| Username |
Post |
| M.P. |
Posted
on 09-May-03 07:43 PM
To My Fellow Friends: Things to Bring from Nepal
I might sound a little patronizing, but this is a humble suggestion from yours truly to all my fellow friends who will be coming to US colleges and universities this fall. Here is a list of things I suggest you bring to the United States. There are little Nepali communities in almost all big cities of the US, and if you want to get the best out of your stay here, it is imperative that you get involved in these communities as well. Not forgetting home and at the same time making sure that you do not stand out the crowd here among the Nepalis is I think very essential. I hope that my tips will help you achieve these goals.
Things to Bring:
1. A measuring tape:
Unless your parents are not like mine, in almost conversation you have with them over the phone they will be asking how fat you have become. It is hard to measure your fatness. I am not sure about yours, but my parents do not understand pounds and kilos or centimeters, so I find it hard to tell them how tall I have grown and how much weight I have gained. My usual answer is--paile bhanda ali motaayeko chhu. I do not know if that makes my parents happy--most probably it does--but I feel guilty because I am not being very precise. When I go to Nepal this summer, I am going to get a long measuring tape so that I can measure my belly everytime my parents ask me how fat I have grown. One of my summer projects is to teach my parents how to measure in centimeters! If your parents also care a lot about your eating habits, your height and weight--most parents do--bring a measuring tape. It makes things much easier. Seriously.
2. A Collection of Bhupi Sherchans Poems:
First, let me make a confession. I have never read Bhupis "Ghumne Mech Maathi Andho Maanchhe" fully. But the important point is that I know two poems, both of which are really short, by heart and that has been enough to boast with my friends about how much Nepali literature I still read. Include a couple of verses in your emails, letters and posts from the poems you know and viola!--you are a poet! Also, everyone will think that you are studying and very concerned about things going on in Nepal, although you might, in reality, be watching porn all the time in the computer you bought recently.
3. A Set of Formal Clothes:
Yours truly wears formal dress mostly on Fridays and some people might have wondered why he does so on Fridays, when even the people working in commercial banks are allowed to wear informal dress. No one knows the bitter truth concealed by those well-ironed shirt and pants: when you are unable to do laundry for a week or two, you have to resort to some alternative type of clothes and formal dress comes very handy at that time. I wear formal dress twice: once during graduation and every alternate Fridays. But the tie that I bought from Nepal two years ago will be traveling with me back to Nepal this summer with its virginity unscathed! I will have to learn again how to make the knot; shame on me!
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| M.P. |
Posted
on 09-May-03 07:46 PM
4. Dhaakaa Topi:
Every year, on the weekend of July 4th, we have the Association of Nepalese in America Exhibition (well, some prefer to call it a convention, but I leave it up to them to decide what it should be called). This is one of those days when women hunt for and flaunt all the ornaments that they have never been able to wear throughout the year. Men exhibit their tight Daura Surwals and their Dhaka Topis. Topi is a great thing, by the way (read Kanak Dixits article in the previous issue of the Himal for details); once you wear it, you feel like you are the running Nepal from here. You can go around and talk about 'intellectual stuff'. Last time I went to the ANA exhibition in DC, I saw a guy wearing a dhakaa Topi and eating hamburger. And he was talking about politics in Nepal. That was kind of weird. Or may be its just my eyes that find usual things unusual.
5. Subscribe a Couple of Optimistic Nepali Papers/Magazines:
I am relatively serious about this point. When in Kathmandu, Dailekh is in Mars. But when you are in the US and you read on the news that road near Krishna Bhir has been blocked due to flood, you get scared (Once C K Lal wrote, "distance gives perception." May be he is right). Or at least I do. It is amazing how you suddenly become so attached to that place called Nepal. I do not doubt anybodys credentials here, but most of our journalists are very good at exaggerating news. They make things sound worse than they are. Subscribing to a couple of 'optimistic magazines' (say Nepal, or Himal) might help you get a bit clearer sense of how the situation actually is.
6. Socks and Undergarments:
Sojho M.P. is providing these 'tips' to you free of cost, but you are most welcome to pay. No credit card, cash or check is accepted; pay in socks. One of the things that I have realized after staying in the US for two years is that you can recycle almost everything but not socks. Get as many pairs of them as you can fit in your bag. You can buy them here too, but the ones you get here do not come all the way up to your ankles and when I wear them, I feel like I am naked. Ok, I am a conservative who has high resistance to changes!
Now, before you leave for the US prepare yourself mentally to do the following:
1.To accept noodles as your staple food during breaks.
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2.To pay the laundry machine in dollars.
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3.If you are coming to a college near DC, to see the same dancers in almost every cultural show they have.
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4.To use phone cards that do not work for 80% of the time. And do not get surprised if you get an email from the owner of the card saying if you are willing to contribute the remaining balance on your phone card for community services.
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5.To eat a whole plant during meals. People here call it salad.
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6.To use f*ck, shit, a&shole, etc. There are sites when you can go and flaunt how many of these you learnt after you came to the US. Sooner you learn them, higher in the seniority hierarchy you will stand.
Have a wonderful trip to the US.
Sweet Dreams,
M.P.
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| yatri |
Posted
on 10-May-03 06:00 PM
Dear M.P.,
albeit true, this posting really cracked me up:) Keep up the creative juices flowing!
best wishes,
yatri
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| ??! |
Posted
on 10-May-03 06:20 PM
M.P.ji, nicely crafted piece of humor. Enjoyed the realities.
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| Nepe |
Posted
on 10-May-03 09:09 PM
ckjf]lwt sljHo"
As always, enjoyed your piece. Your humor never
betrays social consciousness. And they never fail to entertain.
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| Nepe |
Posted
on 10-May-03 09:13 PM
ckjf]lwt sljHo"
As always, enjoyed your piece. Your humor never
betrays social consciousness. And you never fail to entertain
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| Nepe |
Posted
on 10-May-03 09:15 PM
Harey ! I give up.
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| PremPujari |
Posted
on 11-May-03 06:46 AM
MP bro!!! LoL!!
Always a pleasure reading your "dhik-chaaak" writing!!
ehh... Aba ta bro semester pani siddiyo, Jaawosh na daily basis ma!!
By the way, you are so right about the things your wrote hai!
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