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If you could do so, what one thing would you change about yourself?

Time management. Usually I end up doing things at the last minute. K taal k taal?

One Nepali band, besides yours, that you'd love to be the part of?

I know I don't fit anywhere besides Catch 22. 

Pub gig or arena rock?

Why not both?

What really makes you angry?

When someone tries to bend the simplicity of the fact.

What motivates you to work hard?

Success motivates me.

If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life what would it be?

Dal, bhat, tarkari. That’s what brought me up.

Are you sunrise, daylight, twilight, or nighttime? Why?

Sunrise. The rest is unpredictable. You know what I mean.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from a failure?

Still learning.

Who, from the Nepali music industry, inspires you the most?

A few of my friends with whom I grew up learning and doing music.

A message to young and upcoming musicians?

Keep doing music. Put your soul into it.

Kathmandu gets a new place to rev up. The Ultimate Hima­layan Motorland promises to be the breeding ground for the country’s motor-adventurists and an adrenalin-filled addition to the ‘Things to do’ list of visiting tourists to Nepal. The property sprawling over 4.4 acres has both tarmac and off-road race tracks, in the two firsts for Nepal. With motorsports as its theme, Ultimate Himalayan Motor­land offers adventure sports as well as training. At the venue, one can participate in various recreational activities and get expert training. The Chairman for Ultimate Himalayan Motorland is Anil K. Baral and Diprash Shakya is the Managing Director.

The venue is open to individuals, groups and even corporate houses. The services available at the Motor­land are venue hire, track hire, rec­reational Go-Karting, recreational racing and more. The property is also open for concerts, TV Shows, camping, bikers/car meets, exhibi­tions and auto shows.

An advocate of road safety and responsible driving, the Motorland offers various training programs such as racing training, marshal training, pit-crew training and road-safety training. The driving lessons range from beginners to advanced levels.

For the upcoming year, the company, which is affiliated to the National Sports Council, has already announced a list of races, including Racemandu, Crossman­du, Race Nari, Youth Karts Cham­pionship, Auto Gymkhana and other corporate and school-level competitions. 

More information: https:// ultimatehimalayanmotorland.com

MD Diprash Shakya and Chairman Anil K. Baral

Making chaku (molasses) is my family business. Even my great-grandfather was in it. I grew up working in family business with my father and grandfather during my childhood and teenage years. I don’t remember the exact date but when my grandfather died around 1965, we stopped the business and moved to Kalimati. Our family started some other business.

But in 2004, I began to have second thoughts. Why don’t I continue my family’s legacy of chaku-making in Tokha, I questioned myself? I then convinced myself to restart the business under a new name. Now I make chaku throughout the year. Everyone knows my com­pany as ‘Bhai Lal Chaku’ and my chaku is famous as far afield as Banepa.

Annually, we purchase around five tons of brown sugar, the raw material. The brown sugar costs us around Rs 70 a kilo while we sell our chaku to whole­salers at Rs 140 a kilo. The Nepali month of Magh ( Jan­uary-February) is important for us. Each season, we make around Rs 100,000 in net profit. Chaku produc­tion for Magh starts three months earlier. Right now, I have 14 people working in my factory. 

Bhai Lal Shrestha (67), owner of Tokha Bhai Lal Chaku Utpadan Kendra

The war of words between the two Nepal Communist Party factions—or should we call them separate parties now?—is getting uglier by the day. Prime Minister and NCP co-chair KP Oli has tossed aside any decency as he criticizes senior leaders of the rival faction in most unseemly terms. Angered by Oli’s constant provocations, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal, the two rival-faction leaders, are also throwing their own ugly jabs. On Jan 13, Dahal referred to Oli as a ‘joker’. 

What is essentially a clash of egos between senior communist leaders has also thrown the country into deep political and constitutional turmoil. Each faction claims to represent the ‘authentic’ NCP and deserving of the original party name and the much-sought election symbol of sun. The Election Commission is considering their claims, even as the issues of House dissolution and some constitutional appointments are sub judice at the Supreme Court. We are afraid that the internecine struggle in the NCP could have a damning impact on the Nepali democratic process and its nascent federal architecture. 

It is not only the Nepali Congress that has gotten a new lease of life as it looks to profit from what is a de facto NCP split. The Madhes-based Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, the third biggest force in the national legislature, is making its own calculations as it looks to dust off its old constitution-amendment agenda. The big danger though comes from the royalists, the supporters of the monarchy and Hindu state. They essentially want to overturn all of Nepal’s post-2006 political achievements.

The growing involvement of India and China in Nepal’s domestic politics will further complicate things. A big chunk of the Indian establishment would like to see Nepal as a Hindu state, and reckons now is the perfect time to push the agenda. China too seems determined to preserve the clout it enjoyed under the NCP government. Like it or not, these two foreign actors will play a big role, direct or indirect, in shaping Nepali politics for years to come, including in the determination of future electoral outcomes. 

As the grip of Nepal’s principle democratic actors on national politics loosens, various domestic and foreign elements unhappy with Nepal’s recent political changes will seek to push their destabilizing agendas. This will put Nepal’s federal democratic project at an imminent risk.  

What movie made you laugh the hardest in 2020? 

“Jatrai Jatra”, “Holidate”, and “Enola Holmes”.

What business idea do you think would be super-profitable but you would never want to pursue?

I would never be a land-broker.

Would you rather be a tiger or a hummingbird?

I would rather be a hummingbird for the freedom it enjoys. 

If you could change something about the way you were raised, what would it be?

I wish I would have been taught about body shaming and misconceptions on mensuration. I would have led a more confident and comfortable life. 

A zombie apocalypse is coming. Who are the three people you want on your team?

OMG! I actually felt the zombie-like situation during the pandemic. So the names… Anuprathsa Thapa (Nephew), Prabha Thapa (Sister) and Monica GC (Best Friend).

You have your own late-night talk show. Who do you invite as your first guest?

It would be none other than Hollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan.

What was the worst job you ever had?

I think I haven't done anything that would fall in this category.

You can have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life. What would it be?

Certainly an internet connection. I can't do without it. 

Would you rather be the funniest or the smartest person in the room?

I would rather be the smartest person because the smartest person would always know when or where to be funny. 

What is the last TV show that you binge-watched?

“Just Add Magic”.

Started as Rana Prime Minister Juddha Samsher’s private zoo in 1932, Jawal­akhel’s Central Zoo has stood the test of time. The zoo came under government ownership after the 1950 political change and its management was overseen by many government departments before it was handed over to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) in December 1995. The trust management celebrated its silver jubilee this week.

The zoo, spread over six hectares, is now home to over 1,000 animals of 110 different species, including rare and endangered animals. The Central Zoo closed down in March as the Covid-19 lockdown kicked in. It was almost nine months before the zoo reopened to public on December 10. With the reopening and introduction of safety measures, zoo management says they regularly get 800+ visitors on weekdays and 2,700+ visitors on weekends. This is a considerable drop from over 5,000 week­end visitors before the pandemic. With the picnic area and boating closed, the zoo has lost other attractions besides the animals.

The pandemic also took a toll on the zoo management as the 75-strong staff was cut to 56 to reduce expenses.

Current ticket prices are Rs 150 per per­son for adults, Rs 90 for students and Rs 50 for children aged 4-12. For those from SAARC countries, prices are Rs 350 for adults and Rs 150 for children. For visitors from other countries, it is Rs 750 for adults and Rs 350 for children. Children below four and disabled people do not have to buy tickets.

In the early hours of January 6, in what were surreal scenes even in an era dominated by Donald Trump, the American clown of a president, potentially thousands of pro-Trump supporters barged into United States Capitol, the federal legislature. Four people were killed in the melee. US Senators and Congressmen were seen scrambling for cover. The march on Capitol followed exhortations by Trump to his supporters that they “would never take back our country with weakness”. The occasion that had drawn these people together was the legislative confirmation of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

The American democratic system has been a frequent butt of jokes the world around following Trump’s election as the US President in 2016. It became a laughing stock on January 6. The dictatorship of Venezuela issued a statement, expressing its concern over the violence in Washington DC. “The United States is suffering the same thing that it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression,” it read. The foreign ministry of Turkey, another enemy of Trump’s America, said it believed “the US will overcome this internal political crisis in a mature manner”. Both the countries were mocking previous US statements on their domestic affairs.  

It is easy to ridicule the Trump-era American democratic process, not to mention the country’s ‘imperial’ interventions abroad. Yet what transpired on January 6 was also, in a way, a sign of the resilience of American democracy. Biden’s victory was confirmed despite every effort by Trump to discredit the US electoral system. On the same day, a Black man was elected as US senator, for the first time in the history of the state of Georgia. In the process, the Democrats also took control of the Senate— the US House of Representatives was already in their bag—in what was yet another instance of popular rejection of Trumpianism.

A similar sequence of events in other democratic presidential systems, for instance in Turkey or Russia, could very well have culminated in successful coups by their all-powerful executives. Democracies around the world now find themselves in crisis, partly as a result of the ultra-nationalist right-wing populism unleased by the likes of Trump, Bolsonaro and Modi. The final act of Trump’s repudiation by the American electorate and its democratic institutions on January 6 will, hopefully, make other potential dictators and Trump idolizers pause before they think of bending the democratic process to their will.

Who is your favorite superhero and why?

Batman. He has no superpowers yet is a superhero. And he’s got some serious leadership skills.

Tell us about one of your weird quirks.

I think I'm a good conversationalist.

First celebrity crush?

My first and only celebrity crush is VJ Jyoti Shrestha.

Do you ever post inspirational quotes on social media?

Yes, pretty much.

If you could go back in time to change one thing from your past life, what would it be?

I'd play for my school football team, which I couldn't back then as SLC loomed.

If you were stranded on a tropical island, what two things would you want with you?

Food and satellite telephone.

What’s the hardest part about working virtually for you? And what’s the easy bit?

Hardest: Lack of personal connection. Easy: Saves time and my life from Covid-19

You have to sing karaoke, what song do you pick?

“Take it easy” – The Eagles

If you had to delete all but three apps from your smartphone, which ones would you keep?

Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn

Would you rather always be slightly late or super early?

Super early