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Café Soma’s Baluwatar branch is probably the best breakfast destination this side of the Bag­mati, the other being at its Lalitpur branch. Come Saturday and the café opposite the Russian Embassy in Baluwatar is filled with early morning birds in search of the best bites to break their fasts. The smell of coffee blended with fresh eggs, sau­sages, bacons, hash browns and all give the place an enigmatic aroma in the mornings, enough to create hunger pangs in anyone.With options for both indoor and outdoor seating, Café Soma serves breakfast, lunch and early dinner to its guests who comprise of expats and locals alike. A little bit on the higher side in terms of prices, the eatery reimburses every penny to its guests through its scrumptious food. Worth a try if you’re looking for a non-conventional cuisine in a calm and peace­ful setting, and on being served with gratitude.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:-

Crispy Chicken Burger

Soma Burger

Full Soma Breakfast

Opening hours : 8 am-8 pm

Location: Baluwatar

Cards : Accepted

Meal for two:  Rs 3,000

Reservation: 4415792

EOL Pvt. Ltd. an enterprise of Chaudhary Group Nepal is the sole distributor of TCL brand in Nepal. For the last 5 years, TCL has been rapidly gaining pop­ularity in the Nepali market and has been successfully positioned among preferred brands like LG, Samsung in segments like LED TVs, washing machines and chest freezers as well. Therefore to build trust among customers in its products, EOL Pvt. Ltd in joint coop­eration with TCL has launched a 3-year warranty on LED TV’s in Nepal. The warranty includes 2 years full warranty and 1 year service warranty (Excludes Curved and UHD TVs category).

The government is planning to bring the service sector within the purview of Value Added Tax (VAT). It intends to expand the tax net from the upcoming fiscal year. Shishir Kumar Dhungana, a Secretary at the Finance Ministry, said that the new measure is being introduced because turnover taxa­tion (TOT) did not produce expected results in the last three years. The ministry has concluded that TOT has resulted not only in low tax collection but also in tax evasion. The threshold for VAT registration was raised with the expectation that TOT would function properly, but that expectation wasn’t met. (Earlier, businesses with annual transactions worth Rs 2 million and more had to be registered for VAT, but that threshold was recently increased to Rs 5 million.)

“Similar to the Goods and Ser­vice Tax (GST) levied in India, VAT will incorporate all goods and ser­vice transactions in Nepal. There is no alternative to this measure also because VAT’s contribution to reve­nue has been going up,” said Dhun­gana. VAT worth Rs 143 billion was collected in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. This is 28.2 percent more than the amount collected in the same period in the last fiscal. Authorities suspected tax evasion when VAT collection in the first six months of the current fiscal sank below target.

In the white paper issued on March 30 by Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada, he had stated raising VAT’s threshold to Rs 5 mil­lion had encouraged businesses to divide their units so as to dodge the threshold. Some thought his statement implied that a lower VAT threshold was in the cards. But in the budget he presented on May 29, it has been revealed that all service industries would be brought under the purview of VAT, irrespective of the scale of their transactions.

The Inland Revenue Department has issued an instruction to that effect. Among the industries that are going to be brought under the pur­view of VAT are catering, education consultancy, night and health clubs, massage therapy, boutique, etc.

The government had introduced VAT on 16 November 1997 with a view to include all indirect taxa­tion. The imposition of a 10 percent VAT had replaced taxation on sales, hotels, construction contracts and entertainment. The last two decades have seen the highest revenue col­lection through VAT, which con­tributes 27 percent of the national revenue. The number of taxpayers with VAT registration has gone up to around 200,000.

BY SHREEDHAR KHANAL | KATHMANDU

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Information Security Response Team Nepal (NPCERT) is organizing the Global Cyber Security Summit (GCSS) 2018 on July 27-28, with the theme “Building Global Alliance for Cyber Resilience”. The summit is intended to empower profession­als and organizations to build security resilience by bringing in contemporary issues of cyberse­curity, mitigation strategies, and solutions with comprehensive cybersecurity infrastructure.

GCSS 2018 will highlight the gaps between busi­ness objectives and cyber security readiness in the changing landscape of security threats. Some of the main objectives of the summit are to analyze the roles of cyber law, cyber policy and cyber security practices in today’s world, to identify the areas in cybersecurity that need to be further enhanced to meet the expectations and needs of businesses, to build a global alliance for cybersecurity resilience, among others.

The GCSS also invites abstracts of pre­sentations from cybersecurity experts, practitioners and researchers. It provides a platform to share knowledge and experience of new cybersecurity trends, technologies, practices and innovations.

For more information: http://npcert.org/callfor­paper.html

Boutique hotels seem to be all the rage in Kathmandu, with many of them sprouting up in the capital city within a relatively short time. The tourist hotspot of Thamel has been shunned by most new entrants who have opened new outlets in more residential areas to provide a “boutique” experience to their clients. So what exactly makes a hotel ‘boutique’? The term is believed to have been coined by American hotelier Steve Rubell in 1984 as he was comparing the Morgans Hotel, the first hotel he co-owned, to a boutique. Since then boutique hotels have sprung up around the world, each advertising their unique features. Petite, classy, personalized and expen­sive (mostly) are some adjectives that define a boutique hotel, even though there are no hard and fast definitions.

We feature a few hotels being marketed as boutique and let our readers decide if they want to try the ‘boutique’ experience.

Royal Empire Boutique Hotel

The Royal Empire Bou­tique Hotel in Baluwatar is getting much attention these days, largely for its hospital­ity and top-notch service. A historic building that has been restored, Royal Empire advertises itself on its Face­book page as “a luxury hotel that blends royal her­itage and modern comfort”. Reading customer reviews, this certainly seems true.

“Our hotel is a renovated Juddha Sumsher palace dat­ing back 200 years,” says Rohit Shrestha, the General Manager. “And we’ve intro­duced some of the most lux­urious modern amenities to this vintage building.” The Royal Empire has tru­ly humongous rooms, each between 400 and 1500 sq. ft, which is almost the size of most apartments. Along with emperor-sized rooms and royal décor, the hotel also has spa facilities, a multi-cuisine restaurant, an event hall and other modern amenities.

Rates: $100-$350 per night

(There’s a promotional offer with around 30 percent dis­count for limited time)

Hotel Heranya

Located at Tej Bhawan, Uttar Dhoka, Hotel Heran­ya is a two-storey palatial building that has been taste­fully redone for the com­fort of well-heeled travelers. Its 17 rooms are beautiful­ly designed, reflecting the Newar Vajrayan, or Bud­dhist architecture of the Valley. The premises have a long history of attracting international agencies like the WHO and UNICEF in the 1980s and WECS and the Peace Corps in the 1990s.

Heranya is a family-run hotel, which defines itself as an ecological enterprise. Solar-powered water heat­ers, rain-water harvesting, organic vegetables and fruits, exotic garden, all add­ed with a touch of unique and personalized service, is what Heranya is all about.

The hotel has deluxe rooms as well as studios apartments for long-term guests with a Kitchenette and added living space.

“We have tried our best to preserve the historic build­ing and added a modern touch to it in terms of facili­ties and services,” says Ravi Manandhar, the manager.

Rates: $45-65 per night

Royal Penguin Boutique Hotel

The Royal Penguin Bou­tique Hotel & Spa, situat­ed on the quieter side of Thamel, is one of the first boutique hotels in Nepal, and is completely based on modern themes. The contemporarily designed building has 20 cozy rooms, an exquisitely designed restaurant and bar, and a full-fledged spa. The hotel is unique in terms of its design as well as its services—pro­viding customized services to its clients who can choose from its “Crazy menu”. They can even order dumbbells and soft toys into their room and book business trips to Hong Kong or South Korea.

Décor at the Royal Pen­guin is an exotic fusion of art and architecture. Outlandish teak root fur­niture is complemented by multi-genre paintings and installation arts in the rooms, lobby and restau­rant. The center of attrac­tion in the décor is a stump of a petrified wood import­ed from Madagascar dating back to the pre-historic time, all of 230 million years ago.

Rates: $50-$90 per night

Maya Manor Boutique Hotel

The Maya Manor Boutique Hotel is owned and operated by the KGH Hotels group, which is one of the most reputed enterprises in the Nepali hospitality industry for over 50 years. A histor­ic mansion turned into a hotel, the quaint building that hosts Maya Manor in Durbarmarg was built in 1935, in what was the hey­day of Rana aristocracy. The building was resurrected after the 2015 earthquake and now is home to the Maya Manor Boutique Hotel.

“We have turned a heri­tage site into a hotel to give a boutique experience to our guests,” says Niraj Bajra­charya, manager at Maya Manor. “This hotel in under the KGH brand so there is no compromising on quality.” Maya Manor overlooks the Narayanhiti Museum and most parts of Durbarmarg and Naxal. The characteris­tic building stands out amid concrete structures in the area and provides a refuge in antiquity to its select cli­ents. Historic artifacts and architecture adorn the hotel premises that also has a lush garden for its guests to spend some quiet time.

Rates: $100-$120 per night

Anil Chaudhari, the 23-year-old son of Gita Devi Chaudhari and Shyam Kishor Chaudhari, has been sentenced to death in Qatar. “Please save our son. We’ve heard he’s being executed. He’s our only son,” Gita Devi and Shyam Kishor beseech anyone who visits their home in Aurahi Municipality-1 in Mahottari, a district in the central plains. They frequently break down and weep, or make a plea to God. Besides Anil, Gita Devi and Shyam Kishor have two daughters, both of whom are married. The Chaudhari family is in profound anxi­ety ever since Anil, who went to Qatar three years ago as a migrant worker, was sentenced to death by firing squad on the charge of murdering and robbing a Qatari national Umair Mohammed Umair Al Ramzani Al-Nauimi. Anil used to work as a general laborer in a car wash company.

Just before his arrest 14 months ago, Anil was planning on returning home within a year. Before the death verdict, his family was under the impression that he had committed a misdemeanor. He had told his family that he hadn’t done anything wrong and that he had been held for investigation. Anil’s parents were therefore hopeful that he would be eventually be released.

He still talks to them on the phone. “I won’t live. I won’t be able to come home,” Anil tells his parents. “We don’t cry on the phone, because if we do, he will too. So we maintain poise and talk cheerfully with him to boost his confidence,” says Shyam Kishor. “He is our only hope for old age; we haven’t been able to think straight.”

“We pray to God day and night and implore the Nepal government to get our son free. In return, we are willing to give all our property to the government,” says a grief-stricken Shyam Kishor.

Shyam Kishor and Gita Devi had taken a loan of Rs 150,000 to send Anil to Qatar. The couple live in a rented room after their house was damaged. They have some land and run a small shop in a pushcart. But ever since Anil’s conviction, they have can neither focus on their business nor take good care of their health. The worry has made them emaciated.

They had dreams of building a new house after Anil’s return. They were also looking for a bride for him. Such dreams have been dashed. Shyam Kishor has already spent around Rs 60,000 on his trips to Kathmandu to knock on the government’s doors and beg for his son’s life. He is not ready to give up yet, even if that means he has to take more loans.

The Nepali embassy in Qatar is coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make an appeal on Anil’s behalf. The embassy has filed a case in Qatar’s appellate court.

Fiction

HOT MILK

Deborah Levy

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton

Published: 2016

Pages: 218, paperback

We meet the heroine of Deb­orah Levy’s new novel ‘Hot Milk’ right after she drops her laptop on the floor, shattering its screen and thus her life, or so she feels. And you quickly realize she isn’t exaggerating when she says so because as you get to know the 25-year-old Sofia Papastergiadis better, you find there really isn’t much to her life that largely revolves around taking care of her mother’s petulant demands. In the novel, Sofia and her mother, Rose, have come to Spain in what is a final effort to find a cure for a universe of bizarre ailments (mostly imagined) that plague Rose. Sofia has her own set of ailments, most of which are psychological, and are probably a result of her terrible relationship with her mother. Back home in Britain, she is a barista, with a degree in anthropology and an abandoned PhD. Forever shad­owed by her ungrateful mother, she has sort of stopped seeing her life as hers alone. But Hot Milk isn’t a story about sadness and lament, though there is plenty of that too.

At its heart, the book is basically about how Sofia fights the odds and, through her anthropological training, begins to examine her life and those around her, to undo the shackles that are holding her back and rebuild her life. As she learns to take risks, and behave however she wants to, she morphs into someone very unlike the Sofia you meet at the start who was just floating through life without much control over it. And it is this transformation that is so organic and, hence, believable, and which makes Hot Milk such a delightful read.

If you think it sounds like another coming-of-age story, you couldn’t be more wrong. Sofia is unlike any other character you have met and it feels wonderful to see the world through her eyes. She, in her weird ways, teaches you to look at life’s little wonders and take pleasure in them. Also, it helps that the lan­guage is beautifully crafted, making you want to reread certain passages over and over again.

Though Hot Milk isn’t a long novel, you will want to take your time with it because it’s almost like poetry, where each line can have many meanings and insinuations. And there’s a little bit of Greek myth thrown in, as an interesting side plot to an already wonderful narrative.