening. Designed for all ages, app has Devanagari/Nepali vowels, consonants, words, numbers, and phrases; along with basic Nepali adage, idioms, and proverbs along with few classic Nepali poems.

— For Beginners

• Read, pronounce and write Nepali with vowels and consonants in Devanagari script.
• Illustrated Images related to alphabets helps learning more fun.
• Understand complex Nepali with – barhakhari, (ka, kaa, ki, kii) compound/mixed (tra, pra, ndh) and legged letters (k, kh, g).
• Select your favorite color to write, draw characters and draw pictures.
• Drawing app shortcut opens up to clean white board, with color selection menu.
• Read Devanagari/Nepali numbers from 1 to 100.
• Read multiplication tables from 1 to 100 in Nepali and English
• Multiplication tables from 1 to 100 in Nepali and English.
• Understand basic Nepali Unit measurement of weight, area, notations.

— For Intermediate Learning

• Words with audio file, for anyone interested in reading and listening to Nepali words.
• Learn words associated with days of week, months, seasons, time in Nepali
• Learn words of family, friends, relatives and important post/position in Nepali.
• Learn major colors, emotions, animals, birds, and food in Nepali Language.

Features for those who don’t speak Nepali

• Phrases with audio recordings for easy understanding.
• Learn phrases associated with travel, lodging, emergency, technology, health and food.

Features for basic learning about Nepali literature

• Lyrics and Audio to Nepali National Anthem.
• Read prominent poems, by few select prominent Nepali poets like Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Bhanu Bhakta, Moti Ram Bhatta.
• List of lyrics to simple Nepali baby songs. (some with song audios)
• Read and Understand 100 most popular Nepali adage (Gaon Khane Katha), 
• Read and Understand 50 most popular Nepali proverbs (Ukhaan) and idioms (Tukka).
• List of Nepali National – (like – bird, animal, color)