In its second year, the one day Nepali "Mela": The Himalayan Festival held at Nathan Philips Square on the 26th of August 2007 in Toronto took off from where it left the same day last year and to an even greater height this time. Attended by over thousand people representing different cultural background, this year's "Mela" had something for everyone who came out: delicious Nepali food, photos and painting exhibition, dance and music workshop, face and mehndi painting, and a plethora of resource booths offering insights into the different facets of Nepal. Knowing that people will want to take a part of "Mela" home; 300 beautiful red color t-shirts with white print stating - Nepal, home of Mt. Everest at the back and Nepali "Mela" 2007 in front; were designed that one could own only at $ 3.00 each. All this was beautifully complimented by colorful dances and musical performances on-stage by some of our popular local artists. Equally melodious were the new National Anthem of Nepal and O'Canada sung by the artists, the Nepali folk songs sung by Chris Hale and the flute, "Madal" and "Sarangi" played by Pradeep Baskota, Naveen Vaidya and Buddhi Basyal. Little kids impersonating Gods and Goddesses also looked very graceful. While the turnout of people and the presence of several entertaining activities at the square indicated an increasing popularity of this event both among Nepalese and non-Nepalese in Toronto, what was also encouraging to see this year was the extent of media coverage that we received from some of the major media in Toronto such as City TV, OMNI TV, ATN to name a few; a sign that the diasporic Nepali culture and community is being accepted as an essential part of Canada's mainstream and multiculturalism. NCCS is thankful to Naba Raj Gurung for effectively coordinating with all the media people.

One of the bigger challenges for

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