The smiling people of the Kathmandu Valley...

Sunday, June 14, 2009





Picture: Smiling Girl on the road, June 11, 2009


The Himalayan Times, Monday, June 8, 2009

Best Healer

“Laughing is essential to our equilibrium, to our well being, to our aliveness”

Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as ‘terminally ill’. He had six months to live. His chance for recovery was one in 500.

He could see worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause, his disease. He wondered, “If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?” He decided to make an experiment of himself.

Laughing was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find – Keaton, Chaplin, Fields, the Marx Brothers. This was before VCRs, so he had to rent actual films. He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard or did something funny.

His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep. He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy, and productive years. His journey is detailed in his book, Anatomy of an Illness.

He credits visualization, the love of his family and friends, and laughing for his recovery.

Some people think laughing is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often. Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughing is essential to our equilibrium, to our well being, to our aliveness. If we’re not well, laughing helps us get well; if we are well, laughing helps us stay that way.

Since Cousisns’ groundbreaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions. So, if you like laughing, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don’t like I aughter, then take your medicine – laugh anyway.

Use whatever makes you laugh – movies, sitcoms, records, books, cartoons, jokes, friends.

Give yourself permission to laugh – long and loud and out loud – whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you are strange, but sooner or later they’ll join in even if they don’t know what you’re laughing about. Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure…laughter.

Author unknown


Observations from the streets of Kathmandu...(this was written on June 15th, but due to my snail speed i-net and no previous habit of blogging, I post it today)


It seems to me that many people in Nepal are smiling, laughing and having optimism in the eyes no matter if they are Gurung, Chettri, Newars, Tamang or whatever title they have been given by birth... and no matter how hot, polluted, dirty and crowded is around. What is the reason behind this?... Could it be because Nepali people are naturally light hearted and they don’t miss even the smallest of chances to crack a smile at you? Or...is it just me ...? So, this made me determined to document that optimistic "phenomenon" of smiling people and I have decided to take pictures of smiling children, men and women on the streets of Nepal, in their houses and everywhere I spot their shining dark eyes and smiley faces!

After only a week in Kathmandu, I realized that Nepal, being the country it is with all of its democratic issues, obstacles, and bandhs....poverty and struggle for a brighter future and inclusive society needs this kind of optimism and light in the eyes of people....so, I am thrilled to capture those precious moments of hope and happiness which stream from the faces of Nepali people!


More to come...