First of all I must say  that it is a very well written article. However I do not agree with some points raised in this article. For example:

"People don't have a big joint family here but they don't curb and bitch about others like they do in Nepal. They are not concerned who is getting a new flat HDTV, who's got the biggest solitaire or who is dating whom. They are just happy about seeing their grandparents, their uncles and aunt and meeting their cousins. It compelled me to think, is the social bonding in Nepal really that strong as people claim it to be?? I really was thinking hard."

Yes people don;t have a big joint family here in US but americans do talk and bitch about others may be not to the extent in Nepal but they do bitch about their own close friends and family. Believe me they do care about who is driving what type of car and who bought a house for how much...and specially who is dating who...the only difference is that in Nepal people have limited resources and also goods available in the market is limited so they have to compete with each other and they talk about small things such as who got a car or who bought a microwave....Here since goods are abundant in supply and living standard is also high people don;t talk about every small thing but they do talk about who bought a million dollar house and so on.

As far as I know at least in Nepal most people don't bitch about their own parents...we even sacrifice so many things for our parents but here..... "I, me, myself" comes first "what I want is more important" than what my family wants. I am not saying that we should completely forget about our own wants and sacrifice everything for our family..what I am saying is there has to be a balance of both then only we can be happy...I feel like here although people are smiling and they look happy from outside deep inside there is a loneliness and insecurity in them...there is no strong value of any relationship...doesn;t matter how many times you get married and how many times you promise in front of Jesus  to be with your partner till death part us apart...if there is no value of such a  promise then what else can I say?

I am not saying that our Nepali Society is perfect but I also don;t agree that American norms and values are stronger than ours just because they look happy from outside. Every society has a good and a bad point. It is up to us to decide how we want to live our lives and what we want to teach our children...

Cheers!!!!