Tag Archives: M from nepaliaustralian

Why I blog (Nepaliaustralian)?

Posted on August 12, 2014 | 8 comments

This is a guest post I wrote for , nepalichori, amazing blog I have been following for a while. Thank you so much for the opportunity and sharing the post here.

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First of all thank you Nepali Chori for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas on your blog. I believe that it is a great initiative and a brilliant idea.

Today I am going to share my ideas on why I blog and why Nepaliaustralian?

I think most of the people who know me via my blog know that I am an IT professional which means the computer is my livelihood. So when I spend so much time in front of the computer it is natural that I do lots of research and on one of these researches I found a few really nice blogs that I loved to read. The bloggers wrote about their lives, their likes and their thoughts.

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I started reading these blogs regularly and there were times I wanted to leave a comment, which forced me to make an account with WordPress so I could comment easily rather than answering the same questions many times. One time when I was writing a comment I realised that I had typed more than a page and I was a bit ashamed to post it as a comment. It’s like I was hijacking the original post.

That moment I realised that I had so many ideas and thoughts that blogging might me a good place to share and that is how Nepaliaustralian.com was born. Initially I was not sure what I was going to share in my blog but as time went by I knew I wanted to blog about my life and my love for Nepali culture and traditions. I am also glad that people started reading my posts, commenting, and liking it which encouraged me to continue.

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As you know the theme of my blog is “Living in west with values of east” and I stand by it every day. If you read my blog, you will find posts and information about different places of Nepal, Nepali festivals, Nepali food, how I brought Nepali traditions to my home here in Sydney and much, much more.

I wanted to have a blog where words are not pre-planned, and thoughts are not edited. I have a passion for sharing whatever I know about Nepal, its cultures, traditions and to become a part of the community.  There are so many great people sharing their experience on the blogosphere that I am glad to share my ideas in the same platform.

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I am overwhelmed when I receive an email or a comment thanking me for helping in someone’s life, how they read my blog regularly and how I inspire them. I could have never thought in my wildest dream that my writing could help someone I have never met in some corner of the world. It led me down a new road of adventure, learning so much about just everything along the way.

Through my blog, I have made some good friends who are a part of my life now. There are also many more I would love to meet one day as they are such beautiful human beings and it will be my pleasure to get to know them better.

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So this blog has not only let me share my ideas and thoughts but also helped me get many excellent ideas from people as well as learn a lot from their experience.

I hope to continue writing for a long time.

What are your favorite blogs? What do you like to read? Do you have a blog yourself? Do you write your thoughts and ideas?

Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

8 Comments

Posted in Personal

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Gai Jatra

Posted on August 11, 2014 | 4 comments

As you know in Nepal, there are heaps of festivals every year and today is Gai jatra. Gai means cow in Nepali and jatra means festival, so it is a festival of cows. It is said people in ancient times started worshiping Yamaraj,”the god of death” on this day.

The festival commemorates the death of people during the year. According to the tradition, every family who has lost a relative during the past year must participate in a procession through the streets of Kathmandu leading a cow. If a cow is unavailable then a young boy dressed as a cow is considered a fair substitute. It is believed that the cow, revered as a holy animal by Hindus, will help the deceased relative’s journey to heaven.

Legend has it that, when King Pratap Malla lost his son, his wife, the queen, was grief-stricken and would not be consoled. The king was very sad to see the condition of his beloved queen and in spite of several efforts could not lessen the grief of his wife.

Thus Pratap Malla announced that anyone who could make the queen laugh would be rewarded adequately. He also asked everyone in the valley to send a cow each for every dead relative in the family to show the queen that their son was not the only one who died.

During the festival of Gaijatra, the cow procession was brought before the grief-stricken queen. Then the participants began ridiculing and be-fooling the important people of the society. Finally, when the social injustices and other evils were highlighted and attacked mercilessly, the queen could not help but smile. The queen laughed and the king instituted a tradition of including jokes, satire, mockery and lampoon into the Gaijatra celebration. This still continues till today.

After the procession is over, in the afternoon, nearly everyone takes part in another age-old tradition in which the participants dress up and wear masks. The occasion is filled with songs and jokes. Mockery and humor of every kind become the order of the day until late in the evening. Hence, Gaijatra is a healthy festival which enables the people to accept the reality of death and to prepare themselves for life after death. According to Hinduism, “whatever a man does in his life is a preparation leading to a good life after death”.

Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals

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The Himalayan Times published my post

Posted on July 28, 2014 | 11 comments

Another of my post is published in The Himalayan Times , one of the leading daily papers in Nepal.

I am honoured and happy to be a part of the paper again.

It was published in 24 July 2014 under Blog Surf section. If you are in Kathmandu, get the paper and find me on page 8 and for those who can’t, here is how it looked :).

 himalayan times30 day list

And here is the link to their epaper.

http://epaper.thehimalayantimes.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=7/24/

Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

11 Comments

Posted in Published

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Lost and found

Posted on July 22, 2014 | 12 comments

Sometimes it is easy to ignore what you have and to appreciate how good you have it. That is the case for me when I sometimes forget that I live in one of the best countries in the world in terms of economy and safety. We also have many nice people around us. From time to time things happen that reminds me the very thing.

Last week AS forgot his bag on a bus coming back from work. He didn’t realise that it was missing until he was almost home. He was reading on his tablet when this happened so it took a while to realise.

Anyway he came home and told me. We went through what he had in his bag: work pass (important), lunch boxes, sunniness and some odds and ends. Basically everything in the bag was easily replaceable but still because it was his bag, he felt a bit bad. We googled and found the lost and found number for the bus company but unfortunately it was closed for the day.

The next day, AS called the number and reported that he had forgotten the bag in the bus. The woman on the other side took his details and promised to call back if anything turned up. Lucky for us, she called him a few hours later and told him that they have the bag in the depot.

How great is that? We had almost given up hope because it is a normal bag with ordinary items which anyone could have picked up and taken with them. So AS went to pick up the back this morning and everything was there. This definitely made us appreciated that people are pretty honest and do not to take others’ belongings.

In a a similar incident a few years ago my brother left his phone on the train while on the way to work. He didn’t realise that it was missing for a while. In the mean time, I got a call at home from his number. The person told me that they had found the phone on the train and dialled the number called home to see if they could return it.

I told her it was my brother’s phone and he will come and pick it up as soon as possible. She left her mobile number in case my brother’s phone died. The next day, my brother picked the phone up and thanked the kind woman. Incidents like this make you believe in good Samaritans and good deeds.

Do share if you have similar incidents?

Take care everyone ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

12 Comments

Posted in Australia

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Chana chatpat

Posted on July 15, 2014 | 17 comments

Chana chatpat is a snack I used to love while growing up in Kathmandu. They were usually sold by street vendors and I used to love it. Now every time I go back, I feel like having it but am scared of getting sick so I decided to try to make my own home made Chana chatpat. I am happy with the result even though it might lack the touch of the street vendor.

I think it is healthy and definitely tasty snack perfect for anytime.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup puffed rice
  • ½ cup chickpeas, soaked (I used canned)
  • 1/2 cup aloo bujiya (bought a pack from Indian grocery store)
  • 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
  • 1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped
  • 1 green chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon mustard oil
  • 1 table lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoon finely chopped coriander leaves
  • 2 teaspoons of chat masala (salt if chat masala not available)

chana chatpat (1)

 Method

  • Mix puffed rice, chopped onion, chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, chilli powder, green chilli, aloo bujiya , coriander leaves in a bowl.

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  • Now add lemon juice and oil and mix it well.
  • The chana chatpat is ready.
  • I served mine in a paper cone like the street vendors in Kathmandu, you can just serve in a plate or bowl.

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Note : It needs to be consumed immediately otherwise the puffed rice will go soft and it won’t be nice and crunchy as it is supposed to be.
Hope this will bring back your childhood memories as well 🙂

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

 

17 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepali food, Recipe

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