रचनाहरु (Rachanaharu) . Yesterday, Princi and I launched a curated list of Nepali local brands and products. We called it रचनाहरु, which means creations in Nepali. (रचना means creation, adding हरु makes it plural) [The credit for the name goes to Princi.] It makes me happy to see the recent boom in micro-entrepreneurs in Nepal. Nepali products have set a decent footprint in the market along with the international brands. I’m not against the foreign brands, but the fact that people are taking risks to start ventures from this small Himalayan country makes me proud [David Vs Goliath]. ...

Integrity . Handshake deals are the best kind of business deals. People come together, discuss their ideas and shake on it. No legal paperwork, just trust and the promise of work. Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Having the right ingredients of integrity will set the foundation for handshake deals. Being honest to yourself & others is the key to building long-term partnerships, and to creating something valuable together. ...

Writing more or less . My virtual mentors for writing are Tim Urban and Derek Sivers. These two incredible human beings have a completely different writing styles. Tim writes long articles narrating as the first person and every nooks and corner of the subject. Derek writes short, crisp and valuable life lessons. My favorites are this, this, this and this. Inspired by them, I tried writing a couple of drafts for #abakgarne. But it turned out horrible and, most importantly, didn’t capture my intention nor thought. ...

Fat wallets . I paid all my orders in cash because my previous debit card was not active. But most stores didn’t accept cards anyways. This has remained the same for a long time. I hardly noticed any store with a card reader, unlike the stores in California. Things are changing though. The government is pushing for digital & cashless payment. And e-wallets are popping up everywhere. I even gave a crash course to my dad on e-wallets. ...

On Inspiration . People have asked me a countless number of times why I moved back. I have been pondering over this for some time. For the last few weeks, I have been looking for my “inspiration”. We find inspiration in unknown places. Places which, by nature, engulf your existence and take you to a land of discovery. The discovery isn’t through the act of finding the meaning though, but by traveling through the journey. ...

Same ‘ol Kathmandu . To be honest, Kathmandu hasn’t changed a lot. I see the same shops, the same restaurants, the same school buses, the same गल्लि (small roads) at the same spots where I left them five years ago. Things have remained the same for the better, or for the worse. I was fortunate to meet a lot of people last week that I would have met in six months in California. My phone was ringing instead of buzzing, which says that people still prefer calling instead of texting in Nepal. ...

Joy . “What sparks joy?” — Wow, such a simple but complicated question to think about. The first sentence that mapped on my head when I thought about this was — “What makes me happy?” Yeps, what are the things that make me happy? Period. Move along. But it cannot be this simple, right? I used to think that there are certain things that would always make me happy (or spark joy), many small/big things that I always look forward to doing. ...

Driving Force . Every Mozillian that I have met are passionate about their work. There is no ‘I’ in the community. This sense of togetherness isn’t common in today’s selfish world. And to be part of this community makes me a proud Mozillian. I could have easily spent my 25-days break completing full seasons of TV series. Or, if I wanted to be productive.. work on a hobby project. Both of them sounded fun as per my liking. ...