Category: My Views

What is home? It is the place where you can be the real you. No drama at all. Home is where your family is. The home is incomplete without family. Family is a bunch of happiness. Happiness is home. Happiness is coming back to home after long time. You come to home to heal yourself from all the pain and trouble you face in your struggling life. Home is heaven on earth. You cannot be finer somewhere else. It has to be home; your favorite place to chill and relax and heal.

Everybody loves being at home. But not true. You only realize the importance of something when it is snatched right away from your hand. The ones who have stayed away from home for long time realize how important a home is and how important is the family. Home is heaven for the people who have been working or studying abroad or away in a crowded city. They know the importance of the warmth of the home that keeps them away from cold. Home is never small. It is always big enough to cover your soul tightly around its arms. Home is a mother and yes mother is the heart of the home. She is the angel who makes home the heaven. Don’t forget the other members. Everybody is equally important but I’ll always give a point more to mother of course. Mother is the binder, a mediator and the Queen Bee.

Home is a really pleasant place to be at. When you come back to home after long time at your vacations you realize how safe you are. You can have a tight sleep and you don’t have to worry about robbers because you know your dad will protect you. You never forget to take your medicines in time because everybody’s job is to remind you that. Your head is always covered with woolen cap and your toes with socks during winter because your mum irritates you until you put them on. Your pets go crazy when you play with them, they have missed you a lot it seems. You always wake up and find a surprise breakfast that your dad brings you after he returns from morning walk. You never go to bed without drinking hot cup of milk and if it is my mum, there is a pinch of Beshaar in it so that I’m away from cold. Your sister always hands you some money that she saves from job or dad. You always get to eat the big piece of food because you are not going to stay at home for long this week. You will be packed with different varieties of food for months when your time has come to leave the home again. Your pets leave you to door with that crying face and a question of “when you are going to return back..?”
I really love being at home. I always wanted to be away from family when I was small. To be honest, I wanted to experience time away from home and family. I’m already away now. I’m away for four years and my second year is running. I’m not that far. I’m only 1.5 hours far if traveled in a bus. But since I get to meet my family like once in a month and sometimes even late, I feel I’m really far from them. But it is okay. I love visiting them once in a month. I spend all my time with mother and pets. I wait all day for my sister to come back from her job so that we can talk all night until we’re asleep. I love helping dad with his work and buy grocery stuffs with him. Whenever I go home these days, I make sure, nobody is unhappy there. I help mum with cooking and prepare Tiffin for my sister. I don’t act cool but responsible. I appreciate all the little things that they confess me. I’m not all the time with my family but when I’m with them I make sure I make them happy. I think I have changed with time. Even my mum says I’m not me. But I’m better me.

You should always try to make people around you happy and when the people are your family, it is a plus point. Family comes first because the entire world can stand against you but at the end it is only your family who will still be there, at your side, even if you are wrong. It is not your friend who raised you or who was there at night next to you during your SLC finals, it is your mum. It is not your boy friend who paid your school and plus two bills, it is your dad. It is not your relatives who took you to hospital at midnight when you suffered from pneumonia, it is your family. So why to give priority to others? Friends and relatives are second person, first person is family. When you understand your love and respect for your family, you are sure to be successful and happy forever.

*Aleena Rayamajhi
1/26/2016
11:16 PM

We all know about the recent earthquake in Nepal. It was really dangerous as it took lives of many people and animals. It swept away the buildings, monuments, historical sites of different parts of Nepal such as Gorkha, Bagmati, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Sindhupalchowk and many more. Being a Nepali citizen myself and also one of the victims of this dreadful earthquake I’m not here to express sorrow. I’m here just to share the positive side of this earthquake.

People all over the world are aware of the earthquake in Nepal. All the social sites are filled with prayers for my country and my people. Our country is not a popular country; many people don’t know about it at some corner of the world. But due to this natural disaster people know that the country with Mount Everest is in danger and we need to help it. I know at such a disastrous moment I shouldn’t be cherishing my joys for something small but I can’t help myself not to cherish the joys I find these days. All the TV news is showing the consequences of earthquake all over my country, but they are missing the good side of this earthquake. They are just frightening people who are already scared as hell and more. We have discovered everything and we have challenged all the difficult problems but we still cannot predict earthquake. So there is no point in spreading rumors about earthquake. Let’s see the good side, aye? Remember all the youngsters who enjoyed late night parties, camp fire, and discos? Today they are at different villages at Sindhupalchowk and Gorkha. Yes, in order to distribute the goods the victims are in need of. Those youths who surf internet all day and night are spreading the news of earthquake and helping out everyone.They have realized that, it is not time to pray for Nepal but to work for it. There are many countries that are helping us with money and manpower. Humanity had come to an end and now again we have hopes for humanity. Due to this natural disaster, again people are uniting, their hearts are uniting. Today all the people are under the same roof, either they are Brahmins or Dalits, they are not hesitated to share the only roof that is left in the village because they both want to live. Today both the rich and the poor are feeding on same loaf of bread, because both of them have hungry stomachs. May be Mother Nature is playing trick; she wants all her children to be united again so she caused Earthquake. Many people lost their house, money, health and relatives, but they haven’t lost their dignity. Our Dharara has fallen, but we can build ten of such Dharara if our hopes are high. We are great Gorkhalis, we have never surrendered and we never will. Instead of being frightened, we should be brave. Everyone is sure to die someday, may be some die early and some die late. So why do we fear of our deaths? You might be thinking , “It is easy to say as you haven’t lost your child or your house”. But Madam, I’m just trying to lower the pain of the people who have lost somebody. Crying over something that’s gone is worthless. We should live for someone who is still there, still alive. We should do the best that we can. It is better to die while helping somebody than to die coward. So, why not just see the positive side of this beautiful earthquake. It came for a reason. We will build a new and better Nepal. We have gained a lot more power from this earthquake, earthquake left us with unity and much love. Thank you Earthquake.

Gadhimai festival is a sacrificial ceremony that is held every 5 years at the Gadhimai Temple of Bariyarpur, in Bara District, Nepal. It is primarily celebrated by the Madheshi and Bihari people. The event involves the large scale sacrificial slaughter of animals including water buffaloes, pigs, goats, chickens, and pigeons – with the goal of pleasing Gadhimai, the goddess of power. It is estimated that 500,000 animals were sacrificed during the Gadhimai festival of 2009. Are you serious? Where are all the animal rights activists?

My blog is not for providing information about Gadhimai Festival. We can find several articles about it on web. I really found those articles depressing. The festival is for impressing goddess they say. And they also say the goddess favor peace and love. How can someone get peace by slaughtering animals? And I would like to add that the festival is actually not attended by Nepalese but 80% are the people from Indian states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The rest 20% are Madhesi people of our country.

At this statement I find little joy, at least not Nepalese people are into this cruel crime because these are Indian people who are favoring the festival. Yes, I would call it a crime. But the arena is ours. The festival is celebrated at our place. How poor we could have been?

 A month before the ritual in 2009, the Madheshi politicians realized there would be a “severe shortage” of goats for the ritual sacrifice, as well as for the consumption of goat meat during the festival. They began a radio campaign urging farmers to sell their animals. So Nepalese people have one benefit after all, i.e. they can sell their animals to those foreign devotees.

After the festival, the meat, bones and hides of the animals are sold to companies in India and Nepal. But this is illegal. Why do we allow foreign people to sacrifice animals in the birth place of Buddha, who introduced and encouraged peace to entire world? The entire world knows about this festival and they are building the concept that the Nepalese are cruel and stone-hearted.

I’ve so many questions unanswered. I want reasons and opinions. The festival has prompted numerous protests by animal rights activists and Nepalese Hindus from Hill region. Well done people. In 2009 activists made several attempts to stop the ritual, including Brigitte Bardot and Maneka Gandhi, who wrote to the Nepalese government asking them to stop the killings. A government official commented that they would not “interfere in the centuries-old tradition of the Madheshi people.”

Ram Bahadur Bomjon, claimed by some of his supporters to be the reincarnation of the Buddha, said that he would attempt to stop the sacrifice at the festival, preaching non-violence and offering a blessing at the place. I’m sure the festival will come to an end someday and the mothers after some years will tell their children, the bed time story about the horrifying Gadhimai Festival and how some brave warriors brought it to an end.

Actually, cutting a goat or a buffalo is same. Cutting 500 goats in Dashain or cutting 500,000 buffaloes in Gadhimai is similar after all. This is not just a major issue in Nepal. There are plenty of festivals worldwide where mass killing of animals either in the name of gods or food take place.

If we look into our neighboring country China, there is a festival celebrated annually in Yulin, Guangxi in June where people eat dog meat and lychees. More than 10,000 dogs were killed and consumed earlier which decreased to 1000 in 2015.

Why talk about festivals or ceremonies when the farm houses are killing millions of animals everyday just for the sake of food. There are several crimes committed by people by violating animals’ right.

If you feed on meat yourself, or sacrifice a goat during Dashain, and yet are against Gadhimai, you are a fool. A festival as deadly as Gadhimai can only be stopped when people are against any kind of animal cruelty.

Aleena Rayamajhi