Nearly six years after leaving Nepal for a life in Australia, 31-year-old Ashish Lama never imagined he would be working alongside his childhood friend.
Ashish and Ankit Rawal met around 18 years ago when they both attended the same school in Nepal's capital Kathmandu and remained friends thanks to a shared passion for cricket and table tennis.
"Ankit and I moved to Australia at a similar time but he went to Melbourne and I went to Sydney … there were a few years when we didn't see other but we were always there for one another," Mr Lama said.
Not only did the pair find themselves halfway across the world in Hobart — as fate would have it, they both started working for Tasmanian energy retailer Aurora and were even placed on the same team.
"When I first found out Ankit was here, I was like, 'wow'," Mr Lama said.
Neither Ashish nor Ankit has seen their family since they left Nepal, and each of them said it was comforting to work right next door to their childhood friend.
"Having good friends around you always helps emotionally and mentally, and they are always there for you whenever you need them," Mr Rawal said.
"When I knew I was going to be working with Ashish, it gave me some sort of assurance that I would have someone there for me".
Growing up in Nepal
Thousands of people have swapped the Himalayas for life in Tasmania, according to the latest census.
Tasmania's Nepal-born community sits at just over 6,000, or 1.1 per cent of the population, and Nepali is the third most-spoken language at home after English and Mandarin.
Both Ashish and Ankit describe growing up in Kathmandu and their childhood as being "pretty normal" despite living through a civil war.
"Even though there was a lot of conflict going on back then, I still had a normal life growing up," Mr Rawal said.
"My father was in the secret service and he would travel a lot so that did have some impact on the family when he was gone, but he never made us feel like he was in trouble".
"Sometimes there used to be a curfew and you would hear about the conflict on the news, but the impact was minimal because we lived in a capital city," Mr Lama said.
Migrating to Tasmania
Both Ashish and Ankit moved to Tasmania in their pursuit of permanent residency and are studying and working full-time.
"My decision to move to Hobart and not to Darwin was one of the best decisions I've made in my life," Mr Rawal said.
"I absolutely love Tasmania and there are lots of similarities between Nepal and Hobart in terms of the size and weather."
"Tasmania has a similar geographic [sic] to Nepal, however, I have a slight complaint with the weather because it feels like winter 80 per cent of the time," Mr Lama said.
The pair plan to make Tasmania home for at least the next few years, which might give Ashish enough time to beat Ankit in the Aurora table tennis challenge.
