purba is purba and paschim is paschim.. and indeed they do meet!! the east west centre (ewc) nepal chapter got together in yala maya kendra in patan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ewc, bringing together more than two dozen ewc grantees along with their spouses... it was a time for reminiscence, catching up and getting introduced to the newer grantees. (some of the pictures courtesy asheshwar man shrestha)
final preparations before the group arrives...
the early birds... asheshwor shrestha, keshab bidari, kiran joshi and nirendra maske
alok rajouria chats up with asheshwar and keshav, while sudershan tiwari and manik tuladhar discuss the beni electricity pole...
.. the pole, bearing the brunt of a night-long battle of beni, is part of the peace museum exhibit at yala maya kendra...
... yamal rajbhandary from the us education foundation chats up with nirendra maske (with the 50th anniversary commemorative t-shirt) and kiran joshi
bidyaratna bajracharya phones-a-friend to get his own contact details...
tea-time for sudershan and manik
sumitra manandhar gurung catches up with friends...ramesh singh and sushila singh...
... neeranjan rajbhandary and his daughter ruma, second from left, also join the group...
sudershan and tirtha tara tuladhar catching up...
ruma, neeranjan, sushila and maimooni siddiqui
ewc class of '61 batch mates, jagadish sharma and bidyaratna bajracharya.. all smiles...
kiran and aruna sharma in a lighter moment...
then the formal portion of the get together began with rupa joshi's 'aloha!'
... first up was the acting president of the ewc nepal chapter nirendra maske...
...he briefed the gathering about the developments in the past year, with special emphasis on the 50th anniversary celebrations in honolulu in july 2010...
the
purba paschimelis listened to mr. maske briefing them about the appreciation from ewc about the money raised by the nepal chapter for the tsunami, of the community service activities including those with bal bhojan children; the 3-month-training of two teachers from bal bhojan in rato bangala school; as well as the scholarship being provided to two girls via the 'twinning' with ewc brisbane chapter... he also raised the point about raising funds for ewc from nepal, maybe by requesting the government to repeat the kind of donation they'd made several decades ago...
... maskeji then talked about the then president of the nepal chapter shankar sharma receiving the 'distinguished alumni' award; the nepal chapter also receiving the 'outstanding chapter' award; and maskeji being nominated to the ewca executive board and the chair of the ewc alumni executive board effective july 2011 to dec 2012... here he is displaying the outstanding chapter award...
... then it was turn for asheshwar, architectural batch of 2010...
... to give a presentation...
...asheshwor displayed the 3D google earth models of ewc buildings in manoa that had been developed by asheshwar and team for the 50th anniversary celebrations and featured in the ewc website
the audience was taken through a semi-virtual tour of the ewc buildings around which they had spent the 'best years of their life'
... it started with the crow's eye view of the premises...
... then zooming down to the ewc marker...
.. hale manoa.. dorm for the guys...
... hale kuahine for the gals...
.. and the jefferson centre...
more images of the ewc complex can be seen on the facebook site:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403497232292.181689.739607292&l=dd35427a0d
and the ewc website:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/about-ewc/visitor-information/#3dmodel
next it was turn for bidyaratnaji to give the audience a taste of his experiences at ewc, 50 years ago. he talked about how there were four of them in the first nepali batch at ewc: himself, jagadish sharma, late shankar chapagain and saraswati shrestha; about how the four of them sang
'himalko kaakh ma chha sano mero gaon" by tara devi when asked to present an item at a cultural programme... and the party in waikiki, where they just learnt recently, barack obama's father had also been present...
... jagadishji then added a humourous incident of how bidyaji's quip entertained his peers in honolulu... and how when the americans asked if anything bothered nepalis during picnic, like the mosquitos bother the americans during outings, bidyaji had nonchalantly said "tigers.. they bother us, but we just shoo them away!"
... the audience was tickled...
usef's yamal then informed the audience about the 50 years celebration of usef in nepal, and what activities the ewc nepal chapter could undertake to be more active. he suggested having a database of all ewc members, and urged them to make contributions for the upcoming website... he also suggested that since usef has stopped having competitions for ewc from 2010, if the nepali chapter could manage to do some fundraising to support at least one candidate to be selected to go to ewc, it would be a great thing...
alok, batch of 2002, who worked in honolulu for six years and has just returned to town, informed the audience about the association of nepalis living in hawaii - sneha...
... next sunita chaudhary briefly talked about how the experience in honolulu was the best in her life...
rupa then asked the former grantees to look for old photographs from honolulu that could be turned into a presentation to be uploaded into the usef website... including those of
hula sessions, or
huli huli chicken...
...after a big
'mahalo' everyone filed out to partake of the mini
luau with
pupus and drinks
waiting for the drinks to be filled.. nirendra, sunita, her husband jainendra, asheshwar, keshav and kiran...
rajendra and anjir shrestha looking at the ewc anniversary souvenir with 50 stories...
..tirtha and sushila catch up on news...
...alok chats up with manik...
sushila, shradha sharma (prasai), sagar prasai, and manik...
jainendra, neeranjan, anjir and rajendra...
...
'pupus' time... one could have the food...
... and eat it to...
...some like alok and sudershan...
... and pravin chitrakar, asheshwor and keshav, lingered a bit before diving into the food...
...
iti...
