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What is the first thing you’ll do when the lockdown is over?

Ride to Pokhara

Do you think the pandemic has changed your life?

The pandemic has definitely changed everyone’s lives for the worse, including mine. But I think it’s not the same for our political leaders. They seem to be profiting from it.

A movie/series you would recommend for the lockdown?

Long list, but some of my suggestions are Money Heist, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, Mirzapur, and Delhi Crimes.

Have you read anything lately? Would you suggest it?

Nothing actually. Watching movies and series has taken all my time.

Best music to listen to during the lockdown?

I’ve been listening to ASM’s songs on loop these days.

How do you work out during the lockdown? 

I workout everyday with single dumbbells and do some bodyweight exercises. I’ve also been doing shadow boxing lately, which helps with my muscle recovery.

If not at home, where would you preferably be locked down?

If not at home, I’d definitely prefer to be locked down in Pokhara.

If you were to be locked down with a Nepali celebrity for 21 days, who would it be?

The MAHA Jodi because then I’d get the chance to listen to their life stories and learn from their inspiring life journeys.

One dish you wouldn’t mind eating every day during the lockdown?

I eat protein pancakes and lots of fruits everyday. Wouldn’t mind eating them, every day, for the rest of my life.

Today’s citizen protests outside the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar, and the state’s brutal response to it, don’t bode well for the health of a country fast sinking in the quagmire of a troubling pandemic. The hundreds who came out to protest on Tuesday, knowing full well they were putting their health on the line by congregating during a pandemic, had no desire to do so. But they could no more ignore the travesty of justice happening all around them. The state had badly botched its corona response; people were starting to die of hunger and racism; and tales of official corruption, including in Covid-19 response, were getting deafening.

The police tried to explain to the protestors they were violating the rule that no more than 25 people could gather during the lockdown and asked them to disperse. When they stayed put, the police opened water canons on the peaceful protestors. Why blame the police though? They were only going by the law. The incident taking place so close to the PM’s residence, they could not have acted on their own: the orders must have come from above. Strictly speaking, the protestors were indeed in violation of the lockdown rules. But had the government done its part during the lockdown, they would never have had to protest.

Such acts of public defiance of government-imposed restrictions will only intensify in the days ahead. The protests on Tuesday are a warning sign. If the government we elected refuses to act responsibly, it is our duty as citizens to speak up, to protest. Right around the world, millions of people have taken to the streets in support of #blacklivesmatter, defying the lockdown, putting their lives at risk. For these folks incensed by entrenched racism in their society, the virus is not nearly as dangerous as the risk of losing their right to live in a free and equal society.

It is no different in Nepal. The Oli government has been irresponsible in its handling of the pandemic, to put it mildly. While it imposed crippling lockdowns, it did precious little to widen the scope of reliable testing for Covid-19, which is the only credible method to limit its spread. The shocking lack of responsibility displayed by government ministers and bureaucrats at a time of a national crisis could not have gone ignored in a democratic society. The country is young, and it is vocal. We won’t be silenced.

The Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of Nepal’s Federal Parliament has declared the Rukum Paschim killings to be a crime against humanity. The committee has also directed the government to immediately bring all culprits to book and instructed the Ministry of Home Affairs to form a Dalit cell in District Police Office of Rukum Paschim to deal with cases related to violence and discrimination against the community.

The committee had summoned Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and Attorney General Agni Kharel to inquire about government action on the killing of six Dalit youths in Chaur Jahari of Rukum Paschim in western Nepal.

On May 23, locals from Chaur Jahari Municipality in Rukum Paschim had set upon a group of 19 youths, mostly teens, coming from neighboring Jajarkot district. Six youths were killed, and one is still missing. Others ran away to save themselves when the mob tried to lynch them to death. Reportedly, the locals were angry upon knowing that Nawaraj BK, a Dalit, had come along with his friends to marry a girl from their village.

Stating that the incident was a case of caste-based discrimination, Kharel expressed his commitment to not let the investigations go awry. “We make laws and policies. That’s fine. But whether we implement them is the major question,” he said at the meeting. “In this case, we will ensure that the investigations will be fair. We won’t come under anyone’s influence.”

Subhas Nembang, deputy parliamentary leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party, said the culprits will be brought to book no matter how influential or powerful they might be. “This is not only against the Dalit community. This is a crime against humanity.”

Chief whip of main opposition party Nepali Congress, Bal Krishna Khand, condemned the state failure in stopping crowds from coming out of their houses and carrying out the killings in the middle of coronavirus lockdown.

Members of parliament Min Bishwakarma, Dibyamani Rajbhandari, Bimala BK, Ram Kumari Chaudhari, Sher Bahadur Tamang, Parwati Bishankhe, Laxmi Pariyar, and Matrika Yadav also unanimously condemned the incident and demanded immediate action from the government.

‘Police no silent watchers’

Speaking before the committee, Home Minister Thapa said the police were not silent spectators to the incident, unlike what was being reported. He claimed the police did their best to save Nawaraj and his friends.

“We are investigating if there was some lapse on the part of the police. If some police personnel made a mistake, we will take departmental action against them,” he claimed.

There were about 50-60 locals who had surrounded the youths before attacking them. Thapa said the local police did not notice them earlier as they possibly came into the village on the sly.

The kin of the dead have lodged complaints against 20 persons in the village for the killings. The police have arrested 18 for investigations, while two are absconding.

In a world away from music, games and movies live man’s best friends—books. And in this digital age, accessing the world of books is just a click or two away.

eBook reader apps have replaced conventional printed books and now you can easily read your favorite book on your smartphone or tablet. Buy the books of your choice online, or select from the thousands of titles available for download. Read them whenever and wherever you want.

Amazon Kindle

Kindle—the most popular eBook readers in the world—offers a wide selection of books, magazines and newspapers, making it a comprehensive eBook reader app for smartphones and tablets. Also available on Kindle reading devices, the best part about the app is that you don’t have to own a Kindle device to enjoy the books on offer. It is available on both Android and iOS devices.

Powered by technology from Amazon, Kindle allows you to sync your last read page, bookmarks, highlights and notes across all devices. It also includes a built-in dictionary that makes it easy to look up new words while reading.

Aldiko Book Reader

Aldiko Book Reader is a great alternative to some of the more famous eBook reader apps. The app supports PDFs and its own ePub format in which you can find thousands of books. It is the perfect e-reader for books in PDF and ePub formats.

Since Aldiko Book Reader does not take up memory, it will not automatically save a book. But you can import the book to its virtual shelf, which allows you to save your reading session. Aldiko offers a great reading experience with its extensive features including options to adjust font size, font face, backgrounds, as well as settings to suit the reader’s needs.

Cool Reader

Cool Reader, as the name suggests, is indeed super-cool. It offers a fully customizable palette, text formatting for any font size, and extra smooth scrolling that makes reading a pleasure. It is probably the only e-reader app that provides text-to-speech for free.

Other features of Cool Reader include a day/night toggle that renders two sets of colors, and background and backlight levels for convenient reading. Supporting a wide range of file formats, such as ePub, fb2, html, rtf, txt and more, Cool Reader also provides information on page count, percentage read, and chapter marks at the top of the screen.

We can safely make two observations about the new national budget. One, it is oblivious to the current and future impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Two, it fails to honor the constitutional commitment to devolve power and resources away from Kathmandu. All of Nepal’s major income-earning sectors are taking a battering. But Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada still expects the economy to grow by seven percent. The government has come up with highly optimistic numbers on domestic revenue mobilization, too, which is again not in keeping with an economy under great stress. Moreover, as countries around the world tighten belts and focus on national rebuilding, Nepal is hoping to get Rs 299.5 billion in foreign loans. The government commitment to revitalize agriculture is likewise belied by increased import duties on chemical fertilizers.

As curiously, three years after the country’s formal federalization, the federal government seems to have no intent to develop power and resources, thus undercutting the very rationale of the federal project. As fiscal federalism expert Khim Lal Devkota pointed to APEX, the new budget does nothing to decentralize the federal government’s highly centralized resource mobilization powers. The local governments, which are supposed to take the government to people’s doorsteps, have been saddled with a legion of responsibilities and yet are barred from generating their own income. It was also laughable to hear the foreign minister read out the federal government’s forestation and local road building plans in the annual budget; the constitution has already delegated these responsibilities to the local governments.

This kind of centralized budget is sure to exacerbate the Covid-19 crisis. Local authorities don’t have money to buy the most rudimentary stuff for the quarantine facilities they are building. Often, there is no food for those quarantined, nor are there enough toilets. A quarantine room meant for two people is being crammed with 10-12 folks. But our federal ministers and bureaucrats, the models of rectitude, don’t trust local representatives with money. The big and small Covid-19 funds will continue to be sanctioned from the center rather than be entrusted with the local bodies that can prioritize and spend them most judiciously. Local health centers and district hospitals are desperately short of qualified manpower, yet the budget has no provisions to fill these vacancies either. We only give a small glimpse of the highlights of the new budget here. Yet even this snapshot is enough to suggest the budget was for a few close to power than the many far from it.

What is the first thing you’ll do when the lockdown is over?

Get my phone and laptop repaired.

Do you think the lockdown has changed your life?

For me it has changed a lot of things, in a positive way.

Something you’ve been doing the most often during the lockdown? 

Making TikTok and watching different series.

A movie/series you would suggest for the lockdown?

Prison Break, You, Dark

Have you read anything lately? Would you recommend it?

“Master Your emotions” by Thibaut Meurisse. Try this. It will help you overcome negativity and better manage your feelings.

Best music to listen to during the lockdown?

Depends on the time of the day. In the evenings, it’s usually romantic music. In the morning, I like music I can dance to. 

How do you work out during the lockdown? 

I have started doing yoga actually.

If not at home, where would you preferably be locked down?

At my office.

If you were to be locked down with a Nepali celebrity for 21 days, who would it be?

Hari Bansha Acharya sir so that we can make a lot of TikTok videos.

One dish you wouldn’t mind eating everyday during the lockdown?

Boiled potatoes with timur pickle.

Some good news for aspiring rappers and hip-hop hustlers of Nepal. “Sabda Sangram”, an online rap battle, is taking in contestants for the show. Conceptualized by musician/producer KTM Souljah with media-person Nita Pradhananga, and designed and produced by Kathmandu-based multimedia company Mero Mazzako Karyalaya, “Sabda Sangram” will be an outlet for aspiring rap and hiphop musicians to display their creativity, while also sharing their music with the audience.

The contest has no restrictions in terms of age or gender and is looking for folks who have the rhythm and can let their words flow. To register, interested participants can send a recording of them rapping 16 bars at [email protected]. The contest will be aired on Skathi Records’ YouTube page and the winners will get cash prizes.

Over 26,000 people have entered the country from India via different border points of Sudur Paschim Province since May 14, as per security forces deployed at the border. But the provincial Social Development Ministry says only 12,367 are currently under quarantine in the province.

Locals fear that the risk of Covid-19 infection has increased as over half of the people coming from India have bypassed the two-week quarantine requirement. They are already in the villages, where there is no means to trace their health or social contacts.

On May 15 and 16, Nepali authorities had rescued 758 citizens from the ill-managed Indian quarantine posts across the border, and brought them home via Gauriphanta border point next to Dhangadhi in Kailali district. That sort of showed the way for in-bound Nepalis, and in the past two weeks, over 18,000 people have used it.

With crowds rushing to enter the country every day, there is chaos at the Gauriphanta border point these days. On May 26, some of those standing in queue fainted and mothers carrying their infants looked drained in the sun.

The District Administration Office of Kailali has ordered opening of the border from 10am till noon, but due to the long queues, it couldn’t be closed until 3pm.

Besides Gauriphanta, people are coming in via Gaddachauki of Kanchanpur, Pulghat of Darchula, and Jhulaghat of Baitadi.

The Gaddachauki border point was opened after people kept sneaking into the country via Dodhara Chandani, the Nepali village on the other side of the Mahakali. The District Administration Office of Kanchanpur has now decided to open the Gaddachauki point for four hours every day.

As illegal entries could not be stopped through the porous border, authorities thought it would be safer to allow entry and put the incoming people into quarantine. But the plan has failed.

Local government units have been assigned to manage these quarantine posts. Each ward of the municipality or rural municipality has to keep a log of people coming into the ward and put them under quarantine. But the incoming people refuse to stay there because these posts do not meet even the minimum hygiene and safety criteria. Due to their poor management, people supposed to stay there roam around in the day, go home for meals, and come back only to sleep.

The local bodies have failed to act properly, according to senior physician of Seti Zonal Hospital Prof Dr Subhesh Raj Kayastha. “It is now time for the local elected representatives to show their presence,” he says. “They should ensure that the incoming people stay in quarantine facilities.” Or the situation may soon get out of our hands, he warns.

Meanwhile, the provincial government claims all those coming from India have been quarantined. “From the border point, we put them into our vehicles and hand them over to the local bodies. The local bodies then arrange for their stay,” claims Krishna Raj Subedi, social development minister of the provincial government.