Category Archives: Wagle Web Log

Langar: The Gurudwara Community Lunch

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Wagle eating Langar in Gurudwara

Wagle enjoying the delicious Langur, the community food served in the Gurudwara.Pic by Bikas Rauniar

After the Carter press conference, I went to a Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) located near the Thapathali bridge with Bikas Rauniar. Shikhs were celebrating the birth anniversary Guru Nanak and Bikas wanted to take photos of the celebrations. Since I was in his car, he asked me to come along with him for possible stories. Yes there was a story. I talked to a Sardar, original and from Punjab, India, as he was taking part in the musical celebrations. That was a pleasant conversation which I have included in a story about him and the celebrations that appeared in today’s Kantipur. Then there was a surprise for me: They serve food (the Prasad). Shikh devotees sit cross legged on the floor in several lines- male and female have separate lines- and eat the food that is cooked by the volunteers (which I found delicious and well served.) That was my first experience with the Gurudwara food. Continue reading →

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Architecture Blog: New York Times Building Vs Kantipur Tower!

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New York Times BuildingIt’s 10:22 PM now and I spent most of my last three hours with the Nehru autobiography that I started reading yesterday. The winter has arrived in Kathmandu for I find it very difficult to wake up early in the morning. Like yesterday, I slept today till 12 AM and I have decided to wake up early from tomorrow.

One thing that I feel good about today was reading a report in New York Times about the new New York Times building (see pic by Vincent Laforet via the Times) in New York. I found the story written by Nicolai Ouroussoff and titled ‘Pride and Nostalgia Mix in The Times’s New Home‘ very interesting. The story provides lots of insights about the building and is an example (for me personally) of how stories on a building could be done. A building is not just the block of bricks and cement (and the Times Tower is certainly not!), it’s more than that. It has to be lively and some sort of distinct personality and aroma. I have never thought that a story like that could be written. Nicolai has considered the building almost as a living person (with some star attractions) and has done wonderful analysis of the personality of that man/or woman. He has pointed out the good sides and lacking aspects of the building. My impression is that the building is really beautiful and a cool place to wrok. Continue reading →

Clear View of Himalayas from Kathmandu

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First the GK: Kathmandu is the capital of the country that is known around the world as the Himalayan Peopledom! But not always we see the mesmerizing Himalayas from the valley of Kathmandu though the Himalayas serve as our geographical borders with China. Because of the poor atmosphere that surrounds the valley most of the year, Himalayas are hidden behind the hazes of clouds and mists. That has changed in the past couple of days. The ugly haze over the hills (for some they are mountains!) that surround the valley has disappeared. We are having spectacular views of snowy mountains from the Kathmandu valley. Just look, where else, northward and you will be greeted with the long range of smiling White Mountains.Pics by Wagle unless otherwise stated.

View of Himalayas from Kathmandu Valley
Continue reading →

When You Meet Wine and Women of France Together

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Continued from previous blog: Chinese Wife of the French Ambassador

Dinesh Wagle in the wine party organized hosted by the French ambassador in Kathmandu in his residence to taste the Beaujolais Nouveau Pic by Girish Giri

I was wandering around looking for people to talk to. I see this celebrated TV personality and former editor standing whom I had quoted in the beginning this story about the life in Thamel. “I read your story,” he says. [And says it was nice.] Then he charges me of removing one word-also- from the quote that I had attributed to him in the story. “But I had said you might ‘also’ meet celebrities,” he says. “Where is the ‘also’? Don’t put your words into my mouth.”

“It’s good to visit Thamel once in a week,” a famous TV personality and former editor had told me this a few years ago. “You might encounter celebrities from around the world.”

I should have written, he says, “…also encounter celebrities….”

“Well, I don’t really remember you saying “pani” or “too” but if that’s what you had said, then I admit my mistake,” I say. “I try to put exact quotes as far as possible.”

“Okay,” he says, “I am going now. Pani, pani, don’t forget pani!” Continue reading →

Again on Gmail: I am Loving It

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Notice: Want to hear the new Nepali national anthem? Please download it by clicking here. Read about the song here and here.
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It’s no secret that I am a great fan of Gmail. Whenever I am accessing the internet, I love it. And Gmail is doing their best to make users like me happy and attached to their services. Almost a week after another, they come up with exciting feature and service that only makes my Gmail experience even better.

It’s true that I am becoming more and more dependent on Gmail, or Gmail monopoly! But the ‘monopoly’ comes with so many advantages that that is bigger than the 2 GB space! I have couple of Gmail accounts and the one that I use most is filled with about 920 MB. I try to divert many email to other Gmail account and I occasionally delete many large files that I feel will not be needed in any case in future. Many have talked a lot about the space; it’s clean and elegant layout and the cool search facility. Its chat service has also received a lot of accolades from many users including myself. It’s “Send Mail As” service that lets use Gmail “to send from your other email addresses” is also very cool. I have been using this service to send emails from my several other addresses. The latest is a new service that lets users “get mail from other accounts”. I was really in need of this service. This doesn’t only save my time but also lets me save emails using Gmail GB. Yes, I could have done the same by logging in to my other address and activate the auto-forward option and forward every incoming email to Gmail. But what if the email account doesn’t have the auto-forward option??? I was facing the same problem for quite some time and thanks to Gmail now I can retrieve emails without having logged into the account and have stored them (or delete them as I wish!)

Recently, Gmail opened up itself for all at gmail.com. Before an existing user had to invite (that feature is still inside my inbox) those who wanted to use Gmail. Initially, that was like losing exclusivity but then the feel that everyone interested in Gmail can easily sign up and have a new account was pleasant.

Wait, how can I forget to mention about the new thing from Google called Google Apps that lets me, among other things, host my wagle.com.np emails to Gmail. For instance, I log on to Gmail to check my dinesh at wagle.com.np emails and send. Plus, I can also create many other wagle.com.np emails for other people want to use emails with that domain. I mean the whole idea is so cool that I am just loving it. I haven’t used the other Apps much but Word is great (to save documents online).

Related Blog:

1. Inviting Nepal To Gmail: An Experience