Vol. XXVI, No 1-2, July 1999 Executive Board Deepak Shimkhada President Michael Kenny 1st Vice-President Kundan Rimal 2nd Vice-President Tracy Harcourt Secretary Anil Pradhan Treasurer Buddha Shakya Technical Board of Advisors Jitendra Amatya Ananta Baidya Sandy Brown Kiran Joshi Veda B. Joshi Kanhaiya Kayastha V. Sagar Kaushik Judy Lipton Rajendra Malla Parvati Joshi Proffitt Scholarship Fund Veda B. Joshi Director Virgil Day Shambhu Kayastha Judy Lipton Alan Wald Honorary Members GM of Chevron-USA Merrill R. Goodall Nepal's Ambassador to the US Philip Trimble Dale Vrabec

Editorial I thank Deepak Shimkhada and the Executive Committee of the America-Nepal Society of California, Inc. for giving me the opportunity to serve as its second Vice President. The function of the second Vice President includes the editing of Crossroads, the official newsletter of the Society. I feel honored to hold this office and assure you that I will do my best to meet your high standards. This may be the right moment to introduce myself. I am one of five children whose father served thirty years in the Diplomatic Corps of His Majesty's Government of Nepal. My mother, two brothers and two sisters accompanied my father on his government assignments. I have lived in the capital of China during its Cultural Revolution, the capital of Iran during its Islamic Revolution, the capital of the Soviet Union during Perestroika and the capital of the United States during the Watergate Scandal. I graduated from the University of Punjab in Chandigarh (India), a beautiful city planned by Le Corbusier, the same French architect who designed the Capitol in Washington D.C. This continent-hopping has made me see the world from a different perspective. I have come to admire the cultures of the world, and have come to realize that these cultures have commonalities. Although we feel we are different in race, color, religion, and ideology, we share many social values, which bind us together in one big global society. As your 2nd Vice President I will be happy to provide you with information concerning the cultural advantages Southern California has to offer the Nepali Community through the medium of the newsletter. While we intend to preserve our Nepali traditions, the extent to which Nepali culture influences the fabric of Southern California living is indeed amazing. I certainly do not like to make my role a one-way street; I anticipate interacting with you and you with me, so that we can engage in some meaningful dialogs. So, please send me your thoughts, ideas, inputs in the form of letters, articles, poems, and artwork. I would like to make Crossroads a first-rate publication, and I need your help in doing that.--Kundan Rimal In Next Issue Orange County artist, Betty Petersen, has visited Nepal five times over the past decade, creating more than 180 paintings and sketches. We will have a feature article on Betty and her paintings in our next issue. The Crossroads is published by the America-Nepal Society of California, Inc. three times a year and distributed free of charge to its members and a limited number of interested readers. The newsletter's goal is to foster understanding between Nepal and the United States through educational, cultural and social activities. Contributions of articles, news and suggestions are welcome from both members and non-members. For membership information, please write to President, ANS-CA, Inc., 1682 Lowell Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711.Visit our website at www.nepal@ansca.com Videocassettes of the Nepali motion picture Allare are for sale at $15/each. Two dollars from the sale of each cassette will go to the entertainment fund of the America-Nepal Society of California. If you missed the screening of the film at Claremont in April, here is the opportunity to watch it in the comfort of your own home. When released in 1997, Allare played for more than six months in the movie theaters of Nepal, breaking the record of Nepali film running for the longest time. The price includes shipping and handling. Since there are limited number of copies of the videotape, they will be sold on first-come-first-serve basis. So please place your order now: 909-621-0783.

Webmaster Anita Shrestha
AMAA, Inc.