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You don’t always see exotic wild animals at Chitwan. Even if you are lucky to, when you’re on a holiday, you probably don’t want to wind up in bed at 7 pm for lack of night activities. Well, such was the case a few years ago, until the restaurateurs started taking tourism and partying seriously.

The Snooks Café and Pub is one such venue at Bharat­pur, Chitwan (you might have to pull out your Google maps for this one) that has taken the nightlife in Chitwan to the next level with a dedicated stage performance and live music from different bands EVERY DAY. Yes, you read that right.

The owners of Snooks like to call it the “only rock bar” in Chitwan, and rightly so with their loud and rocking music. Locals in the area, tourists from Kathmandu, Pokhara and other cities as well as foreigners throng Snooks for its live music, multi-cuisine food and a variety of domestic and imported liquor.

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Grilled Wild Boar

- Spaghetti Bolognese

- Coin Chicken

Opening hours: 12 noon to 11 pm

Location: Bharatpur-10, Chitwan

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,500

Reservations: 9855050700

Q. A question you wish more people would ask of you?

A. ‘What is the reason for your happiness?’

Q. Your alternate career choice?

A. Air hostess.

Q. What is one thing you do to cheer yourself up?

A. Lately, spend more time with my son.

Q. One most misunder­stood thing about you?

A. That I am full of myself.

Q. You were star-struck when you met?

A. Sarun Tamrakar, my hus­band.

Q. The thing people would be surprised to know about you?

A. That I am family-oriented.

Q. If you could have coffee with one Nepali celebri­ty, who would it be?

A. Lemi, the make-up artist

Q. Words that keep you motivated?

A. ‘Keep doing what you can do without expecting anything in return’.

Q. Something you would tell your younger self?

A. I shouldn’t have left my parents to go overseas at such young age.

Q. Would you say you are a better wife or a better mother?

A. Better mother.

Some people are cutting vegetables, some doing the dishes. Others are moving stuff here and there. It looks like a wedding or a social gathering is about to take place. But it’s neither. This happens every day in Adharshila Commune, which is located at Bardibas Gauri­danda in Mahottari, a district in Province 2. Communists have long been dreaming (and talking about their dream) of transforming society. It was with this idea that 13 fam­ilies got together and started living in Adharshila Commune from 2002.

The commune was started in accordance with the political vision of the then Communist Party of Nepal Unity Center-Masal. The current Minister of Education, Science and Tech­nology Giriraj Mani Pokha­rel, who is one of its founding members, took the lead in establishing it.

As 13 families depend on this commune for their basic needs such as food, cloth­ing and shelter, it is named Adharshila (literally ‘foun­dation stone’). None of the members have personal prop­erty. Pokharel says those who join this commune donate all their property to the (commu­nist) movement. “We had 48 members at one point. Now, many of the children have grown up and gone to different places in Nepal and abroad to pursue higher studies. So our numbers have decreased,” says Pokharel.

The commune had started in Siraha’s Golbazar by taking in 18 children. But the basic idea of a commune is not just to satisfy the needs of children and provide for their educa­tion, says Pokharel. “So we assembled members of 13 fam­ilies who started a communal life in Bardibas.”

One can feel that life here is different than in other places. People of different castes live together here. All of them engage in some productive work, which is enough to meet their daily expenses. For example, they do collec­tive farming by renting land. Some run a cooperative, oth­ers an FM station. “We were also involved in a spice busi­ness (Ruchi Masala Udhyog) and were running a computer shop. But these businesses shut down after the block­ade,” informs Pokharel.

 13 families depend on this commune for their basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter

While selecting members, those who believe in the com­munist philosophy are given priority. Families of ‘martyrs’ are free to join the commune. Every family is given a room. People of different castes and communities like Tharu, Yadav, Mahato, Tamang, Bahun and Chhetri are living together in the commune.

“We follow a simple lifestyle here. There are no fights. The commune is everything for us. I am happy living like this,” says Pushpa Lata Koirala, an old member.

Adharshila’s patron and Nepal Communist Party Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha argues that this type of communal living model should be implemented in other places too. “This should a party agenda. But since hundreds of thousands of our party members are without any responsibilities, it is hard at the moment to bring this matter to the party’s atten­tion,” he says.

During the Maoist insur­gency, the rebels had run sim­ilar communes in places like Rukum and Rolpa where they had a strong hold. However, none of these communes are active now.

Irish singer-songwriter, musician and record pro­ducer Damien Rice is all set to perform in Nepal, in what will surely be a luscious treat for his Nepali fans. Rice is an internationally recognized musician who began his musical career as a member of the 90s rock group Juniper. He began his solo career in 2002 with the release of his debut album ‘O’, which reached number 8 on the UK charts and won him many awards globally. With hits like “Cannon­ball,” “The Blower’s Daugh­ter,” and “Cheers Darlin’”, Rice’s blend of folk and indie-rock music is recog­nized worldwide and the news of his concert in Kath­mandu has created quite a buzz on the social media.

The then CPN (Maoist) had launched the ‘people’s war’ on Feb 13, 1996, which formally ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on Nov 21, 2006. National politics has come a long way since. The monarchy was abolished, and a federal republic established. The former Maoist leaders see the uprooting of the feudal monarchy as the biggest achievement of the war, coupled with laying the foundation for a more fair and inclusive ‘New Nepal’. Thanks in large part to the war, they believe sovereignty is now completely vested on the people and power devolved to the lowest rungs of government.

But as former Maoist leaders observed the 23^rd ‘people’s war day’ on Feb 13 this year, that narrative is being increasingly contested. Critics see the 10 years of conflict as a ‘lost decade’ when Nepal’s development process not only halted but was pushed back by years. Was the loss of 17,000 lives and forced disappearance of nearly 2,000 people worth it? And aren’t the Maoists being disingenuous when they credit their war for recent changes when in reality it was the ‘peaceful movement’ of 2006 that did the trick?

Interestingly, former Maoists under Pushpa Kamal Dahal have now merged with their once bitter enemies, KP Oli-led CPN-UML, to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Dahal’s UML colleagues refuse to celebrate the anniversary of the ‘people’s war’. PM Oli was notably absent from the ceremony this year, as were most of the erstwhile senior UML leaders. Whether to recognize the war was among the biggest sticking points as the merger was being discussed, and most UML leaders continue to believe it was a big mistake.

But leaders of the traditionally marginalized communities like Madhesis, Dalits and Janajatis have a different take. They give more credit to the Maoist war for at least trying to demolish the erstwhile near-complete monopoly of select caste groups in the state machinery. Likewise, with women commanders at the forefront of the war, Nepali women’s traditionally subservient image got a complete makeover.

Whether one subscribes to the first or the second narrative, one thing is certain: even if fought with the best of intent, war has all kinds of unforeseeable consequences. Conflict victims continue to wait for justice, 12 long years after the start of the peace process. Nor has the legitimization of the use of violence by non-state actors been healthy for Nepal’s nascent democracy. Yes, there should be a nuanced understanding of the Maoist war. But as Benjamin Franklin put it: there never was a good war or a bad peace.

Radha BK, a resident of Surnaya rural municipal­ity in the far-western dis­trict of Baitadi, gave birth to a baby at home. Although there is a community health cen­ter in the vicinity, Radha had to face the risk of delivering at home because there were no officials at the health cen­ter when she went into labor. There were health workers in the health posts in the market area, but it was impossible to get there with labor pains in the middle of the night.

The ward office had invested Rs 500,000 to build a com­munity health center target­ing the residents of nearby areas. “Although the health center building has been constructed, we are unable to provide services because we don’t have staff,” says Bir Bahadur Bohora, who is in charge of the center.

Even the hospital in the dis­trict headquarters has been operating without nurses for the past two and half months. The staff nurses employed by the hospital are either on study leave or have been transferred elsewhere.

Dr Jagdish Chandra Bista, Medical Superintendent at the District Hospital Baitadi, says staff nurses are a must for providing good maternity services. The hospital doesn’t have a single nurse at present even though it has positions for six.

Similarly, in the sub-re­gional hospital of Dadeld­hura, there are no doctors or medical supervisors. The posts of 19 doctors and a medical supervisor at this hospital are vacant. And of the hospital’s 20 positions—for one lab technician, one physio assistant and 18 staff nurses—12 remain vacant, says Dr Guna Raj Awas­thi, head of the far western regional health directorate.

The condition of the Mahakali Zonal Hospital is even worse. All positions of 15 medical specialists and 6 medical officers are unfilled. The Seti Zonal Hospital has also been unable to fill the positions of 13 doctors, a lab technologist and two nurses. Tikapur Hospital has a similar story as it is not able to fill the positions of 13 doctors, a pharmacy inspector and an office assistant.

The far-west health director­ate informs that government hospitals in several other districts of the region have vacant positions.

 The letter sent by the federal government authorizing hiring of doctors has gone missing

Ministry letter lost

In a crisis like this where there are no doctors and nurses at the zonal and dis­trict hospitals, the letter sent by the federal government to the provincial government authorizing it to hire contract doctors has gone missing. This letter was sent on Dec 18, 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Population to the chief min­isters and the offices of the council of provincial ministers of all seven provinces.

However, the chief minister and the office of the coun­cil of provincial ministers of the Far-western province claim that they received no such letter. “We have seen neither a hard copy nor a soft copy of such a letter,” says Narayan Bidari, Chief Secre­tary of the province.

Ever since the powerful communist govern­ment of KP Sharma Oli took office nearly a year ago, there have been fears that the gov­ernment could abuse its powers to curtail free speech and stifle press freedom. The communist coalition, which later morphed into the Nepal Commu­nist Party, had come to power on the twin promises of ‘stability’ and ‘prosperity’. While the NCP seems to have ensured the former with its thumping two-thirds majority in the federal parliament, as well as effective control of six of the seven provincial assemblies, it is a long way from achieving the latter.

The Oli government’s performance thus far has been disappointing. The economy is in a shambles. Even as Nepal’s exports dwindle, imports continue to pile up, leading to a whopping Rs 82.32 billion balance of pay­ment deficit in the first five months of the ongoing fis­cal. None of the big-ticket infrastructure projects has come through. Melamchi has been left high and dry. Progress on two international airports at Bhairahawa and Pokhara is patchy, while controversy rages over the proposed international air-hub in Nijgadh. Mean­while, corruption is increasing and impunity is at an all-time high.

But instead of getting its act together, the Oli govern­ment seems intent on silencing its critics. The latest manifestation of this is a new bill on advertisement regulation recently tabled in the federal upper house. If it passes, for the first time in Nepal’s democratic his­tory, any deviation from the official advertisement pol­icy will be a criminal offense, punished with up to Rs 500,000 in fines and up to five years in jail, or both. A producer of advertisements that promote gambling or Ponzi schemes will get the maximum sentence. So will the makers of ads deemed a threat to national sovereignty, territorial integrity, nationalism, relations between provinces and to a whole host of other real or imagined national interests. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information has introduced measures to restrict jour­nalists’ access to inside dope in government agencies.

The government’s intent seems clear enough. While the cheerers of the Oli government in the media will get lucrative ads and every other kind of government support, critical outlets will be endlessly hounded and be deprived of their chief income source. This attempt to kill the messenger smacks of an authoritarian streak. The press fraternity and the civil society should speak as one against this mission creep—before it is too late.

 Before 2015, the Olive & Basil Food Hub was a pleas­ant relief for the residents of Maharajgunj and its periphery as they didn’t have to take the trouble of driving to Durbarmarg or Thamel for a fine dining experience. The 2015 earthquakes hit the building it was housed in heavily, and the restaurant had to close down for renovation. Olive & Basil is back. Despite the growth in the num­ber of similar restaurants in the area in the past couple of years, it continues to hold its own when it comes to serving sumptuous meals. The multi-cuisine restaurant has plenty of seating options, from café type setting for quick coffee and cakes, to luxurious fine dining space for lunches and dinners. With its own abundant parking space, the restaurant is located opposite of Bhatbhateni Supermarket, Maharajgunj.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Prawn Wrap Chicken

- Buffalo Wings

- Blue Cardon Chicken

Opening hours: 7 am to 10 pm

Location: Maharajgunj, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,500

Reservations: 01-4721099