Finally the day arrived which all the Nepalese were waiting, the day they choose people to make the constitution of Nepal. I also participate on today’s election. For many of my friends they cast vote for the first time and they were excited.
Bravo, You did it Election Commission
Let’s hope the people we have chosen won’t let us down and they are the right person to make Nepal’s future.
The exhaustion from the long flight from Delhi to California clung to me like a second skin. Stepping out of the airport, the dry California heat felt like a warm hug after the muggy Indian summer. Finally, I reached my hotel – a charming Victorian-style building in Santa Monica. Dreams of palm trees and ocean breezes danced in my head.
But as I flung open the door to my room, a wave of musty air hit me like a Delhi dust storm. Pushing aside the floral drapes, I gasped. Ugly black patches marred the pristine white ceiling – a telltale sign of unwelcome guests – mold. Disappointment sunk its teeth into me. This wasn’t the Californian dream I’d envisioned.
Jet-lagged and frustrated, I marched down to the reception. The friendly receptionist, a young woman named Emily, apologized profusely. It turned out recent coastal fog, a rarity in sunny California, had caused a leak, leading to the mold growth. Relief washed over me – at least they acknowledged the problem.
Emily assured me they wouldn’t leave me stranded in a moldy room. Instead of the usual housekeeping staff, a team of masked and suited individuals arrived, looking like a scene straight out of a Bollywood sci-fi movie. Apparently, they were calling in an expert – a Californian “mold buster” as Emily called him.
The “buster,” a cheerful man named Steve from APDR, inspected the room with a practiced eye. He explained the remediation process – containment, removal, and air purification. He assured me it would be swift and wouldn’t disrupt my vacation much. True to his word, the team worked efficiently, their movements muffled by their protective gear.
The next day, Steve presented me with a sparkling clean room. The musty odor was gone, replaced by the fresh scent of ocean breeze filtering through the window. As a token of apology, the hotel upgraded me to a room with a balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view was breathtaking – a panoramic canvas of turquoise water and golden sand.
The mold mishap may have been a bump in the road, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It showcased the hotel’s commitment to guest well-being and introduced me to the fascinating world of Californian mold busters (who knew they existed?). Most importantly, the oceanfront upgrade provided a truly stunning Californian experience. From then on, the memory of the mold became a funny anecdote, a reminder that even vacations can have unexpected turns, but with a little help, even a Californian dream can have a happy ending, complete with a million-dollar view.
Holi, is the festival of colors. It is a Hindu festival and people in Nepal also celebrate this festival with friends and relatives and people of other communities. Here is a collection of photographs of the Holi festival at Thamel, Kathmandu. The photographs were taken during Holi celebrations by tourist and local people at Thamel.
Hope you enjoy these photographs.
Happy Holi.
I was going through BBC news and found this topic “Nepal action on Tibet ‘excessive‘ ” and it is true if you see some youtube.com videos where you can see protesters with blood, Nepal police using excessive force against the protester. In this same news there is a line
“How can a government that came to power on a wave of public protests against an authoritarian regime, justify crushing peaceful protests by Tibetans?”
Any of us can justify this line? Do you think that Nepal’s government policy is right? All the communist party of Nepal and the government are supporting One China Policy, but what about the Tibetans rights? It was taken over forcefully by Chinese; it is not the case of like Sikkim, because of some bad politicians in Sikkim, it became a part of India.
If we see some 50 years ago pictures of Kathmandu Valley then it is really different then what we see now. The houses in traditional Nepali style and the houses near new road were with British style. There was a fusion in architecture of Nepali and British.
When Kathmandu was introduced with concrete, the architecture from traditional one started to change into ugly modern looking style, Kathmandu now completely turned into concrete city. People started building houses in random order without any study about future, it’s effect in future and planing. This is one of the reason we are facing traffic jam, not good sanitation and drinking water supply now.
Preserving the history, Making house in old style as it used to look before
What kind of people were there at the administrative level of the government at that time who’s decision almost made the vanishing-point of our traditional architect. These architect are just alive as temples and old durbar now.
Samyak Guthi organizes the Samyak Mahadan Festival in every 5 years. This year I was lucky enough to see this festival. Being a newar and from Kopundole, I did not knew about this festival which is conducted at a distance of 10 min walk from my house. There are still lots of people who have no idea about such Festivals.
Newar Community is rich from every aspect
This is a Buddhist ceremony called Illhane Samyak conducted at Nagbahal, Patan. We can see more then hundred Buddhist’s sculpture there. Tanbahal bashundahra Devi, Jattadhari Lokeshwore, Deepankar, Aarya Tara, Dharma Kirti are few to be named.
It is believed that from B.S 1761 it started and used to be conducted every year, due to lack of fund for guthi, now a day in every 5 years it is conducted.
My purpose of posting about this samyak is to let people know about many such Festival that are conducted in Nepal by different community at different places which are unknown to other community or people from other part of Nepal. I bet, even many Newar or Buddhist from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Pokhara, Palpa don’t know about this.
Today is Shivaratri, and for the first time in my life I went to Pashupatinath on this particular day with my friend Avhishek. For me it was a new experience seeing all baba’s taking puff of ganja (Marijuana).
Some incident that happen there forced me to post some of the picture.
I saw the naked baba, he was exposing his genitals, and police request this baba to no to show his genitals. Later I came to know he is a bilateral amputee.
Before this, Avishek was taking some close up picture of one baba. When this baba noticed Avishek, he shouted “CAMERA KHICCH LO” (get the camera) and ran after him. Avishek shouted back “I have not taken your picture” and left that place.
I support Local Empowerment. So, I’m sharing this Everest Base Camp Trek to promote a new way of trekking where trekkers can empower the local service providers like lodges, guides and porters by booking services directly through them. #empoweringthehimalayas #freetriptoeverest
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