February 2012
3 posts
Prabal Gurung: Fade to Light
KASHISH DAS SHRESTHA
NEW YORK: Prabal Gurung, the rising star of the fashion world, settles into a booth at a café in the Lower East Side. Outside, it’s a bright and crisp winter morning. “The regular, please,” he says. The waiter confirms: two eggs, bacon and potatoes, and multi-grain toast. After thinking about it for a second, Prabal settles on a side of orange juice, as he almost...
Friendship, as seen on the highway: A tale of two...
UPENDRA LAMICHANNE
For the news coverage of the Maoists combatants who opted for voluntary retirement and leaving the cantonments with their paychecks, I headed to Shaktikhor in Chitwan from Simara with my friend Deepak Shrestha on February 3. I was wondering how the combatants, who have come from armed struggles, will face this issue. What will be their reactions? ...
The (mis)management of burn injuries in Nepal
A burn victim in Nepal receives treatment only on the third day” should have read the newspaper headlines when a gas explosion left Radha Shrestha and her mother with severe third degree burns. The incident happened on a weekend. On the third day, they were shifted to Sushma Koirala Memorial Hospital for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (SKMH), Sankhu, from Teaching Hospital where they were...
January 2012
44 posts
A generation of stressed children
ASMITA MANANDHAR
At dawn, they revise their homework and arrange their textbooks as per the day’s routine. One more hour, and they hurry on with their breakfast, get into crisply ironed uniform and shiny shoes and walk some 30 minutes with their heavy bags to school. A minimum of five hours then drains them with instructions and some more homework. The school is over for the day, but wait –...
The New Peace Corps era in Nepal
THE WEEK BUREAU
“I assure you that we’ll be on the same train together and we’ll be on the same page together because we aren’t here to work against you or in spite of you. We’re here to complement what you’re doing. We need to work together and we will, and it has to be based on the Nepali ownership.” – Andrea Wojnar-Diagne, the newly appointed Peace Corps Country Director for Nepal in an...
Moneywise: Ask Suman Joshi
THE WEEK BUREAU
Contrary to my parents’ belief, I always thought the banks were a safe place to store your money. However with the scams, the irregularities and the Dashain fiasco when we weren’t able to withdraw money from our own accounts, I’m beginning to lose faith in the institution. And I’m sure there are more like me. What would you do/say to assure depositors like us that we should...
Disaster Preparedness: Only ritualistic & marginal...
UJJWALA MAHARJAN
If the yardstick to measure the awareness level of disaster preparedness in Nepal is that people now realize these calamities are not a result of God’s wrath but a natural geological process, where do we stand in terms of preparedness and effective response? Talking to The Week, Prof. Jiba Raj Pokharel, Director of Center for Disaster Studies at Institute of Engineering (IoE)...
Hurry up, & procrastinate
PRASANNA KC
If you’re man enough and are reading this, you’ll admit that we have a herd instinct. That bit about hearing from your colleagues at work about how they would like to get away from the city to a quiet place for a couple of weeks with nothing on their mind, put it down to bad poetry and an uncanny knack for laziness. For even if we do get away from the hustle and bustle of the city...
It's not just about Monsanto!
DR KRISHNA P SHARMA
Thanks to Monsanto, the question of Nepal’s agricultural future, the challenges of food security and agricultural equity – issues mostly sidelined from Nepali media and national debate – have gained a new momentum. The recent controversial debate on Monsanto’s involvement in USAID and Government of Nepal’s proposed pilot project to increase agricultural productivity has...
Royal Enfield - Improved?
JIGGY GATON
As anyone who follows knows, I’m not an enthusiast of high tech for tech’s sake, even though that’s what I write about here. So it should come as no surprise that I love my Royal Enfield (RE). I’ve had an RE Bullet 350 since 2004, and I’m convinced it’s the best bit of machinery produced during that decade, anywhere. Some folks love their iDevice, but I love my bike because it’s...
Use Fair & Handsome!
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
My grandmother has made it clear to all the chhoras in the family, “Gori, ramri buhari lyaunu hai.” And my crazy cousins have added a whole new twist to this and have come up with an “I date kuhires only” theme only because of my grandmother’s stringent preference for white skin, they claim. Though what was meant and what was chosen to be believed were two very different stories,...
Dear chhimekis, teach our netas how to fish,...
GUFFADI
First of all, let’s congratulate our security personnel for doing a splendid job in keeping us inside our homes or hidden in our gallis during the dumpling gang’s visit to K-town. Our police wallahs will be getting new walkie-talkies, the army folks have already gotten new colonoscopy machines hola, and the APF will get some booty too. Dr. Saheb is probably patting himself on the back...
The Daredevils
BIBEK BHANDARI
On a clear starry night, at 1,400 meters in Shorek in Nepal’s western district of Syangja, Sano Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa talk about the cloud patterns and wind as they look at the night sky. They think it will be a fair day for paragliding the following day. That afternoon, Sunuwar, in what he describes as “one of the best weather” for paragliding, had already done...
"Wants are sexier than needs"
KANCHAN G BURATHOKI
A mix of digital collages, typographies, illustrations, digital prints and mixed media works entitled “Wants are sexier than needs,” it is anticipated to be a visually dynamic presentation of works put together by Shradha Mukhiya and Subesh KC. The exhibition is set to open on Friday, January 20 at the Nepal Art Council. “We send each other several emails a day with poems...
"Will the play still happen tomorrow?"
UJJWALA MAHARJAN
The Sama Natak Ghar at Gurukul is now a canteen. More than half of the hall has been reduced to rubble of bricks and brown dust. A wall is missing; in its place are tall tin planks held up to form a makeshift wall. A few days and this too will be gone; along with all the other walls that had held Gurukul. Over at the second hall, the Rimal Natak Ghar, a rehearsal is still...
Big boys, bigger toys
PRASANNA KC
This goes back a few months. A colleague at work, Dipesh Dai, was reminiscing the time he went for a drive with a client in a brand new Volkswagen Touareg: A new acquisition for Mr. Singh, the client. It was summer. A bright, sunny day one seldom sees these days. As they weaved their way through traffic, they unsurprisingly attracted admiring looks. Heads turned at the sight of the...
The streets and the theatre
CK LAL
This is open season for demolitions in Kathmandu. Almost every actor in Nepali society wants to break away from its own past. Perhaps that is a good sign. However, the frightening part is that nobody seems to know what it wants to build anew in place of the old. Even more terrifying, few seem to care about what is falling all around them. The Nepali Congress (NC) is busy breaking its...
Manjul's musings
MANJUL
Tara tyo mitho geetle timilai Afno bansuri banayenachha. –Lines 16 and 17, “Amako Sapana” by Gopal Prasad Rimal For every poet, there are instances in life which get embedded in their memories as a source of inspiration. The poem “Amako Sapana” by the revolutionary prose poet Gopal Prasad Rimal for me is one of the most heart-rendering and inspiring poems I’ve ever read. The lines that...
Operation Lumbini!
GUFFADI
Our “competent” government will be launching “Visit Lumbini Year 2012” tomorrow at the birthplace of Lord Buddha. If only our “visionary” public servants had any vision, then they wouldn’t have let as many cement factories and brick kilns compete with them bideshi monasteries, ki kaso? While them monasteries offer tranquility, the polluting industries contribute to environmental...
"Whoever broke Adele's heart sure made her rich"
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
…Read one of the widely shared tweets. She was famous before her second album, too, oh yes. But nothing like 21, which has apparently managed to sell as many as 13 million copies, as of January 2012, worldwide! “Never mind, I’ll find someone like you; I wish nothing but the best for you, too,” she sang and I don’t know if she found someone else like him, but she sure as hell...
Joel Edgerton's philanthropic journey in Nepal
SAHARA SHARMA
His latest film, “Warrior,” directed by Gavin O’Connor, received rave reviews from even the harshest of critics. He is also being talked of as the brightest young star of the time. But Joel Edgerton is currently in Nepal, “exploring the real world” and taking a break from his “fickle life.” Edgerton, also the GQ Magazine’s Man of the Year for 2011, has been visiting eye...
Indian industry pollution blankets Terai in fog
SHYAM BHATTA
The dense fog over the Nepal Terai in the second and third weeks of December 2011 took a total of 40 lives because of the resultant cold wave it caused. The trend has followed for the past two decades as dense fog and cold wave claim several lives every year, with the poor always in the frontline. However, as the government had not shown much concern over the annual death toll or...
Moneywise: Ask Suman Joshi
THE WEEK BUREAU
Where do you think the financial sector is headed in the next two years? Please be honest with your answer because the way I see it, I think it’s one big bubble waiting to burst. The financial sector in Nepal has certainly seen better days. We’re witnessing a low point for this industry and are possibly heading to some turbulence. The reasons are many. A few among them are:...
The Punch List
PRASANNA KC
Justin Bieber has put out a new Christmas album. Apparently, the album is a hit. I know this because an intern at the office was going through the playlists on my iPod and she suddenly exclaimed, “You don’t have any Justin?” The naïve that I am, I said instantaneously, “No, I don’t listen to NSync anymore although I do confess I listened to a few of their hit singles in school.” ...
Forbidden love
BHUSITA VASISTHA
The discontinuity between the four-storied staff quarters, washed on the fading yellow of sunset, and the sudden burst of woods that began unexpectedly from the southwest of these quarters at BP Koirala Medical College at Dharan created a little transit where children and squirrels gathered for their afternoon plays. The lane that led to this transit was initially surrounded by...
Radio: Worth another look?
JIGGY GATON
When you think of radio, what sounds do you hear, and what does the radio look like in your mind’s eye? I asked several people this week, and the results were intriguing. The responses were all very different: Wolfman Jack on a transistor radio, Heavy Metal on FM stations over a home stereo, Am talk-radio in the car, pop songs on a Chinese Zune knockoff. But there was one common...
Gas, bus and cuppas
GUFFADI
While our “hardworking” netas are all bundled up, “ordinary” folks are dying across the country because they don’t have warm clothes for the winter. Maybe our “honest” Home Minister should ask one of the “Police” tender wallahs to supply all of us “Parkas” or if there isn’t enough money in the state coffers, we’ll be more than happy to receive “thermal” underwear. At least, it’ll keep...
Hi there, stranger!
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
By nature, I’m not your typical garrulous, chatty sort. I prefer my own crowd of people and more importantly, I prefer to choose this crowd. So it is rather vexing for me when I’m expected to step out of this comfort zone of mine and am looked on with anticipation to play ball. All this is not to say that I don’t like to meet new people and garner new perspectives. In fact, I...
A new Nepal is possible
THE WEEK BUREAU
We stand at a point in history from where a country decides to take a definite course toward a new era in the hope of all-round progress.
It is no doubt a delicate moment which could easily degenerate into crisis, but then such are also the times when momentous beginnings are made. In a way it presents an opportunity to all enthusiasts and leading figures and activists in...
The inconclusive race of the Maoist Left in 2012
POST BAHADUR BASNET
Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” When it happened in 1962, it was a tragedy; and as it repeats in 2011, it looks much like a farce. Back then, it was the contradiction between the party’s revolutionary line and the leadership’s pragmatism that triggered a tragic split of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN),...
The polarization in Nepali political and media...
BISWAS BARAL
One would assume that when it comes to matters of politics and the larger field of social science, the truth between competing set of ideas lies somewhere in the middle, in sharp contrast to the experiments of hard sciences which yield definite positive or negative results, 100 percent of the time. But apparently not in the Nepali political and media landscapes. Of late, the...
Reforms from within: A journalist's perspectives
DAMAKANT JAYSHI
In July 2001, Marani Devi, then 55, from Simardahi Village in Mahottari District was accused of practicing witchcraft and beaten mercilessly by villagers and left for dead. Her case, like hundreds before hers, would have remained hidden in some obscure corner of a news page, had it not been for the Kantipur daily which was relentless in its coverage of the evil...
Learning belongingness early on
CK LAL
It is believed that Socrates began his enquiry with definitions. Voltaire used a similar approach with his interlocutors, challenging them that if they wished to hold conversations with him, they would have to define their terms. Reform and education are contested terms. When the two words are put together, the topic is sure to spark a lively debate. Debates, however, do not produce...
A new year, a new note
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
Now we all know that 2011 is ending, and with that we are entering 2012. Big whoop! Or so I thought. But before I get you reading this and leave you thinking what an awful person I must be who always has something horrible to say, be it about the Garden of Dreams or the roads in Nepal, I shall warn you, this article too, is along a similar note. So if you think I might dampen...
Apa Sherpa on 1,700 kilometers of the Great...
PRASHANT SINGH
In the winter of 2009, Apa Sherpa, the world record holder of climbing Mt. Everest the most number of times, Dawa Steven Sherpa, a two-time Everest summiteer and a tireless climate activist, and I embarked on what we called European Expedition that entailed visiting ten prominent cities in Europe to raise awareness on and to seek global support to fight climate change in the...
Tech reforms for thyself!
JIGGY GATON
When asked to contribute to this special edition on “reform,” I was initially perplexed. The terms reform and hi-tech don’t readily appear to go together. After all, technology is something that moves forward, regardless of the values and morals some would like to attach to new innovations. However, there are a few exceptions: bioresearch and military research are two areas where...
NRB needs strengthening, and AMC must be...
MILAN MANI SHARMA
In 2011, Nepal witnessed a glimpse of its own jitters in the financial sector, which had its roots in three evils that had inconspicuously seeped into the system, mainly due to the laxity of regulators. The evils were: assets bubble, unmanageably high credit exposure of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to the realty sector, and corporate governance problems, or...
Nepal's problems with exports
CHANDAN SAPKOTA
Trade is one of the most vital components of our economy. Exports and imports have a strong bearing on macro economy, employment opportunities and the pace of structural transformation. We depend so much on foreign goods to satisfy increasing domestic demands and a shortfall in production results in imports which is six times higher than our exports. This has resulted in a huge...
Rs 6,200 (US$72.38) a month is your minimum wage
UJJWALA MAHARJAN
Let’s do the math: • Daily two-way transportation – Rs 30 • Three meals a day, forgoing your meat/egg preferences – Rs 150 • Monthly rent for a cramped-up room – Rs 1,800 This way, your basic monthly costs of living in Kathmandu without even considering the bills for water, electricity and communication in your long list of payables already amounts to Rs 7,200 (US$84.06). ...
Applying applications: Any problems with that?
KANCHAN G BURATHOKI
In the arts scene of Kathmandu, there are already several events and occasions to look forward to in 2012. The outcomes of Lasanaa’s residency programs offered at Live Art Hub in the premises of Martin Chautari; the 2nd National Fine Arts Exhibition by Nepal Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Naxal; an exciting exhibition of Chitrakar’s works to be held at the Patan Museum; the...
All the King's men
PRASANNA KC
Last week, the Department of Roads and the Traffic Police in Kathmandu seemed to have been rudely awakened after a long hiatus. Or so it seemed. Houses were being brought down, quite literally, to the streets. An old lady, whose house adjoined the main road, was screaming in vain at the policemen to stop. When they refused, she stood in front of the bulldozer and challenged the...
Our politicians, police and public servants
GUFFADI
We have seen countless revolutions, a referendum and so many reforms but none of themseems to have really changed the lives of common citizens except our politicians, police and public servants. And unless somebody wakes up and smells the Bagmati River, the three Ps will continue to make our lives miserable for many more days to come. Our politicians need to be reminded that while...
Failed policy implementation and remedies
PRABHAKAR GHIMIRE
Food security Food security has attained prominence in the media, especially after the unprecedented global food price hike in 2008, at par with the other two Fs – fuel and finance. Rapid rise in population and shrinking cultivated land are the major factors to bring food security issue to light. In Nepal’s context, the issues of food security recur when agriculture...
Nepal's diplomatic doldrums, especially with...
MURARI SHARMA
Just before I succeeded Kumar Gyawali as Nepal’s Foreign Secretary, both of us went to New Delhi to discuss the 1950 Treaty between Nepal and India. The Prime Ministers of the two countries had agreed to revise the Treaty and tasked their Foreign Secretaries to work on it at the diplomatic level. We flew to India with a sense of expectation and trepidation. Our mission, as the...
Hypertension and cancer in young Nepalis
CILLA KHATRY
Hospital statistics cite majority of deaths in 2011 to hypertension (blood pressure) and cancer. Cardiovascular condition like hypertension is the most frequent cause of demise and cancer comes in second accounting for seven percent of all deaths. In 2011, these two diseases were seen on an alarming rise, especially in the age group of 20-30. Alarming as it is, hypertension,...
Nepali sports: Things to do in 2012
NABIN KHATIWADA
Nepal’s national football team qualified for the AFC Challenge Cup’s final round but could not cross the semifinal hurdle during the SAFF Championship in 2011. Nepali U-19 cricket team qualified for the ICC U-19 World Cup and the senior cricket team qualified for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers but had to be satisfied with fourth position in the ACC T20 Cup in 2011. Nepal won...
Nepal's context of transformation
DR BHIM ARJUN ACHARYA
The 12-Points Understanding of November 2005 between the Seven-Party Alliance and the then rebel Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was instrumental in waging the People’s Movement of 2006, reinstate the dissolved Parliament, remove the direct Royal Rule, and form the Interim Government. The other milestone was the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the interim...
December 2011
42 posts
Know your Nepali games
DIKSHYA KARKI
A game played with concentration and foresight is Nepal’s own homegrown board game of strategic moves. It is called Bagh Chaal (tiger’s moves), which was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons in May, 2010. It was termed a petty game played by the Maoist cadres to pass their time while clamping a six-day strike on the whole nation. The game’s equivalency to Chess was...
Moneywise: Ask Suman Joshi
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author’s and are not held by The Week, unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other forms of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own...
Lamis: Marriage brokers, Nepali style
CILLA KHATRY
Draped in a crimson red sari and adorned with the matching set of golden bangles and earrings and her glistening red nails, she carefully administers the cap of the “expensive perfume,” a gift from a client. The last time she was on a business trip, she had ample budget to renting a car. But today, she’s taking the bus and she’s carrying a black handbag with beads-studded handles...