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...
Growing up and flushing down
SMRITI MALLAPATY
For veteran Bagmati Civilization activist Hutta Ram Vaidya, who has recently taken to cutting out pictures of high-rise apartments from daily newspapers and pasting them onto poster paper, the new housing developments are the latest attestation of what has and continues to go wrong with his city, Kathmandu: Rapid unplanned urbanization with no consideration for the cultural...
Needs and wants
PRASANNA KC
I dig advertisements. I’m one of those who believe that doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you’re doing, but no one else does. But having worked in an industry that screens and assesses aspiring businesses, I also know by now that no matter however far your travels take you, you’ll never find a girl who smiles at you from the...
Robot Facebook and other strange developments
JIGGY GATON
As a longtime Sci-Fi freak, any new developments in robotics always catches my eye, and this week, a new website for robots did so explosively. That’s right; I said a website for robots, not humans. www.myrobots.com is now open for business, and is being hailed the “Facebook” for your robot, if you’re one of the millions who already have one. Whether you own a Sony AIBO robot dog,...
Roads better less traveled
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
I lost a friend today. It wasn’t a disease, it wasn’t his age; it was an accident that claimed his life. One minute, he was living, breathing, laughing; the next, his life ceased to exist. His mother weeps gently. I think the message is finally sinking in, and she has come to terms with reality. All his friends, including myself, are standing outside the Emergency Room of the...
The joke is on us
GUFFADI
The country’s oldest Democratic Party finally got its chance to show us how low they can be when it comes to them bandas! The other parties have had the decency to inform the common citizens of their so-called Banda at least a day before they took to the streets and burnt tyres and what not. I guess our so-called “Gandhi”wallahs were tired of being labeled “inosaurs” and “old school”...
Tax evasion and corruption
CK LAL
The private sector characterization is amorphous. Small farmers, roadside vendors and rickshaw-pullers have all made some investments and manage their own activities. Technically, they too belong to the private sector. However, their endeavors barely help them earn a living. It would be more appropriate to call them actors of the Subsistence Sector. Local governments should be able to...
We writers know no bounds
BENJU SHARMA
“Srashtaharuko kunai bhugol hudaina ra srijanapani bhugolko rekhabhanda maathi hunchha.” - In a foreword written by Govinda Raj Bhattarai for the poetry anthology “Sagarmathako Nrityamagna Aatma” compiled by Momila This line says that a creator does not have a particular geography and a creation too transcends the borders of geography. Writers are very insightful people and their...
Learn from Afghanistan
NABIN KHATIWADA
After the Soviet invasion, there followed the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan. Now Afghanistan is fighting a war against terror, and its cities are often rocked by attacks and bombings. Nepal also suffered a decade-long conflict and civil war in the country but it is moving much faster in the direction of peace building. However, if we talk about sports, Afghanistan’s pace is...
Coming together: Live Art Hub
KANCHAN G BURATHOKI
On November 30, 2010, visual artist Ashmina Ranjit had announced that the alternative art trust Lasanaa planned to open a Live Art Hub in the near future. A year later, the arts community witnessed the inauguration of the Hub in the premises of Martin Chautari, Thapathali. Funded by the Danish Embassy, the Hub officially opened on Monday, December 12, 2011 and it is here...
If you don't like your work, you better earn...
PRASANNA KC
I’m a sucker for freebies. To me, it largely makes sense to buy a pair of jeans when a shop advertises “Buy one and get one free.” That way, by way of simple math, I can get two for the price of one. Unfortunately, companies have long understood this consumer psychology. As a result, we have a scooter that runs on fuel; but you can also choose to not use the fuel and pedal instead. ...
Talk about misjudging
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
I’m sitting in a café as I write this. Sipping coffee, I’m wondering to myself: how easy it is to jump to conclusions. A guy and a girl on a secret rendezvous have to be having an affair. The man is always going to lie in a relationship. And recently, considering my present surrounding, a Thai girl with a foreign man has to be a prostitute. It’s easy to forget that they are just...
A B-grade movie
GUFFADI
Dr. Saheb has given himself a ‘B’ grade for his overall performance so far as our national team captain. And even Kollywood movies have far better storylines than the nataks we’ve seen since our smarty pants dazzled us with his Mustang ride. Even though our movie-wallahs haven’t gotten over the Bollywood 80s action-pack masalas, at least the good guy bashes up the villains and wins in...
Nepal's Maoists reveal wartime scars
DEEPAK ADHIKARI
SHAKTIKHOR CANTONMENT, Nepal — As Man Bahadur Chhetri contemplates life away from the squalid camp in which he has languished with hundreds of comrades for five years, his thoughts turn to the horrors of war. Chhetri is among 19,000 Maoist fighters who have been confined to makeshift rural cantonments since Nepal’s ten-year insurgency ended in 2006, as rival political factions...
Sipping hot Tongba in cold winter
UJJWALA MAHARJAN
Even Yetis wander in and around the high Himalayan houses drooling for the warmth of the sweet heady Tongba. At least, that’s what the legends say. So, people flocking to restaurants and bhattis (local bars) to sip on this warm winter brew is not at all an unusual sight. Tongba, which is a millet-based alcoholic beverage, is a traditional drink indigenous to the Kiranti...
The dying art of traditional Newar pedicure
UJJWALA MAHARJAN
“Ala,” a deep red moist mixture, a brush the size of a small finger, a tiny steel bowl– and “chhalancha,” a metal tool, spade-shaped at one end and flat at the other are what Nanu Maya Napit carries in her pouch to cut, file and adorn toenails the traditional way. But only a few still choose to trim nails her way, and the cult, once a part of the Newar culture, is becoming...
Junk (ed) is in
KANCHAN G BURATHOKI
In June this year, we had 14 artists presenting their ceramic creations in “Expressions in Clay.” Then Meena Kayastha had her first solo exhibition of sculptures titled “Lyrics from the Junkyard” in August. Working once again with junk materials are 29 second-year undergraduate students of Kathmandu University Center for Art & Design (KUart). Currently on show at the...
Sagarmatha National Park's "burning-melting"...
KASHISH DAS SHRESTHA
It is lunch hour and the Illy Café is brimming with guests. Not the one in Kathmandu, not even the one in Lukla. Lakpa Sherpa, who started Aashraya Foundation Nepal, is about to have his lunch at the brand new Illy Café in Namche Bazaar (altitude: 3,450 meters). Other guests sip hot drinks and chat, or use the WiFi. The previous evening, four young girls whose wardrobe...
Tears in Korea
KANAK MANI DIXIT
The KIMFF, which opened on Thursday afternoon with uplifting words from smiling Mingma Sherpa, the summitteer of 14 peaks over 8,000 meters, suddenly entered into a world of heartbreak and introspection with the inaugural film, Buried in Tears, by Ashok Thapa. Premiered at the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, the 42-minute documentary concentrates on the work of...
Sikh art in UK
BIBEK BHANDARI
On a sleepy Saturday afternoon in Slough, a borough west of London, Nidar Singh Nihang knows how to keep a group of young men awake. Inside an empty hall of a church on London Road, Nihang is an authoritative figure. As 20 men, most of them from the Sikh community, surround him in a semicircle, he demonstrates some self-defence skills. With subtle hand and body movements, he...
Women always worry about the things that men...
PRASANNA KC
I’m one of those people who always listen to what their dentists say. Six months ago, when Dr Banu Sharma suggested I floss, how I listened! I now have Made-in-USA floss in each of the bathrooms in my apartment and one in the living room which entitles me to the luxury of not having to look around for one as soon as my meals are over. Just the other day, as I was brushing my teeth,...
The duct tape
BHUSHITA VASISTHA
It was the day when the Earth would come to an end. A clump of smoky, frilly clouds pregnant with rains stood as a testimony. “Hey you, we’re late,” Dada shouted as he ran. My brother wouldn’t call me by my name. Not even when the earth was coming to its end. “But I can’t find the ball,” I said as I craned over from the swampy little cave under our bed. My nostrils flared up...
Wedding banda
GUFFADI
Wedding season is here. Time to buy some earplugs as your neighbors dance to the latest Bollywood “item” numbers till the wee hours. The party palaces seem to close down by 10 but the music seems to go on forever at the “Swagat” house. Even the aunties seem to be reliving their dreams of dancing like Rekha and Sri Devi hola ni. Or should I say, they will give Rakhi Sawant and Malaika...
Mysteries and surprises abound
AMENDRA POKHAREL
Reading Richa Bhattarai’s short story collection “Fifteen and Three Quarters” left me upbeat. Not that she has produced a masterpiece, or anything close, but each story is a proof of the promise she holds as a fiction writer. Most of the stories in the collection leave you with the impression that here is a writer who is certain to come up with works in the future that will...
Scary statistics
JIGGY GATON
I just read that American kids now spend more time – about eight hours a day – consuming and creating media than they do in school. SMS, Twitter, and hundreds of thousands of apps are consuming that entire generation. Latin, music and arts are pastimes of the past for Generation Z. Well, at least in that part of the world… Worldwide, there is an estimated 40 billion video...
Restaurant rumbles
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
Thamel was it, then. It was the place to go to, hang out and just enjoy some time off from routine. Granted, Thamel was sordid and degrading in some ways, but it was still pretty much the preferred outing spot. Not to forget, Durbar Marg also had some fine culinary delights. And as I remember, the whole restaurant affair was mostly cluttered around the Thamel-Durbar Marg area. ...
Monsanto comes to Nepal
KASHISH DAS SHRESTHA
Traveling through Nepal anytime of the year is to watch a country engage in some form of agriculture. This is not just work, but a way of life; festivals, rituals, even politics, are planned around plantation and harvest seasons here. But Nepal is a hungry agrarian nation. An estimated 75% of the country’s labor force is engaged in agriculture and the sector accounts for...
There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but...
PRASANNA KC
My father, before he retired from active service, was a helicopter pilot for some 30 odd years. Occasionally, when I was a small kid and home from boarding school for the holidays, he’d take me on one of his ‘test flights’ where we would hover for a few minutes in the air before landing somewhere close to the airport. Although I didn’t quite approve the idea of flying then (long...
Guards atop ivory towers
CK LAL
The aphorism that a city never sleeps also implies that wakefulness made urban primacy over modern society possible in the first place. From hunters and gatherers to pastoral cultures had to conform to the constraints of light and darkness during day and night. Seasons are important elements of agricultural civilizations. Industrial societies flourished with the invention of mass...
One last chance
GUFFADI
Let us all congratulate our visionary leaders once again for extending the Constituent Assembly term for another six months. We have already had four comrade prime ministers and four extensions so far, but even a rough draft of the constitution appears nowhere in sight. The Supreme Court tells our netas that they can’t keep on extending the CA forever. This is their final chance to...
Aljhieko Maan
MOHAN BAJRACHARYA
The verses in this collection deal with the author’s experience of joys and sorrows, of dejection, love, patriotism, the ties that bind the human soul with nature, and spiritual beliefs. Written over a span of 36 years, they reflect the vicissitudes of that long journey. Those inclined to lyricism will find in these songs much that is their cup of tea. The songs will also...
Facebook Marriages
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
The marriage season is back bringing the opportunity to keep an eye out for all eligible bachelors and bachelorettes in town. The time has come and the hunting ground, all set for the season, is open. But much like everything else in today’s world, this ground is virtual. Enter Facebook. The meetings over, what I imagine to be, excruciatingly painful cups of tea are oh-so-passé...
Monsanto's 'bio-imperialism'
VANDANA SHIVA
South Asia in general and the Himalaya in particular have two unique characteristics. Firstly, it is very rich in biodiversity. Secondly, its people who are predominantly small and marginal farmers are also financially very poor. When global seed corporations enter South Asia, they begin with hybrid seeds and then move on to genetically engineered patented seeds. This has...
Saving Kathmandu's vintage vehicle heritage
PRAMIT DABADI
In the heart of Kuleshwor, the Shri Bishwokarma Wayside Garage stands firm among the various shops on the lane between Kalanki and Balkhu. When you enter the building, framed pictures of labeled parts of classic cars and revolutionary car designers like Colin Chapman and Andre Citroen, among others, greet you. The small area is well utilized with about five vehicles cramped inside...
Age is an issue of mind over matter, If you don't...
PRASANNA KC
It normally takes my barber, the blatantly friendly neighborhood “thakur”, 45 minutes and costs me 50 bucks for a haircut. This one time, it took him 15 minutes and cost me 100 bucks. This is the story. I was working on my desk one fine day when I ran smack into my elder sister’s friend I hadn’t seen in a few years. ”I almost didn’t recognize you,” she said. “You look thin, frail...
All that glitters is gold
GUFFADI
Our ‘honest’ ministers are disclosing their personal assets and most of them seem to have more than 50 tolas of gold, properties in their hometown and in the city and few animals to pass them off as farmers so that they can get a loan from some rural co-operatives. It’s a good thing that our ministers are not afraid to disclose their personal assets anymore. The bad thing is that they...
In love with the classics
DP BHANDARI
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, or Osho as most people know him as, said these words when he was asked which it is that man is more afraid of: life or death. This book “The New Man, The Only Hope for the Future” has chapters where a question is asked and Osho answers it in such a simple way. This line, generally, may seem pessimistic but this is the fact – the truth. Every man, when he...
And thus we move head
AYUSHMA BASNYAT
My country has always intrigued me. Well into the 21st century, and we’re still plagued by questions that revolve around basic necessities like if we have enough water coming from our taps, or enough petrol to get us from here to there, or enough gas to warm our foods, or electricity. As a kid, I remember occasionally seeing a big water truck drive into one of my neighbors’ house...
Vintage & Retro Rides
CILLA KHATRY/ASMITA MANANDHAR
Vintage pride Owner of two vintage bikes, Upendra Shakya feels that his bikes are an extension of his personality. The 1962 BSA C-15 and the 1980 Yamaha are his most prized possessions. The BSA was bought at an auction at Singh Durbar and was not in the best of conditions. It took Shakya quite a hefty sum to restore the bike since the parts were unavailable in Nepal...
Vintage vehicles on the streets
PRAMIT DABADI
When the first cars entered Nepal, they were all carried in since there were no roads to the country but there were roads within. Most of these vehicles were for either the royal family or the then ruling Ranas. Now almost half a century later, many of those once-legendary and grand cars have turned into scraps or junks of metal lying on mossy grounds. However, there are a few...