Dasain Ayo
Nepali Times ईspecial 4 - 10 October 2024 #1233
I have been reminded that this week’s Special Dasain Issue is #1232. Didn’t know anyone was counting, but time sure passes quickly.
Nepal is in go-slow mode all year round, but Dasain is a time when the slow going is slower than usual. As a matter of fact, it is a statutory grovelment requirement that civil servants go on a pen-down state-sponsored strike one week before and one week after the two-week festival.
Special Vigilance Squads patrol the corridors of power to carry out spot checks to make sure that no bureaucrats and/or kleptocrats are sneaking into their offices to actually get some work done during Dasain.
MPs are under strick surveillance of their Party Whips, and anyone found engaging in untoward overtime work in the service of their constituents will get a severe tongue lashing, (and even some lip service if they are lucky).
The suggestively titled page 1 story this week is ‘Peak Season’ in which Nepali Times brings to you the Top 10 accessible and easy hilltop hikes that offer stunning views. (Any peak below 4,000m in Nepal is a ‘hill’.) Let us know how many of these peaks you have already climbed by going to comments, and suggest other peaks we may have missed.
And if you cannot hike there yourself, you can bookmark Webcam Nepal Live on YouTube for at-the-moment views of Mt Everest from Syangboche, Khumbu Peaks from the Pyramid at Gorak Shep and other sites. Read all about the man behind the webcams on page 11 (‘Watch Nepal Live’).
In the spirit of Dasain, on page 6-7 we also carry reviews of a Nepali restaurant in Tokyo (‘A Taste of Old Nepal in Tokyo’) and an Italian restaurant in Kathmandu (The Pizzaz of Fire and Ice’).
Nepal’s own Oktober Fest is not complete without a preview of Jazzmandu 2024 (‘Jazzing Up Kathmandu Again’, page 8-9) with profiles of musicians and a schedule of 24-30 October.
The exhibition of photographs from the 1960s by French anthropologist Corneille Jest is a must-view to see how much Kathmandu and Dolpo have changed, or remained the same. The photos are on display at Patan Museum till 18 October. Read review on page 12-13 by Pinki Sris Rana (‘The present meets the past’).
Also read another review on page 12 by Vishad Onta of Dorjee Karmarong’s painting exhibition at Siddhartha Art Gallery (‘Karmarong in Karmarong’) who uses thangka style to portray the life of his people from Humla. Till 21 October.
Durga Rana Magar brings us encouraging news about how rural areas of Nepal’s most prosperous province, Gandaki, are better off than its towns because of remittances and tourism (‘Prosperous Gandaki is Thriving’, page 14-15).
This year’s Dasain spirit has been dampened by the catastrophic floods in Central Nepal. Read Sonia Awale’s Editorial on page 2 (‘When It Rains It Pours’) about why this was not a ‘natural’ disaster, but the record-breaking rain and high death toll along river banks and highways were both manmade.
In a personal and emotional piece, climate finance expert Rastra Raj Bhandari laments: ‘This weekend’s floods have shown me that on the ground absolutely nothing has changed. Those most at risk, are even more at risk.’ His op-ed on page 4 (‘Flood of Despair’) also provides some useful contacts for relief agencies.
This year’s Phulpati is on 10 October and Tika on 12 October.
Reminder that there will be no print editions of Nepali Times on 11 October and 18 October. The next issue will be 25 October. But I will be here with next week’s newsletter with the latest goings-on in Nepal.
Go fly a kite, and don’t work too hard.
Kunda Dixit