I didn't say that: March 2023

Bhat dal tarkari lunch, much bank work with dad around town, meeting sbk and CS at CS office in Jhamsikhel, meeting ND and his wife their place, I need to go, Taxi home in the rain for work [Fri 31]

I'm writing these journal posts for March four months later, because of issues. I'm not ashamed of the fact, and quite proud actually that I got around to writing them, eventually. Let's get on with the meat and potatoes, shall we?

Had BDT for lunch, drove around town with dad, Baneshwar to NarayanChour to Hadigaun ganesthan, between banks to get stock thing figured out. We did get 95% of the work done this time around.

I got my dad to drop me at Maitighar, where I waked to the other side of the road. It was raining. I got on the tempo and got off in Jawlakhel chowk. Waited for Sbk and CS, SBk came to pick me up and we went to CS's office. We talked for a couple of hours.

In the evening we went to ND's place just outside the ringroad. I was there for an hour and half. We talked about how ND had met his wife...at his friend's wedding, she was the bride's friend. And six months later she was the bride, with him!

They were cooking dinner but I really really needed to go home because it was worktime. So I caught the inDrive taxi (also this was near the home of SK - Jp) and went home in the rain. So relaxing, to be in a taxi in the rain in the evening.

Worked at night.

And this is the end of the journal posts for the month of March. There's April left and we're done with journal posts! Still need to 'cover up' with other posts if I want to get anywhere interesting, but it's up for grabs, up in the air if the stress to go through it is worth putting myself through.

Still, see you in the posts for next month. Should be in a couple of days for me.

Parents are away, I'm on my own, at NIC, jeri, eggs samosa khaja, home by myself in the evening [Thu 30]

Went to NIC, had jeri samosa eggs and jeri there.

Parents came back from their trip at night. Things were slow.

Morning driving class, day party with multiple delicasies at mamaghar, momo in the evening at home since parents are away [Wed 29]

Went to driving class in the morning.

Much fun was had during the day, Singapore folks (TM and TB) were possibly there now, so many many things were cooked, and hangout was lots of fun. I know I said my parents were away, and they were one of those days, but it's possible they may have been home on this specific day, the specific days blur into each other, I don't yet have enough resolution in memory and recordkeeping to separate very similar but slightly different days four months later without proper recordkeeping.

Had momo in the evening at home.

Driving class in the morning, bdt at mamaghar, de matka chauchau khaja [Tue 28]

Went to driving class in the morning.

My parents were away for a couple of days here because they went with their friends on big electric vans to some touristy religious place that had snow(!) in the middle of the summer. They really really really tried to convince me to go, but it was all parents and their friends, so I successfully convinced them it'd be super lame and boring for me and I'd bum them out to, so they left me alone at home. I had a good number of meals at mamaghar during this time.

I had bhat-dal-tarkari at mamaghar, Chauchau khaja at De Matka, and in the evening I was home, eating momo from Project Momo I think.

I have Project Momo on the list of things to write for my "Project 240" plan, but even if that doesn't happen I really should explain how much I love their business model one of those days!

Driving class and gym in the morning, NIC day, pancake dinner [Mon 27]

Went to the driving class and the gym in the morning, took pathao to NIC during the day. At this point, I'd started InDriving. I was a holdout for the longest of times, because Pathao was a Nepali company, and they were better yadda yadda yadda, but InDrive was so much cheaper, you could negotiate with the riders, and it was available in more places with way more drivers. It wasn't even a match. So took the indrive to NIC and back.

Had pancake at home for dinner.

Accidental ChopSuey at Dockyard with PU in the afternoon, that's it? [Sun 26]

Afternoon hangout with PU at Dockyard, we ordered ChopSuey which was alright. It's possible this was around the time started noticing new management at the place, because the old management and staff were hilariously incompetent, and the place was ridiculously overstaffed. I don't have anything else on for this day. Bleh.

Meh meals at Sukute, decent river rafting adventure, my driving is rougher, hungry after the rafting, packing up, stay at Dolalghat, good family times, home at 6, tired [Sat 25]

The breakfast at the sukute resort was meh.

We got real excited about the rafting we'd be doing later in the day, my parents' fourth ride, and my first. They dressed up in life jackets and helmets early on, but we ended up waiting for hours before getting on the bus to the rafting area. The other randos in the bus with us were really really trashed, and the pretty girls (that everybody was joking about because they were like hit-on-your-face goodlooking).

Out in the sun at the rafting begin area, we waited for another 45 minutes, eventually got into the water. MB and I were the two leftovers from the main 8 people, and got into a raft with a bunch of randos. Everybody was rafting except my grandparents and my aunt who was looking after my niece.

The rafting experience itself was ok. No big rapids, the flow of water was low. They stopped midway at a 'beach' and let people get in the water. I didn't get in the water because so freakin' cold, also had phone on me, possibly.

Back from the rafting, we put the boats back, had lunch, packed, and got going.

On the way back, we stopped at a fish restaurant in Dolalghat that was run by a neighbor of my grandparents. Stayed for two hours there, everybody had fish, I had other snacks and drinks. Took it easy.

Then we bid farewell to ED and AD, this was the last we'd be seeing of them in Nepal.

Reached home at 6, probably went to sleep so quick because we were really really tired.

Driving class and gym in the morning, bdt lunch, drive and chill at Dhulikhel, drive to Sukute Beach, everybody is impressed, family parties riverside and has drink dancing fun while I work and have little fun, flies so many flies [Fri 24]

Went to the driving class and gym in the morning, had bdt for lunch.

Drove to Dhulikhel, waited for the rest of the extended joint family to show up. This was going to be our last hurrah with ED and RD basically. Got some snacks, picked up our youngest cousin, and went on our way.

Got to Sukute Beach resort early in the evening. Everybody was impressed how nice it looked. Families. Office outings. Friends. Partners. Lovers. All sort of people were there. And everybody was having so much fun! Everyone in our party, including my grandparents, thought it was amazing.

We had a nice barbecue party by the riverside in the afternoon and evening, cooking meat, drinking, talking, teasing and all that.

I had to work unfortunately, so I started working in the evening. Particularly stressful because the internet was not so great, and there was concern it'd be a lost day.

The folks danced until late in the night, with the rest of the party groups. Man some people there were wild, and it turns out the resort had hired party promoter girls to look like they're having fun and encourage other people to have fun!

I went to bed pretty early on because I didn't like how loud everything was, and would rather sleep and skip than become part of the ruckus.

Only thing I hated was we were near the kitchen, so our seating area for the meals had SO MANY flies around.

Tea and bakeries at finest tea cafe, desserts and samosa-tarkari at the old dessert place with AU, NIC day, home at six, momo for dinner [Thu 23]

Hung out with AU in the morning. We got tea and fruit cakes at Finest Tea Cafe. Then got desserts and samosa-tarkari at our favourite mithai pasal.

Went to NIC, nothing notable there in my records.

Home by six, had momo for dinner, momo might have been from project momo. Project momo is such an amazing idea, I gotta write more about it later. It's on the list people, don't worry about it!

Driving class and gym in the morning, bdt lunch, chauchau at de matka and work, president sekuwa in the evening with family while working [Wed 22]

Went to driving class and the gym in the morning, had hdt for lunch. Went to De Matka for chauchau and to work.

We went to president sekuwa with family once more, this time not on the roof but in a private room, and I was working throughout. We were celebrating folks' anniversary. Good times. The only bit of a bummer is that they don't have great vegetarian items.

I remember our order this time around being particularly good. The second trip in a week, my mom and maiju went there 4 times in three weeks or something, if I remember that right.

Driving class and gym in the morning, bdt lunch, pancake dinner, I decide I should take life easy maybe and not bother with work etc [Tue 21]

Went to driving class and the gym in the morning. Had bdt for lunch, pancake for dinner. Do my work in the evening.

Perhaps I was inspired by people I had met recently, or the state my life had gotten into, but it's possible this was the time I decided to take it easy with life, and didn't want to do work or do productive anymore. The thought lasted for about two days until my parents shot it down, but I did seriously consider it. Why struggle and work and go through rough roads when you can coast by smoothly? To what end, I thought.

And then the realization hit me. It's not the end that matters. It's the journey. And the journey of coasting along...is that the sort of journey I want? Not in these specific circumstances, I decided. Only if I had dozens to hundreds of million in monies.

The skill of Kama

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

Behold the skill
of the bowman, Love;
that leaving the body whole,
he breaks the heart within.

- Utapalaraja, from Vidhyakara's Anthology of Sanskrit Poetry, edited by David HH Engalls

Driving and gym in the morning, pancake lunch, NIC day, heavy khaja with sel, potato, samosa and jhol, and jeri, big home houseparty with everybody (mgn) in our place in the evening, so much food [Mon 20]

Went to the driving class in the morning, then to the gym.

Had pancake for lunch.

Went to NIC. Met the KU professor in microbiology. Inspirational stuff.

Had a very heavy khaja set with sel, potato ko tarkari, samosa and jhol, with jeri for desserts.

Pathao back home, and I walked into a massive houseparty, where all of the maligaun group was over, including ED, AD and my niece. Everybody had such an amazing times, it was wonderful. ED was going back to VA soonish so the frequency fo these hangs was increasing.

Ate so much, had lots of fun, connected with everybody.

Worked in the evening.

Driving class and gym in the morning, BTD, at Bhaktapur Durbar Square with JD and J, meeting RK in the evening, exploring temples, going to disappointing Mayur Restaurant, so much walking, evening bus home, wild things happen [Sun 19]

Went to driving class and the gym in the morning. Had Bdt for lunch.

Took...pathao to Durbar Square in Bhaktapur, near the Indrayani temple. I remember so explicitly because I was to meet J there, and I hadn't heard of the temple before. We met up, chilled and relaxed at the patio of one of the restaurants, getting mostly drinks and using their restroom. Lazy summer afternoons in Kathmandu are the best, you have nothing to do and nowhere to go, except watch people going about their day, absorbing life, luxuriating in the wealth of time you have.

JD came to meet us in a while, and we explored all the temples and places etcetera. We walked to Dattatraya Square, and all across the other side of the area, so much walking! We explored pottery square and looked at all the paintings and art, and considered buying those. J bought something, I think? Maybe it was in Thamel and I'm confusing places. The prices were absurd, even for handmade art, considering we could have bought comparable items in Patan Durbar for way lesser.

We went to Mayur restaurant because I had to treat my friends for the payraise I'd gotten couple of weeks previously. It was vaguely South East Asian flavors, and not at all flavorful. All things considered, it was pretty crappy and nobody was happy about it. Maan it was not so great, what a great loss.

In the evening RK came to meet us, we chilled for like 20 minutes, she didn't have her bike and wasn't in the mood to hang, so I took the bus back to Kathmandu with J.

We saw people making out and stuff again, probably. No this time around the bus was really quite packed, so that didn't happen.

BTD lunch, walk to Patan, Pimbahal chips, bhatbhateni ice cream, tempo home, chips and chiya at finest tea cafe with AU, PU picks me up - at Jazz upstairs, takeout for home from Biryani adda [Sat 18]

Had Btd for lunch.

Walked to Patan, something I hadn't done in a while on this trip. Bought chips at Pimbahal chips, got ice cream at BhatBhateni, and took the tempo home. Got chips and chiya at finest tea cafe, when Au called me to ask if I wanted to go to Lazimpat. She came near Apex college, we went to Jazz upstairs, after going on a long drive to Budhanilkantha and the outskirts. She just wanted to clear her mind of all the shit happening, everywhere.

We chill for an hour at Jazz Upstairs, then drive home. She drops me at Biryani adda where I'd ordered food to take home. Wait for 10 minutes, and walk home with it. Yum yum Biryani dinner with the fam yum.

Bhat-dal-tarkari lunch, grand outdoor party at Maligaun with whole family (ED, AD, RD, bwari) that gets rained on but we make it anyway, big blogs of water need pushing out, home at 8 [Fri 17]

Had bdt for lunch.

In the afternoon we went to maligaun, where all the extended joint family, including ED AD from VA and bw from Aus were there. So much food, so much drinking for everybody but me, so many shouts laughs and hollers, love these large party gatherings of this kind.

We got rained on but the tent protected us. But then rain would pool up in lumps and threaten bringing everything down, so my dad and MB were working hard using long sticks to push the water out. It was funny, fun and memorable.

We were home at 8, just in time for my work. I'll have to keep including notes of this kind for yet another month, since I had one more worth of workdays.

Driving class and gym in the morning, bdt lunch with so many boiled eggs, NIC day with big big Nepal cricket match ongoing, cakes and momos at Nice Bakery with AU, are things slowing down? [Thu 16]

Went to driving class and the gym in the morning. Had bdt for lunch with couple of boiled eggs, to bulk up.

Went to NIC, on pathao. Big big very important cricket match was happening in the Stadium, Nepal ended up winning on an interesting technicality but interesting things were happening regardless!

Got back in the evening, ended up near Nice Bakery, and I remember exactly where I got off the motorbike. Had momos and cakes with AU at Nice Bakery.

I think this was the start of the end of exciting times with AU because I didn't want to get in the way of their relationship.

Driving class and salad in the morning, bdt lunch, I don't do much the entire day, at President Sekuwa with the family in the evening [Wed 15]

Went to driving class in the morning, had salad, no gym for me today. Bdt lunch.

Didn't do much over the course of the day, lazy, relaxing, de-stressing. I'm guessing here, it's unlikely that matches reality.

In the evening we went to President Sekuwa and ate so.much.food. A lot lot lot. We were celebrating my achievements in life, and I'm very thankful to have such a loving caring close family, who take me out like this.

Driving class and gym in the morning, walk to Shilpi cafe, fancy expensive momo now that they've revamped their menu, fancy clothes for the wedding, at Seattle friend's wedding!, meeting old friends and new, so much food, so many memories, home at 11 [Tue 14]

Went to the driving class and gym in the morning. BDT for lunch, and eggs to bulk up.

Went to Shilpi cafe to check what was up since it'd been a while.

They had gone fancy! Increased their prices considerably, and got more 'corporate'. Probably the last time I'd be going there because I wasn't going there for the quality food. Maybe I go there once or twice again on this trip.

In the evening I put on fancy clothes and got on Pathao and ended up at Silver Oak party palace. It was my Seattle friend's wedding! I knew both the bride and groom, unlike 99% people there. I'd invited myself to the party basically, but so what they enjoyed my company.

I was really afraid I wouldn't know anybody there, but turns out there were tonnnes of people there from my school, from RBS, and dude from college too! So in the end there were too many groups of people to hang out with. I found out somebody who was one of the core organizers of photoKTM and complimented her. She was really great and I should have talked to her more, but she seemed like a Serious (tm) person who thought I was not one, so bleh, minor mistake maybe but a road not taken is not a loss when your destination was nowhere near.

I stayed until the very end of the party tried instructing dad to figure out work computer to figure out the work situation but that didn't work. It was alright, not much was happening. People found that hilarious, my Seattle friend still mentions that.

It was shocking how much of a good time I had, versus what I was expecting. Good times. Probably one of the people to come the earliest and leave the latest besides family and close friends.

Morning driving class and gym, 4 hours of afternoon work at De Matka, evening mithai and desserts at old haunts with AU [Mon 13]

Went to driving class and the gym in the morning, bdt for lunch.

Spent four hours at De Matka working and getting tea and snacks. Man now I'm realizing all the hours I spent at this place, and how they must have been impressed how regularly I was showing up.

Got evening desserts at our classic haunt for mithaai with AU. Dear gods, I was eating so much good food, sweets and doing other unhealthy things, and not much in terms of workout or burning calories. It's no wonder I gained so many pounds on this trip.

NIC day, khaja at TU canteen, dropped at Patan, meeting PU at Honacha, PU gorges on newari food and gets droopsy, food fun, tempo to home in the evening in the rain [Sun 12]

Took the Pathao to NIC in the morning, had Khaja at the TU central canteen. Cheap prices, good healthy food, what's not to like?

On my way back I got off in Patan, where PU eventually showed up. We went to Honacha, and ate so so so much food. And chhang. It was really good times. The people there knew me so they teased me about the order size. I was literally puffing up with all that food. Yum yum. God freakin Yum. Amazing, really amazing. Great honacha 3g trip. Oh pretty much all the honacha trips on this journey are at Honacha 3g, I go to Honacha bhimsen, but I don't remember that specially, and it was just...alright. Nothing special or exciting, and it kinda' smelled too. And a bit pricier than the other places.

It was raining outside, and we'd joked about walking home since it was late in the evening, but fortunately we found a tempo, and took it homewards. Thank gods.

Pathao to hospital, MD picks me up, dropped at Shivapuri, walk a very long walk, robbed by monkeys, glorious fight, ascending, the top finally!, MD almost gets robbed by monkey, food at the monastery, miserable walk back down, dropped near home in the rain, walk back home [Sat 11]

It was hike day! Shivapuri with MD!

I took Pathao to the hospital in bansbari where MD came 15 minutes later. The driver dropped us at Shivapuri gate. After spending 15 minutes filling those stupid forms that are extra long and have to be filled for every person, we went in!

It was fun! We talked about MD's school, wild times, did some stupid math problems, and general life as a journey, hiking as a metaphor for life conversations.

We'd brought fruits and snacks with us, decided to eat those near the monstary.

It was at that point that a specially brave monkey jumped towards me and tried to rob the fruits and veggies off my hands. I had a bit of a tugfight with the monkey, and eventually I shouted and scared the monkey. It stole some of the fruits, and some fell on the ground, but I consider myself to be the winner of the whole event.

After much, much walking uphill...I'd gone up only once and didn't remember it being so rough, we made it! MD napped for like an hour, we chilled in the Sun but then those office picnic groups, loud and bawdy started showing up and it wasn't as much fun anymore, and so started our downhill climb.

On our way down, we stop by a field, and MD teases me about fighting with a monkey, just when a monkey comes out of nowhere at takes her handbag away. A random stranger scares away the monkey and returns the bag. Very lucky, because she had all her valuables in the bag. So we were even.

Eventually we are back at the monastery, and we buy food from the small eatery there. Decent food, tea, etcetera. No monkeys this time.

The walk on the road down to Shivapuri gate was miserable and took us twice or thrice as long as we anticipated. Eventually we made it, dropped MD in her home, the driver dropped me at the bridge down from Purano baneshwar, from where I walked to our place.

And that was my Saturday!

Reputation of poets

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

Valmiki dammed the sea with rocks
put into place by monkeys,
and Vyasa filled it with the arrows short by Partha;
yet neither is suspected of hyperbole.
On the other hand, I weigh both word and sense
and yet the public sneers and scorns my work.
Oh Reputation, I salute thee!

-Dharmakirti, Vidhyakara's Anthology of Sanskrit Poetry (10th Century CE) edited by David HH Engalls.

Driving class and gym in the morning, heavy lunch, chauchau and momo at De Matka, home for 2 hours, Shilpi cafe tea and chauchau, nice bakery yummies with AU, getting dessert and mithai pasal [Fri 10]

Went to driving class and gym in the morning, the mornings hereon are occupied and I'll never end up hanging with AU in these parts.

Had heavy lunch because my appetite had considerably increased since going to the gym, and also the stress of driving classes.

Spent couple of hours at De Matka where I worked, and had chauchau and momo.

Got home for several hours, relaxed and chilled. In the evening went to Shilpi cafe and had tea and chauchau with AU. Then we went to nice bakery for incredible cakes. Because this was not enough for us (yes, we went to a third place, my fourth eatery this day) we finally got desserts at our favourite mithai pasal.

Morning driving class, bdt for lunch, 6 hours at De Matka, meeting sister's friend, home at 6 [Thu 9]

Went to driving class in the morning, skipped the gym because I was hella sore from the day before.

Had Bdt for lunch.

Spent 6 hours total at De Matka, ordered at ate a lunch. Met sister's friend there, and had good conversations, a lot of which was apparently very much misunderstood by her (no not that way, very strange and different situation).

Home by 6.

Morning driving classes, I start going to the gym, bhat-dal-tarkari lunch, NIC day, extra-yummy meals at Khotang Khaja ghar with the team, home at 6.30 [Wed 8]

Went to driving classes in the morning, and also to the gym, which I had registered at the day before. So sore after this day, so so very sore.

Had bdt for lunch, took pathao to NIC. Day there went as usual. Khaja was with extended team, so yummy with special paratha and tarkari and yum yum yum and I was okay eating all of that because I'd started going to the gym!

Got home by 6.30, good time to start work in the evening.

Morning driving classes, Bhat-dal-tarkari lunch, khaja at Alice restaurant in Lalitpur with the girls (N sisters), De Matka hang and work, we eat momo at home [Tue 7]

This was the first day of my morning driving classes. Went to drive in the morning, stressful times.

Bdt for lunch, per usual.

Had khaja, so so so much food, because they hadn't had lunch, at Kupondole's Alice Restaurant with the girls (N's sisters). We had good times, made hiking plans with M, and got good plans made.

Took the tempo home, or maybe pathao, and went to De Matka to do work.

In the evening we had momo for dinner at home.

At mamaghar for tika, holi and lunch, puri-tarkari, walk to Naya-Baneshwar unharmed, veg momo lunch at random place, tempo to Purano Baneshwar, walk to Hanumandhoka, wild celebrations, I come unharmed mostly, rot-tarkari at 6 [Mon 6]

This was Holi day, so we went to mamaghar for putting on tika and light holi celebrations, plus puri-takari for lunch. Yum yum yum, so very good.

I wanted to explore what it was like to be in Kathmandu these days, so I walked around. I was also trying to find a cafe or restaurant to crash at because there was nowhere else to go, and there was nothing open, and the places that were, were full of drunk aggressive people so I just kept on moving. Kept going and going until I ended up at Naya Baneshwar.

Found a khaja ghar, and needed a place to rest, so in I went and got myself some veg momo. Lots of girls behind be makin' tiktoks and making fun of me, should have tried to talk, oh well.

Took the tempo to purano Baneshwar, and then walked to hanumandhoka from there. And ohh well oh well well welll. Things. Were. Wildin'. Like literally wildin there, now I understand what people talked about when they talked about the wild holi celebrations. It's literally a wild dionysian mess of bodies and colors and shouts and chants and pukes.

Ugh, so much puke, all over the place. Gross. And people selling bottles of beer hand over hand for 500 rupees. So enterprising!

I was pretty much entirely unharmed until I got up to the tempo stop back home when some asshole threw a handful of color at me. I cleaned it up, and it was alright. Got out pretty clean.

Kathmandu has become a lot more respectful and nicer on holi than back in our day.

Took tempo to Purano baneshwar, came home and had roti-tarkari at 6, at work in the evening.

Lunch at De Matka, quick maligaun trip, was this or yesterday holi, because I don't remember? [Sun 5]

This was not Holi. Holi was on the following day.

Had lunch at De Matka because I was probably tired of eating at home everyday. We went to Maligaun for short time, since dad hadn't been, and came back home.

Didn't do much for the rest of the day.

At Himal Hospital in the morning for ill family member, maligaun in the morning, rice in the early noon, walk to Naya Baneshwar, eating at cheap Khajaghar all by myself, waiting, afternoon hang with PU at Dockyard, home by 5 [Sat 4]

A close family member was suddenly very ill in the morning, so the entire extended family was there for a couple of hours. We went to Maligaun for several hours after, and had rice much later than usual.

Came back home in noon, spent some time, and walked to Naya Baneshwar to meet PU. But because she was running late, I killed time eating at a cheap khajaghar, by myself. It was pretty decent? Filling it definitely was. And the class definitions have been...evaporating? Or have I been going downwards in the class hierarchy in Kathmandu? Who even knows man, these days.

Hung out for a couple of hours with PU, regular chat and hang, was back home by 5 because dad came back from his hiking trip etc.

Puri tarkari mithai at old mithai pasal with AU, home for dalbhat, we go to a driving center and do nothing, at NIC, yummy ethnic foods at restaurant trial, meeting KP and SR at Dhokaima, walk and tempo to Bajeko to hang with KP, goodbye KP, can't meet PU [Fri 3]

In the morning AU and I had puri tarkari and 4 different desserts at our classic dessert place.

Had dalbhat for at home.

Dad and I went to this driving training center in Shakhamul that was comically priced, so that went nowhere.

Went to NIC at 11-ish. The people there were opening this new Tamang restaurant, and to do a test run they were making test meals, so had a very hefty, relaxing, filling meal there with the engineers and technicians of NIC. We loved it all!

After spending time at NIC -- where I was running late for some reason I don't remember, I think important meetings were had -- I took pathao to Dhokaima. Didn't have proper change, so had to ask KP, who I was meeting, to pay for the ride. So embarrassing. Hung out with KP, SR (who directed us in a play many years ago) and his friend there. Weird vibes, neither of us liked it, so we bailed out. We walked all the way to Kupondole chowk, took the tempo from there, got off at Naya Baneshwar, took another public transport, and went to Bajeko sekuwa in the end.

Got dinner and drinks there, while working on the side. This was the last time I saw her, and the last time I interacted with her, and it's been about five months. Sent a quick message to her asking if she was doing well just as I was writing this.

Had made plans to meet PU too, but that didn't work out because I had to work, and she had gone home earlier. Apparently she was having a dumpy time with her friend as well, so things worked out in the end it turns out. Somehow, huh?

The most happening day in Kathmandu with YKD, I almost run off with tea while waiting for YKD, final certificates and goodies at Muttha at 2, in Search for mushroom farmers, accidental Santaneshwar, Purna's Museum Resort accidental discovery, decent pizza, amazing resort, driven in remote lalitpur, Nagdaha walk, tea at tiny resort [Thu 2]

This could have been one of the most happening and busy days of my Kathmandu travails during this 4-month stay.

Went to Muttha with YKD, but was waiting at De Matka since she was running late. But she showed up all of a sudden and I'd just gotten my tea. I was ready to run away with their glass cups, until they handed me paper cup for my coffee. So silly of me to have not realized they had paper cups for drinks too!

Got to Muttha, transplanted lots of seeds and pods in their external hydroponics system, then visited their massive greenhouse and baby-plant station. Talked for a long time with other friends, got 'certificate' of memory (I didn't get certificate since I wasn't paid, just some 'gifts'), talked some more, and we were ready to head out! Ykd wanted to do something related to mushroom farming and folks there had given us pointers for finding the farmers. So we drove near Godavari looking for those farmers. Well the first time we went to a seed location, and they didn't have what we needed, but pointed us to other possible places. So we kept driving into remote areas of Godavari. On the way we found there's this temple of Shiva, santaneshwar mahadev, sounded cool, figured there was probably some mushroom farmers on the way, so we drove there. The way was really steep and ykd was a beginner driver in Nepal, so it was a wild ride. Parked in the lot, hiked up the temple, worshipped, good time with the gods etcetera. Recently renovated temple it turns out.

After out walk down and in the car, we were both hungry, and wanted something to eat. Right across the street there was this Resort called Purna's Museum Resort, which we decided to explore. Fun fact, we'd both read it as being a museum before we were hungry, but now we realized it was a resort resort. It was really nice, well-designed and architected! I loved it! Would happily go there again if the opportunity comes. Would be a really relaxing location too. Very traditional, basically a museum that was turned into a resort. There we had pretty good pizza and some basic drinks, with our limited cash on both of us. Good time was hand. Cute kitty spent time with us too.

After paying for the incredible meal there, we were still on the market for finding mushroom farmers, so we keep driving into remote Lalitpur. The scenery was incredible, you don't see unpaved roads, pipal-tree intersections and all of that so close to the core city these days, and all the places we went to had juuust been developed. Quite interesting that they were physically so nearby but 'mentally' not close.

We discovered there was a pretty well-known pond/lake nearby. So parked the car, got out, and walked around NagDaha, just like that. Chill, relaxing vibe, if a little dirty and not fully developed. It could be made a lot better, and if they improved the roads, there would be so much more tourism. The roads were really really really bad there.

Found a small 'resort' tea place, decided to stay there for some time, got teas and realaxed a couple of hours.

We were finally done with our long journey, and drove home, YKD dropped me.

Home at 8.

Pancakes for lunch, YKD picks me up, at Muttha hydroponics in Thecho, I learn engineering, yummie foods, learning science working with hands, desserts and mediocre food at Raithane, getting ready with laptop for wedding party, Alice party, desserts on desserts, early back at 8 [Wed 1]

So I'm writing this n late July. Over the past month and a bit more that I have been in Seattle, I've covered for pretty much all the months (except one) of this year for the journal posts, which is an achievement I had seriously doubted I'd be able to accomplish. I'm planning on this idea called 'project 240' where I'll also try to cover up for the non-journal posts for these months, so that there's fewer posts to 'run through' later in the year if I want decent numbers. Might happen, might not, but if I can get an <groan> industrial process <stop groaning> going to produce 20 posts in an hour or 90 minutes, it seems totally doable? Couple of poems, couple of random lists, couple of random posts, couple of 'reviews' all set out to posts, and filling the 'blanks' so to speak during the writing process? Totally achievable, but at that scale daily seems...hard. Who knows, it might come. The thing I'm procrastinating, oh yeah totally with this project is my reading, novel writing and podcast projects, but if I can pull the procrastination hard enough it'll get done. 12 days of 20 posts each would be intense, but not...insurmountable. And I do that over a month or so, and that seems almost...too easy? Hahah that's a joke, but there's a small element of truth to it.

With that rambling out of me, lets get started. Some more rambling actually. I had assumed, during writing of posts from Jan, Feb, May etc, that March would be the laziest month for me, because April was full of weddings, and May was me getting ready to leave, and I distinctly remember a period of 4 or 5 days, up to 10 days possibly, where I felt no motivation to strive for great things, and live a landowner's child's life. And in these posts, that's not necessarily reflected, though I'm fairly certain that must have happened in these times. There's an off day here or there, but never a run of days where I'm home all day long doing nothing.

Compare that to my life in Seattle now, and that seems hectic! I have a much...slower, relaxed and dare I say lazy and lonely existence, but it doesn't feel that way? So weird.

Right, back on to the regular posting.

Had pancakes for lunch, instead of rice because I'd occasionally get really tired of rice, and mom would make me something or other to eat. This time it was because I was running late since I'd planned to go out for a training program with YKD, and there wasn't enough time to cook rice.

There was a lot of confusion over where I'd come, or get picked up, and YKD had a lot of trouble with directions, and then I had trouble catching up with her, and there was some miscommunication around which grocery salesberry we'd meet at, but eventually we met, and drove to Thecho. YKD was doing a hydroponics training, paid, and 'd be showing up too.

The place was called muttha hydroponics in thecho. We learned so much about preparing coco coir, soil, plants, seeds etcetera, and got hands-on education. In the end, they gave us some really yummy foods, including the leaves they grew inside their massive hydroponic greenhouse. Wouldn't be surprised if that was the largest hydroponic system in the country.

From there we wanted to get some desserts and khaja so we drove to Raithane in Jawlakhel. Overrated, I'd say. The orders took forever to come in, they weren't very good, and the desserts were just. ok. It wasn't inspired. It wasn't artistic. It was priced as such. And it wasn't a hard person's food either. Just fancy mediocre food. Whatever.

Back home I cleaned up and dressed up, with my laptop, for a wedding party at Alice catering. This was definitely the last family wedding event before late April of TD.

Had lots of desserts, medium amount of fun, and got home early at 8 because I had a job to attend to!

Come save him if you can

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

He who dragged the daughter of Pancala,
weeping, by the hair;
who tore away her robe
before the kings and elders;
he from whose breast I wore
to drink the blood like wine
has fallen in my hands, oh Kauravas.
Come save him if you can.

- Bhatta Narayana, Vidhyakara's Anthology of Sanskrit Poetry (10th Century CE) edited by David HH Engalls.