Mila!

One fine Nepali morning, it was around 1984, as I sat at my desk to start planning the day at the office, Trade Promotion Center (TPC) near the Yak and Yeti Hotel, one of the trade officers, Megha Shakya, introduced his bride of a few days: she was Armila Cristobal, known as Mila. She was working in Manila at the Board of Investment Institute's Export Development. They had met at an ITC-sponsored meeting in Hong Kong and this blossomed into romance and marriage.

We were to leave in a few days’ time for home leave in Seattle. Mila mentioned her mother and brothers live in Seattle. We were staying with my sister at Carnation Farm in Carnation, Washington, so her mom and brothers made the long drive of around an hour from Seattle, to visit us and exchange news about Nepal, and about Mila.

After Pema was born in 1985, Mila had a job close to our residence at Dilli Bazar. As I was on maternity leave I spent a lot of time at home: she often came to visit, a short walk from and to her office. As I recall the last time I saw Mila and Megha was at Pema’s christening in March 1986.

Fast forward to 2011: In Bangkok, I was surfing the net sometime last week: I typed in the Google search box for “Armila Shakya”. One website looked interesting, and found a newsletter containing her photo and some details.

http://www.tras.ca/newsletters/2010spring.pdf

So here we are, it was great to be in touch after all these years! The Shakyas immigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 2009, with their 14-year old son, Milind.