Category Archives: Nepal

Everything about Nepal

Our Story : First date – Part 12

This is a continuation of my previous post. Please read the previous posts here, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7 ,Part 8 ,Part 9 , Part 10 and Part 11.

When we finally met, I could barely contain my happiness, as my first thought was, finally we are together. After the initial meeting at the airport, AS insisted that he would drop me home even though his home would come before mine did when coming from the airport. I felt really happy about this gesture and was happy to spend a few minutes more with him. So he dropped me home and promised to call once he got home. I couldn’t wait for him to call me and talk to me.

But I knew it would be a while. He had come home after a few years so he would need to spend some time with his family, take some rest and then may be call me. I promised myself that no matter how much I wanted to talk with him, I wouldn’t call him. I wanted him to have his time with his family. So I had lunch and was surfing the internet when he called. I was just pleased that he did. He told me that he was going to take a shower, have his lunch and spend some time with family. He would call me again whenever he could but we were meeting tomorrow for sure.

That day we had a very short talk in the evening but I was excited waiting for the next day. It was going to be our official first date.

As he had his birthday a few days ago, we had celebrated over Skype. I had a muffin with a candle and gave it to him online. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to eat his cake but he was glad that I was there to celebrate his birthday.

our story (1)I had got a gift and a card for him as well which I wanted to give it to him. I was eagerly waiting for him to open that. So the plan was to meet for lunch and after lunch, my parents were to meet him.

I had millions of thoughts in my mind when I went to bed that night; excited, scared, happy, worried and loved.

The next morning I work up early and helped my mum clean up. I think my parents were more excited to meet AS than I was. My mum was going to prepare some nice lunch and she was busy giving my dad her shopping list. I told them that he would be full as we were meeting for lunch first but as you know how it is with all mums, they love to feed.

Anyway, I had shower and was thinking hard on what to wear. Normally, I would just slip on a dress but it was winter so my choice was to wear jeans or be traditional and wear Kurta. I decided on jeans and a jacket. I wore a scarf and checked to make sure I looked all right before going out. We were to meet at a cafe midway between both our places and it was a date.

I had known him for years now but he was my boyfriend for only a few weeks so I had millions of questions on my mind I needed answers to. I really didn’t know where we were heading and what would happen when I went back to Australia and he to USA. As I was leaving the house, he called me asking me not to leave yet. He decided to pick up me so I waited until he came. He called me from outside and we went to the restaurant.

We reached the restaurant and ordered coffee and some lunch. I really wanted to hug him and hold him but in Nepal, it is a big no no to public display of affection . So the only thing I could do was hold his hand. We talked for a while when I told him I needed to use the ladies. Then I went around to the café area to check if they had any cakes as I wanted him to have his birthday cake but unfortunately, they didn’t have any big cakes except muffins. I thought they would definitely have one so hadn’t organised anything beforehand. Anyway, I told them to bring a muffin with candle lit on it after we had finished our lunch.

When I was back, lunch was already served and we had our food. I seriously didn’t care about the food at all as it was so good to have him next to me. All I wanted was to look at him and just listen to him talk. We talked about so many things including what we were gonna do and what both families were hoping for.

our story (6) our story (7)Once the lunch was over, the waiter came with his birthday cake, a muffin with candle on it. He was totally surprised and I was really pleased to see his expression. I gave his card and gift. He kept on saying thank you and I was just happy that I was able to make him happy.

First, he opened the card and it read,

our story (2)

For you Dear friend and love

Friends like flowers,

grow on the way

on the path we

travel from

day to day.

Some are fair-weather flowers

that fade before long,

but some of them

bloom even when

things go wrong.

And friend like you

are the flowers, that grow  in

beauty with the showers.

Our friendship

has bloomed through

the wind and rain,

it has blossomed

brighter through

trouble and pain,

that’s why your birthday,

I want to promise you…

I will always be there for you.

to stand by you

always and to be

your friend all life through

YOU MEAN A LOT TO ME.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

DEAR FRIEND!

I promise to be there

every birthday

for rest of our life.

He read it carefully and just hugged me and said, “I love You M.” Then he opened the gift.

our story (3) our story (4)It was a clock with a heart on it. I had been so confused as to what to buy and finally settled on the clock. I wanted to tell him that my heart ticked because of him and how much I am in love with him and every minute of my life is meant to be spent with him from now on.

I also bought him a love heart key ring, I know it is a bit cheesy but I loved it. I bought a pair, which made a whole heart, and when broken into two, each key ring would have half a heart.

our story (5)I really liked the idea so I bought them for us. (Both of us still have them in our key ring 🙂 ). When he saw that, he was touched and told me that he will never break my heart like the one he was holding.

He said it was one of the best birthday celebrations he ever had as he was spending it with me. Isn’t that just sweet? I couldn’t be happier hearing those words.

Then he said he had something for me too. I was seriously not hoping to get anything from him but was happy he thought of me while we were apart. He took out something from his bag. The first one was an Oscar statue which said “Best Sweetheart.”

our story (8)I was touched that he thought of me and bought such a significant gift. It meant a lot to me. I told him that I was ecstatic with the gift. Then he said he wasn’t done yet and took something else out of the bag. It was a red square box and had a white gift bow around it.  I really didn’t know that he made such an effort to look for something for me. I opened it and it was a pair of pearl earrings. It was just perfect and I couldn’t hold my happiness.

our story (1)AS: I hope you like them. I didn’t know what to buy but I thought this will be nice on you.

Me: It is just perfect. Thanks love. I wasn’t hoping to get anything from you at all.

AS: I am just glad you love them. I wasn’t too sure what to buy but when I was in LA, when I saw the statue. I knew that it would be a perfect gift for my sweetheart.

Me: Ohoo, thank you so much. And I love the pearl too. I promise to keep it safe and wear it all the time  🙂

AS: I am glad you did 🙂 (big grin on his face)

We spent some more time in the café and then left to go to my home. It was his turn to meet my parents that day and the next day would be mine. I warned him that my mum had cooked a big lunch for him.

This is it for now but will write soon about our experience meeting the parents next.

Please share your first date story. What were you feeling and how do you feel now after many year? Love to hear.

Take care everyone!

XOXO

M from nepaliaustralian

Go to Part 13

You may also like:

*10 Questions from Yatin on my “Our Story “post *Our Story: Back to Sydney – Part 3 *Our Story: Good friends again – Part 4

 

Guest Post : The Ancient City

One of my reader, Nadia Islam Nitul , visited Nepal recently and captured some amazing pictures. Thank you for sharing them here.

In the year 2012, I went to visit Nepal on a youth project of RYS( Religious Youth Service) . That time, I went to visit the ancient city in Kathmandu Valley:  Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

Bhaktapur also Bhadgaon or Khwopa, is an ancient Newar town in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It is located in Bhaktapur District in the Bagmati Zone. It is the third largest city in Kathmandu valley and was once the capital of Nepal during the great Malla Kingdom until the second half of the 15th century.

Bhaktapur is listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO for its rich culture, temples, and wood, metal and stone artwork. It is the home of traditional art and architecture, historical monuments and craft works, magnificent windows, pottery and weaving industries, excellent temples, beautiful ponds, rich local customs, culture, religion, festivals, musical mystic and so on. Bhaktapur is still an untouched as well as preserved ancient city that is itself a world to explore for tourists.

Here are some photos from Kathmandu Valley.

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Please click here if you are interested to write a guest post for me.

Prabal Gurung Resort Collection 2014

I am in love with the latest collection from my favorite designer, Prabal Gurung. Once again, he brings a sophisticated glamor pieces with tones in shades of red, yellow, blue and white with floral and graphic prints.

Here are some of my favorite pieces.

PG Resort 2014 (2)

Check out the collection. I am sure you will fall in love too.

PG Resort 2014

And here is the illustration by Sunny Gu inspired by Prabal Gurung  Resort 2014 collection. Love it.

“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” ― Coco Chanel

Take care everyone,

XOXO

M from nepaliaustralian

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*Over the moon to get the Prabal Gurung parcel *The magic of Prabal Gurung continues *Prabal Gurung: Designer in the Spotlight

Griha pravesh and rudri puja

As Hindus, we do a puja and blessing for everything in life so when we move to our new place, we need to perform a puja too. Before entering a new house, a ceremony known as Griha Pravesh ceremony is performed.

Griha means house and pravesh means entry in Sanskrit so this puja is house-entry puja. Generally, in Nepal once the house is ready to be moved into, the family moves in on an auspicious day that is determined by the astrological charts by a priest. But for us, we had to move into our new place according to our contract so we decided to do it on the first day when we were going to spend the night there.

We had a priest who is a friend of my cousin and he offered to do our Griha pravesh puja.

DSC07869It was a very simple puja. The priest put two pitchers on either side of the main door then he put the idol of lord Ganesh on the doorway.

DSC07890He said some mantras blessing us and the house and then we just offered Sindoor, rice and flower first to the Lord Ganesh and then to the pitchers.

DSC07886Also we offered some coins and then lit some tea light candles. After that he went through all the rooms and sprinkled some water all around and blessed each room of our place.

DSC07889After that we established the idols we had brought from our old apartment and lit a candle for the gods.

As a part of moving into a new place,  we needed to turn on the stove and cook something. As we hadn’t unpacked properly, we didn’t have anything to cook so we just boiled water and made coffee and offered to all present.

Rudri Puja is an ancient practice followed by Hindus to bless the house once you move in. Rudri is also done on many other occasions like beginning new things like business , marriage, job etc.

‘Rudri’ means ‘Shiva – the Benevolent’, ‘ the Destroyer of Evil’ and ‘Puja’ means that which is born out of fullness. Through this Puja one can aim for inner peace and fulfilment. In this Puja, Lord Shiva is worshipped in his Rudra form. The reason Rudri puja is done because the world is a play of energy: negative and positive. When we pray to Shiva – the Lord of transformation – the entire negative energy around us in form of disease, depression, and unhappiness gets transformed into peace, prosperity and joy. Then peace surrounds us in body, mind and soul.

For the puja, the priest gave me a list. Here is the list if anyone wants to do the puja.There are still few stuffs missing but most of them are in the list.

Puja saman for rudriThere were many things to be bought but we are lucky that we have Nepali stores here so I went there and bought most of the stuff from there.

rudri puja (8)So on the day of the puja, I woke up early and had a shower, wore my fresh Sari and went straight to prepare for the puja. I made sure everything the priest asked were in order so when he comes in , the puja can be started straight away. AS also had a shower to cleansed himself as he would be sitting for the puja. Neither AS or I were to eat or drink before the puja.

rudri puja (7)Then I made apungo ,halwas and Kheer for Prasad . In the meantime, the priest came and started making different mandpas on the floor.

rudri puja (9)He told us that it would take 3-4 hours for the puja and AS would be sitting on the puja with him the whole time while I would be be called as required, which was a good things as I had so much to do in the kitchen.

rudri puja (10)So while they were doing puja, I tried to prepare other stuffs like cuts the fruits for puja and make the mango leaf garland to put on the door.

rudri puja (2)Each ancient mantra that is chanted gets absorbed in materials like curd, milk, ghee, honey etc. which are used as offerings in the Puja.

rudri puja (14)It is then offered to Lord Shiva with reverence, love and gratitude. The chanting of the mantras is so pure and meditative that it takes one to a different place. This puja was performed with a Shiva ‘linga’ that we had brought from Pashupatinath temple from Kathmandu.

rudri puja (1)I am sure lots of things were done in the puja which I missed but here are some of the pictures of the day.

rudri puja (11) rudri puja (12) rudri puja (13) rudri puja (15) rudri puja (16)I was called twice during the puja to do some praying and blessing.

rudri puja (17) rudri puja (18)In the meantime, with the help of my cousin and my friend we cooked food for the guests. I had around 25 people invited to share the day with us.

rudri puja (6)The food for the day had to be pure vegetarian with no meat, no onion, no garlic and no tomatoes. So we cooked Chana (chick peas), aloo tama, aloo ko achar, cauli aloo . Then we had Kheer, sweets (lal mohan and rash bhari) and yogurt for dessert. It was not an easy task to cook without onion, garlic or tomatoes but it was accomplished and if I say so myself, it was quite tasty. Therefore, by the time the puja was over, the food was ready.

rudri puja (20)Once the puja was over, the priest put tika on the foreheads of everyone present then AS put tika on the the small kids.

rudri puja (3)As my parents were not here, my brother and sister in law prepared sagun for us and brought some fruits and clothes.

Rudri (5)-tileThen AS hung the mango-leaf garland on the door.

rudri puja (4)After the initial process, it was pass mid-day. AS and I had been fasting since the morning so when the puja finished, we were allowed to eat. Everyone including us enjoyed the food and the puja was concluded. We had visitors coming throughout the day from morning to evening but we are just happy that there were so many people here for us to share our happiness with.

rudri puja (5)In addition, I am happy that we were able to perform the puja and get blessing even though we are so far from the Nepal. Both our parents are really glad that we could follow our tradition and culture with our new place too.

Happy weekend everyone and Happy 4th of July to everyone in US.

Take care

XOXO

M from nepaliaustralian

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Learn Nepali : Noun, people, feelings and emotions

Here are some noun, people, feelings and emotions in Nepali. Please click here to learn more Nepali.

Noun

Nepali

English

Bato Road
Kotha Room
Khanna Food
Topee Hat
Manche Person
Pariwar Family
Pul Bridge
Gau Village
Ghar House
Jhola Bag
Mancheharu People
Dharma Religion
Des Country
Khola River
Mithai Sweets
Git Song
Chorachori Children
Bajar Market
Pasal Shop
Koseli Gift
Kitaab Book
Bideshi Foreigner

People

Nepali

English

Aama / Buwa Mother / Father, but also friendly term men/women roughly in your parents generation
Didi / Bahini Older / Younger sister, but also friendly term used to refer to other women roughly in your generation
Dhai / Bhai Older / Younger brother, same as above
Nanu / Babu Young girl / boy child
Ma / Hami I / We
Tapaii You
Yo / Tyo This / That

Feelings and Emotions

Nepali

English

Ma ______ lagyo / lagena. I feel / don’t feel ______.
Birami / sick Bhok / hungry
Raksi / drunk Thirkaa / thirsty
Khushee / happy Dukha / sad
Thakai / tired Alchee / lazy
Dar / scared Nindra / sleepy
Jaado / cold Garmi / hot