Dashain Outside Nepal

[Love Nepal]

I have witnessed this year's Dashain celebrations in two cities of US,New York and Wichita (kansas).New York is a bustling metropolis whereas wichita is a sleepy midwest city.
In New york there are many Hindu temples and there is one Nepali Mandir too.The best one i found was DIVYA DHAM in SUNNY SIDE,QUEENS.I was overwhelmed to notice its huge space jam packed on the Maha astami and onwards.There was a huge presence of nepalis as well as Gujratis where navaratri has special meaning and bengolis.I can never forget a Bengali(not indian but bangladeshi) telling me " brother u are from nepal right ?"(i nodded affirmatively) as he continued " see,you are from Nepal,i am from Bangladesh,he is from India and he is from Barbados " he continued as he pointed out two other people standing besides him " but we are brothers because we are hindus" his words had a sense of pride may be because he comes from a country where hindus are a minority and have been facing a barrage of problems but whatever the reason i felt a sort of brotherhood,attachment towards the folks,fellow hindus,brothers in arms.
It is funny that the large Indian "bazaars" in Ny dont have goat meat and only muslim shops have them.I had talked with one of the owners and he said he was expecting bumper sales and guess what he had "happy vijaya dashami" poster outside his shop.
I was in wichita,Kansas on the day of the tika,i never imagined that this far away town would have a sizeable number of Nepalis,i was amazed to see many Nepalis women in Red Sari on the way to the temple and on the ground just outside our apartment,there were two nepali boys,wearing a dhaka topi and "rato tika" and playing football.We went to local southasian grocery store and were informed that he ran out of Goat meat since yesterday and when we reached another store "al ....something" he also had happy vijaya dashami page (photo copied) outside his shop.He told that he had never sold more goat meat in this shop and we were fortunate to find some left overs there.
Some of you will think,why goat meat,why not chicken or things like that.But u know when u are out of your motherland u want to stick to so many things that are part of your culture and its one of them.
From what i have seen and experienced in this dashain from TIKA to the big crowds in the temples and from the dashain parties at homes to the jammed phone lines to Nepal.Its plain as sunlight,Whereever we go,we will remain Nepalis may be because our culture is not just a part of our religion,its a part of our life.