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 Agni Incorporated Pvt Ltd, established in 1991, is the authorized distributor of Mahindra utility vehicles and tractors. With iconic products like the Scorpio and Bolero plying the country’s terrains from east to west, and the plush Mahindra XUV 500 which out­classes many in its category, Mahindra’s presence in Nepal is helped by Agni’s extensive network comprising 45 dealers and branches across the coun­try. Agni is also known for its robust after-sales service and highly trained manpower. Sijan Neupane, senior mar­ket manager for Agni Incorpo­rated Pvt Ltd, talks to Sunny Mahat about Mahindra’s mar­ket presence and the upcoming Mahindra Udaya Festival.

Mahindra Udaya festival?

This is our first-ever lifestyle and auto show presented jointly by the Agni Incorporated, MV Dugar, Swaraj partners and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. In the event, we plan to display Mahindra’s range of world-class products, from two wheelers to passenger vehicles to trucks and buses to electric vehicles to tractors and diesel gensets. The event will also showcase Mahin­dra’s new range passenger vehicles— Marazzo, and XUV 300, the power­ful compact SUV, for the first time in Nepal.

The event to be held at Bhrikuti Mandap, Kathmandu from Feb 22 to 24 will not only display the 35-plus Mahindra products available in Nepal, but will also be a fun-filled affair for children and artists alike with food stalls, live musical perfor­mances and other entertainment activities. Not only do we want to display our products, but also create a pleasant experience for everyone attending.

In Mahindra Udaya, we plan to display Mahindra’s range of world-class products

Which Mahindra segment sells the most in Nepal?

The glamour and glitz of our SUVs make them the most highlighted among all Mahindra products. The Scorpio, Bolero and XUV 500 are some of the highest selling models and for their price, they are much superior to most competitors.

But does Mahindra lack market penetration at the entry level and the luxury passenger seg­ments?

Mahindra’s DNA is based on SUVs. They are the biggest reason behind its success and we think we should continue capitalizing on our strength. Thus, hatchbacks and sedans are not in the company’s priority. But we do have the entry level KUV 100, which is doing well in the market.

For Mahindra, Scorpio, XUV500 and Bolero are the best-selling mod­els in Nepal and despite being a niche product, the relatively newly launched Thar is also gaining in popularity.

The biggest fear in the auto sec­tor, I think is, selling a wrong car to a wrong passenger which creates more negative word of mouth. So we, at Agni, do not focus much on push sales.

How is the market for Mahindra’s Electric Vehicles?

We have been rolling out the E2O models of electric vehicles after Mahindra acquired Reva, which already had a significant presence in Nepal. The E2O mod­els come at prices starting at Rs 2 million, which is significantly cheaper than what was available earlier. Hence the sales of our EVs have increased tremendously. The demands for EVs have increased in India too and right now, we are getting sold out with every batch of import.

Does Mahindra plan on launch­ing bigger and newer models of electric vehicles?

At present, many established manufacturers are producing elec­tric vehicles. Mahindra is also tak­ing part in this run towards more energy efficient vehicles. Mahindra is planning to launch the XUV 500 and KUV 100 in electric models. They will come to the market soon.

Sales wise, where do you sell the most vehicles in Nepal?

Kathmandu amounts to only 30-35 percent of our total sales. Our major chunk of sales is outside Kathmandu. Our strong network across the country helps us cater to all parts of Nepal.

It is not strange to see a popular Nepali singer take the stage with a backing track, and without a band. Then there are other young singers who, accompanied by a single acoustic guitar and a loop station, perform for the audience, eliminating the need for musicians to back them up. As lucrative as this may be for individual singers, the audience may then miss out on power-packed perfor­mance of a real band onstage. Musicians will suffer. But who cares so long as the singers are making money? A singer who does is Kengal Meher Shrestha, popularly known as “Kenny” among her friends and followers. A top contestant of the first Nepal Idol, Kengal became a house­hold name through the reality show, thanks to her energetic stage performance and pow­erful vocals. Her claim to fame came from her ability to rec­reate unforgettable versions of famous Nepali songs in her live performances, and she sure was able to cash in on the popularity by travelling the world on concert tours with her fellow contestants.

But Kengal wants the world to know that doing covers on music tracks is not her thing. She now wants to continue something she had been doing before reality TV made her popular—be part of a band again. Thus the formation of Type III with former band members and close friends Carey Maharjan on drums, Sunny Raj Shrestha on guitars and Laxu Prajapati on bass.

“I was more into perform­ing with a band ever since I started singing, and much before Nepal Idol happened. I used to perform with Carey, Sunny and other members,” Kengal says. “I know how hard we worked together to make good music in the initial days and there is always a senti­mental attachment between the members. We are like a family.” Kengal, Sunny and Carey, all in their mid-20s, go back to 2011 when they were trying to enter the music scene and looking for like-minded musicians to collaborate.

The road to band-formation has not been easy for Ken­gal though. “My image as a solo singer definitely doesn’t help. It has been difficult to promote the band only by its name,” says Kengal, who doesn’t want to prefix the band with her name unlike many other popular singers. Being a part of a new act with­out using her already popular name is obviously a challenge.

Type III is working on its original music and is ready to hit the studios with a few singles

But despite the challenges of putting together musicians from different backgrounds, petty arguments, and man­aging time for compositions and rehearsals, Type III members believe sheer love of music and team spirit will pull them through. Type III is just a name, the members say, and they chose it because it had a nice ring to it. They define their music as alterna­tive rock, highly influenced by the American female-fronted band Evanescence. Type III is working on its original music and is ready to hit the studios with a few singles and even­tually an album. It is also per­forming live at every oppor­tunity it gets and definitely wowing the audience.

Type III also featured in The Annapurna Express Music Fest on Feb 9 at Tangalwood, Kathmandu where the band impressed one and all with its heavy sounds and tight per­formance. There are still only a handful of female-fronted rock bands in the country. Therein lies great potential for Type III.

Bikash Nepal went to London in 2009 to pursue an MBA. Once there, he started working to meet his expenses and gain some first-hand experience. He started with a door-to-door sales and marketing job, and kept switching companies until 2014 when he decided to do something on his own.

“As a Nepali, doing door-to-door sales in London was really difficult for me, but I never gave up. I studied marketing and worked in the field, so I thought I should do something along similar lines,” says Bikash. Seeing untapped opportunities in the FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) sector in the UK, he started Market Direct, a company that looked after the sales, marketing and merchandising of popular Indian-manufactured FMCG products. “I started with one famous rice brand in 2009 and now I am selling 27 different Indian brands all over the UK.”

Selling Indian-made food products in the UK is what gave Bikash the idea of promoting and marketing Nepali food in the European market, and so in 2016, he came to Nepal to extend his offer to Nepali manufacturers to market their products in the UK. His offer was rejected by some reluctant companies, which again gave him an idea to create his own brand of Nepali food products that he could package and sell in the UK. Thus, together with his childhood friend, Rishab Pyara Shrestha, Bikash opened Nepal Foods.

Nepal Foods imports lentils, flour, pickles, beans, tea and spices, all produced in Nepal, to the UK with international standard packaging and globally accepted labelling. “There have been importers of Nepali products in the UK for quite some time, but there is a lack of proper packaging to give the products a standard look,” says Bikash. “We want our products to become global, and packaging and presentation play a key role in the international market.”

With a production warehouse in Kirtipur, Nepal Food sources its products directly from farmers from all over Nepal to ensure that middlemen are avoided and both parties get the best deal. The packaging and labelling is done at Kirtipur and the products are exported to UK via India as sea cargo. Nepal Foods’ first export to the UK landed in December 2017 and since then, around 50 Nepali stores, and a few Indian-run chain departmental stores, sell its products. Selling through other non-Nepali or Indian supermarket chains has been a challenge though, as their requirements are very high.

“Right now, we’ve been able to sell around six containers worth Rs 2.5 million each per year, but we are still far from our goal,” says Rishab. “Being a landlocked country, our shipping costs are very high and competing with suppliers from other countries is difficult.” Another challenge for Nepali products to sell in the UK is they do not have proper nutritional values on their labels, which is a must for all food products in the UK.  Finding accurate nutritional facts of their exports was difficult in Nepal, so Bikash took samples to the UK in the beginning to measure them.

 “For me, my company Market Direct is my bread and butter, my main business,” Bikash says, “I’m doing Nepal Foods only to promote Nepal in the international markets and make Nepalis living across the globe proud of their nationality. Also, for every pound we earn in the UK, we want half of it to go to Nepal. That’s our small contribution to the Nepali economy.”

The young duo (both 30) are also aware that branding and advertising play a major role in creating value for their products and competing with established international brands. So they are actively involved in promoting Nepal Foods through television commercials in the UK, event sponsorships, celebrity endorsements and social media presence. Apart from the products of Nepal Food, Bikash’s company Market Direct is also the distributor of recognized Nepali brands like Wai Wai, Old Durbar and Khukri Rum. At present, besides the UK, Nepal Foods products are available in Germany, Portugal, Poland, Sweden and Denmark. By the end of 2019, they will be available in the US and Australia too.

How many Nepali bands can brag of being one-of-a-kind to take the stage at musical events? Not many. And how many of those bands have a lineup of 10-12 proficient musicians playing at the same time? Only one! That is ‘Kathmandu Cats and the Dirty Boogie Brass Band’ for you. We’ll just call them Cats for now, to save this piece from unneces­sary elongation. But let us take a moment to take the names of the deserving artists that form the Cats: Deep Rana on guitars/vocals, Sajiv Shrestha on bass, Dipen­dra Man Singh on keyboards, Prajwal Bhattarai on vocals, Anish Bhandari on drums and back vocals, Basanta Sunam on trumpets, Rojib Shahi on Alto Sax, DB Pariyar on trom­bones and Rajkumar Shrestha on tenor sax.

Whew! That was tiring. But rest assured, watching and lis­tening to them live is just the opposite. These sharp-dressed men jump, jive and boogie to make you miss your dancing shoes, if you haven’t got them on already. With the regular drums, bass, guitars, keys and vocals, their lively horn sec­tion adds to the ‘dancebility’ of the music, as they perform within the broad genres of ‘roots/rockabilly/ psychobilly/ neo-swing/surf/blues and rock n’ roll’.

It was the brainchild of Rana and Bhandari, who played together in a band called HMG Ministry of Rock back when Nepal was still under His Maj­esty’s Government! (Rana is also a founding member of the Nepali rock band The Midnight Riders.) The duo got together to make some unprecedented music in Nepal and roped in talented, professional musicians to form the Cats in June 2016. The band’s debut perfor­mance in the same month hit Kathmandu with a wave so big that the Cats were surfing over all big and small venues through 2017. Besides local bars, pubs and lounges, the Cats played at the Nepal Music Festival, which is one of the biggest music festivals in the country, Hits FM Music Awards and the famous Namaste TV Show broadcast on Nepal Television—all in a couple of years’ time.

"The name was inspired by Brian Setzer’s band The Stray Cats and we found Cats had a nice ring to it when used with ‘Kathmandu’" Deep Rana, guitarist/vocalist

“The band name was inspired by Brian Setzer’s band The Stray Cats and we found Cats had a nice ring to it, when used beside our hometown Kathmandu,” says the front-man Rana. “We’re a hard-hitting show band—a fusion of a rock ensemble accompanied by a horn sec­tion.” The Dirty Boogie Brass Band then refers to the horn section which is continuously laying down the dirtiest, sexi­est boogie tunes. For a Nepali listener, or even an expat roaming the city’s water­ing holes to find some good music, the sound of tastefully overdriven guitars, phat bass lines, rhythm-steady drums accompanied by melodious keys and a full-fledged brass section is a treat for both eyes and ears.

The only problem is finding a venue big enough to accom­modate the troupe and also a sizable rehearsal space for them to jam to prepare for shows. “It sure is difficult at times and having a full house for rehearsals is a rarity. But we all make it happen because we love what we do and each of us is passionate about giv­ing the audience an unforget­table experience,” Rana says. “A show they will remember and talk about for a long time. That’s what we’re all aiming for.” The Cats love to play at music festivals and big clubs with big stages but give them an intimate crowd of music lovers, and they’ll play anywhere.

The calendar for 2018 was a little light for the Cats, with a few line-up changes. But they’re back with a new and improved line-up and already getting bookings all over the town. The Kathmandu Cats and the Dirty Boogie Brass Band are also one of the artists performing at The Annapurna Express Music Festival happening at Tan­galwood on Feb 9. They’re opening the show, from 2 to 3 pm, so you might want to grab those tickets early.

As the latest Corruption Percep­tion Index of Transparency International bears out, Nepali bureaucracy is notoriously cor­rupt—and slow. There must not be a single adult Nepali who has not been frustrated with the seemingly end­less hassles of getting just about any­thing done in a government office. Turns out, foreigners are not spared either, as the first foreign couple to register their marriage in Nepal would readily agree. Australian national Wayne Allan Logue (51) and his Indonesian wife Farida Sari Kusu­maningrum (43) describe the ordeal of getting their marriage registered in Nepal.

 A rental agreement for tourists was something neither they nor their Nepali legal team had heard of

“We couldn’t get married in Indonesia because that would require me to take up Islam,” explains Wayne. Nor could Farida easily get an Australian visa. “The other option was Hong Kong because both of us could easily get a visa, but then the overall cost of getting married there turned out to be too high.” The couple opted to come to Nepal, where getting a visa was easy and wedding costs manageable. Lit­tle did they know what was waiting for them in Nepal.

Among countless other has­sles they had to face, a court asked the couple to produce a rent­al agreement with the homestay they were staying in. Now a rental agreement for tourists was something neither they nor their Nepali legal team had heard of before. For this they first had to get a PAN number and an official stamp of the homestay. “There were complications every­where,” says Wayne.

At the ward office, they were asked to fork out Rs 5,100 each for staying in their ward as foreigners!

Farida remembers the day when the couple were asked to fill the marriage registration forms, with the names of their fathers and grandfathers. “In Indonesia, we are only asked to give our mothers’ name,” Farida says. “Neither of us could understand what the names of our grandfathers had to do with our marriage.”

The trials and tribulations of the first foreign couple to register their marriage in Nepal

The notoriously tardy and cor­rupt bureaucracy of Nepal frus­trates not just natives but also many foreigners, especially when they have to get some paperwork done from a government office. “It was an epic process with end­less pitfalls,” is how Australian cit­izen Wayne Allan Logue describes the three-week-long ordeal to get his marriage to Indonesian citizen Farida Sari Kusumaningrum reg­istered in Nepal. In the end, the couple were successful in register­ing their marriage, thus becoming the first foreign couple to do so in Nepal. Wayne, 51, and Farida, 43, found each other on an online dating site in July 2017, and after being together for a couple of years, decided to put a legal stamp on their relationship. They had to get married by January 2019 for Farida to be able to accom­pany Wayne to China on a spouse visa. Wayne is taking up a teaching position at a Chinese school.

“We couldn’t get married in Indo­nesia because that would require me to take up Islam,” explains Wayne. Nor could Farida easily get an Aus­tralian visa to get married there. “The other option was Hong Kong because both of us could easily get a visa, but then the overall cost of getting married there turned out to be too high.” Thus the couple opted to come to Nepal, where getting a visa was easy and wed­ding costs manageable. They would also get to see a new country in the process.

“So we planned to get married here. I was already trying to commu­nicate with lawyers here even before we came,” says Wayne. But that was just the beginning of their ordeal. The legal agencies they contact­ed were not very responsive. Once in Nepal, they looked for a legal advisor who could help them get a marriage certificate from the Kath­mandu District Court (KDC). They then came in contact with Trilegal Nepal, a law firm that helped them get legally wed in Nepal.

Impediments to marriage

It was not an easy ride though. The couple had to go through three weeks of excruciatingly complex legal processes to get married. They had all the documents they thought were necessary to apply for a marriage certificate—their legal visas, the compulsory 15 days of stay in Nepal and a ‘Letter of no impediment to marriage’ from their respective countries. They were also asked to provide the court with translated marriage acts from their native countries, which they also did. But that was not enough, they later found out.

The court then asked the cou­ple to produce a rental agreement with the homestay they were stay­ing in. Now a rental agreement for tourists was something neither they nor their Nepali legal team had heard of before. For this they first had to get a PAN number and official stamp of the homestay. “There were complications every­where,” says Wayne.

“Our homestay didn’t have a stamp and I was running around trying to get a rubber stamp made for them. Then there were lengthy rides and even longer days at var­ious ward offices which seemed to have no clue what to do!” After much confusion about which ward to go to for their documents (the homestay owners seemed to have no clue either), they finally located the right ward office. But the battle was not won—not yet. At the ward office, they were asked to fork out Rs 5,100 each for staying in their ward as foreigners! They were dumbfounded. Hadn’t they already paid their visa fees for the very purpose?

“Every office we went to, includ­ing the court, tried to make Wayne and Farida cough up money under different pretexts,” says Arya Singh, the lawyer from Trilegal Nepal who helped the couple get mar­ried. “Since it was a first-of-its-kind case in Nepal, we realized that our laws and rules are not foreign­er-friendly. Instead of simplifying the process, we have regulations whose sole purpose seem to be to extort foreigners.” Singh says that although legal requirements like ‘a letter of no impediment to marriage’ and valid visas are import­ant, there is no logic in making tour­ists go to ward offices for a marriage permit. “Most tourists book their hotels and guest houses online and only get bills and receipts in return. So why force them to get rental agreements?”

Brokers in court

Singh also complains of the high level of corruption in government offices, especially when a foreign­er steps in for any work. Wayne and Farida had backs turned on them right through the process, as they were unfamiliar with the “under-the-table” system. Once, the physical copy of the marriage act from Australia that Wayne had submitted was declared missing, stalling the legal process. The doc­ument was later found in the same file folder that had been originally submitted. “From the ward offic­es to the district court, they were given unnecessary trouble in the name of following the law,” Singh says. “There came a point when I couldn’t leave them alone even for a while in the government offices. When I had to, I told them not to pay a dime to anyone who comes asking for money to get something done. As a Nepali, it is shameful for me to admit that there are brokers inside the district court.”

Farida remembers the day when the couple were asked to fill the marriage registration forms, with the names of their fathers and grandfathers. “In Indonesia, we are only asked to give our moth­ers’ name,” Farida says. “With due respect to the laws of the country, neither of us could figure out what the names of our grand­fathers had anything to do with our marriage.”

The couple also recall the final day of their adventure. “We were called inside the room and made to sign some papers and put our thumb­prints on them,” Wayne says. “We did as told and were happy that it is finally over. We’re married. But no! We are then asked to go to another room for more signatures. Then we had to wait for a while at the court, with hand-cuffed criminals all around us. Following this, we were summoned to yet another room for more signatures.”

All said and done, the couple don’t harbor any resentment against the Nepali bureaucracy. In fact, they now find the whole ordeal funny and something to laugh at. Almost half of their two months in Nepal was spent getting legally married and the adventure will surely last them a lifetime. “The people at the court told me that we were the first foreign couple to get married in Nepal and we were not surprised,” Farida says.

“The long drives to the various ward offices, the days spent among criminals at the district court, the never-ending series of signatures and formalities, even as we were thrilled about one of our lives’ biggest decisions—we will never for­get,” Wayne says. When asked if they made the marriage process easier for other foreign couples, “We might have,” they reply in unison. “But we definitely won’t recommend it”.

BMW Motorrad, the world famous motorcycle wing of the German automaker BMW, has globally sold more than two million units of its high-end two-wheelers since the start of production in 1923. With the globalization of its products and the demand ever on the rise, the BMW opened a production unit in India to manufacture its first sub-500 cc bikes to create a bigger market share in the more affordable motorbike segment. Saurav JB Rana, chairman of Himalayan Motorrad, the autho­rized distributors of BMW Motorrad bikes in Nepal, who is also a pas­sionate biker himself, talks to Sunny Mahat of APEX about the newly launched BMW models in Nepal and their market presence.

BMW’s new Indian production unit had created quite a buzz. How has been the response to its bikes in Nepal?

It has been only a month since we launched the two India-manufac­tured models of BMW Motorrad— the G 310 R and G 310 GS—and the response has been very good. These bikes are very premium, handling wise and in their fit and finish. They are manufactured in India but for the global market so quality control is amazing. These bikes are going to the European market and the US as well so we can rest assured that the refinements in their production make them one of the premium motorcycles in the Nepali market.

Which segment of the Nepali market are you targeting with the BMW Motorrad?

BMW has always been a premium category bike and it still is one of the best-selling bikes in the world. And with greater global demand for lower displacement bikes, BMW introduced G 310 R and G 310 GS.

Since the competition in the lower displacement motorbikes has increased, BMW’s latest produc­tions is a huge achievement for the company and a boon to the bikers as well. Previously, BMW motor­bikes were intended for high income groups with heavy purchasing power, and were unaffordable to many in Nepal. But with the new productions, they have now become affordable to all types of bikers and at these price ranges, they will give a tough competition to the other manufacturers in the Nepali mar­ket. They have already captured the mid-range market many Asian coun­tries and the numbers sold speak for themselves. Also, for customers looking to get “big bikes”, we are importing them from Germany on order basis.

BMW has always been a premium category bike and it still is one of the best-selling in the world

For a brand whose prices starts at Rs 950,000 in Nepal, how do you justify the value?

Product valuation depends on many things, most importantly the Research & Design that goes into it, the quality control in manufactur­ing, the brand name and its position in the market. BMW bikes coming to Nepal are priced between Rs 950,000-Rs 1,200,000, which is an amazing pricing strategy.

Nepal is one of the most expensive motorcycle markets in the world because of high customs duties. So pricing wise, most people would never have thought of being able to buy a BMW till these ranges became available. The build quality of these bikes is so robust that the recom­mended servicing time is either 10,000 kilometers or 1 year. So, for a pre­mium brand like BMW, the pricing is just right in Nepal, also consider­ing the prices of other competitors in the 300 cc category.

Despite the fact that BMW is a global brand, it is a new entrant in Nepal. So how assured can the customers be about its aftersales services and support?

Aftersales is the key in automo­biles business. Since we have been in this business for a few years now, we already have a setup. Also, for BMW bikes, all our mechanics have been trained in India and Germany and the spare parts for these low-main­tenance bikes are also comfortably priced. So we can provide the BMW riders with continuous support long after purchase.

What are your market-penetra­tion strategies in this highly com­pletive two-wheeler market?

Market penetration for a new product is always difficult. Right now, we’re trying to differentiate our products from the competitors’. This is German technology and the best in the market, and this is what we are trying to project. On paper, BMW bikes have a clear edge but there are many riders who do not know much about technical aspects. So we are planning to create for them riding opportunities so that they get a “come feel it yourself” experience, let them try the bikes that are popular right across the planet. We will be organizing biking tours around the country to let peo­ple explore BMW bikes.

We have started sales outside Kathmandu in Pokhara, Butwal and Chitwan and as of now, the number of customers taking test drives from the all outlets is overwhelming. We also have exchange facilities and financing tie-ups with a few banks to help our customers.

“Although my passport says I’m a British citi­zen, at heart I’m still a Nepali,” says 39-year-old Binod Baral. Baral is a restaurateur, social entrepreneur and consultant chef who runs a restaurant called ‘Mo:mo and Roti’ in Wembley, London. He also operates a catering and consultancy business there called “Spice Pundit.” But “Mo:mo and Roti is my main business,” Baral says.

“I sell authentic Nepali dishes. You won’t get naan or tikka masala or tandoori here, unlike most restaurants that sell ‘roti’,” Baral says. “You rather get only authentic Nepali food and around 100 varieties of momos.”

He was only 18 when Baral, who originally hails from Pokhara, first set foot on English soil as a kitchen assistant. In just over two decades, his passion for cook­ing and hard-work has turned him into a successful hospital­ity businessman in England, and a proud member of the Nepali diaspora.

After serving Nepali cui­sine in London for all these years, Baral now wants to globalize Nepali food. Along with his Nepali peers from all over the world, Baral is campaigning for better promotion of Nepali food. He is also writing a Nepali cookbook, which he hopes will be a simple guide to Nepali-style cooking for everyone interested.

“Nepali cooking is no rocket science,” he says. “Our cuisine is just about the right heat, the right amount of spices and a lot of love and simplicity.” Given Nepal’s rich and diverse culture, Baral believes Nepali cuisine has the poten­tial to be as famous as Chinese and Indian food. He thinks lack of research and poor promotion have denied Nepali cuisine its due popularity.

"Gastronomic tourism is when the food and drink become the reason to visit a particular place. Nepal has that possibility"

Binod Baral, restaurateur, social entrepreneur and consultant chef

With almost a dozen invest­ments and involvements in Nepali hospitality business, Baral says “food tourism” could be a wonderful addi­tion to the list of promotional products for the Nepal Tour­ism Year 2020 campaign. “My maternal family are from Burma and their main occu­pation is hospitality business. I can proudly say cooking is in my blood,” he says.

In Nepal, Baral is involved in hospitality projects in Kath­mandu, Galchhi, Malekhu, Pokhara, Chitwan, Bandi­pur, Trishuli and Nuwakot. International exposure and thorough understand­ing of the food of ethnic communities around the country has convinced Baral of the country’s “gastronomic tourism” potential.

“Gastronomic tourism is when the food and drink become the reason to visit a particular place. Nepal has that possibility,” he says. “Our varied geography yield a variety of produces and each ethnic community has its own way of cook­ing. We have cooking styles dating back thousands of years, from the time of Bud­dha or Ramayana.”

Giving tourists a chance to eat at and experience tradi­tional Nepali kitchens can be a central feature of tourism promotion, Baral adds. Indig­enous communities like the Tharu, Gurung, Rai, Limbu and Newar have their own unique style of cooking with their own set of recipes and organic ingredients. “This may be of great curiosity to tourists who will want to know how they are prepared and how they taste,” he says.

Also involved in culinary education, Baral emphasizes the need for Nepali chefs to “learn, educate, train, pro­mote, inspire and celebrate” Nepali cuisine to give it global recognition. Baral has registered the Asian Culi­nary Academy in London, which he hopes will create a bridge between culinary arts of Nepal and the UK. The academy will create courses in partnership with Nepali cook­ing schools and train aspir­ing students from the two countries on Nepali and other Asian cuisines.

Life is indeed in a fast lane, espe­cially for working profession­als. Getting to work on time has become a struggle in rush hour traffic. Because of the same rush, sneaking in a proper meal has become impossible. So the daily drudgery of chomping on ‘momo’, ‘chowmein’ and other fast food mark the lunchtime of most working professionals, while they still worry about their health. Now the burden of eating right and healthy can be transferred to Fit Box, an upstart that has for the past six months been delivering healthy meals to the doorsteps of their cus­tomers. Entrepreneur Demin Shres­tha, 24, owns and operates Fit Box.

Shrestha is a fitness fanatic turned fitness entrepreneur, with a health club also on the cards. “I have been involved in fitness activities for the past six or seven years,” he says. “So I decided to make this my profession. I decided to launch Fit Box realizing the importance of healthy food for a fit body. Starting Fit Box was not difficult, he explains, for Shrestha’s family has been in the hospitality business for over two decades and hiring chefs and kitchen staff for meal preparation was piece of cake.

But what makes Fit Box meal nutritious? “All our meals are made in consul­tation with dieticians and nutritionists. And the type of food you get depends on such vital stats like your age, weight, your food allergies and health issues,” Shrestha says.

What about the pres­ence of processed food like salami in some of their meals? “What you get depends on your meal plan. Some processed food is allowed in Keto meal, for instance. But if you don’t want processed food, you can tell us in advance and we won’t include them.”

The other thing that makes Fit Box lunch healthy, Shrestha points out, is their use of health food options like brown rice, olive oil, quinoa and vegetables.

The prices of Fit Box’s lunches start at Rs 3,250 for three weeks (Mon­day-Friday), with various options like ‘Low calorie’, ‘High calorie’, ‘Deluxe’ and the new ‘Keto’. All meals are prepared at Fit Box’s kitchen in Gwarko and delivered warm and fresh in personalized lunch boxes. Registration is pretty simple: you can either call them or send a message on their very responsive Facebook page. The best part for the digitally challenged is, you can pay cash on delivery, at once, for three weeks. Costing a daily average of little more than Rs 200 (‘Basic’)—which can reach up to Rs 400 (‘Deluxe’)—Fit Box might be considered borderline expensive.

But Shrestha says that the prices are justified given the quality, nutri­tional value and convenience of their products. “We do not com­promise with production and use best possible ingredients in our meals,” he says. “Looking at the health benefits of our meals, the prices are not expensive.”

In the six months of its opera­tions, Fit Box has delivered to up to 300 customers a day (it currently averages around 150). Customer response too has been satisfactory, Shrestha explains, but as in the case of any other businesses, there is always that expectation for more. “If we go bigger, we might be able to reduce our prices too,” he says. “The idea is quite new in Nepal. Hope it catches on”.