Gurung Heritage Trek

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Dearest Readers and blog followers, Nepal has been keeping me so busy that I cannot even manage to post one blog per month. However, I do have a lot of good reasons for not being able to share my awesome experience with you all, because I am traveling around this beautiful country and learning about the country and the culture as much as possible.

Well around November my work-team and couple other buddies had this awesome opportunity to travel to rural Nepal and go on the Gurung Heritage Trail in the Lamjung district. Lamjung is pretty close-by Pokhara, one of the most tourist friendly cities in Nepal. Kathmandu during this time of the year is crawling with people from all around the world, late fall until early spring is the best time to be here in the Himalayan Kingdom with clear skies promising the best view of the pristine ranges, but being in Lamjung was an experience out of this world.

Eleven of us gathered together to head out to Besi Sahar from Kathmandu, the starting point of our journey. With not so sweet 4 hours ride to Dumre (Duum-Rey) we finally got off the highway which was a junction to either head towards Pokhara, Bandipur or Besi-Sahar. After around two hours from Dumre, we reached Besi Sahar around 3pm, where the real journey started. The trip to Ghale Gaun was a two hour straight uphill drive. Since it was cold and slowly getting darker, we popped open couple cans of beer to make the drive feel faster.

Besi Sahar – Ghale Gaun

The gods in Nepal have a unique way of granting the best holidays to you. After around an hour and half of drive, we got stuck in a roadblock where a crew of Gurung filmmakers were waiting to fix one of their pickup trucks. As we waited, their dance crew entertained us with finely synced dance moves under the moonlight. We though the journey wouldn’t get any better, but we were mistaken. After waiting for around two hours, we were able to finally resume our drive to Ghale Gaun and as we approached higher altitude, we saw snow capped mountain ranges sneaking upon us . Upon arriving at Ghale Gaun, we immediately got a hold of the home-stay program representative and went to our respective houses. The home-stay parents had cooked us a dinner with rice, lentils and a special gravy of dried goat meat. The next morning we got a good view of the mountain ranges. We we very excited to see what the trek had to offer and the very best was yet to come.

Ghale Gaun – Bhujung – Pasgaon

This was the actual start of the trekking aspect of the Gurung Heritage Trek. After the sunrise, we got some breakfast and started our two hour hike to Bhujung. This part of the trek was fairly easy as we just walked along the hills without any steep ascent or descent. However, there were couple spots which were dangerous because of recent landslides. The resting places were made in such a way that travelers got to view the scenic beauty from a 360 degree. With such an elevation, we could see remote villages/settlements on hilltops and mountain tops. As we approached Bhujung, we walked on pathways made of big slabs of rocks, which were laid as a guide so that people would not get lost. We just followed the stone paths as it led us from one point to the other. Around 5 kms to Bhujung, we had to descend a significant distant, that when our team started to notice the impact of stones on the knee joints. Nothing was serious at this point, we reached Bhujung with ease and prepared to have our lunch there.

Before planning the trek and getting started with the trek, our team used to go hike around Kathmandu to get in shape and get used to walking long distances. For around 6 or 7 consecutive Saturdays we had covered a total of around 100 KM+ as we did a circulation around Kathmandu. However, this did not prepare us for the worst that had yet to come, when the nature was testing us city kids.

Our group consisted of 11 individuals from varying age groups. Abhinav and I were the fittest amongst the group because we played a lot of futsal and worked out our lower body. After our lunch, we had to trek from Bhujung to Pasgaon which was supposed to be around 5 hours of a trek. Our team left around 1 PM from Bhujung. Bhujung and Pasgaon were on two totally different hills. So we had to descend from one hill cross the canyon and ascend the other hill. I was given the nick name Captain Ankit as Abhinav and I were leading the group. After an hour of descend, some of our team members were struggling because the sudden descend put a lot of jolt and stress on their knees. Abhinav, Aleynah and I separated from the group so that we could reach Pasgaon and take care of our sleeping arrangements before it got too dark. The canyon/gorge separating two different hills was absolutely breathtaking as the river separated the two humongous hills. After a half-an hour of walking on a flat surface, we came across the “Stairway to Heaven” because the next phase of ascent was literally never ending. Luckily we had Aleynah to entertain us all the way to the top of the hill talking about running marathons and other crazy stuffs. The ascent was very cardio intensive and with my backpack of around 10 kgs, it was not fun at all. Although the beautiful view did make up for all the hustle, we just wanted to get done with the climb up. Around 5 PM we reached the top of the hill where we could see Pasgaon and had another half an hour before it got dark. The rest of the group were somewhere in the middle climbing up. There was a football fields (english football or american soccer) on top of the hill with awesome view of the mountain ranges, Abhinav and I were wondering what would it be like to kick the ball around on top of a hill with such a view. We entered the village and met friendly people who took the initiative to help us figure out the home-stay program for the night. The rest of the group arrived pretty late at night, but they made it in one-peice.

Our home-stay parents were 60 and 59 years old. They had three children, two son and a daughter. All of them were in England as permanent residents. Since we were at Pasgaon immediately after the biggest holiday in Nepal (Dashain), our presence made them feel warmer because we kind of brought a little change in their regular routine and we helped them miss their children a little less. With lots of good food and love, all of us got a good night sleep at Pasgaon. Couple of our team-members had taken a beating from mother nature, the stony steps were not friendly to their knees and were injured. With big goals, we planned to leave Pasgaon for Pakhurikot early in the morning, which would take another 6-8 hours of trekking up and down.

Pasgaon to Bagaincha

You know how a plan almost all the time never works out. Well, we left Pasgaon around 9 AM to get a head start and as usual Abhinav and I were leading the pack. The beginning of the hike was a steep descend, so the knee problems were not going anywhere. By the time we reached the gorge and a village nearby called Bagaincha, the rest of the team were struggling to descend as the knee problems worsened. Abhinav and I talked to the locals in the village and shared interesting stories. As the rest of the team showed up around 3 pm, we decided we would stay in the small village of Bagaincha itself. None of us were prepared for all the fun that was to follow that night. Gurung culture is very open, direct and not too shy. The beautiful ladies flirted with every gentleman from our group. Bagaincha stood beside a beautiful river and there was something very special about the sound of a flowing river, it was peaceful. With mere 30 people in the village we instantly got to know everyone in the village. It was still bright outside, and apparently there was plenty of local alcohol in the village; so we became good guests and got two jerry cans of Kodo (Local alcohol made of Millet). All 11 of us, sitting on top of stones in the river started drinking Kodo and shared our stories. We didn’t know when the alcohol hit and all of a sudden all of us we were all laughing. As it darker, the night grew even more interesting. The villagers setup a bon-fire a special dance performance for us later in the night. We started singing Nepali songs and witnessed local Gurung performance. Later in the night, couple of us had to sleep on the kitchen floor in our sleeping bags because we overcrowded the village. The warm Kodo helped rejuvenate our body and we were ready for another long hike.

Bagaincha – Pakhurikot

The stony steps of Gurung Heritage Trek was really helpful to find the way in the crazy hills but they were definitely not helpful to those of us who had a weak lower body. This time around we stuck together as a team and hiked all the way to Pakhurikot. Pakhirukot had the most spectacular view out of all places during this trip. We went to the highest point in Pakhurikot to witness the sunset and moon-rise at the same time. As amazing as it sounds, during full moon, the sun-set and full moon-rise takes place simultaneously so as the sun was setting on one side of the hill, we could see the moon-rise on the other, which was truly phenomenal. The local community had organized a little cultural event for us. With another jerry-can of kodo, we started singing and dancing to the tunes of the madal. Pretty drunk and feeling awesome, we decided to crash a local dance party in Pakhurikot. New to the Gurung Culture, apparently wedding reception is an event where local party dance in front of the whole village and donate items to the newly wed. With kodo strong in our blood, we joined the spectators and donated Rs 1500 to the newly wed for having us there. Couple of us decided to show them how its done in the City, so we played a city song and dance to the tunes in front of the locals. It was a lot of fun taking swigs with the locals and socializing with them. The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) was really friendly to new people and just the best host we could ever imagine. We stumbled back to our home stay house and went to bed.

The Trek was nearly over as we headed to Pokhara to catch a bus back to Kathmandu. Our hike from Pakhurikot made us realize that our superb performance in front of the locals the night before had actually made us celebrities and all the village was talking about how awesome our dance moves were.

From Pakhurikot we reserved a private bus to Pokhara and from Pokhara we took a bus to Kathmandu. The trip was fantastic in every sense; from great adventure to a huge sense of accomplishment. I had made it a goal and an objective to travel around Nepal as much as possible and to find out more about my country as much as possible. Gurung Heritage Trek showed us that there were good and hospitable people in the villages. Sadly, with the number of village youth migrating to cities and getting recruited to the british army, the young population is leaving the villages taking the future of GHT along with them. Maybe this blog and other promotions can increase tourism in that area so that this piece of pristine Nepali culture is still available for our future generation and others to witness.

Keeping busy, being a tourist and living life

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It is homecoming week at Coe and obviously I being at Coe during this special week. Homecoming always reminds me of awesome time with friends and loved ones at Coe and all the good times I had in college. One thing I have learned to master is how to distract myself from missing something or someone. Secret: Keep yourself occupied with a lot of stuff, especially stuff that you think is more than just yourself and involves greater good.

10 months ago when I was leaving for Nepal, with a heavy heard. I was leaving a major part of my life, people and friends who had helped me become who I had become in the last five years of college and post college. And here I stand nearly a year after, back in Nepal trying to prove a point and help make a difference.

For all of you first time readers, I am Ankit and currently I am in Nepal, my homeland. After four years of undergraduate study at Coe and couple months of work experience at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, various circumstances helped me decide to come back home to the himalayan kingdom and use the resources I acquired in the US to make Nepal a better place.

I am one of those people who cannot work at a desk 24/7 for 5 days a week. I figured that out while I was at the Principal. In life there is only one way to learn and discover what you like and what you don’t like, its by doing what you think you like and if you like it, keep on doing it, else do something else, moreover it is all about the experience.

Currently I work as a Business Manager at Biruwa Ventures Pvt. Ltd. We provide 4 core types of services – Office Space, Seed Funding, Business Consulting and Mentoring. Nepal’s economy needs more job creators than job seekers, so original founder Vidhan and Abhinab came up with this awesome idea to open up an incubation center for young entrepreneurs with the name of Biruwa (Sapling). Being a member of a small organization has many perks. Mostly, I enjoy the part where my role or job is not defined and it changes day after day according to different situation. Yes, we do have core areas of focus, but it does not mean I have to be confined certain rules and regulations or set instructions, I feel more like a human being than a robot working at a corporate environment or a bank.

Post college is a very important time in life because you have all this energy and you are high on this awesome feeling that you are done with college and ready to make a difference in the world. It is really important what you do immediately after college in determining the next decade of your life. For many of us, money is a priority because those student loans come into effect once you finish college. Since my parents were generous enough to fund for my college, I leaned more towards the experience side than the monetary side. If I was in the states right now, I would be making around $2500 plus per month, however, right now in Nepal I make around $200 per month working the same number of hours.

On a personal development basis, $2500 wasn’t making me happy, I was working like a robot, no personal development and I was kinda locked in a system where I was not adding value to my life. Trust me there will come a day when you will realize or start thinking deeply about your existence and what life actually means. A lot of us will be trapped in this bubble of working for a living, then more responsibility piles up and next thing you know, a decade is gone, you have a family and cannot do anything else to change your life.

With my $200 salary, I live with my parents, work from the accounting department to the marketing department or the Human Resource Department, drive an awesome sports bike to work, hike around Kathmandu Valley every Saturday with my team, play and coach football.. undefined number of roles.

Here is what I have to tell you if you are at college, add value to yourself, get involved in things you like to do, if you do not know what you like to do, tryout stuff, if you like it keep on doing it. Trust me, you will learn so much about yourself, you gain confidence in yourself doing what you like to do and when you do graduate, do something different than what the rest of the world is doing, the main goal is to learn, money will come, but work hard and learn everything about life, be a human, make a bucket list, dream and work towards fulfilling those dreams.

Here are a couple pictures from my team’s Saturday Hike around Kathmandu:

Remember to Dream, Live your Dream and to keep fighting for that dream.

-Ankit SJB Rana

Couple of Members from Team Biruwa

What does it feel like to be a Superhero?

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Biruwa Ventures Cycles for a cause

I have always wondered how it feels to be a superhero. Lets break it down first, so breaking down superhero, we get two words super and hero, together meaning a hero with super powers. Super Power is some sort of power that not everybody possesses, it is more of a relative term and normally hero is someone who puts away personal interest for the wellbeing of the someone else or a general population.

Well, this past weekend my staff from work got to participate in an awesome activity that helped us come together as a team, made us feel good about something and do something out of ordinary (maybe become superheroes??). Couple months ago, we got this amazing invitation to attend Kathmandu KORA, basically a cycle rally around the capital city of Kathmandu which involved only local trails.

We gathered 5 riders from work and started fundraising to help improve health facilities in Rukum, Nepal. Basically, KORA aims to raise funds for different events each year and this year in partnership with Save the Children, KORA aimed to provide better birthing centers in a remote village of Nepal. The team had around a month to raise funds and we reached to all our contacts all over the world. Team Biruwa’s aim was to raise $500 funds and by the end of the month contributions were still coming in and we had raised around $700 when we stopped taking contributions.

The day of the event was even better because, mainly we got to meet a lot of people from other countries. It was amazing how a single event could unite people from different places around the world. In the coming weeks, there will be a team heading to Rukum to deliver the items bought with the money raised to Rukum, which itself will be an amazing adventure itself. It was a great bonding experience and a much needed time to take a break from all the working going on. Here are couple pictures of the event:

Thank you for reading.

Keep on keeping on,
Ankit Sjb Rana

The Road not Taken

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Two Roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost

Dearest Readers:

I have had a very exciting and an adventurous weekend. First things first, the starting lines of this blog is from a very famous poem, “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost. If you haven’t read it yet, click here to read it. I feel like it is in our blood to be spontaneous and adapt to different situation. The way how we react to stimulus and the sense of overcoming the stimulus brings a great deal of satisfaction. Moreover, we have this tendency to connect to nature and when we do, putting in our time and effort, it is just a totally different and refreshing feeling.

Well, this past Sunday my team at work got this amazing opportunity to hike around 30 minutes away from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Trust me it was something we needed, and being able to go hiking with my team from work was a very fruitful and bonding experience.

Sunday morning, I got up around 7 AM and got an unexpected call from my boss at work asking if I wanted to ho hiking and visit a goat farm in rural Nepal. I accepted the offer without hesitation and immediately started to gear up. By 8 AM, we met up at work, took public transportation away from the city and reached Thankot where our hike started off. It was rigorous climb uphill of around 3 hours, which seemed much faster because we had six people in the team, talking about our life experience and the good times we had in the USA. We took plenty of detours from the road and opted for an even more challenging rocky climb which definitely reduced the time to hike up the hill, however, it made us prone to more leech attacks and Higher heart beat rate.

 View from top of the hill

We were crossing one hill/small mountain to reach the other side, so after the uphill, it was all downhill. As we walked around the village, there were water fountains from the age of kings, the village was in a pristine condition, it was like walking in an actual living museum. After walking around 30 minutes inside the village area, we came up across the first ever goat cheese factory of Nepal. The person who started the factory received training in France and got all the necessary equipment as Aid from the French government. He was a true entrepreneur, starting from scratch, slowly raising hybrid goats from France and Nepal and then using Goat milk to make delicious cheese.

The goat cheese farmer had a very realistic approach on life. Remittance from migrant workers brings in a lot of money for Nepal, and these migrant workers are living abroad making marginal income and sacrificing quality of living just to go abroad and work in middle eastern countries as labor workers. Instead, the owner of the farm wanted people to come back and empower them. He wanted our migrant workers to learn abroad and use those skills back home. The goat cheese farm is also a home stay guest house so we did actually see couple of tourist enjoying themselves and rural Nepal.

Our team learned a lot and planned that if we ever invested in large scale farms, we had the perfect mentor to get ideas and tips from.

The hike and the whole afternoon went by real fast and it was time to go home. We found a rental vehicle and got to sit with locals and listen to their story. For most of us city bred individuals, life is getting up in the morning, going to work for 8 hours and then coming home. For the people in the village, they harvest vegetables, travel 50 minutes to Kathmandu and then sell it, their life is very unpredictable and source of income is not stable, we are definitely luckier to be born in the city with well-off parents. It was very rewarding experience to be out in the nature and bond with the team over gruesome hiking.

Here are couple picture for you all to enjoy:

Terrace-Agriculture

Cornfield in Nepal! Reminds me of Iowa 
More Corns and example of Terrace agriculture with lush greenery
The dynamic views with mountains makes everyday exciting and beautiful
Another great view of varying landscapes
 Excitement of being done with school
Just an amazing view from a little bridge in the village
Thank you for stopping by and stay tuned for more updates.
Cheers,
Ankit SJB Rana

Business enlightenment

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Dearest Kohawks and Readers:

I was in a constant dilema, wondering what I should post about, because I haven’t done a lot of traveling recently and my posts do not get a lot of hits/pageviews if I do not have pictures for proper marketing.

So this post is mainly for all you, successful and smart people because I am sharing all my business knowledge and insights on my perspective of how to make money/have fun/ and not be forgotten.

Classes in Business Administration at Coe taught me a lot of things, sadly, the classes focused a little more on how to be a good worker rather than how to be a good boss or how to start your own business. Trust me, Coe is an awesome college, very practical, amazing professors and students and just like any amazing college, there is always place for improvement. Why I say this will all make sense in a bit.

Out of all the stuff I learned in my business classes only couple things are constantly buzzing on the back of my head. Diversify, market your product, research.. research and more research.. take risks.. dream.. give back to the society and how to retire early :)

How do normal people make living?
Work for a company, sit on a desk (normally), go to work from 8 AM to 5 PM (normally), life is kinda lame, but family life is normally awesome and supportive

How do smarter people make money?
All of the above, plus, invest in 401K, invest in stocks, diversified portfolio of stocks, these are very interesting people

How do Champions Pay the price and make a name for themselves so that they go down in the history books?
All of the above, plus, start their own businesses.. just like diversified portfolio, they own diversified businesses, (Different businesses in different sectors) They do not work for someone else, their business is their lifestyle and their life is not boring but each day is an adventure. Now these are the guys that donate a lot, make a lot of money, have deep passion and are the biggest risk takers.

If you are in a developed nation, yes your quality of life is awesome, you are educated, but your as the term suggests – “DEVELOPED” just sounds like there is fewer chances/potential to get develop more.

Third world countries, developing countries – thats where the actual development will take place. Thats where the economy will boom, thats is where investments will need to be made. Yeah, we have this common misconception of “Ohh its scary to invest there, the corruption level is really high.” But we all know that where there is a challenge, there is an opportunity.

Capitalization has literally minimized the numbers of starts ups in USA. Big corporations and chains offer cheap prices killing competition. The national debt is piling up but to what cost? So folks, make friends with international students, visit different places and invest outside the nation. Like the taste of beer? work at a brewery then start your own brewery, hell start a brewery in a totally new country and export it, yeah its challenging, but startup cost is normally less in a developing nation, you get your own brand, life just become good. The whole goal is to just do something that a billion other people aren’t doing, be original and work hard towards it.

In the end, I would just like to point out that this is my opinion and I could be wrong, but there is nothing more fun and energizing than learning from ones mistakes and making it happen :)

Look Mom/Dad we featured in the national newspaper :)
Oh and by the way I did get some Kilometers on my bike, so here are couple snaps to get the hits up.

I decided to go to Nagarkot, a hill station near Kathmandu. During early spring, all the northern Himalayan Mountain ranges can be seen clearly each morning from this place. If I am in Nepal next spring, I will definitely try to get good pictures of the ranges.
 I decided to go to a hill station around 30 kilometers from Kathmandu

 The top of the hill, A tower for sightseeing
Lush Greenery with Buddhist prayer flags
A resort at the top of the hill


Thanks for coming back to read this post! Keep on living the life that you want to live, certain dreams need to be paused, but don’t forget to press the play button.

Cheers,
Ankit SJB Rana

Help End Polio

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Dearest Readers:

Couple weeks ago, I tagged along with my Dad to help his Rotary group
distribute vaccines/oral droplets to end Polio in villages around
20-30 minutes away from the city. As most of you already know, the
Gates Foundation along with the international Rotary group spend time
and resource to eradicate polio in third world and developing
countries.

It was quite an experience to go around and see the under developed
condition of our health camps in rural Nepal and being able to enjoy
the awesome views of the hills and landscapes.

More pictures to come soon but here is a little clip of video I took
during the day.

The Ritual of the Ranas’

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Dearest readers:
Here are couple pictures of an ancient temple/sacred area for the Ranas and Kunwars of Nepal.
In Nepal almost every caste have their special God that they worship and in one of these temples is the  special God that we, the Ranas and Kunwars of Nepal worship.
Every alternate year on the same day as the birthday of Lord Buddha, a huge ritual/ceremony/puja takes place in the temple premises with goats and flowers as offering. The entire temple area’s floor gets covered with blood from the offerings to please the special god. It’s an amazingly unique sight to witness.
People do this to win favor of the gods, asking for better health, wealth and prosperity. I know it’s a totally different culture and things may look weird or different but as tourists or visitors our goal is to not judge but sit back and understand as to why event like this takes place, and enjoy and respect the beauty of a different culture.

 
Several gods/goddesses are housed underneath those roofs
Open courtyard where the sacrificial ritual is performed
The wooden pegs are used to stabilize and sacrifice goats
Big Bells signifying a typical Hindu temple
-Ankit SJB Rana

The city of Randomness

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I just wanted to write a quick post.

This past week, I was just riding around the city and I witnessed two amazingly random events.

The first one was the cart or chariot pulling of god Machhindranath.
Hindus have numerous gods and goddesses and the Nepali culture has 366 different festivals for 365 days of a year.
This special occasion tries to mimic an event that happened centuries ago. There is an ancient story that once upon a time a certain sage gathered all the snakes and started meditating. Since snakes are believed to help bring monsoon and most of the Nepali people were farmers, absence of rainfall or monsoon was costing the Nepali farmers a lot. The sage followed and bowed to only one god, the god Machhindranath. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to convince the sage to release all the snakes, the farmers decided to bring Machhindranath from an original remote location to the streets of Patan, Lalitpur so that the sage would get up to bow down to his beloved god and release all the snakes causing the dry season to end.

In this special occasion, the Newar community pulls the chariot where god Machhindranath is housed and takes it around the historic Newar city every year. I was fortunate enough to witness the making of this cart for more than 15 years while I commuted to my school.

 Couple Snapshots of people pulling the chariot
Video of the crowd of people witnessing the event

The second random event I witnessed was a wedding procession. Although not the most top notch wedding I have been to, this is what a typical wedding procession looks like. The groom is actually going to the brides house with his relatives to get the bride. Its followed by people dancing on the streets, playing traditional Nepali instruments and just having a great time. Thought it would give you a taste of a different tradition.

Cheers,
Ankit

Jack of all, King of one; Money Vs. Value

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Dearest Readers:

I would like to share couple of insights and experiences in this post about life, career, success and everything in between from my view.

As the human population is somewhere around 7 billion, we are actually facing a lot of competition in every direction than the generations before us. Yes, it is in the human genes to adapt to all the changes that is going around, but it is the nature’s law of “survival of the fittest” that determines what happens to us in our lifetime according to the actions we make.

As the title of the blog states, Jack of all; King of one, in this day and age, to be successful or to live an average life, the baseline or the level or the bar has been raised so high that individuals will need to be Jack of all trades to perform well. Yes basic econ model states that if you do what you are good at and let others do what they are good at and then you trade, both the parties will benefit. But umm.. time and money are two valuable resources that we cannot implement the econ model in events that happen everyday or spontaneously. Lets say I am surrounded by football (European) fanatics around my workplace and its a solid conversation starter, if I don’t know the basic stuff like players, top teams or formations, I am missing out on other conversations that could lead to potential business ideas or deals and I do not have enough resource (time) to research and get all the details within fraction of seconds. So the goal is to get involved, live a balanced life and discover areas that interests you. The only way you know if you like something or not is to try it out.. if you like it, stick to it, else move on.

Another really important term that our generation does not completely understand is: the term Money Vs. Value. As much as money is important to fund or substain life and fulfill everything else, gaining value/experience is of equal importance to excel as an individual and bring out the best in you. Currently I am working at Biruwa Ventures as an Administrative Assistant, yes I do not get paid lavishly, yes the title may not sounds prestigious or pretty big/savvy/complicated but heck, I am learning a lot. Biruwa is more than a year old and pretty much in the early phase of growth in the lifecycle of a typical company. As an Admin Assistant, I need to cover a lot of areas like book keeping, keeping inventory, assuring customer satisfaction, setting goals, planning events, basically a lot to do and a lot to learn. Moreover, I am slowly specializing in managing projects and human resource, and will be taking leads in projects like business plan competition amongst business schools which is most likely to happen in October.

Before I started working at Biruwa, I interned at an investment bank for half a day, realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Moreover, I turned down an offer from a co-operative institution who were willing to pay me well with tons of benefit, although I was getting money, the rate at which my personal value was increasing was not enough for my age. Like investing in stocks, you are better off and more likely to get better returns if you do your homework and invest in potential future star stocks rather than invest in stocks that have already performed well.

The amazing thing about life is that its always changing and we are always learning. So go out, increase your value and money will definitely follow :)

I will be heading to an awesome field trip tomorrow and will post couple pictures, I know for a fact you all will love that post.

Cheers,
Ankit SJB Rana

Death of a Legend

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Dearest Readers:

What is your wildest dream? What is your goal in life? What defines you? What impression do you want to leave when you are done with your life?

Do you ever wonder about the questions above? I do, and this question has played an important role in who I am today and defines my actions.

Today was Mother’s day and I definitely made sure my mums had a great day. Nepali culture is totally different and very close and personal. Although it was on a Saturday, all the card shops and sweet shops were crowded because sons/daughters were buying cards/sweets/gifts for their loving mothers. Well in my case, I have one natural mother by birth, but I consider my mom’s two sisters as my mothers as well. They have spent their time and resource for me when I was growing up and have tried to help me as much as possible when I was growing up. So when my cousins who are either living abroad or studying abroad aren’t here I make up for their absence and try to wish all the mothers a happy mother’s day. We had a wonderful lunch together on a sunny Saturday and it was a great day.

Just across the 8 foot road in another house opposite from my house, another mom was sad, unhappy and had received one of the most shocking news of her life, her son, the one and only son had died because of drug overdose. This kid was 23 years of age, a year younger than me, apparently he was an amazing student from grade 1 until 10 and had come first on every class. Sadly, when he started 11th grade, bad company and circumstances made him a drug user and a dealer. After couple years in rehab and a successful comeback, he was doing well, until all of a sudden he went missing and was later found dead in another city. Its a big shocker because first of all nothing is guaranteed, no matter how hard we try to make stuff work out, we DO NOT HAVE FULL CONROL over everything. In Nepal, the kids have a lot of pressure and the expectations are really high. To me it seems like Nepali society makes individuals a slave to social norms and regulations while proclaiming they are independent and free human beings. And when someone cannot catch up to the pressure or fulfill expectation, they crack and everything breaks loose. I feel bad for the kid and the parents of the kids in so many ways.

Fact: No matter how safe/secure and good you feel the world is, or is seen in the advertisement, its not, just like a yang negates a ying, there is bad to equal good and vice versa. Its finding that balance that is the most important aspect in life. Your goal is to excel knowing these facts exist and choose your path for your and everyone else’s betterment.

If you have watched troy the movie, you know that the sole purpose of Achilles life is to be written down in history and never be forgotten. When I think about life and decisions, 90% of the time I decide if my action is going to help someone else or make their life a better experience, however, I am always reminded the goal of Achilles life by my subconscious too. Now why I titled my blog the death of a legend? because all of us have that potential to be a legend, some of us choose to, some don’t. I feel like life has a lot of meaning other than just to face the inevitable death. But because of social order and expectations, a lot of us cannot be our true selves and it is a constant battle. Fight for what you believe in, we need dreamers, doers and fighters in this world. Take actions to have those dreams fulfilled! else you have already given up on life. Do not give in, your goal in life is not to stick around until you face your fate, it should be something greater or bigger than that. #DREAM #MAKEADIFFERENCE #BEALEGEND

LIVE IT UP!

-Ankit SJB Rana