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Marking the special occasion of New Year 2075 BS and as a part of its 3rd Anniversary cele­brations, Himalaya Airlines has reinforced its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative by extending its association with Prayas Nepal, by contributing kitchen utilities and a yearlong supply of notebooks for chil­dren for the educational year of 2075/76.

“We sincerely hope our small contribution supports Prayas Nepal’s efforts to encourage and empower the children, to help them thrive and grow into confident, healthy and strong adults,” Ujjwala Dali, Head of Department, Brand and Service Improvement of Himalaya Air­lines, said at a program inside Prayas premises.

Smart, innovative, energy effi­cient and eco-friendly are words commonly used to describe any consumer electronic or home appliance product. LG refriger­ators have always been popular in the Nepali market as well. The durability, features, aesthetics, after sales service, warranty, and energy savings, are few rea­sons why LG refrigerators have acquired the number 1 position in the Nepali market.

CG Impex (P) Ltd., the sole dis­tributor for LG in Nepal, brings the best refrigerators ranging from single door units to side by side refrigerators with InstaView Door-In-Door features. The new line-ups of the double door units that are common in the Nepali households are equipped with trademark features like Linear Cooling, Door Cooling, Smart Diagnosis, Auto Smart Connect among others.

As part of its CSR, Hotel Yak & Yeti organized an event in honor of Earth Day 2018 this week. Earth Day is the world’s largest environmental movement and the theme for this year was “End Plastic Pollution.” Hotel Yak & Yeti hosted an interactive program in which it invited fifteen Grade 7 students from Tangal Secondary School (Tangal Madhyamik Bidhyalaya) to engage in activities like recycling plastic bottles, planting seeds and trees in the east side garden and making drawings on Earth Day 2018.

Hotel Yak & Yeti’s in-house gardener demonstrated how to make plant pots out of recycled bottles and the children followed. The children of Tangal Secondary School were encouraged to participate in activities such as seeds and tree plantations in the garden as an honor to Mother Earth. There was a special healthy snack box menu prepared by Executive Chef Sagar Singh Rawat for the children and teachers participat­ing in the event.

Chitwan: The Chitwan National Park (CNP) is pre­paring to send a male rhino calf to China.

According to Man Bahadur Khadka, director of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, a team of wildlife experts including veterinarians from China and Nepal examined the rhino calf and verified it to be healthy for the journey. The rhino calf was bred by the CNP at its enclosure at the National Nature Conservation Trust Sauraha. The government has decided to gift two pairs of rhino to China within the next three months. RSS

Rumba is not the only one complaining. Most movies made in the year 2074 have been unsuc­cessful. Only 10 percent of the 83 movies released in the year made a profit; 20 percent broke even. The producers of the rest blamed movie theater owners, actors and distributors for their film’s failure. Most producers who lost their investment are in no mood to make another film.

Although investments in films grew considerably last year, the return on them didn’t meet expectations. Film-mak­ing costs spiked largely because actors’ fees and other expenses increased. The cost of making one film last year ranged from Rs 2.5 million to 30 million. Only a few films were able to take advantage of the global mar­ket, and the domestic market wasn’t big enough to recoup costs. Many films couldn’t be completed on time—another fac­tor that swelled costs.

While 160 films were registered for production at the Film Devel­opment Board, only 83 were released in 2074 BS. Ghampa­ni, directed by Dipendra Lama, was released on the first day of the year. Lili Bili, directed by Milan Chams, and Nepte, direct­ed by Dev Kumar Shrestha, were released on last day of the year.

Most of the films released last year could recoup just 10 to 50 percent of the investment. A tiny number of them, however, made handsome profits—two to three times the investment cost. Films that earned the most profits last year include Chhakka Panja-2, Shatru Gate, Kri and Ae Mero Hajur.

Chhakka Panja-2, directed by Deepa Shree Niraula, per­formed well at the box office at a time when the trend of mak­ing sequels is growing. In fact, it did even better than its prequel Chhakka Panja in terms of box office collections. While the two films have a similar cast, their stories are different. Chhakka Panja-2 was produced with an investment of Rs 15 million.

Shatru Gate, another box-office success, was also made with an investment of Rs 15 million. It is still being screened at a few theaters. Although it is running in the fifth week, it is still giv­ing tough competition to new releases. It’s entirely possible that among the movies released last year, Shatru Gate, which made a whopping Rs 30.2 mil­lion in its first weekend, will be the highest earner. This film with a fairly large cast was directed by Pradip Bhattarai.

Kri, starring Anmol KC and Aditi Budhathoki, did earn a prof­it, but it had to pay a fine worth Rs 1.1 million for plagiarizing a song. Kri was directed by Suren­dra Paudel and produced by Bhu­wan KC and Subash Giri.

Some other films that recouped their investment include Aish­warya, Prem Geet-2, Ma Yas­to Geet Gaaunchhu, Kanchhi and Lili Bili. But because most films couldn’t recover their investment, the overall loss the film-making industry incurred last year totaled Rs 500 million.  

BY ANANTA WAGLE | KATHMANDU

Weekly Editorial Cartoon

Kathmandu: India, for the first time, is said to be pos­itive about allowing trucks with Nepali number plates to carry cooking gas into Nepal. The Indian side reportedly showed this readiness during the Nepal-India Intergovern­mental Committee (IGC) meet­ing in Kathmandu this week.

The Indian side has accepted that it may not be possible for Nepali trucks to meet its rigorous anti-explosion test requirements. Nepal Oil Corporation had last year given permission to 775 such trucks to import fuel from India. But since none of them could get India’s anti-explosion certificates, they have been unable to operate. APEX BUREAU  

A village at a distance of 14 km from the headquarters of Baglung, a district in the western hills, has been practicing an extreme form of exclusion where dalits and non-dalits do not attend each other’s social functions, including weddings and funerals. Dhamja of Kathekhola-3 rural municipality, a community long reputed for its religious diver­sity, is now completely divided. Local resident Bhabilal BK says that in the past two months, the dalits and non-dalits of the village of Asauje have even stopped talking to each other. The locals trace the origin of the problem to a wedding ceremony of a non-dalit family. Some members of this family apparently objected to the presence of an inter-caste couple in the ceremony, following which all attending dalit members boycotted the event.

Before that villagers used to attend wedding ceremonies and funerals together. But they have stopped inviting each other now. And even if they receive an invitation from another community, they don’t accept it.

“My daughter got married last week. I’d invited the whole village, but no one from the so-called upper caste Bistas attended the wed­ding,” says BK. “In fact they made a collective decision not to accept a dalit’s invitation. I had made a special request to the elders of that community and had told them that I would make a separate dining arrangement for the non-dalit community. Still no one came,” rued BK. Despite claims that caste-based discrim­ination here is on the wane, separate dining arrangements for dalits and non-dalits at feasts and festivals are now common.

Not only during celebrations, but the two communities have begun shunning each other even on sensitive occasions like funerals. When the wife of Rana Bahadur BK passed away, no one from the non-dalit community attended the funeral. Another local Amar Bahadur Sri­sha says that caste-based discrimination has wrecked social harmony and unity in the vil­lage. “Our ancestors lived amicably with each other, but now there has been a decisive rift in social harmony,” argues Srisha.

Buddhi Bahadur BK, another local resident, asks heatedly who’s going to speak up against such injustice. “The dalit community has been oppressed for years. We won’t stay silent any­more,” says a visibly angry BK.

“At a time when there is widespread talk of the decline in caste-based discrimination, such cases shock us,” says ward chairman Yam Bahadur Srisha. “Discrimination is firmly entrenched, and taking on a more insidious form,” says Srisha. “Discrimination won’t be stamped out by laws only. A change in attitude is necessary.”