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May 30, 2022 at 2:11PM
Harry Potter in the house!
Onturam Loves books, he would ready any book but at the moment his favourite is Harry Potter.
#harrypotter #potterhead
May 29, 2022 at 2:12PM
Come on, Real Madrid!
May 27, 2022 at 2:14PM
Day 3539: Stories of Mad Men on Mardi Mountain
There are several ways to show love, ours is by arguing, winding each other up, insulting each other, shouting and telling each other off, and trying to get each other into trouble.
The much-awaited trekking for me was finally finalised but it wasn’t expected to be smooth. After climbing 3500 metres, when I was struggling to take even a single step, I was wondering ‘is this really worth it?’. But after the completion, I had gathered so many stories on the trek; I was convinced ‘it’s really worth it’ for the memories we created plus the magnificent views of the mountains up-close.
Let me share some of those stories.
The characters are Gadha, Jhallu, Swanth, Saandhe and Kalu.
Gadha = The Donkey
Jhallu = The Drunken One
Swanth = The Idiot
Saandhe = The Bull
Kalu = The handsome one
𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩: Jhallu brought up his bad right foot and kept asking what would be our plan if his foot started troubling him. We agreed to terminate the trek if anything of that sort happened. Gadha kept changing the start from Tuesday to Monday to Sunday to Tuesday to Monday to finally agreeing to be on Sunday; a Janti Day for Aashish-cha wedding. Well, I had to leave janti early to make sure we start our journey on time. After overcoming all the hurdles, we start our journey, finally!!!
'𝐈 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐭': The first fight, Gadha in his usual insulting form and Swanth in his emotional form, started their argument on…erm, we can’t remember what it was on. The argument took different topics, from getting drunk to insulting each other to not stopping the car for pee break. At the end the most iconic phrase of the trek was blurted out ‘I Exit’… (Indicating ‘I am done with you all and I quit the Trek now.’)
𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡-𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥: Kalu was the designated second driver to let Gadha take a break and sip(s) of alcohol. While driving Gadha kept mentioning how he had just repaired the clutch of the car and clutch control was important to make sure there was the right power to drive the car. After Malekhu, to give Gadha a deserved break Kalu took over the steering. The discussion continued on how important it was to have good clutch control. Kalu was giving his best of driving skills controlling the clutch, but the car wasn’t moving any faster. It just refused to move from gear 2- to gear 3. Everybody in the car was worried. Controlling Clutch, we continued driving for about 10KM until we could see the smoke coming out of the bottom of the car; we were forced to stop.
The rear wheels of the car were burning hot and there was smoke coming out of them. 8 bottles of mineral water were poured to cool the wheels and calm our nerves.
After it was all calmed down, we did our own little investigation. We found out, that while we're focusing on clutch control, we forgot to put the hand-break down and we were driving the car with the hand-break on causing the breaks pads to heat up while driving.
(At the same, time there were fights going on between transgenders and straight-claiming boys, on the other side of the road.)
𝐖𝐚𝐢-𝐖𝐚𝐢: What can replace MoMos in the Nepalese Diet? I would argue ‘Wai-Wai’. Up in the mountains, where the resources were scarce, Wai-Wai came to the rescue. We had to resort to Wai-Wai for breakfast, Wai-Wai for Lunch, Wai-Wai for Snack, and Wai-Wai for Dinner. At high camp, they managed to serve us fried eggs but too salty, Wai-Wai came to the rescue to balance the saltiness of the fried egg. And while we were enjoying this uncooked Wai-Wai and Salty fried egg combo, a random guy keeps eyeing up our food. We ask him to taste the food. At, first he tries it reluctantly but later he just muscles in and eats as if has never eaten. We find out he is from America and has never tasted Wai-Wai in his life. He was just blown away by the taste of Wai-Wai. We see him the next day at the Viewpoint, at about 6 in the morning, eating Wai-Wai. He offered us some too, for the amount he gobbled up last night. We named him Wai-Wai-Bhai.
(There is another story linked with Wai-Wai-Bhai and sunglasses, that is for some other time)
𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠'𝐬 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐞: Jhallu was the best performer of the trek while climbing up, showing his new gained fitness and stamina, even though he had complained about his bad right foot before the Trek. He was at least 30 minutes early at all the milestones. He probably was about an hour earlier than me to climb up to the view point (I blame it on my inability to acclimatise to the altitude). Jhallu lived on this achievement. He told the stories of him climbing the mountains before everyone else. Everyone was impressed. But he never told anyone the story of him climbing down. Let me burst his bubble.
While climbing down, inspired by two trail runners Jhallu decided to give it a go himself. He was doing well till he got down to the High Camp. 10 minutes after the high camp though, he had to stop. And there was a massive swelling on his right foot he could barely walk. Giving moral support, I walked down with him to Low Camp, about an hour and a half later than the rest of the crew. Our Wai-Wai lunch was cold. The next stop was forest camp which was 2 hours long trek. I decided the best way for Jhallu to get down was to ride on the horse. We arranged for the horse but the hostler was nowhere to be seen. We had to leave Jhallu waiting for the horse with the assurance from the hotel owner.
The rest of us got down to the forest camp, but we had to wait for about an hour for Jhallu to come. When we saw the horse coming down in a distance with Jhallu still hanging on to it, we decided to hide at different places to video Jhallu riding down the hills on the horse and we called it ‘King’s ride’.
Later Jhallu complained that the horse wasn’t controlled by the hostler. It was left to jump down the hill in a natural way, which scared the sh*t out of Jhallu’s life. His face was a picture to be remembered.
- - -
There were several other stories; The grand meeting, The Chicken devouring, The Raju Porter, The Jugglers, The Antaksheri, The Spa Experience, etc and etc. I shall endeavor to tell them all in due course.
This trek, my first trek will remain in my memories for a long long time to come.
Mardi Trek 2022
#MardiTrek
#nepalvisit2022
#SillyFriends
May 25, 2022 at 10:17AM
Reminiscing….
May 20, 2022 at 10:20AM
Day 3532: Kasthamandap
Kasthamandap, a sattal that gave Kathmandu its name and its very identity, was at least 900 years old and possibly more than a thousand at the time of the 2015 earthquakes. It could have been the oldest and largest traditional building in Kathmandu and anywhere in the entire surrounding Valley, dating back to at least 1143 CE argues Risal, 2015.
Kasthamandap is at the central location of Kathmandu valley, at the intersection of two ancient towns known as Koligrama and Daksina (south) Koligrama (and later as Yambu and Yangal). (Slusser, 1982)
Moreover, Kasthamandap sits squarely at the crossroads of the ancient trade route that connected India with Tibet and the principal North-South road of Kathmandu. Within a few yards of Kasthamandap flanking the ancient crossroads sit two other sattals, Laksmi Narayana Sattal (17th c) and Silyan (Singha) Sattal (16th c, although some legend claims this one is as old as the original Kasthamandap),(Gustchow, 2013). Together, the three sattals at the heart of the valley must have catered to the traffic at the crossroads, like motels. As such, it is also one of the most important buildings in the history and development of traditional Newar architecture.
The original Kasthapmandap collapsed into a pile of rubble in the first of the earthquakes that rattled Nepal in April-May, 2015. However, to my sheer delight, it was amazing to see Kasthamandap standing tall. My heart fills with gratitude towards all who worked, undoubtedly, hard in the restoration to get this building standing again. It must have been a very daunting task, yet satisfying to see Kasthamandap where it belonged.
#kasthamandap
#kathmandu
#maru
#Nepal
#history
#kudos
Nepal Visit 2022
May 17, 2022 at 10:23AM
Day 3529: Nepal, I live you!
Alright, the 5 weeks of my rollercoaster stay in Nepal has finally come to an end.
It started with a tired and confused state of mind but it didn’t long for motherland to embrace me with her intimate love.
Mardi Trek, impromptu getaway with Nagarkot, frequent visits to Maila Dai’s bhatti, unplanned spectacle of bands and performances at LOD, Purple Haze and King’s Lounge, and the late night appearances at Karaoke places at odd hours shall remain the highlights. But, most importantly the moments I have shared with phenomenal people that I can call ‘friends and family’ shall remain close to my heart forever. As always, I’m really glad that I have been able to create wonderful memories with wonderful people. Divine!
I would have thought I would get used to and find it easier to say good bye to Nepal but I find it even more difficult every time. This time it was really bad that I probably suffered from separation anxiety and had to extend my stay in Nepal twice.
I’m really thankful to all the friends and family who made time and effort to see me during my short stay in Nepal.
I’m also disappointed that I couldn’t meet all the people I really wanted to and I apologise to those whom I couldn’t give enough time. I promise to make up for this next time.
Nepal, I just don’t love you, I live you; through and through, no matter where I am.
Till next time; one love!
#Nepalvisit
#Nepal
#motherland
May 16, 2022 at 10:24AM
Swoyambhu
स्वाँ या पूँन्हि या लसताय स्वयंभूया दर्शन|
#buddha #kathmandu
May 10, 2022 at 10:27AM
Day 3523: Ujada Chaman
‘Communication is the key,’ he screamed over and over again, a night before I flew to London in 1999. Whether it was a raw emotion of a drunk teenager or it was the perspective of a naive friend - I knew he was saying it from his heart.
I would call him ‘Bikashe’, ‘Mote’ or ‘Ujada Chaman’, and he would call me ‘Champak’, ‘MR Coke’ or whatever weird came to his head.
We would try to talk music, we would try to talk creativity, and we would talk about anything that did or didn’t make sense to our little brains. Basically, we would talk rubbish. But, talk we would for hours; until past midnight, we wouldn’t have finished talking.
Fast forward 23 years, I don’t remember having much ‘communication’ in between, but when I met Bikashe at about 8.00PM last night, it felt like those 23 years just disappeared. It felt like we had just spoken late last night about life, tried to talk deep, and argued who would drop whom home. I, suddenly, grew 23 years younger and became the naive teenager, that I once was (or the one I try to hide).
We talked and talked. We talked about hobbies, careers, friends, food, politics, music, culture, creativity, country, world, children, life, and everything that mattered to us. It was already 2.00AM in the morning when we realised what time it was. But, we still had so much to catch up. Unwillingly, Bikashe and I left home in the wee hours of the morning to Kalimati to get the Taxi. We hugged tightly and I said, ‘I remain forever unchanged to you because you allow me to be, and you will always remain the same to me, no matter what; Ujada Chaman!’
May 4, 2022 at 12:19PM
ChakbaaDyo
May 4, 2022 at 11:20AM
BungDyo Yaa rath saalegu
May 4, 2022 at 10:23AM
Ojesh Singh was live with Yomesh Dangol.
May 2, 2022 at 12:27PM
Day 3515: Miss Newa 1142
I’m yet to form a concrete opinion about beauty pageants even though I have been involved with them in various form for number of years. One thing I cannot deny is the greatest spectacle and glamour it brings to life.
I believe that the participants do face many challenges and get on a huge learning curve while on the rollercoaster of the competition and come out as a confident fighters of the citizens, while I have my own reservations on the process and hold other views that is yet to be discussed.
I was privileged to be a judge of Miss Newah 1142 in Nepal this year. All the 16 finalists did justice to the selection. So, huge congratulations all the finalists.
But the winner takes it all; many congratulations and best wishes to super talented Salina Maharjan for coming on top in this competition and for being crowned Miss Newah 1142.
While congratulating Miss Newah 1142, I must also congratulate Miss Newah 1141 Krisha Maharjan for doing a splendid job during her reign, and for being graceful and humble all through her tenure.
Special kudos to Hema Manandhar for her hardwork, perseverance and resilience for last 16 years of making of Miss Newah!
Miss Newah 1142
Year 2022!
