Teej Celebrated in Finland

(Prem Raj Adhikari, Helsinki)

Nepalese community in Helsinki celebrated Teej Celebration on 22^nd August with a lot joy and happiness. The programme was organized by Suomalais-nepalilainen yhdistys(aka The Finnish Nepalese Society) at Nuorisotalo Herttoniemin Rannan in Herttoniemi. The programme was attended by around 250 people majority of whom were femal dressed in red sari. On the occasion, traditional nepali food, rice, chicken, chutney and dal were also served to the participatants. Although the programme was announced to start at 12:00 and end at 19:00. It was typical Nepalese custom to arrive late and some people arrived as late as 19:00.

The singinng and dancing that started around 13:15 and continued until 19:30 was certainly the highlights of the celebration. Dancing took place in a group of two or three so that everyone would get the well deserved rest before second round of dance. It was amazing to see the participants remembering each and every lines of Sangini, the famous folk song thorough which a married daughter would express her suffering in her husbands house with her parents.

Many chirldren of the dancing mothers were also present on the occasion who were born and brought up in Finland. It really felt good to find that everyone respected their seniors with the kinds of salutions back home and spoke fluent Nepali. Some, however, mixed three languages while talking like 'yli humenna sununtai ho', which translates to “Day after tomorrow is Sunday”.

The programme highlighted the beauty of Nepalese culture that we have not given up while coming here to Finland as well. It gave everyone the feeling that you were living in your own cultural environment. Everyone except the child below seven years contributed Eur 10 to the programme.

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Teej celebration to be observed in Finland...

After the hectic nepali events like 4 summer picnics, GA and new executive board formation of NRNA Finland and Suomalais-nepalilainen yhdistys, another event is gonna bring together nepalese community of Finland. The event is Teej Celebration Programme and it is being organised by Suomalais-nepalilainen yhdistys.

The details of the Programme are as follows:

Date: Saturday, 22 August, 2009

Time: 12:00 - 19:00

Venue: Nuorisotalo Herttoniemin Rannan, Paasivaarankatu-6, Herttoniemi ( beside the sports grounds)

Participation fees:

Single: 10 Euros

Family with one child: 15 Euros

Family with two children: 20 Euros

Family with three children: 25 Euros

Family with four children: 30 Euros

NB: Snacks, non-alocholic beverages and dinner included. And of course, lots of singing and dancing !!!

NSA Finland prepares to welcome new Nepalese Students

The weather in Finland is getting cooler but NSA Finland is getting ready to warmly welcome the new Nepalese students arriving to Finland during the autumn 2009. According to NSA Finland, they are organizing air-port pick-ups and providing other guidance to the new students. According to their website, NSA Finland will not however be able to provide the accomodation to the new students. Sources also say that they will be establishing an information center in Helsinki to guide the new students but the website doesn't mention about it. For further information you can visit www.nsafinland.wordpress.com.

Prem Raj Adhikari

Helsinki, Finland

Suomichautari Team:

Editor in Chief: Gautam Raj Moktan

+358-(0)466696268

grmoktan@gmail.com

Contributing Editor: Prem Raj Adhikari

+358-(0)466469315

lovedynasty@gmail.com

NRN-Finland Election!!!

The much awaited and very much hyped NRN Finland election took place today,15th August 2009 at Kettukuja 4,Helsinki. The 1st ever General Assembly of the organisation also took place at the same venue. Out of 388 registered members of the organisation, there were 351 valid votes out of which 85 votes came through post from finnish NRNs of other cities. The voting started from 9 in the morning and ended at 6 pm. In between there was a break for the GA as well. There was an overwhelming turnup of Nepalese people which some people referred to as the largest number of Nepalese Gathering in History at any place in Finland. After 6 pm, the election committee started counting.

It was an amazing sight to see so much enthusiasm among the voters and as the election committee was providing regular updates of the development of the voting scores, there were many people informing about the updates to others via mobile phones too.The results were announced at 10:40 pm according to which the newly elected Chairperson of NRN finland is Mr. Jyoti Prakash Kharel who won the election by 222 against his competitor Mr. Lila Nath Silwal who got 88 votes. Mr. Sushil Gyawali has already been nominated as the ICC representative member after his opponent withdrew his candidacy. Apart from that, the 20 newly elected board members(along with their election serial number) are:

3 Ram Prasad Aryal (200 votes)
4 Arun Pokharel (176 votes)
5 Pratigya Khanal (185 votes)
6 Mohan Aryal (218 votes)
7 Teeka Kharel (148 votes)
8 Sudeep Bhushan Aryal (114 votes)
9 Manoj Kumal (135 votes)
11 Dilu Sapkota (121 votes)
12 Suman Khadka (187 votes)
13 Shabbir Mohammad (137 votes)
14 Byoma Tamrakar (193 votes)
15 Bishwas Hamal (160 votes)
16 Jagannath Kafle (120 votes)
18 Binas Timsina (Yogendra) (156 votes)
19 Gopal Aryal (167 votes)
20 Jeevan Kharel (163 votes)
21 Bijendra Neupane (221 votes)
22 Laxmipati Bhandari (148 votes)
23 Devidutta Kharel (186 votes)
24 Krishna Bhandari (237 votes)
After the results were out, The newly elected president gave his first speech as the Chairperson and requested everyone to leave the you vs me feeling created by the election and work together to create a better NRN community in Finland. He also asked for 388 new ideas and plans from the 388 registered members which was highly appreciated. The newly formed Executive board will now appoint Vice-Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary from among themselves after their first meeting.

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Summer picnic at Seurasaari

As per the tradition of Seura(Finland Nepal Friendship Association), this year's 3rd Summer Potluck picnic was held in Seurasaari on 15th August 2009. The picnic began at 1 pm and people showed up according to traditional nepali timing :) . There were multitude of delecacies which were haighly appreciated by the attendees. The sadheko ghundruk-bhatmas-machha was an instant hit. Great food-great day- great fun, After a hefty lunch there were fun games requiring both mental and physical well being. Then some antakchidi singing, cards playing and chitchats... the food was abundant and people went for a second helping too. Maybe because of the NRN election to be held next day, there was quite a good turn out of people showing up and the guff-gaafs were basically focused on the election agenda. It was good to see conscious people taking the election matter in a more serious note. Candidates were having a one on one conversations with the voters so that they could hear the woes on site. Afterwards people gradualy left with high spirits for the election.

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Summer picnic at Suomenlinna.

Organised by The Finnish Nepalese Society, This picinic on 25th of July was grt way to enjoy summer and visit one historical place of Finland. I definitely had fun. The Finnish-Nepalese Society also had their General Assembly and a new board was elected. It was a good feeling to see women dancing to the tunes of folk lores and teej songs. They also conducted a quiz competition for the kids and a fun filled game of Hot Potato. The students were delighted as always to taste some home made traditional nepali style delicacies. All in all, It was a good way to use one summer weekend. Click here for more pics...

Welcome to Suomi Chautari.. !!!

Hi Everybody!!

I think you have seen me running around with a camera around my neck in a few nepali events in Finland. In an effort to share those pics with all of you and to provide a little background on those pictures, I hereby created this photo blog and since It's here I thought of adding a little more along the way. Those shall be some upcoming events, some helpful information for fellow deshbandhus , etc. I hope you will like it and get your daily doze of entertainment. I dunno where this blog will head towards but definitely I will keep on putting pictures on this blog that I take during my stay here in Finland.

PS: Any feedback (suomichautari@gmail.com) will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.