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Popular Nepali singers Arjun Sapkota and Priya Bhandari have released their latest Lok Dohori dancing song titled “Ma Ta Patyaunna Ke Re” on Priya Bhandari’s official YouTube channel.

The song, penned by Santosh Sapkota and composed by Arjun Sapkota, features vibrant vocals by Sapkota and Bhandari. The music video stars Arjun Sapkota alongside Geeta Dhungana, delivering an energetic and colorful performance that celebrates Nepali folk rhythm and dance.

The music arrangement, mixing, and mastering have been done by HBN Kismat, while the recording took place at 1DB HD Next Level Studio and Raaga & RL Studio. The video, produced by Prabhat Adhikary and directed by Mausam Himali, captures the festive and playful tone of the song through stunning visuals shot by Dinesh Parajuli & Team.

Amrit Chapagain handled the editing and color grading, while Poonam Chaudhary worked as the makeup artist. Santosh Sapkota also served as the technical advisor for the project.

The song features the catchy line “Rato Kurti Launda Kheri, Timi Hase Matra Khiss”, which blends humor, flirtation, and traditional Lok Dohori style, a signature of Arjun Sapkota’s compositions.

Skies are turning blue and the morning sunbeams in my city are gradually becoming tolerable. During the morning assembly time in my school I could catch the sights of a V-shaped flock of migratory birds flying across the valley. It’s a true reminder that winter is coming. But watching those birds glide away from our skies makes me think of the hobby ‘birdwatching’ and the joy it brings to us. It has its benefits for a nation like ours which is blessed with unmatched natural beauty.

Birdwatching is done for various purposes such as for the sake of a hobby or some research as an ornithologist. It is done in their natural habitats and environment. I am sure watching a bird is more fun in its candid natural setting than in a cage. That is why birdwatchers across the globe are attracted to our country every year. As our country lies geographically between two extreme climatic zones it can be a hub for birdwatching activity. Our country can take some initiatives to create a favorable environment for both migratory and native birds. In fact, birds know no political boundaries and if we fail to offer them what they need naturally, they will gradually disappear from our land. For example, even our national bird Daphne (lophophorus) will cease to exist in our land if we continue to remain apathetic about the problems it is facing due to various man made causes.

Birds are full of wonders. Seeing them fly, humans first fancied flying. I sometimes intently look at birds perched in our school's famous guava tree. The sight of them pecking on ripe guavas is so fascinating. They offer us quite some lessons—focus, agility and natural food behavior.

Recently, man made radiations, uncontrolled pesticide use and deforestation have put the population of birds under threat all over the world. Birds have a very important role in sustaining our earth's ecosystem and natural food chain. The population of insects and worms which are harmful to crops are kept in balance by birds.

So, promoting birdwatching hobbies is equal to promoting tourism and paying respect to Mother Nature. This justifies why it is a rewarding hobby.

Darshan Oli

Grade: VII

Sanskar Pathshala, Dang

Imagine yourself at dawn in Kathmandu, standing in a fuel line that hasn’t moved all night. The line shudders with coughing engines, the acrid weight of petrol thick in the air. Families clutch empty cylinders, waiting with little hope of refilling them. Across the country, the shortage darkens hospital wards and empties classrooms as buses remain idle. Such scenes defined the 2015-2016 Nepal-India border blockade, which lasted 4.5 months from 23 Sept 2015 to 5 Feb 2016. Essential goods–fuel, food, medicines–stalled at the frontier. The economy lost an estimated $5bn, nearly equal to the devastation caused by that year’s earthquake. At first glance, the blockade seemed like a political dispute. But look closer, and it became a stress test for an entire economy. It exposed the fragility of supply chains and showed how quickly life unravels when a single link snaps. It forces us to ask: how fragile are the networks that sustain us, and what lessons can we learn about resilience–some of which this article will try to cover.

How supply chains break

Most of the time, supply chains run quietly in the background, connecting producers, distributors, and consumers across borders. But when one critical node fails, the disruption does not stay contained–it spreads quickly. For example, during the Nepal-India 2015-2016 blockade, the country’s near-total dependence on fuel imports from India was exposed overnight. Without petrol, trucks stopped moving; without trucks, food, medicine, and other essential materials never reached their destinations. As fertilizer ran out, farms stalled; as fuel dried up, factories shut their gates. Soon the shortages reached households, where cooking and commuting became difficult, and inflation spiked as pressures spread from kitchens into national markets.

This chain reaction is what supply-chain theorists call the bullwhip effect. In simple terms, a disruption at one point in the chain does not stay contained; it amplifies as it moves through the network. During the blockade, a single border closure left fuel stations dry and transport costs soaring. The shock quickly spilled into food markets and hospitals, turning a political dispute into a nationwide humanitarian crisis. The blockade demonstrates how fragile systems fail not gradually but all at once. Just as aftershocks destabilize buildings already cracked by an earthquake, blockades trigger secondary shocks–from black markets flourishing to public services grinding to a halt.

Yet weakness can be instructive. Just as engineers learn from stress fractures to build stronger structures, policymakers can study the blockade’s chain reaction to design supply systems resilient enough to withstand future shocks.

What Nepal learned

Landlocked Nepal depends heavily on fuel and goods crossing through India. When that flow was cut in 2015, the blockade quickly tested the nation’s ability to adapt. Households found makeshift solutions–bicycles replacing motorbikes, firewood replacing cylinder gas–but larger systems had no such resilience. Hospitals without diesel for generators or oxygen for patients faced breakdown, showing the limits of improvisation. From these contrasts came a clearer lesson: resilience existed at the community level, but the national economy had no buffers. With more than 60 percent of Nepal’s trade flowing through India, dependence on a single route left the country exposed. One closure at the border was enough to paralyze markets and public services.

Pressure from this crisis did, however, push leaders toward change. In early 2016, Nepal signed a Transit and Transport Agreement with China, gaining access to Tianjin port and beginning plans for the Kerung-Kathmandu railway. For the first time, India’s monopoly over Nepal’s trade routes was openly challenged.

In this way, the blockade was more than hardship; it was a turning point. Just as flexible houses withstand tremors better than rigid ones, economies that diversify withstand shocks better than those bound to a single partner. Dependence revealed fragility, but it also highlighted the path to resilience: reducing reliance on one lifeline and building alternatives that can endure the next crisis.

Mapping supply-chain vulnerabilities

In seismology, earthquakes expose the fault lines where the ground is weakest. Supply networks reveal their own “fault zones” under stress. For Nepal, the most fragile point was clear: near-total dependence on a single border crossing with India. Economists describe this as concentration risk–the danger that arises when trade routes, energy supplies, or even whole economies rely too heavily on one channel. When the border closed in 2015, Nepal had no fuel reserves, no alternate ports, and no backup systems to keep goods moving. When the chokepoint snapped, the entire network unraveled.

The lesson is not that shocks can be avoided, but that fragility often remains invisible until crisis exposes it. Just as engineers reinforce high-risk buildings in earthquake zones, policymakers can strengthen supply systems by diversifying trade corridors, building reserves, and planning redundancies. Resilience lies not in preventing every disruption, but in creating networks that can bend without breaking.

Global examples of fragility

Nepal’s blockade was a local disruption, but similar patterns appear worldwide. In 2021, the Ever Given container ship blocked the Suez Canal for less than a week, yet that brief stoppage froze nearly 12 percent of global trade and delayed shipments across continents. The Covid-19 pandemic showed the same fragility on a broader scale: shortages of masks, microchips, and vaccines rippled rapidly, leaving car plants idle in Europe and pharmacies empty in the United States.

The pattern is clear: concentrated systems, whether tied to a single route or dependent on one factory hub, crack under pressure. Just as earthquakes expose which buildings were poorly designed, global disruptions expose which supply chains lack flexibility. Resilience, in this sense, is less about avoiding shocks than ensuring systems can adapt when they come.

The way forward

The blockade revealed the costs of fragility, but it also suggested ways to build strength. Just as engineers in seismic zones design buildings to sway rather than collapse, supply systems must be built to absorb pressure without failing.

For Nepal, this means diversifying trade routes, creating reserves of fuel and medicine, and investing in local energy and industries to reduce dependency. Such measures cannot prevent every shock, but they can stop disruption from overwhelming the system.

The broader lesson extends worldwide: resilience comes from redundancy and flexibility. The 2015-2016 blockade was painful, yet it also pointed to a path forward. The next time supply lines are tested, the true measure will be whether nations have acted–building networks ready not just to withstand strain, but to adapt through it.

Saksham Ghimire

Kathmandu Model Secondary School, Bagbazar

Hotel Mystic Mountain, which has been providing excellent service in the hospitality sector for eight years, has started its service in Pokhara also.

Hilly Valley Pvt. Ltd has brought Hotel Mystic Mountain, which had previously been operating from Nagarkot, as a franchise to Pokhara, the tourist capital.

The hotel, located near Phewa Lake, offers a panoramic and breathtaking view of Pokhara's beautiful areas.

Amita Shrestha, Sales and Marketing Manager at Hotel Mystic Mountain, said that the hotel is suitable for guests who want to stay in a peaceful, natural greenery and clean environment.

Shrestha said that it is a matter of happiness and pride for the hotel, which has been providing excellent service in Nagarkot, to provide service in Pokhara, the famous tourist destination of Nepal.

The four-star hotel, which was opened with an objective to provide quality and satisfactory services to domestic and international tourists, has facilities like cable car service to Sarangkot, gym, steam room, sauna, conference hall and swimming pool among others. The hotel currently has 60 suit rooms.

Businessmen Manmohan Krishna Shrestha, Kamal Banskota and Sagar Gurung are the operators of the hotel.

The hotel has also provided transportation facilities for guests from lakeside to hotel.

With the opening of the hotel, discounts will also be given for the guests for a while.  

Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton has died at the age of 79.

Keaton, who was born in Los Angeles, shot to fame in the 1970s through her role as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather films.

She was also known for starring roles in films including Father of the Bride, First Wives Club and Annie Hall, which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1978.

Producer and friend of Keaton, Dori Rath, confirmed the actress's death to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 3,000 per tola (11.66 grams) today as compared to Friday.

Gold is being traded at Rs 238,000 per tola today against 235,000 on Friday, according to the Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers' Association.

Similarly, the Federation has fixed the price of silver at Rs 3,125 per tola. It was traded at Rs 3,085 on Friday.

Gold is being traded at USD 4,016 per ounce in the international market today.

Humla received a large number of Indian pilgrims visiting Kailash, a holy religious shrine for Hindu devotees. Generally, Indian tourists make their journey to Kailash and Mansarovar in China's Tibet through Hilsa in Humla. 

This year's season for the Kailash journey for pilgrims is over with the dip in temperature.

Hotelier Mim Lama said that the hotels in the Hilsa area made good income in this season, thanks to the rising number of tourists here. Each hotel earned more than a million Nepali rupees; Lama shared.

Nearly 6,500 foreign tourists have arrived in Humla district since the Hilsa border opened in May.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Humla Shankar Pokharel said that almost 6,000 Indian pilgrims travelled through the district from Nepalgunj to visit Kailash. "Tourists from other countries too have arrived here," DSP Pokharel said.

This route is comparatively shorter for Indians and other nationals to visit Kailash Mansarovar.

Officials shared that the number of pilgrims to use this route has increased sharply after the end of COVID-19.

The Simkot and Namkha Rural Municipalities also charge a levy on foreigners for their entry in the district.

Officials shared that an Indian should pay Rs 1,100 and other nationals should pay Rs 1,500 for their entry into the district.

The recent rain-induced disasters damaged properties worth Rs 40 million in Kankai area in Jhapa district.

Mayor of Kankai Municipality Rajendra Kumar Pokharel shared that the city witnessed property damages of Rs 40 million from the disaster that occurred in the first week of October.

The flood in Mai river in Kankai Municipality submerged almost 25 bighas of land and has damaged 800 meters of roads.

Likewise, 50 households in the municipality were affected.

Currently, the municipality is providing relief materials to the affected households with collaboration with different social organizations.

Mayor Pokharel also pledged to unveil different relief packages to the affected community on behalf of the municipality.

Meanwhile, at least 2,500 children were affected from the rain-induced disasters in the district, Assistant Chief District Officer of Jhapa Tej Prakash Prasain said.

"The affected children are being provided with educational materials. The concerned local levels have been asked to manage the textbooks for the children," Prasain added.