My Birth place, Bungy and Blvd of the Allies

These three have one thing in common: river. My birthplace and hometown Phidim, a small and idyllic hill station in eastern Nepal, is a place of three rivers: Hewa, Pheme and Tamor. Boulevard of the Allies, where the Post-Gazette office is, happens to be near the confluence of two rivers. (Forgive me if I'm talking too much about rivers, but I can't help it).

Ah, the bungy! I did'nt make it but I have written a travel piece on a bungy jumping tour. Here for the links to the photos. As you can see, the bungy in Nepal is in the natural surrounding above a river!

It's been nearly a month, I'm in the Steeler's city, but there's not a single moment of boredom (Despite the fact that single people often complain about Pittsburgh not being hip and happening). I usually get bored with things very soon (blame my short attention span) but Pittsburgh has been fascinating me since day one. Perhaps, because it is so similar to my hometown in terms of geography and obviously river (sorry folks, I don't have a photo to share).

Perhaps the title of this blog should be Feeling at Home in Pittsburgh!

In Washington, DC, I met my buddy Ganesh Timalsena who's been living in the US for more than a decade. He's settled here with a nice job, a caring wife and a lovely daughter. We talked till late night about our hometown Phidim. A slice of nostalgia engulfed us as we talked about our childhood days; we went to the same school and did the same sets of peccadilloes. Strangely, the golden phase of our lives began to reverberate in his apartment in Virginia. At midnight, after emptying many pegs of whiskey, we were already drunk and decided to hit the sack.

On the second week of my arrival, my mentor Greg Victor took me to watch Pirates at PNC stadium which I pass by every day on my way to office. Nikhil and Peter, Greg and Rekha's wonderful sons were also there. To me the baseball match looked similar to cricket (I am not a fan of cricket, either). Nikhil was at pain to explain the score and later I ceased to ask any more nonsense question. Before the match, Greg had told me: You will see many drunk Americans today. True to his prediction, one young guy was able to draw attention of many viewers through his idiosyncrasies. At times, his gestures turned out to be more attractive than the match. Pirates won against Cincinnati Reds (Greg was in dilemma whether to support home team Reds or local team Pirates) and we came out, a bit tipsy with beer. Food was in abundance in the stadium and it seemed that people not only came to watch the match but also to eat. A food for thought, indeed.

Credit for making my stay a pleasant experience also goes to Nepali folks in Pittsburgh. Thank you Sanjay Dai, Sureshji, James Dai et al. I was not prepared for this. I did not know that there is a vibrant Nepali community in the city. I've already written a story about their reaction to the election in Nepal. They also have a football team and I'm going to watch some of their games.