This was the 3rd time that I was able to represent sajha in the ANA. Going to the ANA has always been a blast - not only did I get a chance to meet people that I had not met for a long long time, a vacation/time-out/all out party time from the regular monotony of working life, but also, it's been nice to be able to share the photos with those who could not make it there, or share a piece of memory for those who were there - captured in the photos.

As you may have noticed, this time there are a lot more pictures from the ANA, and people were more willing to be in the pictures. Most of this is due to the publicity provided to sajha.com by none other than the Master of Ceremonies of the ANA Cultural Programs & Concert, Mr. Sonam G. Sherpa, who is from NY. When I met him he mentioned that he's a frequent visitor of sajha and that he believed that sajha was a good platform for discussions and for bringing together Nepalis worldwide. He was kind enough to introduce sajha.com and myself to the audience of approx 1,000 people at the Cultural show.

After his introduction, people were more receptive to being photographed, unlike before the introduction when I was just another guy with a camera! Sonam dai, thanks so much for your gesture of goodwill towards sajha. Thanks to your thoughfulness, there are more pictures to share in sajha, and more people are getting to participate virtually in the ANA from all over the world.

It was really nice to meet a lot of sajhaites at the ANA, such as Poonte, Nepe, Shirish, Shefali, Girl Interrupted, Mr.X, Kool_dude, Oys_chill, Kalankisthan, Najar, Udayy, Gunit, VJ, Sagarnep, Reshma, Pedro, Nepesahila, Bostonballer, Shiissh, Paramendra, Donny, Johnny Blaze, ssNY, ... (sorry if I missed anyone). And I am sure there were many others I did not get to meet. Conventions like these are pretty overwhelming as far as remembering names of people goes. That is always a big challange!

Many thanks goes to the organizers of the ANA who were awesome in providing complimentary tickets for sajha.com at the Cultural Event & the Concert. Special thanks to Mr. Suman Shah & Prabhav Shah for providing the tickets.

Regarding the whole program, I personally had a great time. Lot of times, I find that people go to these conventions expecting to be handed 'a good time' in a platter. That is never the case, the organizers provide a venue, and different options to have fun and get involved such as sports, discussions, documentaries, DJ nights, Concerts, etc. It's up to the individuals to have fun by participating in these events and/or by simply socializing and networking with other Nepalis who are brought together by the convention. The location was a bit off and I am sure everyone got lost at least once if they ventured out. The signs to 'Frontage Road' was always a relief! I am sure it was difficult to find a good price during the July 4th weekend, and hence the choice. Incidentally, I thought it was a little miss-advertisement to promote the event as if it was happening in New York, I don't think it would have made any difference if it was just advertised to be in New Jersey.

I'm sure that the organizers must have spent a lot of hours planning and working on this whole convention and they deserve a BIG THANKS for all the time and energy they put in, to make this convention possible.

thapap - i missed all the fun too ke!! :( you weren't alone!! (wink,wink)

and talking about slient readers i personally don't like them!! it's like their reading everything you write but you don't know anything about them!! :@ :@
who does that?? uffffffff!!!

nails,
hajur le k bhannu bhako kuslai bhannu bhako ke hi pani bujina maile ta...

jelly mero ana party ma bhetnu banda ek din samma ko no 1 dusman.. bete pachi mori.. no 1 close frenz lolz..
solly jelly it was nice to meet u in ana lolz..

i didnt meet anyone else but meeting san dai was enough..he has nice camera

malai chai kosle ni dekena ni kya ho.. tut..dekyo hola malai sab le tara chinena holaaa..
me the bling bling guy
hehee

Kalanki, sorry, i was in a different hotel. Holiday inn, accross the street! :-D
but i was in sheraton once a while. thats when i met Oys and San and other people. jelly ta bhetda bhetda wakka laisakyo, ani mention garina puchhi lai!
Cowboy, i didn't see u there, i didn't see most of'em. GI was with us, so i saw her, more than i wanted to...or enough of her...ehhe.. san dai was jhyap, oys ta tei ho, rato rato akha, aru ko ko janti haru bhetina maile!

Oys bro,
jyan chai sanchai chha man chai bhagna khojera hairan parchha --- kati choti ta bhagi pani sakyo muskil le firta lyauchhu. yastai chha. Jatrama tyo rath tanneko jastai chha afno ta taal maal...jyan diyera tanya chha jaadko surma kina tanyaho tyasko khasai matlab chhaina.

Anyway, mero fan ko parechha khai ---tara fanko kura sunera yo garmima man chai sittal bho.

mrX i saw u n u ran away lol that was funny

Mero laagi ta..."Hi-Hello-aekchinhai"....ani taaaaaaaaaap to work! :(

I did meet some old friends from Sajha, which was indeed very refreshing. But due to the movies, I was too busy running around, and sadly could not spend as much time as I wished I could with anyone! New Sajha faces ma, kullu ra jellu laai bheten. Jellu bhateejee le chai 2-4 minute guff garda gardai euta new CD bhidaayerai chhodyo!

Uhi purano ma, it was such a pleasure to see -- albeit briefly most of the time -- kalanki, San (I probably spent the most time with him, among Sajha friends), Oys, AX, Uddu, hushpuppu, Najar, Gurl Interruptuu and, of course, my pyari bhaanjees dwaya metal and rockon. ;) Any others I forgot? pardon me!

If I am around in the US next year, I will most likely make it to LA too. I will be looking forward to having a total fun then, since I will not have any part in running any of the events. How about an exclusive Sajha gathering next year? I wish there was one this year too. Tauko le tekera, haat le hindera bhayeni pugthen.

Afule le ta ek jana lai bhetna ga bhete pugyo :P yea it was nice meeting to Poonte,Kalanki,jellu ,uday ani san dai ta bhai halnu bho.Aru chahi koi chinina....

>Nepe Dai,
>July 3rd evening. It was really nice meeting you there. I will email you our photo >tonite.

CaMoFLaGeD,

That will be lovely. Did not have chance to take my own pictures much. I found one here:

- http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/paprachi/detail?.dir=/baffre2&.dnm=1818re2.jpg&.src=ph

ANA was good. We all had different motives for going, mine was to partcipate in sports.

But its sad that such an integral part of the convention is being left out. Of course parties and booze fiesta pics will always dominate but then it would have been nice to get some coverage from sajha representatives. Considering there were 12 teams for soccer..8 for Bball and 8 for volleyball...its a mega event, I would say. But ..I have been waiting for San to put some pics since last week..tara khoi...khali..nacheko matrai cha..

btw, for people who have it ..post it online..
later

ya i am surprised too there no sports pic's and no sports full result. i think ppl would like to know who won in first round and second round score...in all sports..& sports pic'sssss .

rock on gal jiskaune haina.. timi haru ta ho ni papi chulo bandai sabai jana.. kaam chaina hai bichara ma.. malai laaz lagcha k so taap.
lolz
laterz

Nepe-jee laai ta birsechu maathi ullekh garna...sorry!

Yes, I agree with the couple of posters above that the pictures posted by San have been dominated by those of parties/dances. Wakka lagyo aba ta.

There were many other things going on at the convention, such as sports, forums, panels discussions, movies, business expos, etc.

Casey,
I was trying to get some sports coverage but I got lost twice trying to get out of the hotel. I missed out on sports coverage mostly. Finally was able to make it to two bball game the pics of which will be posted tonight.

For more sports photos, our friends from merosports.com have great coverage. You can view their site here - http://www.merosports.com/newyork/index.htm

Looks like their link to the Mens Basketball is not working. this is the correct link: - http://merosports.com/newyork/nycbb/index.htm

i feel really sorry.. sorry mero sis@ shish of canada and lolz nakali@ shefali.. lolz sorry about my behavior.. lolz coz i was shocked how u guys knew me and well i m shy kinda guy so didnt talked to u guys nicely.. hope lolz u guys gona forget what happened..

plzzzzz MrX jhilkey tatto na charro sita lajaudai ke huncha ni!!!

tei MrX y the hell were u shy kt deki lazaunu parcha??? i thought u juss ran away when we saw u but nop aru deki ni testai cha k ho :P