Liebster Blog Award

Posted on December 7, 2011 | 8 comments

It is December and Christmas is only a few weeks away. Christmas is the time for giving and I would like to give something back to all my fellow bloggers from whom I have learned so much. Also I’d like to thank everyone who visited my blog and left comments. It means a lot to me.

What is a Liebster Blog Award?

It’s an award to draw attention to blogs that are terrific but have less than 300 followers but deserves a lot more recognition and is all in the spirit of fostering new connections. I saw this concept romaning around the blogs so in the spirit of the giving season, I though I will start this award too.

Liebster means dearest, favorite or sweetest in German. This award is presented to the blogs which are your favorite, meaning, if you receive this award from a blogger then you are among their favorite blogs.

The Rules for the Liebster Award are:

  • Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
  • Reveal your 5 top picks for the award and let them know by linking to their blog.
  • Post the award on your blog.
  • Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogosphere – other bloggers.
  • Best of all – have fun and spread all that good blogging karma.

So I would like to award the following blogs with this award (in alphabetic order). You are not obligated to do anything unless you want to.

Love your writing style and millions of ideas you have for blogging. Your recent post about your wedding plans had brought back my experience from my own wedding. Waiting for pre and post wedding posts now. Good luck with the rest of the preparation Kay.

I feel this blog has so many posts close to my heart that while reading some post I feel that I was writing them. I feel connected to Tash and love the way she expresses herself. Thank you for your support and for all the comments you left on my blog. It really helps to know that someone is following your blog.

Reading your blog it feels like I am part of your life as you share so much of your life here and I am thankful that you are allowing us to be part of your journey. You have a great way of writing that keeps your reader captivated and waiting for more. Your blog inspired me to start my own blog so Thank You C.

I miss so many things from Nepal and would like to thank you for filling the gaps through your blog. Your posts really help me to connect with Nepal and Nepali jiwan there. Thanks Zoe also for support and comments on my blog.

Basundhara, you seem to be more Nepali than I can be. You always have latest updates of news in Nepal and you seem to love everything about Nepal. Thank you for keeping me up to date through your blog  and for supporting and following my blog. Thanks for all the comments as it really helps to keep going. .

It was hard for me to pick 5 as there are few other blogs that I really like and follow regularly so if I get this award back from someone, I will love to award them as well.

Thank you everyone for your support. Keep blogging.

8 Comments

Posted in General

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2011 SAFF Championship

Posted on December 7, 2011 | 2 comments

2011 South Asian Football Federation Cup is underway right now in New Delhi, India. It is so nice to see so many of my friends following the game even though they are not in Nepal. My Facebook wall is flooded with game updates right now and I am happy to see so much enthusiasm. Nepal has always had lots of soccer fans and now I can see how passionate they are as well.

After the game, most of my friends had status that said :” Proud of Nepali soccer team. Semi finals now”. Also when I updated my status about the game, there were lots of likes and comments.

There are eight teams in this championship, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

They are divided into two groups as below.

Nepal is doing well so far. One of the best goal from Nepal was by Sagar Thapa against Bangladesh . 

 

 That goal was the winning goal for Nepal which helped Nepal reach Semi final now after the  match with Pakistan was a draw yesterday.

So far the tally looks like below.  

So for Semi final game, Nepal will play the winner of Group A on 9th December. I will be watching and supporting them. Most likely they will be playing against India, a very strong team so wishing Nepali team all the luck. Hope they can pass this point and get into the Final.

  Go Nepal!!!! 

2 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Sports

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Warm mud cake with chocolate sauce and ice-cream

Posted on December 6, 2011 | 2 comments

If you are in Sydney and feel like a mud cake, do go and visit Maisy’s café in Neutral Bay. They sell the best mud cake and open 24 hours. I have been their fan for 10 years now and recently I took AS there and he agreed with me too :). The cake just melts in the mouth and they have good coffee as well. They serve cake with chocolate sauce, ice cream  and strawberry.

 

2 Comments

Posted in Australia, Foodie

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Gay marriage

Posted on December 5, 2011 | 7 comments

I know I am writing about a very sensitive topic but I need to say something about it. I want to express my view and I’m not expecting anyone to agree with my opinion. If you have a different view, I am happy to hear about it.

For the last few months, the issue about same sex marriage is up in air in the Australian media. Prime Minster, Julia Gillard is pushing for a conscience vote on the subject as a compromise where as Christian groups are against any change to the marriage law which some people in the government want.

We say Australia is a developed country but people here still can’t be open enough to accept gay marriage as a part of normal society.

Growing up in Nepal, it was a very foreign concept to even know anything about gay and lesbian, forget about meeting one. I am sure there are gay people in Nepal but they are too scared of society and family to come out of the closet.

When I was studying in TAFE, I became good friends with an Italian guy RG and he is gay. For me he is like any other male friend so him being gay never is an issue in our relationship. Honestly in two years, I never made any judgement for or against him just because he is gay. Being friends with him I came to realise that being gay wasn’t a choice and I don’t think it should matter to anyone what his sexual orientation is unless they are his partner.

It is so strange that society impose things on us since the day we are born. Like pink for a baby girl and blue for a baby boy. Then when we are young, girls are meant to play with dolls while boys play with cars. Simple things like wanting to have short hair as a girl or loving nail polish as a boy is looked down as weird. All the fairy tales have a beautiful princess who falls in love with a prince charming. Even in most movies, it is a story about a man and a woman so it is normal for people to believe that heterosexual marriage is the only normal thing.

But seriously, normal is defined by society. You may have found that in different culture and different countries, there are sharp contrasts in what they call normal. For example: for Christians and other religions, a bride wears white for wedding while in Hinduism, bride wears red during wedding but wears white as a window. So which one is normal and which one is not.

Please look at the video.

If this video was shown to you randomly, the only thing you will see is a guy falling in love, having emotions and having a relationship that has ups and downs. Until you see another man at the end, did you feel that it was so normal and romantic? So just because it was with another man not a woman, why do people think it is wrong.

Who are we as a society to tell someone that their feeling is not real just because it doesn’t meet the society’s conventions. If they want to get married and live together as a couple, why are there so many organisations and individuals opposing that?  We really don’t care when two heterosexual people get married so why is it such a big deal that two same sex couple decide to get married. If same sex couple get married, does anyone get hurt? Definitely not, so why is it so hard to pass the law to allow same sex couple to unite in the joy of marriage with the blessing of their family and friends.

If Holland, Sweden, Spain and South Africa can accept same sex marriage, why do Australian people have a problem? If you know anyone who is gay around you, you know that they are real people with real hearts who pay their taxes and live by the law so why are we discriminating against them just because of their sexual preference.

I know many religions consider being gay as a sin but that is your choice. Just because you follow and believe in that religion, doesn’t mean that the rest of the world needs to follow you as well.

They recently conducted a poll which showed that 60% of Australians support gay marriage but the government is still in a limbo. I really want the government to do something about it soon and pass the law for gay marriage so we live in a discrimination free society.

Marriage is all about love and commitment so it doesn’t really matter if that is between a man and a woman or a same sex couple. We should all just wish them happiness and support their decision to live their life together.

7 Comments

Posted in Social Issue

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Bahra

Posted on December 5, 2011 | 11 comments

As I mentioned in my previous post ‘Ihi’, every Newar girl have to perform the ritual called ‘Ihi’ and after ‘Ihi’, they have to perform the ritual called ‘Bhara’.

‘Bahra’ is also known as ‘’Bahra tyagu” in Newari and Surya Darshan or Gufa rakhne in Nepali. In this ceremony, the girl is married to the sun.

In some culture, this ceremony is done when the girl has her first menstruation and in other cultures, it occurs after they get an auspicious date from a priest .

It is believed that the girl is protected by the sun from bad people and the evils after this ceremony.

For this ceremony, a girl will stay in a room of her house for 12 days without seeing sunlight and not meeting any male person. ( I still don’t know the reason for this so please share if you know).

In the room at one corner, a cloth is put as Bahra Khayak (ghost) and worshipped by the girl as she is believed to be in possessed by evil. Before she eats anything, one portion needs to be separated for Khayak. If the ritual is not followed, it is believed, the Khayak will scare the girl at night. 

My Bahra ceremony

The hardest part of the ritual is not to eat salt during the first 6 days. I was only 13 years old when I had my Bahra and I remember crying for salt everyday as food doesn’t taste good without salt. As this culture is different among different families, I am writing about how members of my own family go through this tradition.

After the sixth day, close female relatives like maternal uncles (mama), dad’s sisters (fufu) and other relative will come and meet the girl with food like popcorn and Rotis and fruits. Also from the sixth day, there will be powder called ‘Koaa’ which is used by all the women to make them look beautiful. You have to follow a special direction to use this and it is meant to clean the skin. It is used especially by the Bahra girl to look good when she come out of hiding on the 12th day.

Step to use Koaa.

  • Wash your hands, legs and face with water first.
  • Mix the ‘Koaa’ with water and make a paste. Then put the paste all over your face, legs and hands
  • Leave it for a few minutes to dry.
  • Now rub oil on your hands and remove the paste from your face, legs and hands.

    Alha during Bahra

In these 12 days the girl will be entertained by her female friends and relatives. While I was in my room we had ludo, snake and ladder and dolls to play with. As my family was ok for me to hear male voice we had radio so we used to play it loud and dance.

Some days went really quick as I had many visitors around and then there were days which were so long, I couldn’t wait to go out.

On 12th day there will be a big celebration of the ending of this ceremony.

Surya darshan during Bahra

In the morning, the girl purifies herself  by taking a bath. Then she is dressed in bridal sari and make up. She will then be covered my shawl and take to the open space where Puja is performed. There will be Ganesh Puja first and then Surya Puja followed by Surya Darshan. It will be the first time the girl will see the sun in 12 days. Also Sindoor is put on the girl’s forehead as a symbol of marriage to the sun and a yellow string is put around her head.

Like in Ihi, there will be a special person who cuts toe nails for the girl and then paints the feet with red colour called ‘Alah’. Also, ‘Thaa bu’, a plate which has eggs, yogurt, wine, fruits, Roti, meat, fish and much more for the girlsto eat is served like in the real wedding.

Then she will be given Sagun and gifts by family and relatives. Also after this Puja, the girl will go with her relatives to a nearby temple and do more Puja.

In the evening of that day there will be a big bhoj (party) and lots of relatives and friends are invited.

After this ceremony the girl becomes an adolescent.

11 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Newari Culture

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