Resuming after more than a decade

Life is full of miracles. There have been many miracles in my life. Last night I was blessed by another miracle when I came across this old blog site I had started more than 12 years ago. I was still in USA and this was an age of Internet revolution with such new terms as "email" "blog" "website" and as a student in USA, I was caught up in the technical revolution that mixed with my idealist vision of life and the world. Last night some clicks on random sites made me end up finding this site and two other blogs while I was thinking that I might want to start a blog in "wordpress." No doubt, I take it as a sign and I sure will start up writing passion once again and share my personal spiritual progress in this forum. Sai Ram.

A trip to Sunkoshi Bridge

The Himalayas from Kathmandu

Helping the Birdman of Hetauda

The 1st episode



The 2nd Episode

Observations on the television channels

There are certainly lot more channels than when I left Nepal. Cable is a staple affairs now. In Nepal, there seems to be a lot more entertainment channels originating from India, mainly related to Bollywood movies. There are Cinemax and HBO but they are in the original basic package, not premium channels as in the States. There are channels devoted to the issue of faith here as well. One noted difference is in the message they convey. There is definitely a Christian channel here and I saw Pat Robertson-the forecasting, self-professed messenger of God, the Christian God, of course. There was one noted difference in the message relating to the faith channels. In the West they convey message to be a good, good fearing Christians, and yell in the name of Jesus. In the channels here they discuss the ancient texts, but tell people to be good human being before being good Christians, Hindus or Muslim. In addition, they have a yoga sessions to help people better their healthy and thus their lives.

An artist's community vision

Makawanpur Natyashala (Theater) is envisioned to be a unique community theatre where any and all local, regional and national artists are given easy and free access for the arts they wish to perform for the community. While in other theaters, artists not only have to prepare their presentation, they have to go through whole series of process of securing a stage through deposit and arranging for instruments and other personnel, Makwanpur Theatre aims to give free access to any artist and share the revenue after the performances are over. Furthermore, all the necessary instruments and equipments will also be provided for the artists. This theatre is envisioned to be a minimum 300 capacity with a vibrant community participation that nurtures young and upcoming talents for bigger stages and artistic careers.

Within a year of this all the necessary paper works for the materialization of this vision has been completed and necessary community participation to pool resources to bring it to fruition has been initiated. However, we are all aware that Nepal is a resource poor country and that the decade long conflict has left is even more at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, the vision of new Nepal has to be nurtured and built by everyone in our country. In that spirit, the community-oriented theatre is consistent with an idea of building a foundation of equality for all talented artists to make their valuable contribution. In addition, it also provides an alternate environment to a capital-centric facility development, which is a need of the time. This community theatre demonstrates that talents are not a prerogative of capital city but that they are just looking for opportunities everywhere.

First helping hand for GCO

One of the projects I did in my graduate management class was develop a vision for an organization that I would be a part of as a career choice. I had created an organization called Global Community Outreach, which would be a catalyst for people helpling people in local and international context. The premise is that every individual can give something for the betterment of their community and the world.

I am leaving for Nepal in a week. I have decided to register this organization in Hetauda as a non-profit. I have taked about this effort with quite a few people. Today I was talking about it again and Billie Dunn, my US grandma made the first donation to the organization. She wrote a check for $100.00. It will be used in the registration process.

The first order of business I wish to take is visit all the educational institutes in Hetuada and invite students into volunteering for different activities. GCO will be geared toward helping communities develop their own projects and programs for their improvement, and if and when necessary, reach out for outside expertise.