Category Archives: Australia

My life in Australia

My letter to Santa

As Christmas is just around the corner I thought I might write my wish list now. Some people may tell me that it is too early to do that, but have you been out lately? All the shopping malls and stores are decorated with Christmas trees and decorations. Christmas carols are on their loud speakers and every advertisements and catalogues have Christmas references. Above all that, North Pole is so far away from here that I thought it would take a while for my letter to reach Santa as FedEx told me they don’t have next day delivery service there and Santa will certainly need a few weeks to find what I want.

I could write I would like Marc Jacobs’s bag, Jimmy Choo’s shoes, Prada sunnies, and Chanel diamond earrings or I could be really beauty queen like and ask for world peace and every human being to be happy. But sorry this year I will be very selfish and ask for what I really want.

Here is my letter to Santa this year,

Dear Santa,

You know I have been so good this year. I was always good as you know but this year I am sure I get extra brownie points for not being a Bridezilla during my wedding, understanding another human being (my husband), not killing anyone when things didn’t go my way and above all not spending so much money on shopping, buying worthless stuff.

This year all I want is one thing from you and I really hope you can fulfil my wish. So here you go, I want a new book on “How to live a perfect life for Dummies” this Christmas. Wait! I am not done yet. Please make sure the following chapters are included in that book.

  • How not to smack someone when they lie to your face?
  • How to pretend you are enjoying the conversation when you are not?
  • How to enjoy life when you spend so much time working, cleaning, cooking and doing laundry?(Can days be longer than 24 hours?)
  • How not to show your disappointments?
  • How to love what I am doing ?(when I really want to be somewhere else doing something else.)
  • How to win the lotto?
  • How to have lots of holidays? (may be if I win lotto, this problem will be solved)
  • How to cross all the items in my bucket list in the next 20 years?
  • How to be friends with people who stab you in the back?
  • How to smile and look surprised when you open a gift (when you are actually shocked)?
  • How to please everyone around you?
  • How to be a perfect wife, daughter, friend, sister and daughter in law? 

I can think of more but I guess the book will be too heavy for you to carry around and there is next Christmas anyway.

I know I know, you don’t know the answer as well but still give it a shot and send me that book please. Isn’t Christmas the time when you try to be nice? So you better be nice to me and send me WHAT I WANT. Otherwise I will tell everyone who will listen that there is no Santa and beware I have 2000 friends in Facebook and 5000 followers in twitter and I blog too!!!.

Thank you so much Santa. Love you.

A nice girl from Downunder o:)

M

XOXO

Our Unconventional love story …

As I mention on my previous post Big ,Loud, Crowded, Nepali wedding”, I know my husband, AS since high school. But our story is nothing like childhood sweethearts with happy ending. We were just friends at that point and never in my wildest dream thought will we end up marring each other. It is so true when they say, “You don’t know what future holds for you”.

I was ready to take next step of my life – marriage and family. The only problem with my plan is I have no plan. I didn’t know what I really want. I have never thought in my whole life I will agree with arrange marriage. But as I can’t find the man of my dream, I thought, I will hand over the duty to my parents. As my parents always nag me about marriage, I thought this will make them busy and I always can say no. They were more than willing to take the charge and was so proud that despite living abroad for almost a decade, I choose to go traditional way.

AS is not a very social person so we used to be out of touch for ages. Our email frequency used to once every 6 months. But thanks to Facebook, which I was genuinely surprised he had one, we start talking again. Our infrequent message turned into more frequent one and it was like high school all over again. We had same memories, same friends and it was easy. During this period, I told him one day what I told my parents about looking for a guy for me. To this he said that his parents are looking for a girl for him as well. And then we used to joke about how life has turned out and may be we will meet again only when both of us will be married and have kids. He used to be in US at that time and I was in Australia.

That year I decided to go home for holiday and I had 12 hours transit in Singapore airport. I told him, if he had any time I will appreciate the company over net as I don’t know what else to do in Singapore in the middle of the night. As the time difference was right for him, we chatted for almost 10 hours out of 12. (He told me later he made a special effort that stage.) I think that probably was the first time I felt more close to him. We made fun of each other and asked silly questions and it was great. I wasn’t bored at all and hoped he enjoyed it too. During this conversation, he told me he is planning to come to Nepal as well and try to make it when I will be there. I was really happy thinking at least we can meet again.

We didn’t meet until next 3 weeks but lots of things changed during that period. We used to Skype a lot and talked about my “Possible husband “. It was not that they were bad but I was not ready to meet anyone new so I just made any excuse not to meet them. And numbers of photo was increasing as my parents were determined to find someone before I leave Nepal.

I think my frequent mention of these eligible bachelor made AS realise that the plan he had to express his love for me after he sees me Nepal can’t wait till then. He has to do something otherwise I may be engaged before he knows it. So while we were talking on phone one day, late at night for me and early morning for him, he expressed his feeling for me. He told me how he was in love with me since our school and I am his first love who he never forgot. I was surprised that I never saw that vibe from him ever but I was happy at the same time. During last few months I felt closer to him but I was so sure he will never fall for someone like me; I even try to set him up with one of my good friend. She will kill me if she finds out now. Anyway that was how we started our journey for our happily ever after :). And after all I am not the “Arrange Marriage Type”.

Am I less Nepali?

Every time I met any new Nepali , the first thing they ask me is “how long you been here?” . When I answer “more than a decade”, they react with answer “Ohoo pure Aussie baisakecha”(So you are Australian now?) I used to get annoyed with those statements before but now I kind of expect it.

It always makes me wonder, just because I have been living in Australia and going to Nepal only during holidays, will that make me less Nepali than someone else who came here just a few years ago?

Nepal, for me, is still my home and I have good memories from there. My parents still live there. I still worry about the situation there and keep myself up to date with the news and current affairs from there. It is true that I have spent most of my time here in Australia but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care or think about Nepal in a different way than what I used to do 15 years ago. So how come some random person can imply that I am less Nepali than they?