Happy New Year

I bid a fond farewell to 2007, a year of many facets, a year of landmarks and achievements, of deeds done and brave beginnings.

I welcome with open arms 2008. Hopeful of growth and evolution, knowledge and wisdom, friendship and love, success and happiness, and good health, both physical and mental. Hoping for giant steps, broken barriers, and curiosity and discovery.

Hoping for Peace and Joy.

Here's to 2008.

Happy New Year everybody.

Cheers.

YES!! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! Oh God YES!!

After years and years of being here in the US as a student, and suffering the indignities and the inconveniences of being given only a single-entry 3-month entry visa for Bhutanese students, this piece of news is so so welcome.

U.S. visas for Bhutanese upgraded

22 December, 2007 - Bhutanese students, exchange visitors, and their spouses and children travelling to the U.S. will now get a two-year visa from U.S. embassies and consulates anywhere in the world, says a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two-year visas of the two categories have also been upgraded to “multiple entries,” which means Bhutanese students in the U.S. can come home for holidays and go back without having to apply for another visa, so long as it is within the two-year period.

Before, U.S. visas for the two categories were “single entry” and could only be availed from the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, India.

The press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that the revised visa rule was made by the U.S. State Department and came into effect from December 3, 2007.

“This collaboration is a reflection of the existing friendly relations between Bhutan and the United States and the growing cooperation between the two countries,” according to the press release

In all the years that I've been here it has been such a massive undertaking to plan a trip home. Or to even leave the country to visit some other country. Everytime I went back home I had to plan a trip to New Delhi, reserve a date for a visa interview well in advance, re-prepare all my paperwork, and then apply for a student visa.. just so that I could come back to the US to continue my program. That always took a good week or so off of my vacation!!

This major impractical inconvenience made travel such a pain. It made me feel like I was in exile, restricted within the borders of this country coz I didn't even have the freedom to travel, or the freedom to go home when I pleased. I'm sure I speak for all the Bhutanese students when I say all this. This single-entry visa policy effectively ruined whatever travel dreams I had, be it a trip back home, or a trip anywhere else.

But now that has changed! Good heavens, what a relief. A little late for me now, but it will help a whole new generation of students to be closer to home. A multiple-entry, 2-year visa for Bhutanese students should have been the norm decades ago. But, better late than never.

I applaud this effort on part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department. Hope some of those letters I wrote had an effect on this decision.

PHEW.

YAYYYY.

Heckavasurprise or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 30s

This is a post embarrassingly way way way overdue...

I guess I was just worried that a mere blog post cannot do justice.

I was undecided if I should blog it at all, coz I felt that it is way too special.. So special that it should be recorded by the poet laureate. I kept wrestling with the decision and next thing I know - boom - it's March. And this is s'posed to be about my birthday in December!! Dammit.

So anyway, I have decided that this should be written down for posterity.
(Not that I'd forget!!)

And so here goes...

Top 5 memories for the first 30 years of your life:
1. 30th birthday party
2. ...
3. ...
4. ...
5. ...


This is about my birthday.
Or more specifically... about my birthday party...


It all started like this:

Dec 13th, 2006 - My birthday:

I pick up the Collegian and am reading through the comics/crossword/sudoku page...



note the date!



when the horoscope catches my eye...

for Sagittarius particularly...



Hmmmm.. heh heh... chuckle chuckle.. Riiight! Well, I'm not a believer in horoscopes obviously, specially the funny ones that are printed in the college rag.

Anyway.. I had decided that for my birthday we'd all go out for dinner to Mi Tierra.. a great Mexican restaurant that is actually a part of a grocery store! It is (or was) the best kept secret in the valley.. the food is to die for!!

So we all went out and dinner it was real fun.. a large number of friends showed up and 'twas a very very good b'day dinner with great food and even greater friends to hang out and say bubbye to the 20's!!

click for full album

And then, after dinner, the mystery began...
I was handed a card -
an invitation to an event on Sunday (Dec 17th) at Amherst Coffee.



Wow!! A birthday party, and a surprise one at that..
I was of course pleasantly mystified..
but also, pretty freaked out by the creepily accurate horoscope in the day's newspaper!!!!! freeeaky!

I was also informed that the hint was in the card itself; other than that no one would be giving me any clues.. except for wrong clues, of course!
For instance, Raz's clues were: hot lingerie supermodels; fashion show; the bar in amherst coffee; blind date. You can imagine the heights of fecundity that my imagination attained for the next 4-5 days!!

Anyway.. I eagerly (and nervously) waited for Sunday to come around.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Finally it deigned to ... Phew

I got a call from Zeynep saying that I should dress nice and they'd come pick me to go to Amherst Coffee.

Ummm.. dress nice??? .. Well, OK. Jeans and vintage tee is nice right?? :D

And then... Amherst Coffee..

For those of you who do not know, Amherst Coffee is the place where I hang-out/buy-my-coffee/work/study/chill/go-for-free-wireless-internet etc etc.. It's a nice coffee shop.. good coffee, good ambience, good (but pricey) beer, wine and liquor, great jazz with live performances on Thursdays.. you get the idea.

Basically I spend a lot of time there.. which is why my first thought when I got the invite was that my friends had decided to have a big birthday party at Amherst Coffee, and when I entered the place that's exactly what it looked like. 'Coz the place was full of friends (and friends' friends), all dressed to kill... all rarin' to party.

And more and more people kept pouring in by the minute until the place was chock-full of people I knew. Now this was fantastic.. that all these guys had come together, all dressed up, in honor of my birthday! It was great... and intense and man was I freaking uncomfortable. I mean, I loved it, but dude, it's a lot of pressure knowing that all these guys are there for the express purpose of springing a surprise on you. I thought that the get-together at the cafe was the big surprise, but that wasn't the case.. they all knew something that I didn't!!

--Aside--
I mentioned Amherst Coffee plays Jazz right? Well, that night my sneaky friends asked them to play Dylan instead! Isn't that awesome. Talk about the small touches!
--End Aside --

Anyway I was downing Single Malts, enjoying the very nice sparkly cocktail party atmosphere, and kicking myself for thinking Jeans + Tee = Dress Nice (Check the pictures out to see what I mean). And of course, the suspense was killing me!!!

So, as an act of mercy I'm sure, Chris called out for everybody's attention..
and went on to announce that it was the hour of gift-giving..
OOOOOH...
A gift too!!

And then I was handed an envelope..

inside which was this:



A ticket to a private screening of High Fidelity at the brand new just opened Amherst Cinema.
WOW.
HOW WONDERFULLY EXCITING IS THAT!!!

I couldn't react. I was actually lost for words.
But I finally registered that all of us were gathered to watch High Fidelity at Amherst Cinema next door for my birthday!!

How did this happen?

Well, I guess Zeynep remembered that I had once mentioned that High Fidelity was one of my favouritest movies...
and also that I'd remarked on how much fun it'd be to rent a theatre to watch a movie with a group of friends.
So she put two and two together...
and came up with 22 million and decided to have this surprise birthday thing for me.

Phew.. what an organizational effort. They had to rent the entire theatre.. organize to ship in the film print special from California for this single-screening, pay the necessary royalties and the taxes and everything. Quite amazing. And also to round up this huge number of people to show up and buy tickets and cover the cost of the whole renting, shipping, licensing and god knows what else. WOW. .. to think Nick ornby and John Cusack and Stephen Frears profited directly from my birthday party. oooh.. important!!!!

So everyone trooped to the theatre.. lined up like good patrons of the arts to purchase the tickets to cover the full expenses. :P....

While I was posing with my friends at the door like a visiting dignitary!
Or a hollywood person! :P

Alex baked a hundred absolutely wonderful cupcakes, into which they stuck the required candles and all... and had the whole singing happy birthday scene going on. Really, it was quite a party.. And everybody was waiting for me to be overwhelmed by emotion and break down in tears.

HAH..

(I did that in the stall in the restrooms!!)

:D

Check out Amherst Coffee and Amherst Cinema here in this album..

My Bday Amherst Cinema - click for full album

So anyway.. after the cakes and all we all trooped into the theatre..
but before the screening there was just one more surprise!!!

My most favourite basoonist and clarinetist.. with a personalized performance.

Watch it: :)
(sorry I had to paste it together from diff clips and diff cameras hence the unsmooth video)



That was just so great. A wonderful musical performance for me. Such wonderful people!!

And then.. good old High Fidelity..
It is a movie quite filled with anguish and agony and pathos isn't it? So much so that I felt obligated to remark that the movie being a favourite of mine in no way meant that it was autobiographical.
Now we don't want people thinking I slept with a recording artist do we??

So what can I say??

That I have the greatest group of friends in the world. And the most creative, and for them nothing is impossible. They made this happen. Such a lovely surprise. Such a lovely party. But most of all they succeeded in creating this wonderful memory, not just for me, but for everybody who was there that evening. Including the baristas at Amherst coffee and the popcorn folks at Amherst Cinema. And that is a wonderful feat. Like leaving a legacy. Leaving a legacy of memories in many minds. I'm proud of you all, and I'm proud and honoured to be your friend. :D

Thanks

It's all about the memories..

like Zeynep said -

Unlike many other habitants of the earth
we chose not to be born, live and die in the same town
and hang out with the same people from birth to death,
so sooner or later we will move on
and who knows where we will be next.
We will be spread around in several continents,
hanging out with totally new people.
But hopefully tonight, and all other
days and nights like these will forever stay with us.

So all my beautiful, amazing, creative, fantastic, full-o-surprises, wonderful.. not to forget oh so chic and beautiful and stylish.. friends.

THANK YOU

Here's the card by the way! :).. Alex's creativity shining through.

Darjeeling Fire: Relief Fund

On Feb 1st, 2007, there was a devastating fire in the Bara Kokhrajhar Area in Darjeeling (Below Ava Art Gallery). The blaze completely destroyed four houses and displaced 13 families.

There are a number of local relief efforts trying to raise funds to help those affected by the fire. The state government has also reportedly agreed to chip in some funds.

The fire broke out at around 1:30am and the residents barely escaped from harm with no time to salvage valuables or personal belongings. So these families have pretty much lost everything in the blaze.

We (from www.kalimpong.info and darjeelingnews.net) are trying to do a fund raising of our own from this side of the world. The funds raised will all be sent to the "Koseli Sangh, Darjeeling" who are spearheading the fund raising and other relief efforts.

So I ask you to contribute whatever you can to this fund. By clicking on the link below you can contribute securely by credit card or by Paypal.

Your good deed for the day!!!
Think about it this way: Don't drink that latte today; instead contribute that $5 or whatever for a good cause.

C'mon guys.. accumulate good karma. And help folks out.

Disclosure:
One of the affected houses, Paras Mani Bhawan, was that of my relatives in Darjeeling. So that is my principal motivation behind this drive - it is personal - however the contributed funds will not be sent to just that family. The funds will be sent to the organization in charge of the overall relief efforts in Darjeeling, Koseli Sangh.

Please click on the "ChipIn" button below to help:



www.chipin.com, from where I have created the above widget accepts money securely and safely, either via credit cards or via Paypal. The process is very transparent and easy. Just click and you're ready to contribute.

Thank You -- very very much

Anuj

Welcome....

Neo Man Sherchan.

Born to Archana and Rajiv Sherchan on October 19, 2006.

Welcome Bhanja. :D