Oracle Online

O: What is your favorite thing about attending Hamline?

RU: It’s a really small university and people are friendly. Everyone has been very helpful, especially Kari Fangel my advisor and Alba from the International Students Office.

O: How would you describe yourself in high school?

RU: I was quiet and shy, kinda like a bookworm, or a level A geek.

O: Would you say you’ve changed in college?

RU: I’m not really a bookworm anymore, I mean I still study, but not a bookworm. Still a geek though, ‘cause I work with computers, it’s just a given.

O: What is your family like at home?

RU: Well my dad has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and he used to work for the government as a national planning commissioner so he handled agricultural education, and IT budgeting, planning for the whole country. He also worked for ADB and World Bank. My mom is a housewife. One of my sisters lives in Minnesota and works at Wells Fargo. And I have two adopted sisters that live in Nepal.

O: What is your best childhood memory?

RU: In high school, I went on a field trip to Lumbhini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha. There were 35 students which comprised our entire class. We drove all the way, which took us two days, including stopping and resting of course. When we got to our destination, there was a camp set up for us. The weather was pretty nice and we were 10 or 15 minutes walk from the birthplace of Lord Buddha. You can actually see where he was born and the tree under which he meditated and got enlightenment. There are diagrams and pictures of how it was thought to have been while he was alive, because it was obviously renovated since. They did a good job trying to keep the original details. It was pretty cool.

O: Was it a really touristy place?

RU: Yeah, there were a lot of people there. However, now I don’t think many people can go there, because terrorists have taken over and you’d be risking your life to go.

O: How do you feel about that?

RU: God, really badly. It’s not only in Lumbhini, though. There are terrorists everywhere. Luckily, in the last 2 or 3 months there has been a cease fire between the government and the terrorists, so hopefully they can get everything worked out. However, before this agreement you could never expect to be safe when you went out. You could never expect to come home unharmed if you lived somewhere farther than Kathmandu. It is especially hard for me to be here in the U.S. in such a safe place, knowing that my family is in constant danger. I feel guilty every time I think about it and feel extremely privileged to be here. Last semester during finals, there were bombs that exploded a block away from my parents house in a shop my cousins went to. I was so worried I couldn’t even study.

O: What has been your biggest decision in the past year?

RU: I would say choosing to work at Gander Mountain, because I had a couple of companies that were interested, but I think I made the right decision. It’s been a good learning experience and they’re going to sponsor me after I graduate.

O: So are you a really outdoorsy person?

RU: I do go camping, but that’s about it. I don’t like hunting and killing animals. But I love camping, it allows me to get outdoors and in touch with nature, its something I did at home in Nepal.

O: Given the opportunity, who would you kidnap for a day?

RU: And do what with? [grin] Hold them ransom? Well, Aishawarya Rai, she was the Miss World 1996, from India.

O: So what would you do with her?

RU: Take her on a date, hang out. And try to be a gentleman, so even if I let her go she would want to come back to me. Oh, and Halle Berry too, damn Billy Bob. Just put it in, the guys will get it.

O: What is the best prank that you’ve pulled?

RU: Wow, I could say so much about this one, I was known as the ‘mischievous one’ in high school. Hmm, well I’ve got to think about it because most of them would have to be censored. How ‘bout this one: In high school in Nepal, it was April Fools Day. The target was a couple of my friends that had identical cars. So a couple of friends and I changed the license plates on the cars. Well, the guys, didn’t figure out that they had each others plates for an entire week. One of the guys got parking tickets all the time, so by the end of the week my friend had 20 parking tickets and got arrested for the other guys offense. So that was pretty fun, but he doesn’t talk to me anymore. [laughter]

O: What is a common compliment people give you?

RU: People say I have beautiful eyes. I don’t know how much that is true, but I hear it a lot.