Monthly Archives: November 2011

What the hell wrong with the drivers on road?

Posted on November 25, 2011 | 4 comments

When I started this blog I though I will never rant on it, I will just share my experience from my life but I will not be a normal woman if I don’t rant so here it is.

What the hell wrong with the drivers on road?

 I have driven in Australia, Nepal and New Zealand only so I won’t know about the rest of the world.But seriously I have seen one after another crazy driver on the road for the past few weeks.

I never understood why people have to talk on the phone while driving. Don’t you know it is illegal? And I am seeing this increasing number of people wearing a head phone while driving. Aren’t you supposed to be aware of your environment while you drive, so how the hell can you hear an ambulance when you have headphone on both yours ears.

And what’s with the people who try so hard to get into your lane. You think it is ok to let them go so you slow down or stop but they don’t even have the courtesy to wave a Thank You. They drive like they deserve that pass. Hello! I was just being nice and if I knew you would not even acknowledge my kindness then I would have never let you in. 

And there are other kinds of drivers who feel that they need to race me. Even if they break the speed limit to overtake me. Anyway most of the time I catch up with them at next traffic light so what is the use of risking getting fined just to overtake and beat me by a few seconds. 

And don’t even get me started on the bike and cycle riders. Motorbike riders always think they have to be at the front of the line when there is a red light so they will try to squeeze into any small space they can find to be in the front. 

I know bicycle is environment friendly but I don’t live 2km away so I can ride to work. I need to drive so don’t give me that attitude. The worst part of a bicycle rider is, in peak hours they will take up the whole left lane and all the cars have to change lanes to pass him. Then when there is a red light, they will just jump on to the footpath and cross the light with the pedestrians and then again go back to riding on the road. I don’t know why there is no stricter rule against this. Seriously, if cyclists need to use the road, they must follow the entire road rule as any other motorist. And if they can ride on the footpath then they shouldn’t be riding on the road. 

And in the morning traffic, you get to see all kinds of drivers. There was a woman painting her toe nails on a red light while a man in the next car was shaving with an electric shaver. Seriously are we so busy that we don’t have time to do all this at home. Then there was this woman who was applying make up. At one light, one eye liner and at next light another eye liner, then lipstick and powder and a few more that I had no idea what she was applying. 

I am sure they understand that doing other things while you drive will distract you and can cause accidents. But they still think they can multi task and because of their stupidity other people will be affected as well. 

If you are a good driver it doesn’t mean that some bad driver won’t come and hit you from the back, front, left or right. So to avoid accidents everyone on the road must be a good driver. 

I don’t understand what is the rush with everyone on the road. How can people be so impatient that they are willing risk their lives to avoid being late. Look at this video and see for yourself if it is really worth getting distracted while driving.

 

Drive safe everyone and thanks for reading my ranting.

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Posted in General

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Dhau baji

Posted on November 24, 2011 | 1 comment

As I have previously mentioned in  I see babies everywhere  my friend SK is pregnant and she is expecting a baby girl on December 13. 

Last weekend we went to visit her for ceremony called Dhau-baji in Newari or Dahi-Chiura in Nepali. 

We were planning a baby shower but as her parents are here it became a Dhau-baji ceremony. 

SK and her Dhau baji

Dhau-baji feeding is a Newari culture, similar to baby shower in the western world. A girl’s family comes to feed Dhau-baji (yogurt and flattened/beaten rice) on the ninth month of pregnancy.  They bring Sagun and lots of food along with gifts for the mother as well as the unborn baby. 

As her parents are staying with her now, they just went and bought lots of food. They prepared Puja, made Sagun and the ceremony began. 

First both my friend SK and her husband got their tika, made out of vermillion, rice and yogurt. Then they were given Sagun consisting of boiled egg, bara, a piece of chicken and fish with yogurt. It was followed by a plate of fruits and flattened rice with yogurt. 

Then they had some gifts for both the new parents to be. 

I along with my friends, SS and SD were bit unaware of the traditional ceremony so we ended up buying cupcakes, flowers and gifts for the baby. I am glad SK loved it.

I think it is so important to have your parents and in-laws around when you are pregnant and having a baby. I would love to follow our Newari tradition but sometime we are not aware of what needs to be done as per the tradition. If it was only us, SK would have got a baby shower but as her mum was here, it turned into Dhau-baji. 

two yummy mummies to be

Ohoo, can’t wait for December, 2 new babies on the way. 

SD is my another friend who is also pregnant but we still haven’t planned her Dhau-baji / baby shower as she is still waiting for her mum to get her visa to come to Australia. I really wish she gets that good news soon as SD is stressing about it a lot and it is not good for her baby. It will also be better for her mum to be here when we have the ceremony for her. 

Finger crossed!!!

1 Comment

Posted in Nepal, Newari Culture

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Penpals

Posted on November 23, 2011 | 7 comments

Yesterday I was just going through my old papers and I came across a pile of letters. They were letters from my pen pals from my school days.

When I was in middle school, we had an English teacher named Sally Baker who encouraged everyone to write. So she had this idea for all of us to have pen pals from different schools around the world. She got around 100 letters from students from US and randomly gave those letters to us.

 I got Emily Roberts from Massachusetts, US. She wrote,

 Hi,

My name is Emily. I love flowers and Unicorns.

Will you be my friend?

There were a few stickers of unicorn.

I felt so special to get her letter so  I send my first letter to her and then we were pen pals. She used to send me birthday and Christmas cards and I sent her Dashain / Tihar and birthday cards. It was fun to know someone so far away. It was really nice and I would tell everyone who listened that I have a pen pal in US.

Around the same time, I also made 2 more pen pals, Ahmed Yakub from Lahore,Pakistan and Raja Gurung from Darjeeling,India.

With Ahmed Yakub, I had a short friendship as he stopped writing to me after few months but with Raja, our friendship is still on. He is my Facebook friend now. He is happily married with 2 kids.

Back then, he used to send me ‘Churpi’ from Darjeeling and it was a big treat for me. Churpi is a dried smoked cheese and they said Darjeeling’s Churpi is the best. He even came and visited me when he was holidaying in Nepal with his parents. It was so weird to see him in person. Even though I had seen hin in photos both of us felt bit awkward when we meet face to face. But I was glad we met. He is one of the nicest persons I have ever met and I am glad he is my friend now.

With Emily, I lost touch after 1998. I am not sure what happened but I didn’t get any reply for 3 of my letters so I stopped writing to her.

I can’t believe I used to use snail mail and wait weeks for the reply to come back. It was really exciting to see the postman coming to my door and deliver the letters from my pen pals. Surprisingly back then my mail was never lost even when it contained birthday gifts and big packages.

If someone asked me to write a letter these days I would never do it but back then I learnt so many things from these pen pals about their country and culture. There was no internet or 1000’s of channels on TV so my source of information was books. I used to go to libraries and read lots of books but to have pen pals had its own adventures. I received first hand information from them. I could ask questions to them and they would write about things in their countries. I used to write about our festivals and send them postcards of Nepal. Emily once sent me the American flag.

While blogging I felt, it is a modernised version of having a pen pal. We don’t know people when we start reading someone’s blog, they are just a name or initial in most of the cases but if we follow their stories, we learn a lot about them. That’s why I guess I started to blog and read blogs.

Happy blogging everyone!!!

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Posted in Friends

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Prabal Gurung : A Fashion designer from Nepal

Posted on November 22, 2011 | 14 comments

It is always so good to see anyone from Nepal doing well in an international level and I am so glad to see Prabal Gurung in the international fashion arena.

I saw his designs on Michelle Obama, Demi Moore, Zoe Saldana and Oprah Winfrey. I just love him and his creations.

Here is the excerpt from his website introducing him.

 “Gurung was born in Singapore and raised in Kathmandu,Nepal. It was in New Delhi,India that his design career truly began. While studying at New Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology, Gurung freelanced at several production and fashion houses and apprenticed with Manish Arora. His travels took him to Melbourne and London, where he assisted stylists for various fashion shows and editorials at international publications. In 1999, Gurung moved to New York City. He began his career in New York interning for Donna Karan while attending Parsons School of Design. In his first year, he was awarded the “Best Designer” title at the annual Parsons /FITdesign competition.

After Parsons, Gurung spent two years with Cynthia Rowley’s design and production team, which allowed him to gain even more invaluable experience within the fashion industry. Soon after, he was appointed design director at the iconic Bill Blass. After five successful years, Gurung left his post at Blass to launch his own collection, PRABAL GURUNG.”

Look at his collection from Spring 2012 collect here . They are so amazing and beautiful. No wonder so many celebrities loves his collection.

 

Sarah Jessica Parker  was in Australia recently and she wore Prabal Gurung. It was just beautiful.

 He is also the goodwill ambassador for Maiti Nepal .  This is what he told ekantipur about his association, “A society free from human trafficking is possible and we must realise that it is our responsibility to make this world a better place for all mankind. By simply stating our desire, we sow the seeds of great change,”

 Best wishes for all the good work.

 Sources

You may also like :

*Varsha Thapa: First international fashion model from Nepal *The magic of Prabal Gurung continues *Prabal Gurung: Designer in the Spotlight

14 Comments

Posted in Fashion, Nepal

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Nepali Culture, Customs and Etiquette

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 6 comments

Over the years I have noticed many cultures, customs and etiquettes of Nepal which are so different from what we find in western countries. I am sharing a few of them here. 

  • In Nepal, everyone is your Brother, Sister, Uncle or Aunt even if you are not related. 
  • It is normal to slurp tea or any drink when you are out and about. 
  • Superstition goes hand in hand with culture. For example if a cat crosses the road, you wait for someone else to cross that path before you cross it. 
  • You should not step over an idol of a god or goddess or anything that is used to worship them. This is seen as a disrespect to god to step over them. A lot of time if someone is coming up the steps with Puja items you are not allowed to go up of down the steps above them as this constitutes stepping over the Puja items. 
  • Sharing is caring in Nepal so if you have a Kit Kat bar, you still ask who ever is around you and break that bar into pieces to share. 
  • Fat is good in Nepal so if someone in Nepal said you look fat, don’t get offended. He/she is giving you a compliment on how healthy you look. 
  • Momo is the best food in the world (according to every Nepali) 
  • PDA (Public displays of affection) is a big NO NO. 
  • As respect to the God and Goddess, one should always take off your shoes before entering a temple. 
  • In most Nepali homes you should not wear shoes in the rooms, they have to be taken off before entering any room. 
  • Ask for permission before entering a Hindu temple. In some temples, only Hindu’s are allowed. 
  • Taking photographs inside most temples is not allowed. 
  • You always walk around a temple in clockwise direction. 
  • You will notice lots of people touch their forehead with their fingers as they pass by the temples. It is acknowledgement of God and showing respect. 
  • Never enter anyone’s kitchen until they ask you to. 
  • Staring is ok (I know it is silly). 
  • It is normal to find people of the same sex walking together hand in hand (girl and girl or even boy and boy) but boy and girl can’t walk hand in hand without being stared at. 
  • People call each other Sir or Madam, like Mohan Sir or Rita Madam in the workplace. 
  • Bargaining is the first rule of shopping in Nepal. [I have paid twice the price of an item even when I bargain 😦 ] 
  • You will notice Nepali people shake their head a lot. If the head shakes (sways) from side to side it is YES an if it shakes from side to side (face turns from side to side) it’s a NO. 
  • When there is a visitor, they serve tea and egg. Noddles like Wai Wai and Maggie are served as lunch. 
  • If you are meeting someone and they didn’t come in time, don’t be surprise. It is called Nepali time which is to come a bit late to your appointment. 
  • Dal Bhaat Tarkai can be breakfast , lunch and dinner. 
  • Nepali people don’t eat beef and until recently it was illegal to even sell beef. 
  • When woman has her period, normally they are considered impure and they are not allowed in the temple and kitchen for four days. 
  • There are no fines for littering in Nepal so you see people throwing things on the street even if the bins are just a few feet away. 
  • It is considered rude to touch any one’s head. 
  • In Nepal, you don’t eat and serve yourself. It is considered Jutho (impure) to touch the cooking pots while you are eating. 
  • Left hand is considered impure/Jutho so you never pass things around with your left hand. 
  • If someone dies in the family, the family will not celebrate any festivals or birthdays for a year and there will be no wedding or any other happy celebrations for that year. 
  • If someone touches their throat with their fingers then they blow on the fingers. Not blowing on it is believed to cause swollen glands in the throat. 
  • Footwear should not be left upside down as it will cause bad luck. 
  • You can see some vehicles in Nepal with a slipper hanging in the front (or rear). This is said to ward of evil (bad eye) so that accidents will not befall the vehicle. 
  • You should not say the word for Witch in Nepali, it is believed to bring you to the attention of a witch and she will harm you. 
  • If you find a mysterious bruise on the body, it is thought to be because a witch drank your blood. 
  • You should not pee on a Pipal tree as they are usually haunted by a witch and she will harm you for peeing on her home. 
  • You should not touch most stuff (that are not meant to be touched with the feet) with your feet, since everything is thought to have an essence of God and touching them with the feet is disrespecting God. Especially things for learning, as Saraswati is the goddess of learing and pillows as you normally put your head on it, etc. 

There are many other things but I will leave that for another post.

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Posted in Nepal

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