Wonderful Beautiful Nepal | Travel, Culture & Food

“Dashatwa ko Bato” is the Nepal, the beautiful country, tourist based country, , the beautiful country, tourist based country, i translation  of the book “Road to Serfdom” written by Nobel Laureate economist F. A. Hayek. The book was published towards the end of Second World War cautioning about the increasing role of the state and domination of central planning of different aspects of people's lives even in the  then democracies like United Kingdom and United States of America. Hayek had cautioned that the expansion of role of state during war times was likely to continue after the war too and would eventually end up creating slaves out of general public. The book generated a huge debate in the political discourse of the Western countries at that time. I had published the Nepal, the beautiful country, tourist based country, , the beautiful country, tourist based country, i version of the book's cartoons in my blog. The post is still among the most popular posts in my blog....

Tomorrow will mark one month since the first earthquake struck; I woke up to another aftershock this morning. There has not been a lot of relief for the people, rice, a blanket, some plastic tarps, a few sheets of aluminum and little more. Outside the village, I can see that several helicopters have been delivering goods to the people in more rural areas. They fly so low it can feel like an earthquake, thus traumatizing us anew several times a day. No one seems to understand why they have to fly so low. The food supply has not been seriously effected, yet. I do not know if I should be concerned in the long term, but have purchased a big bag of rice and a couple Kg. of organic coffee. It's important to prioritize. Yesterday afternoon a wind storm came up and blew the tents away at our hilltop. Then it started raining. People had to scatter to make sure things didn't get blown away in the high winds. The wind was so strong a person could hardly stand up and both of my young men v...

The earthquakes striking Nepal at the moment is a very destructive force of nature. Worse is the aftershocks as Nepal is experiencing one aftershock everyday. It causes fear in people and does not let people move on. I am sharing some pictures that shows the aftermath of the earthquake. The only good to come out of this is people genuinely helping one another regardless of race, class, language, nationality. People helping and doctors at work Volunteers carrying woman for medical help Before and After of Durbar Square Building looks like it could fall This building is leaning on another Woman is selling flowers Hard at work selling flowers Monsoon season has created more headaches for people outside Animal Welfare organization feeding our Four Legged friends

In loving memory of the beautiful centuries-old landmarks  (Pictures from my visit to Nepal in 2014) I have been shocked and saddened over the last few weeks after the earthquake in Nepal (April 25, 2015). The experience of after shocks, jolts and another earthquake (May 12, 2015) only prolongs this terrible tragedy for so many of us. My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering and lost their loved ones. I am continuing to pray for earthquake victims and mourning the loss of life.  Now I am deeply worried about Monsoon rains that will create deadly land slides.....words can't express my sadness! I am sharing some of the pictures that I have captured from my last visit to Kathmandu in December 2014 - March 24, 2015.  I was born and brought up near the Hanuman Dhoka-Durbar square neighborhood of Kathmandu.  I grew up seeing all the precious landmarks, stunning temples, beautiful wood carving, gold-topped pagodas - now all reduced to rubble.  I am mournin...

It is always sad when nature creates destruction anywhere, but when it's a country like Nepal it is even more tragic. Everyone wants to help and it truly warms my heart to think that so many Westerners have such compassion. Especially New Zealanders and people from other earthquake prone countries want to help. I understand New Zealand is still to recover from their disastrous earthquakes, and yet the compassion they have for Nepal is so outstanding.  However, and this is a big however, we do not want the money to be used in a counterproductive way, or be misused by the social worker keeping the money. Either of these cause many Westerners to throw up their hands and not do anything to help. At this time in Nepal, in light of the recent tragic events it is even more important that the money be used properly and in a timely fashion. Birbhadur and his mother, Laxmi showing me their new blankets. They were very grateful. I've lived here for over 4 years and have had many opportu...

Yesterday, May 12, 2015 another major earthquake came, 7.3-4. There was another epicenter so I guess it means it’s a brand new earthquake. No more people died in our village, but 6 Americans died from an Osprey accident and 2 Nepali.On a side note, I was living in the town in Florida that had twin hurricanes in 2004. Who knew there were twin earthquakes. We were home, Bimila, Mark, our new helpx volunteer, Sajana, my new helper and me. It hit hard, not like the wave I’d felt during the first one. And we panicked. We jumped up and went down the stairs while it shook the entire time. “Bimila,” I called out as we went down the stairs and she promptly joined us going down the stairs. Although I know we should not leave the building, we all promptly ran outside and to the hilltop. Bimila had been traumatized enough from the first earthquake while she clung to our tourist guest as she watched the devastation happening in Bhhaktapur. As we reached the hilltop I turned to see our housecleaner...

I wrote this during the crisis but couldn't upload it until now. It sort of feels like old news even though it was just last week. It was the longest week in history for me. I still woke up last night with aftershocks. As I write this, almost 48 hours from the first earthquake, I can still feel small aftershocks. It was a Saturday and one guest, Yana, wanted to take Kamal’s girls to Bhaktapur for a day out.   I had guests earlier in the week who were vendors at the tattoo convention in Kathmandu, I was on the way to it with Kiran, Kamal's 10 year old son. We got to where the airport   meets the highway and suddenly motorcycles were on the ground and people were sitting on the highway.   It was horrible! The shaking went on and on-not like any other quake I’d been in. We decided to get out of the mini-van and then got back in and back out again while the earth was still shaking, at least 3 minutes. I looked up at the hills and saw plumes of brown smoke and knew houses wer...