Posted by: San July 9, 2006
Sajha in the ANA
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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.
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