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King Prithivi Narayan Shah's Divya Upadesh

A hand print of King Rajendra Bikram Shah dated 13 April 1846

The astrology section where books dating back to the 5th century are stored

Microfilms stored in humidity controlled rooms

Microfilms stored in humidity controlled rooms

Microfilms stored in humidity controlled rooms

One of the first four copies of Nepal’s Constitution published in 2072 (2015)

The first copy of Nepal’s national newspaper Gorkhapatra printed in 1968 (1901)

The inscription at Satungal Bishnu Devi Temple dated 1664 which mentions the fact that the Bishnu Devi Temple was built by Bhawani Shankar of Kwa Bahal, Patan

The official emblem of the cabinet formed on 19 February 1951

A 1911 account of lands in Terai

Microfilm scanner

Microfilming machine

Digitizing microfilms

Microfilms reading room

Kumari Chowk section where all the documents related to land are kept.
 

A Lal Mohor (official decree) issued in the names of Sri Ranabhim Company and Shree Mehar Company on 21 March 1847

A letter written by Kathmandu’s King Jaya Prakash Malla to King Prithivi Narayan Shah consulting on installing Nepali lawyers in Tiber, dated December 1757

Server and backup for digital storage

A storage room

Inscription rubbing from 2nd century

Archives

Mothballs to protect books inside storage

Archives

Nilpatra from 13th century which has writings on Bishnu Dharma

Documents written on palm leaves from 18th century

Nepali patro (calendar) from 1947 (1890-1891)

An unidentified document written in Ranjana script

A pen used to sign the constitutional draft of 2047 (1990)

A copper cylinder used to store documents

An edition of Srimat Bhagwat from the 18th century

Stepwise processing of microfilms

A recreated specimen of traditional bamboo pen used in ancient times

If you could choose one person as your dinner guest, who would it be?

Donald Trump. I’ll serve shit on his plate.

At 90 years of age, you have a choice of retaining either the mind or body of a 30-year-old. Which would you want?

Body. I don't mind an old mind. I want a 30-year-old's body right now.

What, if anything, is too serious a topic for a joke?

Cancer, the disease, not the horoscope.

If you could paint anything, what would you?

“Paint my love”: MLTR (MTV's MOST WANTED with Durex is what I grew up with, Sorry not sorry.)

What TV sitcom family would you be a member of?

Big Bang Theory as I want to be friends with Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali.

You are going on a treasure hunt. Which one of your band members would you take with you?

I don't trust any of them with treasure and such. They'll steal it and call it their own, like that famous riff I once wrote.

If you could learn one new professional skill, what would it be?

Game development. It's been a while since I last played any console-based or computer games. I want to make something I'd want to play. 

Say you’re independently wealthy and don’t have to work, what would you do with your time besides making music?

Make films. Fund films. Buy all the trash that is being made and burn them.

If you were a wrestler what would be your entrance theme song?

Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds.” Because Trent is a hero.

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

Prawn crackers. Addiction is real.

Amid the shameless scramble for power in the ruling Nepal Communist Party, the communists’ electoral promise of stability and prosperity sounds like a cruel joke. Top party leaders continue to pull every trick in the book to get an upper hand in the bitter struggle for the control of both the party and the government it leads. Meanwhile, Nepalis, their health and wealth under imminent risk from a dangerous virus, are reckoning with the choices they made in the 2017 federal elections: Did they really elect this bunch of jokers to serve them?

KP Oli’s opponents in the NCP must share some blame for this seemingly never-ending party drama. But as the party’s co-chair and, more importantly, the country’s prime minister, the reckless and irresponsible Oli deserves most of the blame he is getting. To save his government, he has tramped on the principle of separation of powers, made a mockery of the ‘ceremonial’ presidency, and tried to rule by diktat. He seems determined to stop his opponents in the party from prevailing, even if it entails doing harm to the democratic process.

If Oli had handed over government leadership to party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, as promised, the NCP would be a more united force today. Short of that, he could have given Dahal control over party functioning, which too would have done the trick. But when the time came to relinquish one of the two chairs, Oli got greedy. He threw the gentleman’s agreement with Dahal out of the window, and is now desperate to hang on. This despite the fact that he is in a clear minority in the nine-member NCP Secretariat as well as the 45-member Standing Committee.

Oli’s refusal to face up to the truth and his tramping of democratic norms are troubling. He keeps talking about the sacrifices he has made over the years for the cause of democracy in Nepal, especially all those torturous years he spent in jail fighting the autocratic monarchy. But he now acts no different to the freewheeling monarchs he fought against. Oli had won the backing of millions of Nepali when he stood up to Indian highhandedness over the new Nepali constitution, which in turn propelled him to power in 2017. In his under three years in office, he has let most of them down.  

On a scale of 1 to 10, how “cool” are you?

Seven, because I lose my temper pretty quick. On the positive side, I get back to normal pretty soon.

In one word, what is the greatest challenge you have faced in your profession?

Betrayal (Scam!)

Do you identify more with coffee or tea? Why?

More with tea at the moment because my family prefers tea. But I'm down with anything.

If you could choose your nickname, what would it be?

I already have one, ‘Millie’.

Tell us one thing on your “bucket” list?

To be a successful businesswoman who other young females can look up to.

Which subject would you prefer to teach?

Accountancy.

What compliment do people give you the most?

That I'm very serious and less gossipy at work.

What word would you add to the dictionary if you could, what would it mean?

I would add the word “Aku” to the dictionary. It means love that words can't express.

Would you rather speak every language in the world or talk to animals?

Talk to animals!

What is the first thing you notice about someone new?

Eyes. They say a lot.

There are four main currents in Nepali politics right now, represented by four different political parties: the Nepal Communist Party (communists, socialists), the Nepali Congress (liberal democrats), the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal (regional, identity-based party), and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (monarchists, Hindu-state proponents). Each of the four has well-defined voter bases. Three of the four are forces that recently consolidated, partly because of restrictive new laws that bar small political forces from being recognized as national political parties—with all the concomitant benefits of such recognition. The new union of Bibeksheel Nepali and Sajha Party, now to be called Bibeksheel Sajha Party, aims to be the fifth established force.

An earlier unity between Bibeksheel and Sajha had dissolved after the united party bungled the 2017 federal and provincial elections, winning just three seats in Bagmati provincial assembly and none in the federal parliament. A bitter personality clash among the party’s top brass ensued. Now, having realized the futility of pursuing separate paths in a polity that encourages consolidation, they have come together again. But to what end, people are again asking? The latest merger was announced on Dec 9, the International Anti-Corruption Day, to send a powerful message. During the merger, party bigwigs also said they were committed to improving the sectors of health and education to build a more resilient democratic Nepal. Again, nothing wrong with any of this.

Nepali political actors consolidating is good news, too, which in turn will add to the vibrancy of the democratic process. Yet health, education and anti-corruption don’t a political ideology make. The new party wants to be seen as a grouping of thorough professionals committed to clean and efficient public service delivery. But as the party discovered in the 2017 elections, that is not enough to get people to vote for them. The party was largely trounced outside Kathmandu, where it got some support from young, first-time voters. It is also hard to see in Nepal the emergence of techo-populist movements like Italy’s Five Star Movement or Alternative for Germany in near future. Notably, the AAP in India has also struggled outside Delhi. It will be a struggle all along for Bibeksheel Sajha unless it can come up with a more compelling narrative to attract the youth and white-collar professionals from all across the country.    

If you could trade lives with someone for a day who would it be and why?    

There’re two actually, both Youtubers. The first is Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) who does tech reviews. I’m obsessed with gadgets so I would love to be him for a day to try out all the latest tech and gadgets. Then there’s Tyler (Music Is Win). My other obsession is music and this guy has so many guitars, amps and guitar pedals, more than I could collect in a lifetime! So I’d love to spend the day playing with those.

 What internet video or meme made you laugh out loud recently?            

This isn’t a recent meme but it’s my all-time favorite and shamelessly my own. It’s about my friends, the successful singer songwriter couple Bartika and Yugal.  

Meme:  

Bartika? How do you say “I love you” to your partner? 

I love you boy?  

Or 

I love Yugal? 

What’s something you’d like to talk about that no one has asked you about? 

If I want a new guitar and which one I want.  

If you could go back in time and pay more attention to a class in high school, what would you choose? 

Music. We never had music in the curriculum when I was in school. 

If you could take credit for any invention in history, what would you choose?                                     

Video camera because I have always been fascinated by the idea of recording a moment and watching it later. I’m also very fascinated by the possibility of video recording our dreams and being able to watch them back. 

Do you have a song that reminds you of a relationship? If so, what song? 

Pantera’s “Revolution Is My Name.” It always reminds me of my closest friend Rudra who I played in a band with. We would jam to this song all the time. He passed away in 2013 and whenever I listen to or play that song, it reminds me of him 

A zombie apocalypse is coming, who are three people you want on your team?                                  

My Friend Nagesh who would be the brains. My nephew because he is always playing video games, and Rajesh Hamal.  

You have your own late night talk show, who do you invite as your first guest?                                  

It would be Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino. 

What is one article of clothing that you make you walk out of a date?

I don’t think I would walk out of a date because of something someone is wearing. I love clothes, so there wouldn’t be anything that I don’t like. 

Have you ever completed anything on your “bucket list”?                             

Yes.  I’ve done lot of things on my bucket list. There was a point where I’d ticked everything off! But now it’s filling up again.

Freedom of peaceful assembly is an inalienable democratic right. The logic for this is self-evident—or it should be. When people are denied their right to protect peacefully, often, they don’t meekly back down. They rather take up more violent means of protest. Suppression of peaceful assembly, however odious the personal and political beliefs of its participants, also tends to backfire. For instance, by preventing the royalists and Hindu state proponents from protesting peacefully, the federal government is, arguably, adding to their popularity.

The logic on offer for the suppression of these protests is credible enough. It is unsafe for hundreds of people to assemble, often without adopting any safety measures, in the middle of a raging pandemic that has already claimed over 1,500 Nepalis. But by the same token the mass gatherings of other political parties should also have been banned. Yet opposition parties like Nepali Congress and JSPN have been holding similar political gatherings unhindered. Even Prime Minister KP Oli has been photographed in recent times addressing mass gatherings around the country. Singling out the monarchists, who are every bit Nepalis as most dedicated Congressis or communists, is thus hypocrisy.  

If the Nepal Communist Party-led government wants to regulate such pandemic-time mass gatherings, the ruling party should begin with its own gatherings. The better strategy is to ensure proper Covid safety measures are being followed in these protests, not to ban them outright. There have also been reports in credible media outlets that while a section of the NCP is for allowing the pro-monarchy protests, another faction wants to crack down on them. In other words, the government handling of these protests is based as much on internal NCP political calculations as it is on public interest.

Monarchy and Hindu state are historical relicts out of tune with the changing times. It is best not to give them any room for revival. Make no mistake. Millions of Nepalis are frustrated, even angry, with the Oli government’s wasted two and half years in power. As the main opposition parties have also failed to hold the government to account, public discontent is on the rise. It is only natural for many disappointed and disillusioned Nepalis to seek alternatives. The federal government’s recent display of insecurity will make them question their past electoral judgements even more.