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Q. Who do you respect the most?

A. Everybody who makes an effort.

Q. Could you share any of your secret tricks?

A. Drink in moderation. Weed is good for you. Learn to love everybody. Make sure your music is honest.

Q. What advice would you give to other aspiring musicians?

A. Practice.

Q. What is one mistake you see a lot of up-and-coming musicians making?

A. Everybody makes the same mistake. It’s the same mistake. Everyone makes it.

Q. What is something that bugs you about the music scene?

A. People frequently questioning the music scene.

Q. What is one super power you want?

A. Patience.

Q. What is one track that never gets old for you no matter how many times you hear it?

A. “Lag Jaa Gale” by Lata Mangeshkar.

Q. What is one track that got popular that you can't stand?

A. “Macarena”. I used to love it as a kid but now I can’t stand it.

Q. If you could have coffee with a celebrity, who would it be and why?

A. Bob Marley because he would bring the best weed.

Q. Your favorite getaway?

A. My room.

 Child marriage remains rampant in the north- western district of Jumla despite the presence of dozens of organizations working to end the social scourge. According to the 2011 census, of the 118,000 people in Jumla, 55,442 are children. A whopping 69 percent of the marriages in the district are child marriages. Among the districts in Karnali Prov­ince, this percentage is the highest in Rukum (79 per­cent), followed by Dailekh (70 percent), Salyan (69 percent), Surkhet (68 percent), Jajar­kot (65 percent), Kalikot (59 percent), Mugu (57 percent), Humla (52 percent) and Dolpa (49 percent). The provincial office of the National Human Rights Com­mission revealed these data at a recent program in Jumla. Due to widespread child marriage, 33 percent of girls in Jumla get pregnant before they turn 19. This has not just affected the health and education of these girls but has also threatened their lives.

Local representatives claim their work has been made difficult due to the increas­ing trend of child marriages in Jumla. “Girls under 20 get married, have kids and want birth certificates for their child,” says Ward Chair Min Bahadur Dangi.

“If we don’t issue a birth certificate, the child would be deprived of government ser­vices all their life. But many of the mothers do not have a cit­izenship card.” District chief of the National Human Rights Commission Ramesh Kumar Thapa says that polygamy and divorce rates have also gone up due to the increasing frequency of child marriages.

Even though child marriages are widespread in the district, complaints are not lodged, says Deputy Superinten­dent of Police Sita Ram Rijal. Chief District Officer Durga Banjade accuses the local representatives of not being serious about ending child marriages. The provincial gov­ernment, on the other hand, says it has introduced various programs and policies to end child marriage

 Two recent instances illustrate a signature shortcoming of Nepal’s post-1990 demo­cratic dispensation. In his budget speech for 2019/20, Finance Minister Yubaraj Kha­tiwada increased the yearly discretionary spending cap of federal MPs in their respective constituencies from Rs 40 million to Rs 60 million. The Constituency Development Fund has been arbitrarily increased, at the insistence of MPs from across the political spectrum, even though this fund has historically been grossly misspent. People’s chosen representatives conveniently ignored the pressure this year from the media and the common folks not to do so.

Only a handful of opposition MPs criticized the increase in MPs’ spending capacities. True, Nepali Congress leaders were unanimous in their public objection to the “populist” and “wasteful” budget. Yet most of them were curiously absent from one place from where they could get the government to rethink its budgetary priorities. The ongoing discussions in the federal parliament over the recently presented budget has turned into a farce, as speakers address the assembly without even a tenth of its 275 members in attendance. Most senior leaders of the ruling and opposition parties are missing, as are most ministers.

Sadly, this kind of shameless dereliction of duty and open loot of state coffers by people’s chosen representatives have been a constant over the past three decades. The political system changed, as did the composition of the parliament, which is now a lot more inclusive than it was even a decade ago. And yet the self-serving nature of our MPs remains the same. Upon seeing the empty chairs in the parliament on such important occasions, people are bound to ask: Why will the parliamentarians turn up after they have already gotten all the money they want? Such cynicism of the parliamentary process is troubling. It reflects a deep mistrust of the political class, which only seems interested in enriching itself even if their country is going to the dogs.

A more charitable interpretation would be that our lawmakers are humans and it must be mighty difficult for them to refuse such large sums of money that come with few strings attached. Were we in their place, the vast majority of us would probably do the same. But the point is, we are not in politics, suppos­edly the highest public service. After taking the oath to selflessly serve the country and the people, this attempt of our MPs to suck their poor state dry is morally repre­hensible. In the long run, it is also detrimental to their political career.

 If you think you’ve figured out the content of the movie “Kumva Karan” by its name or its trail­er, you might want to leave your assumptions at home, for you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Directed by Dipak Oli, Kumva Karan is not an all-out comedy. It sure is based in the comedy genre but the thrilling, suspenseful twists and the shocking ending will keep you entertained throughout, despite all its glitches and flaws. It’s a Nepali movie—for Satya Harishchandra’s sake! We can sure be a little forgiving. The name Kumva Karan does not allude to the mythical sleepyhead demon from Ramayana, unlike what we’d assume. Instead, the name is a tell-tale of the movie’s plot, clev­erly revealed in the second half. The whole film is done smartly, actually. Sans expensively shot item numbers and massive production cost, Kumva Karan relies on its plot, screenplay and star cast to keep the audience hooked to their seats for the 1.47-hour runtime.

The film centers around three Karans—Karandeep Ghimire (Bhola Raj Sapkota), Karan Prasad Upad­hyaya (Gaurav Pahari), and Karan Bahadur Chhetri (Abhay Baral)—respectively the head master, Nepali teacher and a peon of a community school in Pyuthan. Their otherwise passive nature is given a masculine jolt by the entry of Sapana mad­am (Nisha Adhikari), the English teacher who they all fall for heads over heels.

They compete for her attention, healthily and unhealthily, and the first half is all about their antics to win her affection. Then, what fol­lows changes the narrative entirely. (As we don’t know any other review­er who’s spilled all the beans on a review and lived to work another day, we’ll leave it at that.)

Coming to the performances, the troika of Karans fit right into their characters and are pleasant to watch. Well, it’s always good to see a Nepali comedy where the actors don’t scream their lungs out to make you laugh. Comedy can be subtle, like it is in Kumva Karan. Bhola Raj, who shot to fame with his significant appearance in the Bollywood hit ‘Barfi’ (2012), puts in a par perfor­mance as a wannabe strict headmas­ter, who actually ends up looking comical and cute. Gaurav as the shy, spectacled Nepali teacher also justifies his character.

Only if the dialogues were better! Forgiving as much as we want to be, we do need to address the elephant in the room

The one person whose name has cruelly been left out from the trailer and promotions wins the man-of-the-match though. While Bhola Raj and Gaurav manage to score what they’re expected to, Abhay Baral as the obnoxious yet lovable peon is like the tail-ender who scores a blazing 17-ball half century to take his team home. His comic timings are impeccable and he manages to grab all the attention onscreen with both his physical performance and dialogue delivery.

If only the dialogues were better! Forgiving as much as we want to be, we do need to address the elephant in the room. The dialogues under­cut the possibility of this being a brilliant movie. All the emotions in the film are basically visible, thanks to the actors, and had the dialogues given to them been any better, the characters would certainly appear stronger. Imagine a Gabbar Singh without Salim-Javed’s prolific prose-work. Jason Kunwar’s background score manages to save some grace during the pivotal scenes though and the aural needs of emoting are somewhat fulfilled.

 Who should watch it?

If you can excuse some typical glitches of our Kollywood productions, you might actually like the film. It’s definitely worth the time and movie tickets. A little humor and a rather simplistic thriller is also good when the weather is bad and you have nothing else to do.

Movie: Kumva Karan

Genre: Comedy/Thriller

Cast: Nisha Adhikari, Pramod Agrahari, Gaurav Pahari, Bholaraj Sapkota, Abhay Baral, Kuldip Adhikari

Direction: Dipak Oli

Rating: 2.5/5

 Every once in a while you come across a book that just blows your mind away. ‘Revenge’, a collection of 11 short stories, by Yoko Ogawa is one such volume. Oga­wa has you trapped in her web of dark tales and you wish to relive the experience over and over again. You enter Ogawa’s dark and delicious world with a woman going into a local bakery to buy strawberry short­cake for her son. In the course of the conversation, she tells another wom­an she has only just met at the other­wise empty bakery that “today is his birthday.” When asked how old he is, the woman replies, “Six. He’ll always be six. He’s dead,” before going on to explain the bizarre events following his death.

All the stories in this collection begin innocuously enough. Two girls work in the laundry at a hospital washing lab coats. A man on the way to his stepmother’s funeral is waylaid when his train gets stuck in the snow. Each premise is ordinary but as the stories progress they take horrify­ing turns. They are all about death, abruptly ending relationships, and, of course, about revenge. Individual­ly, the stories don’t add up to much. If you choose a random story and read that, you are likely to be disap­pointed. But it’s a powerful, albeit at times jarring, anthology when you read the stories consecutively from beginning to end. There are some stories like “Old Mrs. J” and “Lab Coats” that can be read as self-con­tained pieces but most stories have a link to the next in the anthology.

The charm of the stories, howev­er, lies in how unpredictable they are. It’s spooky and fun at the same time. You get goose bumps when you suddenly realize what has just happened. And the blows are always sucker punch—you never see them coming. Translator Stephen Snyder compared Ogawa’s work to Muraka­mi’s, going as far as to call her “the next Haruki Murakami” and some reviewers have even cited the influ­ence of Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Luis Borges. Deftly constructed and skillfully written, Ogawa’s stories will leave you feeling a bit unsettled but also wanting to read everything else she has ever written.

Book: Revenge

Genre: Fiction

Author: Yoko Ogawa

Published: January 29, 2013

Publisher: Picador

Language: Translated in English by Stephen Snyder

Pages: 176, Paperback

After ping-ponging left and right across the Boudha street for years, the iconic family-run Mechung is back at its original spot (opposite the Boudhanath Stupa Gate) but in a new building. The 40-year-old “momo-chowmein” joint which never saw empty tables now has fancier interiors yet retains the taste that made it famous not only in Boudha but all over Kathmandu. Momo is a must at Mechung (veg, chicken, buff ) followed closely by chowmein, thukpa and shahphaley— all Tibetan delicacies which taste best in the nonvegetarian options. Then you also have an exotic Chinese menu which surpasses any run-of-the-mill multi-cuisine restaurant’s Chinese dishes, both in terms of taste and authenticity.

 PS: As a favor to us, please do try the “tongue salad” on the Chinese menu which we didn’t dare order (too full), and get back to us on how you liked it.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Thentuk

- Rhuchotse

- Chin Chai Roose

Opening hours: 10:30 am to 8:30 pm

Location: Boudhanath Sadak

Cards: Not Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 650

Reservations: 01-4477759

It’s an all-you-can-eat affair at Radisson Hotel Kathmandu’s Biryani and Beer promotions this week. The beautiful Terrace Garden restaurant at Radisson offers you a picturesque view of Kathmandu and spreads out an extravagant buffet of the most delicious biryanis cooked in Hyderabadi, Lucknowi, Malabari and Kolkata style. The dish of royalties, prepared by Radisson’s Executive Chef Utpal Kumar Mondal, is served in non-vegetarian as well as vegetarian options and comes accompanied with salan, raita and desserts.

The biryani and beer promotions is a part of a series of monthly food promotional events, the hotel informs, as it gears up for a bigger food festival in the future. At Rs 1,799 plus taxes per person for the biryani buffet and two bottles of beer, the promotion runs through till May 31.

 In Durbarmarg, Kathmandu, there is a robot that serves food (at Naulo Restaurant), and another one that is capable of navigating on its own and giving vital information (at the Nepal SBI InTouch branch). Many assume these robots are imported or have only been assembled in Nepal. But they are actually manufactured, in toto, by Paaila Technology, Nepal’s first robotics and artificial intelligence company with the intent of commercially selling robots. Five young graduates of IOE Pul­chowk Campus started Paaila Tech­nology in December 2016. At the time, Dipkamal Bhusal, Rabin Giri, Sagar Shrestha, Niraj Basnet and Wasim Akram Khan had each fin­ished their Bachelor’s in Electronics and Computer Engineering. They were all classmates and none of them wanted to leave Nepal despite lucrative offers from abroad. Nor did they want to work for another company.

It was then that they met Aayush Kasajoo and Binay Raut, both from business background. The seven youngsters, all aged between 23 and 26, got together opened their com­pany by renting two small rooms. At first, they did web and software development because that is all the work they got, informs Bhusal, 25, the managing director of Paaila.

That was before Nepal SBI Bank approached them for a robot for its SBI InTouch branch in Durbarmarg. Actually, the bank first approached the Pulchowk Robotics Club in 2017, and the club referred the bank to Paaila. “They asked us to make a robot, within a month, which could do basic things such as greet peo­ple,” says Bhusal. As plastic was expensive they used fiber glass. “If we use plastic dye, we need Rs 10 million in just fundamental capital,” adds Bhusal.

In the elaborate process of robot-making, Paaila Technol­ogy utilizes local manpower and resources to make robots. “We get the motor from Taiwan. Everything else is made right here in Nepal,” says Bhusal.

Their first robot for the SBI Bank was ready in July 2017. The bank was impressed with their ‘Pari’, and encouraged them to work on a better version of the robot, ‘Pari 2.0’. This latter robot, which was deployed at the bank in April 2019, is an intelligent business assistant robot designed to help bank cus­tomers. It is powered with features like face recog­nition, query answering, automatic docking system and autonomous naviga­tion, and these features can be further enhanced for specific needs. Even museums have shown an interest in Pari. Just this May, Pari was deployed in the BP Koirala Memorial Planetarium Observatory and Science Museum at Kirtipur. At the inauguration ceremony of the museum, Pari, renamed Fulmaya by the museum, hosted the program. Fulmaya can answer some general knowledge questions, reply to que­ries about the museum, and guide visitors.

Between all this, in May 2018, Paaila also opened their own restau­rant, Naulo, at Durbarmarg in order to test a service robot named Ginger. Ginger is already generating interest from buyers in Egypt, Singapore, India and China. “Every week, we get at least two queries about Ginger from abroad,” reveals Bhusal.

There has been such interest in Ginger as this service robot requires no human intervention to function. “Mostly, robots need to be told or touched in order to give them instructions. But we have made an independent system. Suppose there are four robots and there is a mas­ter robot. The master robot gets notified of food being ready in the kitchen. It communicates with other robots internally and sends signal to a free and nearest robot to go to pick-up region. This robot picks up food and delivers it to the table. If there is no work, the free robot goes to the charging station,” says Bhusal.

Currently Paaila plans to export Ginger for $9,800 and Pari for $20,000 apiece. Their target is to export at least eight Ginger robots and two Pari robots a month. With the queries they are receiving, Bhu­sal says they could export 10 to 15 service robots a month. But first the company wants to make the use of plastic fiber in robots commercially viable. They also want to have a dedicated support team in the coun­try they are exporting to. Bhusal hopes that they will be ready to do so within the next nine months.

Paaila Technology wants to sell Naulo Restaurant as a franchise so if you want to buy Ginger, you would have to buy the whole franchise. But what if someone wants to buy a specific type of robot? Bhusal says they can try but it all depends on the available human resources. With 17 members in their team, they are cur­rently capable of tweaking existing models. “But developing an entirely new robot may not be beneficial for our business in the long run,” Bhusal says.