My Best Friend: My Mataji

2017-April 26.

Mataji Devi Rizal

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013962782890

My Friend of the Day: Bhagirath Khatiwada

18th April 2017

https://www.facebook.com/bhagirath.khatiwada.3

My Friend of the day: Shivalal Dahal

16th April 2017

Shivalal Dahal, Author

https://www.facebook.com/shivalal.dahal

Visit to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace at Hodgenville, Kentucky

Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. It was a curiosity to visit his birth place. One fine morning we reached Hodgenville to know of the place it was more enchanting than we anticipated. 

Large boards tell about the Lincoln.

We stood before the board. Shiva Rizal, Kishore M, Mata Ji, Shanta amd this blogger.

A scene from Lincoln's life

The names of the first board of trustees who made the house to protect Lincoln's log cabin. Instead of 'U" they used "V". Why?

 With Mataji, in front of the log cabin.

In front of Log cabin. 

Sinking fountain, from which Lincoln's family fetched water. The place about 20 m below the ground level was cooler by at least 10 degrees than at the ground level. The lady on the left explains the spring as if she was there at the time Lincoln's family used it. 

 If I were to work and live there I would have spent more time in summer under the cave than elsewhere.

Cool  sinking fountain

This big house holds the log cabin.

  Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865.

Date: 2015-July

Book 3: Third Book Read in 2013

The Gurkha’s Daughter – PRAJWAL PARAJULI

Recently this book was much talked in news and social media. I eagerly appreciated the success of a new Gurkha writer trying his luck with English literature. 

The physical appearance of the book is perfect and touchy. As I pushed through the book, I was amazed with the use of Nepali words across the book indiscriminately.

  ‘The Cleft’- the first story of the book made me think “what is story telling?”. It’s a collection of unique characters who ride a taxi from Kathmandu to Birtamod. That is the story. The subsequent stories leverage the readers’ expectation back to original and even improve them. Each story has its own center and a diverse plot. ‘A Father’s Journey’ and ‘Missed Blessing’ are great stories, psychology based, which are to be read and realized. Other stories are for entertainment. ‘No Land is Her Land’- a story of a girl with multiple unsuccessful marriages of a Bhutanese Gurkha Girl in Nepal, could force the readers to generalize a gloomy image of the Gurkhas spilled from Bhutan. ‘The Immigration’, a story centered in Manhattan, USA puts reader in restaurants and feeds them with the type of good or bad Nepali dialect. The story “The Gurkha’s Daughter” inside the book with same title is not as simple as Kathmandu’s nine year olds’ bhara-kuti collections.

This is a great book in the market. To me it looks like a big experiment to study if a book, full of Nepali jargons with no explanation or glossary to explain, attracts Non-Gurkha English readers.