Editorial: Nostalgia

I keep thinking about why people like to reminish so much about their past. Is this part of the aging process?. As we reach certain age, it seems like people get quite nostalgic about their past. Lately, I have been thinking about those Champati playing days. Actually, I was showing my son how I used to play champati game. Well, that's the what I called being nostalgic.

Are we really trying to preserve the culture and promote our heritage or we are just being nostalgic ?. I am sure that young people are saying that those old farts are just being nostalgic about their past and trying to bring back those old memories. Obviously, Bhoy is one of the old traditions we are trying to preserve as part of nostalgia.

Well, being nostalgic serves two purposes; one is to reminish about our past and other is to teach what we learned from our early childhood to our kids. The transfer of Knowledge can bee seen as nostalgia. How best to transfer that knowledge is the question. Many of us don't know that much about our tradition. If we really want to be true Newas, we must learn about our culture first. We have to have a greater understanding of our traditions, ideals and values. How do we teach our kids about cultural festivals like Yomari Puni, Ghoda Jatra and Mhapuja? When was the last time you made Yomari with your children? What significance, if any, does Yomari have here in America? Well, for the pseudo Newas, there are not much significance there.

Living in a global village with a multitude of different values and norms, we are rapidly diluting our history. First of all, we did not have that strong traditional to start with. Our culture has been watered-down for many by outside influences. As one of our writers points out, he couldn't even find a typical Newa name for his child. As we yearn for good old Wola Baji our friends in Nepal are eating chow chow. As we become more easterner, our friends in Nepal have become more westerner. On the other hand, our kids might have a touch of Newaness in their blood, but I don't know how newari they are. When you know that Big Macs and pizza are the staples of our kids, they have become more multicultural.

There is no question that as we assimilate more in western culture we will further loose our old cultural tradition. Nepa Pasa Puchah, is trying to close the gap. NPPA is trying to provide a forum for everyone to learn and discover more about our culture and traditions. We are all busy with our work and family obligations, but if we don't make a special effort, we will further loose our cultural heritage. We ask that we all get involved and share our experiences so our children can learn about Newa culture and be proud of being a Newa.

If we really want to call ourselves true Newas, we must ask ourselves what is being Newa means to us and teach our kids, the many positive values Newa culture has to offer. Without being able to respect ourselves as Newas, we will not be able to respect others.

In order to present the best of our cultural tradition, NPPA is putting together this special issue of DABUU magazine. It is nice to see people coming together sharing their know how and sending best wishes to their friends and families. I would like to thank everyone for their contributions both providing financial, moral and material support. As writers have pointed out, we are loosing our battle. Unless we come together and work for the good of preserving our culture, there won't be anything left for us, except to be nostalgic and reminish about our glorious past and see our cultural heritage fade away in the rapidly westernized global community. Let's celebrate and at the same time teach to appreciate our true culture.

Taremam