Growing up in kathmandu....Dashain was the most exciting time of my life, it meant a long one month holiday from school, flying kites, Tika, Money...Dachhina...Good food, new outfit and shoes. meeting all the relatives in Mama Ghar....TONS OF DACCHINA ....gambling....than came Tihar.....oh another good time, Fire crackers......Deushi and bhailo, tons of festive moods, Lighting candles and Diyo , Gathering with friends to play deushi ........aaey .bhana mera bhai ho ,.....Dheushire.......and then the all Pujas and Bhai Tika..........then followed the reality of school....final exams and then three months Chutti.......................as I grew older the fun was the same but more mature.............and when Deusi Bhailo times came......we rented busses we were playing songs with a full band ...drums, amps, elec. guitars, keyboards, speakers.....KAHA TIMRO MAYALU LAI ...............NASHSA BHITRA NASHA SARI........BIDESH JANE MAYALU TIMILAI.....etc etc...........now being a lot older  in my late 20s  and  not being home to celebrate Dashain for more than 10 yrs............I feel a bit wierd and lost of that spirit....that festive spirit...........here in the US  Dashain is celebrated .......but I dont feel like it.......I go to my relatives house but .......feels like any other day....put tika ..eat dinner....and then go home .......and next day Back to work............NO one month holiday.....like in nepal...or even 15 days.......NO Matter how festive it looks when I go to parties.....Im not feeling Dashain.................Nor Festive......this is how I feel...............How do you all feel is the feeling mutual or am I missing something.................?????????

Oh ..Yeah.. missed those Hey Days.., Rock n roll guitars drums...,

ya man...those were the days...But Im not feeling Dashain and Tihar like  I did...you know after all these years away from home...........do you still feel it?????

The first year and was new to know many people. Not any more.

i am terribly missing those days

Well, Hindus in Malaysia also celebrate Dashain a.k.a. Navarathri. But ever since I met my husband, it has taken a whole new meaning and feeling to it. Actually, my perspective on all Hindu festivals changed from the moment we met. Both of us used to go to the temples together and pray for blessings. Pray for long lasting love, good health, long life, peace, prosperity, progeny, etc etc. He's now gone back home to fulfill his dharma and we miss each other too much. Like he used to say "What to do? What to do?" But the good news is we'll be together again for Tihar! The moral of the story is, festivals become meaningful when you are together with your loved ones, family and friends. Celebrating your culture and religion in your homeland...the way it should be celebrated.

Dashain Tihar is always fun and the D/T-fever still gets hold of me during the D/T season, like right now, I don't feel like doing anything, I long for beer and andra/bhudi fry with kabuli chana, chiura, grandmother cooked khashi ko kabab (which gets better as the days go by) and whole nine yards since the moment I wake up to the moment I fall flat on my bed. Anyway, your tihar kissa reminds me  of an incident.

One time a friend of mine came up with an ingenious idea -- "Let's go play deushi". Me and my friend, we all knew the reason behind his newfound obsession, he was in love with a girl (झ्याम्पुतली) from a house down the road and he wanted to impress her more (friggin' as if his Salman Khan hairstyle was doing less honor). We somehow thought it was a great idea -- we had this small local band in Kalankisthan that nobody knew of and it was great opportunity to prove our "talents" and make some dough to buy musical accessories. We had couple of crooners, guitarists and a drummer in our band and we had couple of songs of our own. But there was a problem, you can not take a drum with you in deushi -- we decided to play madal 'coz it's portable and we had bunch of songs that we could play with madal. This drummer dude, he couldn't play anything but drum (and few guitar chords). Now we had a new problem, who's gonna play madal? This guitarist friend knew how to play madal but he didn't want to give up his guitar (friggin' ego, guitar looks impressive to carry around than madal).

After a long discussion, I said "fk it dude, I will play madal" and I had no friggin' idea how to play madal. I practiced for about a week and I was playing a okay. So, we went to play deushi. First couple of houses, my madal was playing good. As the temperature went down, it was almost impossible to play madal, my fingers were all swollen. I was hitting it hard and it was getting worse. Finally we reached the destination (झ्यामपुतलीको घर) -- झ्यामपुतली was there at the patio with her family. Everyone started jammin' up and I was in no mood to play. So I played madal very softly, I barely hit that thing hard enough to make sound. Finally it was over, we got दक्षिणा and all, my friend was happy to impress झ्यामपुतली. I was happy since it finally came to an end. As we were leaving, झ्यामपुतलीको आमा was like "सबै राम्रो थियो तर त्यो मादल बजाउने लाई चाँही मादलै बजाउन आउदैन रैछ". Next day whole tole knew I was the worst madal player in Kalankisthan. :S

Yeah man..used to leave a note a month a head of Dashain all over the place in school like 29 days left for dashain....I missed the flying kites....

LOL kalankistan......you reminded me of a similar situation.......during deushi.......I dicided that on that year I was not going to play deushi....but I had recently Patayod a Girl from triyog girls school.......and on the Deushi day she wanted me to come play in her house.........provided that I was in a band that made the WAVE magazine.....as the upcomming teen heavymetal band "THE LUNATICS"......I gathered all my buddies all evening....but the problem was we didnt have a pick up or a bus to move our equipment.......we all tried.....all my buddies were going to play for my girls house and then call it a night......we hadnt planned this.......so we had no bus...means no equipment.......so we decided to go all aquoustic guitars but didnt seem to work....so at the end......we had about 6 bikes and 12 guys carrying guitars and went outside the girls house ...and acted like we were waiting......when the family came out and said where is the band ...we simply lied and said thery they were comming soon.....so we waited for half an hour..eating Sel roti and fruits from the family....My girl was watching me all the time shy and beautiful.....we were sharing glances.....she was happy that I showed up and then we left saying that the rest of the band must be lost......................after that we went to thamel.....Got drunk and went home.........

Sweeeet. Nice Story man

Well Dashi........ Its the second year that i am not home for dashi. I never appreciated its value when i was in Nepal. Now I miss everything........I am not in touch with nepali community in blatimore so i feel more lonely. hey guys and gals, if there is any event going on in baltimore in dashi particularly from nepali community then let me know. 

nice dashain stories guys..keep them comming..

ya everyone keep it comming so tha t ones like us who havent been back home for dashain for a decade statr feeling it again..........