Submit your Article

Nepali actress Namra­ta Shrestha, who likes experimenting with her characters in movies, has once again adapted to a bold look for her upcoming movie, Xira. At a press meet for the promotion this week for Xira—the women-centric action movie based on mixed martial arts—revealed her never-before-seen look.Shrestha dons a mohawk for the movie and has lost weight to fit into the character she is playing. Speaking at the event, Shrestha said that although she was not comfortable trimming her hair, she had to do it to justify the character she was playing. She also shared the demand­ing months of physical training she had to under­go in preparing for the character and to shape her body accordingly. The movie aims to empower women and recognize their contri­bution and also to provide a diverse and meaningful por­trayal of the mixed martial arts community.

Directed by Ashutosh Shrestha, the movie is set for release at the end of 2018. The cast includes Anoop Bikram Shahi, Raymon Das Shrestha, Srijana Regmi, Pramoda Agrahari, Samrat Magar and Sujita Shrestha.

Celebrity chef and restau­rateur Vinit Bhatia is embarking on an unprec­edented journey. He wants to open a three-day ‘Pop up Restaurant’ at an Everest Base Camp that is above 17,000 feet-high, and for a good cause. The UK-based chef of Indian origin has been listed among the Top 1,000 Most Influential people in London by Evening Standard, while India Today lists him in the Top 100 Global Indians. The star chef, who owns and operates suc­cessful establishments around the world, is making the trip to the Everest Base Camp to raise funds for the Heart for India Foundation, for the earthquake victims of Nepal and in order to promote gastronomical tourism in Nepal.

Bhatia, and his team that also includes his son Varaul, and colleagues Irshad Qureshi and Tej Bahadur Thapa, are in town at the moment, studying street food and local cuisines of Kath­mandu and preparing for their journey to one of the highest points in the world. The team will leave for the Everest Base Camp on May 26 by flying to Lukla on the first leg of their journey. They will then trek to the Everest Base Camp, foraging for local ingredients to cook up the ‘restaurant’ on June 3, 4 and 5, at the same time document­ing the whole journey in a fea­ture-length film.

“The idea is to do something good and create awareness,” Bhatia says. “It’s really easy to fly to the Base Camp with all the ingredients and cook there. But we want to meet the people of Himalayas, witness their culture, learn their eating habits and incorporate that into our cooking.” He is, how­ever, aware of the challenges he might face in the low-oxy­gen environment—both for his cooking and his health—and believes his positive mental attitude will help him and his team tackle the hurdles.

The menu, Bhatia informs, will be a blend of Indian and Nepali dishes, which he believes overlap. Besides some vital ingredients that will be flown to the Base Camp, the team will forage for locally available resources to create a unique dining experience for the tourists at the Everest Base Camp. “Ad hoc, spontaneous and organic,” is what Bhatia and his team of chefs want the menu to be.

Asked why he chose Nepal and the Everest Base Camp as his route to charity, Bha­tia explains his closeness to Nepal and his awareness about the problems here after the 2015 earthquakes. “There are quite a few Nepalis who work with me and I’ve seen their problems firsthand,” Bhatia adds. “We have contributed before through our hotels and restaurants and this time we wanted to do something our­selves. The support for our cause from people all over the world has been overwhelming and I’m really glad Chef Tha­pa, who is a local Nepali, is accompanying us in the trip.”

Satya Narayan Das Yadav, the youngest son of a wealthy land­lord from Siraha, had to pay a steep price for falling in love with Rasulia Khatun, a poor Muslim girl who labored in his family farm. Yadav’s was an audacious act back in the mid-70s, one that crossed all caste, religion and economic divides. He was chained for months by his family. He was ostracized. He endured deprivation all his life—even up to the present day when he is 63. There still are numerous sayings about landlords in Siraha, a district in the central plains. Landlords used to own thousands of acres of land. They possessed elephants. They had hundreds of servants. It was even said that a newly-wed bride in the village had to be offered to the landlords for the first night. The law didn’t apply to them; in fact it was practically in their hands.

When I met Satya Narayan in February in his dank apartment in Baneshwar, he had just performed Namaz (prayers) and was sitting alone. At first he was reluctant to open up about his love story. But he relented eventually.

The beginning

It was on a day in the monsoon month of Asaar (June/July) over 40 years ago that Satya Narayan’s eyes first fell, and were stuck, on the viva­cious 16-year-old Rasulia. She was one of the many laborers working in a muddy field that was abuzz with activity. Satya Narayan, who was affectionately called Bhrigu, was back home from college in Bihar during his vacation and had saun­tered to the fields to observe the plantation. He still has vivid mem­ories of Rasulia from that day. “She was fair. She had a cheerful coun­tenance, an attractive figure and a bewitching smile. Rasulia was like a fairy.” In fact, her beauty was the talk of the village and beyond.

So struck was Satya Narayan by Rasulia’s beauty that the sight of her that day dramatically changed the course of his life. He began pursuing her doggedly. He went to the fields when she came there to work. On days she didn’t, he roamed around her neighborhood. He concocted numerous pretexts to see her. “I had become crazy about her,” he reminisces.

By and by, Rasulia understood Satya Narayan’s inten­sions. They began meeting in the evenings on the sly. On days he could not see her, he went insane. Because of her, he abandoned his studies. “I did not go back to col­lege,” Satya Narayan remembers.

He belonged to a staunch Hindu fam­ily. Rasulia, on the other hand, was the only child of a poor Muslim fam­ily whose two gener­ations had served Satya Narayan’s family. Soon villagers started gossip­ing about their affair. His father and his brother asked him about it. They were troubled by the social stigma attached to such a relationship. They were vehemently against it and they coaxed and cajoled him to end it. But Satya Narayan would have none of it. So they started beating and chaining him up. “I was ready to endure any pain for Rasulia’s sake. I told them that I love her and am ready to leave everything, but not her,” recalls Satya Narayan.

His mother didn’t have much objection to the relationship. She was ready to fight society’s dogma­tism but was helpless in front of her husband, who was hell-bent against accepting Rasulia as his daughter-in-law. But Satya Narayan was equally obstinate about marrying her. His father even asked him to take Rasulia as a mistress but marry someone from their own caste group.

But Satya Narayan rejected the proposal outright. “How could I take the queen of my heart as a mistress?” he asks rhetorically. “Then they started torturing me again. But I would not cave in.”

From Satya Narayan Yadav to Mohammed Alauddhin

Then the family used the final arrow in its quiver. In an assembly of all extended family members, they said, “Tell us Bhrigu, which one do you choose? Your family and a landlord’s life, wealth and status, or a poor, uneducated, Muslim girl?”

Satya Narayan stood up. For the last time, he touched everyone’s feet as a mark of respect. And, with unshakable determination, said, “I choose Rasulia.”

For Satya Narayan, Rasulia’s shack was an abode of heavenly love. That’s where he went straight. And then headed to a mosque. He donned a white taqiyah (cap). And he started reciting Namaz. The news of the landlord’s son becoming a Muslim for the sake of a woman spread like wildfire. Villagers started call­ing him ‘Haal-miya’ (a recent convert to Islam). Satya Narayan Das Yadav became Mohammed Alauddhin.

The couple lived together for a while before getting married in the Muslim tradition. While Rasulia’s relatives were present for the cere­mony, Satya Narayan’s weren’t. The couple exchanged vows of lifelong love and support.

Satya Narayan’s life was complete­ly upended. Somebody who used to divide farm work among hundreds of laborers now became a laborer is someone else’s fields. But after a while, he asked for his share of inheritance. At that time, his father owned 80 bighas of land. His family declined to give him any land. In the face of societal pressure, they gave him 1 kattha. Satya Narayan was compelled to knock on the court’s doors. That was in 1976. The court ruled in his favor, but he could still get only 1.25 bighas because his father claimed he had only five bighas. Even the small piece of land Satya Narayan got was of an inferior quality that he couldn’t farm or build a house on. He couldn’t sell it either.

Days of hardship

Satya Narayan has been living in abject poverty ever since. He raised his two sons and two daughters in Rasulia’s hut. “It’s been 41 years since I have lived there,” says Satya Narayan, shivering with cold.

The day his eldest son was born is fresh in his memory. He couldn’t afford nutritious food for Rasulia. A neighbor came to their house in the evening and gave him a bag of rice. “Your mom sent it covertly for Rasulia,” she said.

Satya Narayan’s mother used to dote on him. She had nine bighas of land in her name, which she wanted to divide equally among her two sons. But her plan was thwarted by Satya Narayan’s father and brother. “My mom died from worry”, says a visibly emotional Satya Narayan. “I couldn’t even see her for the last time. No one called me for her last rites.”

He couldn’t educate his children properly. His eldest son had to dis­continue school after grade five because he couldn’t afford the Rs 55 fee. His other children are illiterate. “The children of my brother and cousins became CDOs and doctors. And engineers and politicians. Some went to the US and to Australia.” But Satya Narayan’s eldest son is a fishmonger in the village. He talked to his other son on the phone eight years ago. “Dad, I am a plumber in Kolkata. I will come to the village one day,” Satya Narayan remembers his son’s words. But he didn’t return. Satya Narayan doesn’t know where he is now. Both his daughters are married.

His father also passed away a few years ago. The whole village was invited to his funeral, but not Satya Narayan. Still he went there. Some­body gave him food which he ate in silence. And he left without talking to anybody.

Now Satya Narayan is worried about his grandchildren. He has given up hope that he’ll ever receive his share of inheritance. At his son’s insistence, he filed a case at the district court. He lost. Two years ago, he filed another case at the appellate court. The verdict isn’t out yet but he’s not optimistic.

Satya Narayan and Rasulia lived a life of deprivation but full of love. He has no regrets. These days he spends his time staring blankly into the distance. He doesn’t talk much. But he misses Rasulia terribly. Because she left him, and her worldly life, nine years ago.

Satya Narayan in his friends’ eyes

He’s a childhood friend of mine. He endured untold suffering for the sake of love. His father and brother chained him up for more than a month. They left no stone unturned to make him leave the village; they even threatened to kill him. But Satya Narayan remained steadfast. In our region, Yadavs don’t marry Muslims even now. What Satya Narayan and Rasulia did over 40 years ago was unimaginable. They set an example. They taught us that caste, religion and economic status should not be impediments to love.

– Ashok Yadav, 58

I compare their love with that of Laila and Majnu. They were beaten up. Rasulia was like a fairy. Satya Narayan’s father had promised him that he’d find a more beautiful wife for him than Rasulia. Had he married the girl that his father chose, he would be living in a palace now.

- Bechan Yadav, 50

So intense was their love that they were inseparable. Satya Narayan’s life was destroyed because of his love. For its sake, he didn’t care about wealth, caste or religion. Had he not married Rasulia, he would have lived in a palace.

- Amarnath Yadav, 55

By RAJU SYANGTAN

(with help from Santosh Yadav in Siraha)

Non-fiction

INDIA NOW AND IN TRANSITION ED. BY ATUL K THAKUR

Daulat Jha

Publisher: Niyogi Books

Language: English

Pages: 448,

Rs 595 (Hardback)

‘India Now and In Transition’ is a sharp and scholarly collection of essays edited by the journalist and prominent commentator on the South Asian affairs, Atul K Thakur.

The book packs in 37 insightful essays from prominent writers and opinion-makers like Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Tabish Khair, Manu Joseph, Chandrahas Choud­hury, Atul K Thakur, Robin Jeffrey, Vinod Rai, TSR Subramanian and Wajahat Habibullah. The names will be familiar to those who follow Indian opinion writing.

Covered are politics and gover­nance, economics and develop­ment, security and foreign policy, society and culture, and language and literature. Moreover, it has an incisive introduction by the editor, Thakur, and a special foreword by eminent Historian Sunil Khilnani.

‘India Now and in Transition’ is based on how India is being shaped by contemporary political events and other key determinants. At the outset, it is made clear that this book intends to be not a prognosis (which is often confused with prediction), but rather an inquiry into futures based on current happenings. This necessarily entails deconstruction of the past.

Essentially, the book signals, India’s present is not exactly linked with the democratic idealism of past, and its immediate future is unlikely to create a greater basis of harmony, either at home or abroad.

The remarkable piece by the edi­tor deals with the alienation of “the ‘Real Other’ of the world’s largest democracy” and consistent failure of the state to come to terms with it. It discusses ‘radical dissent’ and the challenges surrounding it. Written with a broad canvas, this piece will be of keen interest to readers in Nepal as well.

On strategy side, Dhruva Jaishan­kar’s piece is certainly important for strategic thinkers and practitioners of Nepal, who have to everyday live with the fallout of India’s strategic choices. The long piece on foreign affairs by Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy covers Nepal amply. In fact, Nepal gets ample space in other parts of the book as well, which was perhaps expected from an editor who has frequently written on India-Nepal relations.

India Now And in Transition offers fresh insights into several crucial areas, elements that have shaped modern-day India, be it the com­plex set of state-center relations under the country’s federal system, the challenges of territorial/cultural diversity, or the contradictory out­comes of economic reforms.

This book looks diligently at the successes and failures of India’s tryst with democracy. There is con­sideration for truth-seeking rather on striving to secure a politically correct side. It should be of interest to anyone who has an interest in policy matters and the fast-changing politics, society, governance and economic processes in India and to a large extent, in South Asia.

By Daulat Jha

The author is a Kathmandu-based journalist

[email protected]

Nepal has made zero progress in exploring petroleum in the past three years. The task of exploring and extracting petro­leum products was given to a Chinese govern­ment-owned company in the wake of the acute shortage caused by the five-month-long block­ade imposed by India in 2015-16. KP Sharma Oli, the current and the then prime minister, had even signed an agreement with the Chinese government to that effect in early 2016. Immediately following the agreement, Nepali officials and technical experts from the Chinese company had conducted a field study of some half-dozen districts with petroleum potential. But even two years after the preliminary study, the exploration works remain stuck—largely due to official indifference.

It’s as if the government, which expressed strong interest in petroleum survey during the blockade, forgot about it once the shortage eased. This despite the fact that the China has pledged aid worth Rs 2.5 billion, as well as tech­nical assistance, for petroleum exploration.

What’re the chances?

Sudhir Rajaure, chief of the petroleum exploration promotion project at the Department of Mines and Geology, claims that the preliminary study was not particularly fruitful. “We had submitted detailed data on potential petroleum sites to the Chinese team. Based on our data, they had carried out field research. But the project could not move ahead as the Chinese team gave us no further infor­mation. We repeatedly wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make inquiries with the Chinese company, but we didn’t hear from them,” says Rajaure.

He informed that there are 10 potential regions in Nepal—mostly in the Madhes, inner Madhes and the Chure range—for petroleum extraction. Similar regions in Assam (India) and Potwar (Pakistan) have been producing petroleum for a long time.

“The first task is to identify the quantity and quality of petroleum at a particular site. The whole process—from preliminary study to extraction—takes at least three years. To ascer­tain the presence of petroleum in a particular site, some drilling is necessary,” says Rajaure.

In the late 1980s, the Department of Mines and Geology had drilled some 3,500m at a site in the south-eastern district of Morang. But no remnants of petroleum deposits were found. Rajaure thinks that the drilling has to go up to 4,000m deep in order to strike oil.

Extremely risky investment

But if no oil is found, it will mean a loss of billions. The work is inordinately costly as it requires sophisticated technology and high­ly-skilled technicians. So the government has reason to be hesitant about investing in petro­leum exploration. And without ‘reasonable certainty’ that Nepal has oil, renowned global oil-exploration companies won’t be attracted here, opines Rajaure.

In Kathmandu, the extraction of methane hasn’t been effective either. It has been found that 14 sites east of Teku have methane under­neath them. A preliminary study was also con­ducted in Imadol last year.

By Pawan Timilsina | Kathmandu

There are a few good points in the govern­ment’s Programs and Policies, unveiled on May 21, in what is a precursor to the national budget that will be presented on May 29. One good point is the setting of clear deadlines for big infra­structure projects. For example the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa is to be completed within a year while the Pokhara Regional Internation­al Airport is slated for completion within three years. Such clear timelines will help observers evaluate, in real time, if the government is making steady progress.

These are not the only time-bound promises. The government also envisions close to double-digit eco­nomic growth in the next fiscal and sustained dou­ble-digit growth within five years. Similarly, the average income of a Nepali is to double over the next five years, to over $2,000 from today’s base of $1,004. Progress on this front should also be easy to track as the doubling of income can happen only if the economic growth in each of the next five fiscals hovers around 10 percent.

The government’s backers have termed the new programs and policies ‘visionary’, while critics have dubbed them ‘overambitious’. The critics have a point. For instance it took nine years for the average Nepali’s income to double to $1,004; but this government wants to double it again within five years. Likewise, economic growth over the past two decades has averaged a pal­try four percent; the government aims to take it to 10 percent (or thereabouts) within a year.

There is nothing wrong in dreaming big. After all, no other post-1990 government had the kind of resound­ing mandate that the current left government enjoys. Barring a political catastrophe, it will serve out its five-year term. That is important. Chopping and changing of governments every nine months or so wreaked havoc on the economy. The decade-long Maoist insur­gency proved even more costly. Now, finally, there is a semblance of political stability, which bodes well.

Yet the kind of economic turnaround the left gov­ernment aims for will happen only through sweeping reforms. Cartels of all kinds have to be dismantled. It should be easier for businesses to open and close, and to hire and fire workers. Moreover, big hydro projects should come through on time, and new industries set up to absorb the growing labor force. They won’t hap­pen overnight. Can the ruling Nepal Communist Party display the kind of unity and single-mindedness that will be needed to realize these ambitious goals?

After first going to India and then hosting his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, Prime Minister KP Oli is now laying the ground for his state visit to China in early June. Starting with his time as government head during the 2015-16 border blockade, Oli has consistently emphasized Nepal’s need to maintain a calibrated balance between India and China. The five months of the crippling blockade had cruelly brought home to Nepalis the dangers of overreliance on any one of its two big neighbors. Oli, both during his first term as prime minister and later in the opposition, continued to strongly pitch for ‘equidistant’ relations. Thus it is not surprising that having done his bit to mend his frayed ties with India, which were badly damaged during the blockade, PM Oli, in his second inning as prime minister, is now focused on enhancing relations with China. Oli has made no secret of his ambition to make Nepal a ‘vibrant economic bridge’ between the two economic powerhouses next-door. To this end, during his upcoming China trip, he will focus on operationalizing the landmark Trade and Transit treaty that he had signed during his 2016 China trip as prime minister.

“My understanding is that China wants Prime Minister Oli to come with clear plans of the projects Nepal wants to develop under the Belt and Road Initiative [BRI],” says Gopal Khanal, PM Oli’s former foreign policy advisor. “So far Nepal has failed to offer a credible and specific plan on how it is to benefit from the BRI.”

Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali, while speaking to media-persons in Beijing recently, seemed to suggest that Nepal was keen on having China develop some big-ticket infrastructure projects in Nepal under its BRI initiative. “Nepal has expectation that the initiative should contribute to the development of physical infrastructures, enhancing cross-border connectivity including railways and roads, pro­motion of trade, tourism and investment, and people-to-peo­ple relations,” he had said.

In other words, Nepal wants China to foot the bill, in toto, for connectivity projects. For instance, in addition to China bearing the expenses of the railway line up to Rasuwagadhi on the border, Nepal wants its northern neighbor to also pay for the rail link from Rasuwagadhi to Kathmandu (and beyond). Nepal could likewise lobby for the enlistment of the Damak Industrial Corridor project and cross-border electric­ity transmission lines under the BRI initiative.

During bilateral talks, the Chinese, for their part, may seek a formal extradition treaty, like the kind Nepal has with India, says someone privy to Oli’s upcoming China trip.

But by and large it will be a case of PM Oli putting forth a laundry list of expectations before the Chinese leadership.

Kathmandu: Ruling party leaders including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and leaders of main opposition Nepali Congress held a meeting on May 23. In the meet at the Prime Minister's residence, Baluwatar, matters related to contemporary political issues including formation of parliamentary committee, parliament regulation and interim work procedure and government's policy and programs were discussed, the Prime Minster Office shared. On the occasion, PM Oli urged the main opposition party leaders to move ahead on the agenda of formulating parliament regulation on consensus.

Ruling party leaders present on the occasion were CPN Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha, General Secretary Bishnu Poudel na leader Subas Chandra Nembang. Likewise, leaders present on behalf of the opposition were NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel, general-secretary duo Shashank Koirala and Purna Bahadur Khadka, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Bijaya Kumar Gachchahdar and Dr Minendra Rijal. RSS