Micro bus in Kathmandu, a day-to-day adventure!

That was one thing I was dreading since I started planning to come back to Nepal this year- Public Transport in Kathmandu, specially in a micro bus. Its not that I hate public transport itself. But in Kathmandu, it's simply a  nightmare. 

For the first few days after coming to my home in Kathmandu, I tried my best to avoid going out at all because I was dreading the micro buses. That couldn't last for long as I had to go to places and couldn't afford to hide away from the chaotic Kathmandu transport. So, whenever I had to go out, I tried my best to make my schedule in a way that I could get a  ride from others. That worked for few weeks but then since I started to go out everyday for my training last week, that strategy went out of the window. I even tried buses just in hope if they were any better. Yes, there's a lot more space  in a bus than in a little tiny micro bus but a bus ride means- adding one extra hour to your trip, because they just do not move.. until they get full with passengers.. who cares about the time? So, finally, there was no choice ....I had to face the reality and  choose micro bus for two dreaded rides , to and from home every day. .. 

Today, was the worst of the whole week. After waiting for about forty minutes in the same place to get a micro bus with some space to fit me in (and trust me, I am not that much of a huge person)... I gave up my hopes and finally pushed myself into one micro bus where there was just about enough space to fit my two feet.. that meant I would have to stand just by the door, squeeze my body in and bend my head down so that my head could fit inside the micro bus. I found out that there is at lease one traffic rule when it comes to micro bus in Kathmandu, the door should be closed when it's moving... no matter how or how many people have been stuffed inside the little dumping box, the traffic police only cares for one thing-- the door should be closed. Well, that meant we almost 25 passengers had to be stuffed inside that tiny micro bus. The conductor will tell us where to put our feet, which way to face or where to breathe from ... and we were to do as we were told! else we could be out there by the road waiting for the bus for another 40 minutes probably.

The micro bus moved and I could barely stand upright because there were two people behind my back who were not just touching my back.. but  literally leaning on me for support.So, there I was, carrying the load of two other people on top of me, standing on space where there was just about enough space to put my feet and a little space on a bar behind the driver's seat which I could grab  with one hand (there wasn't enough space for two hands, so just one hand - the conductor told me). I could smell the most awful smell of sweat  and it was boiling with heat inside that little bus of torture. Somehow, I managed for 45 minutes before I reached my destination.Finally, it was such a relief to get out of the bus and to take that long breath. I thought how very wrong it was , the trip I just made. Respect for someone's private space? - what's that? Good customer service for the money we pay- what's that? Good transport service by the government for the people that pay taxes? what's that? Nobody cares! It's just a mess, a big chaos which has been running for years some how.
As I am writing this, I am thinking how I am going to do the same again tomorrow morning. 

Pheewww!! what an adventure! 

Changes

It feels like a time travel.. actually, a time travel back in time. Returning home has been a major step for me. Living away from the family and old friends in a foreign land for 3and half years must have changed me to some extent. Coming back to the same country, to same people feels like I am back to where I was three and a half years ago. People are same but lives have moved on.. figuring out where I stand in this time space is still a bit of a dilemma.

Lots of changes... last one and half months have been months of change. . change in country where I live, job, people around me to the way of living .. everything's changed .. It's been a bit stressful at times ..but I must say I have coped well and had a chance to experience a different way of living. On the other hand, I was a free single lady then, and have now returned as a married woman to live with a new family which I never had a chance to know much about. People say change is the spice to life.. Maybe it is..Though it was painful and hurtful to leave some lovely ppl that I had known for past couple of years in the sweet little town of Rugeley, UK, it's going to stay in my mind as a sweet memory, where I learned really a lot about life. Now is to look forward ..

Pet dog -jack  to always welcome me home with excitement :)

My Crazy Mornings

My mornings are nowhere close to 'Normal'. I just can not get out of my bed in the morning.

This gets worse in the winter. I know the saying goes 'Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise' and it is sooo true... but how am I going to teach this to myself, I don't know till now. 

It's usually very late by the time I get to bed. That is not because I am super-busy but because I am normally surrounded by the lots of things that I like to do rather than going to bed.  Internet is one of the 'addictions'. There is always something that I can find  that interests me... I have learnt so many things from the internet from cooking to makeup to all these new tech apps and what not.....With so many things to see and learn, going to bed seems like a waste of time to me... So, by the time I go to bed, I want to be literally so tired that I cannot open my eyes anymore and then I drag myself to bed with closed eyes and collapse within 10 seconds. 

The morning story is different.... although it felt like a waste of time to go to bed the night before, getting up on time feels like the most stupid thing I have to do....'.Oh!!! why didn't I think about it last night, I should have gone to bed on time.' I can only regret and think that the next day is going to be different. I have to get to work, so I don't get all the time in the world to sleep. After pressing snooze  button on my phone for about 7 times, I finally drag myself out of the bed when there is not  a single minute that I can spare anymore if I am to get to work on time. 

Quick morning rituals: brush my teeth- wash my face-toilet-make up-dress up.. I finish these within 15 minutes and on a normal day, don't have time to eat my breakfast, breakfast is a treat if I am good enough to wake up 10 minutes early.. ..  I just have to shoot out of the door. So, within 15 minutes of getting up, I am out of the door heading towards office which leaves me exactly 15 minutes to get to work and clock in. And I know this in my head, trust me, I have timed it before.. it takes exactly 15 minutes from my door to the clocking machine in the office by foot. If I am even a minute late in getting out of my house, that means I will have to run for one minute on my way to make it on time. I don't have time to appreciate the beautiful sunrise on sunny mornings or to throw a rant on a rainy morning.. I just have no time for anything but to walk- walk-walk for 15 minutes!

Thinking about the crazy mornings, I have drawn this picture of myself to sum it up :)

GoodBye 2012 !

We have just bid a goodbye to the Year 2012 and welcomed the New year. The end of a year makes me a little sad that the year is never going to be in my life again. It's like parting with someone who you will never see again.... am I just weird to feel so or is it normal? I assure myself that it's normal and assume that maybe that is why  we started the culture to give so much priority to celebrating New Year that we don't dwell over getting sad at saying bye to the past year. Positive, positive :)

 The year 2012 has been quite accomplishing for me from personal to the professional levels, so quite glad with the year in general. Before welcoming the new year, I did bid a farewell to the old year in style this year.. ..' De-clutter' is the word. I spent two complete days of the last few days of 2012 to suck out every last piece of  rubbish from my cabinets, wardrobe, shoe racks, and the drawers that I was dreading to open, because they were so full. No, it's not the case that I am  a shopaholic as such, not quite there yet...  the case is that living in a small one bedroom flat and never sorting out and throwing out your unwanted stuffs doesn't pay off for too long, two years, in my case. 

First up, 'PAPERS' The bank letters, bills,some fashion magazines, menu to a Chinese,some random playing cards, postcards that I never sent away to people, some receipts, to even some newspapers.. .. actually piles of them in the drawers, some filed away and some just lying about.. they were starting to fall from every creek or gap in the drawer.... like a zombie creeping out from a pit hole and they were terrifying me.

 Apart from letters and papers, there was another serious problem area ..'SOCKS', yes, you know those old socks that look bad even after you have washed them and dried them .. and you think these need to go to the bin now .. ..and then you think 'oh, I have washed them now so I will at least use them for once and then chuck them away after that', .. You go and buy new bundle of socks but you never throw those nasty ones..... you use them and then somehow it ends up in your laundry basket again because you just cannot be bothered to throw it straight away. Then once it ends up in laundry basket, guess what happens? Yes, it gets washed and then you think the same thing again....'Well, last time, I will use it and it is going to the bin, Seriously, this is the last time'  God knows how many such 'last time' passed on and a pile of horrible socks were still there, mocking at me. So, I had to give another big push to my backside to dig into the pile ... So, now I only have the nice socks, like a lady should have ;)

Just after the de-clutter session, my dear friend from Chicago made the effort to fly all the way to UK and be with me during the New Year Time. Our visit to the Moomin Valley in London was cherry on top and she even bought my favourite 'little mai (sanumaya)' for me !! A huge Thank you to Khushi, you made it even more fab;)...   

Moomin shop in London :)

Ok.... having said it all, it was a good start to the year all in all...  Yes, Welcome 2013, please be nice to me this year too and I will be good to you, what say? Deal!

Healthy Eating....how we fool ourselves!

Most of us must have got into the hype of 'Healthy Eating' in our lives at one time or another and I must admit, I am no exception. Few people can carry on eating healthily for years.. hats off to them, but unfortunately, I do not fall into that category. I keep getting into it and there is always something tempting enough to drag me out of it... Weekends, days out, any festive events, get togethers.. and if there is nothing, my self-pity creeps up ' oh Poor me, I should treat myself more often'. Piles of junk food, months of treats go by, getting into my own jeans starts to feel like an exercise in itself and finally when I get into them somehow, two muffin tops greet me from the two sides of my waist " oh hello there, we are your new friends". Bitter realisation hits me hard and then I tell myself ' oow woman! You don't want to keep those friends for too long, get ready to bid them goodbye'. Back to greens,salads and fruits and the same cycle goes over and over again.

I was talking to one of my friends yesterday and he mentioned that he had cheeseburger for dinner. Before I even opened my mouth, he added with a sense of guilt, " It was a healthy burger though, I had lettuce and tomato in it". I couldn't stop myself from laughing.. Somebody tell me, how does adding a leaf of lettuce and a slice of tomato to a fried burger with cheese make it any healthier? You still eat the grease and fat in it, right? Come on, if you actually want to think that you eat healthy, don't eat Cheese burger, my friend!

Grocery shopping takes up a good part of my sunday. As we are talking about healthy eating, lets go for 'healthy grocery shopping'. I see crowds of people around everything with labels 'light' or 'diet'. Light cheese spreads, low fat crisps, diet cola, and even light ice-cream, and low fat cakes. WHY?? Yes, they are 'low fat' and 'light' but how light could a light ice-cream be? How healthy can a low fat cake be?If you are actually counting your calories, do yourself a favour sweetheart, don't eat JUNK!Although it is lighter JUNK, it is still JUNK.

Don't we just fool ourselves?

 

At first..

It's just another ordinary day and as I sit down on my sofa, I can see out of the corner of my window that it is a typical cold december night out there.  The thought of starting my own blog has been hovering my mind for a while but I never actually sat down and made it happen. So, I think I will give it a go today.The date today happens to be 20th of Dec, which I hope I will be able to remember without bugging my brain cells too much, as it is exactly 5 days before Xmas.

I do love writing every now and then, especially when something  inspires some new thoughts in me. It could be something that I do in a day to day basis or something that is completely new, something small or something big, whenever I get that feeling of 'Wow.... I never thought that way before!'. Those moments are precious to me, those little moments of enlightenment...  and I want to save them somewhere ... So I reach out for a notebook to write them down.. But I tend to lose them somehow, as I go along. I could make an excuse and blame it on the fact that I have moved about and lived in many different places in my life so far, but it's probably down to the fact that I am not organised enough. So, I thought about blogging.. I will save my writings in this little piece of internet space and even the better, I will share it with others. It will be interesting to see how different/similar we are or how we all think in our beautiful minds.

I had this random picture of a little squirrel who posed to my camera very well, maybe he thought that it was food...  it is a beautiful picture :)