Travel, Life, Reset

                                                               According to the Nepalese Hindu lunar calendar, today is Kushe aushi, or Father's Day. The festival celebrates fatherhood and paternal bonds. This day is also known as Pitri Aunsi. Ptiri means spirits of the departed ancestors in Hindu culture. On this day, the souls of the departed ancestors are also worshipped. One of the most beautiful souls I always remember is my grandfather. I am lucky enough to have a lot of memories with my grandfather. He is the one who taught me how to cook and introduced me to our scriptures like Bhagwat Gita, Mahabharat, and Ramayan. My fondest memories of him are that we (my siblings) followed him around when he used to go to a tea shop, and he would buy us Jeri and Shwari for breakfast in Mangalbazaar (Nepal). I visited those places las...

                               Celebrating Womanhood A famous expression states you must walk in someone else's shoes to understand what they are going through. Growing up, I watched my mother and her friends celebrating Teej around this time of year. They seemed pleased and excited, and I could not understand what was all that happiness and excitement about. I thought they just hung out with their friends, dressed up, and danced, which did not seem that special. Last week, there was an event in Denver to celebrate the same festival, and it was a ladies-only event. I have attended many family-friendly events, but this experience was very different. The vibe was very positive when I entered the event center. I saw women celebrating and enjoying life in a way I had not seen before. I had one of my friends in the event who is from Trinidad and Tobago, and she said she has not seen women celebrating like this ...

                 No Time To Stand And Stare?      Can you remember the time when you thought time stood still? It has been almost two decades since I felt time stood still. Kids in Kathmandu Valley used to get 50 days of winter vacation, known as "Minpachas bida." Our mother used to send us to the village where my grandparents lived. So imagine we had to come up with things to keep us busy with no TV, phone, or any other means of modern means of communication and entertainment and no running water in the house and electricity. Our pastime would be to go to forests and fields and go out and play. I used to help Gradma do house chores, fetch water, feed cattle, and wash dishes. In the evening, I read "Swasthani Katha,"  a religious book that people gathered, read, and listened to for an entire month. That book is still ingrained in my brain because I must have read it at least  20 times, cover to cover. We all kids used...

 Small Things Big Impact!        Have you ever thought that some of the things you have learned from some people, the advice you got from random people, or how some people carried themselves always stick with you forever? I always remember my manager's advice when I started my career in the United States. My job entailed a lot of verbal communication with various people throughout the day, especially on the telephone. One day there were some issues, and in the end, we figured out it was due to miscommunication. She advised me that to communicate professionally, clearly, and efficiently; I need to write down the things I need to speak to get all the pertinent information. She told me that writing things down will also eliminate the chances of being misconstrued because we might use the wrong words when we do not write down the things. Writing content in advance will also help sound confident (no need to think of words, less pause). To this date, I use that ad...

  Where is home?                                                                                                       Shyamala Shiwakoti     When people ask me how long I have been living abroad? In my mind, it's always around ten years. Last week, I did the math. It's way more than ten years. Growing up, I always heard this conversation about people going abroad and studying. My father went to Canada in 1993, and when he returned, I remember he brought me a wristwatc...

                                                        Women & Money      Lately, there has been a lot of discussion around pay parity. Some studies have shown that women in the Western world women make $ 0.7  for every $1 a man makes for the same job. There is little data for other parts of the world, but pay parity is much more likely. For centuries, women have been doing farm work, all household work, and raising kids, which takes up as much work as a full-time job, if not more. And now most of us are doing all that plus full-time or part-time employment. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, and I do not even have kids. So why do women even need to make money? As I grow older, I have started to think about financial security and the value of money in our lives. What does money bring to my life, and why must I make my own mon...

                                    Food and spirituality      Food is the energy source and the most crucial thing to stay alive. We eat food in different forms since we are born. We eat day in and day out, and food is always in our minds. My daily big question is what to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. The essential thing that we do as a human is to eat. It is the physiological need as per Maslaw's hierarchy. In a way, we all work and do various things to put food on our table. That food can range from epicurean food like Almas caviar to humble food such as rice and daal, depending upon your financial status and your mood of the day.          We had putlock on Friday at my workplace, and I decided to make biryani on Thursday night. It is tedious work to make biryani. It needs a lot of ingredients and has multiple steps to make this dish. Wh...