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Twin sisters Mayanka and Mahi­ka Rana are both tennis prod­igies. At 17, they have already notched up many achievements, both personally and for the country. They are top seeded tennis players in the Doubles, Juniors and Women categories and are geared to rep­resent Nepal in professional tennis tournaments around the world. Now with around two dozen titles between them, the two started play­ing tennis at seven. “Our family has been the biggest inspiration,” says Mayanka. Their father, Manoj SJB Rana, is a ranked player in the International Tennis Federation Seniors category and their mother, Jyoti Rana, is the president of the All Nepal Tennis Federation, the official lawn tennis body of the country. “We started as a hobby but then we began playing in tournaments and winning, which motivated us to be professionals,” Mayanka adds.

Tennis is still an elite sport in Nepal today. Learning, practicing and playing tennis is a big expense, which makes the sport quite exclu­sive. As such, compared to other sports, tennis attracts fewer players.

“To overcome this problem, we have started the Junior Tennis Initiative program to train children at minimum cost,” Jyoti says. “This seems to be bearing fruit as we now have children starting tennis at a very young age. Of them, we can select a few with strong potential for further training.”

But many young potential national play­ers have quit tennis to give more time to their studies or have gone abroad for further studies. “Players also quit because it is difficult sport to rise up,” Mahika says, “You need to win a lot of games to reach the top. The players who have reached the top find it difficult to lose and move down the rankings.”

The Ranas sisters, howev­er, seem to be determined to con­tinue playing tennis professionally for the country. The two, who study A levels at the British School, prac­tice every day after school. With internation­al tennis stars Serena Williams and Roger Federer as inspirations for Mahika and Maynka respectively, the duo wants to make it big in international tennis events. When asked where they see them­selves 10 years down the line, they reply in unison, “Playing at the WTA [Women’s Tennis Association, the main body responsible for inter­national women’s tennis] tourna­ments. And if we get better, maybe we’ll be playing in the Grand Slams too.”

Playing together in the doubles format and against each other in the singles category, the Rana sisters have participated in many nation­al and international tournaments, including the 2014 Asian Games held in South Korea. They are once again representing Nepal in the 2018 Asian Games, slated to be held in Indo­nesia from August 18 to September 2. Currently, the Rana sisters are representing Nepal at the Raipur ITF Juniors and playing directly in the Main Draw without having to play the qualifiers because they have received international ranking.

“I am going to the US to play col­lege tennis,” Mayanka says, “I have been selected in a program at Saint Leo University, Florida where I will be studying business as well as hon­ing my tennis skills.” Mahika wants to follow suit and is working on her college application, and hopes to get into the same university. But are they leaving the country for good, like many others? “No,” they reply in unison again, “we are going there because they have better resources and many competitive tournaments.

“We might stay there and represent Nepal in international tour­naments and come back whenever we are required to,” they say. Their next target? The SAF Games that Nepal is hosting in 2019.

Pinches Artcore was a busi­ness born online and is now thriving there. With social media, and Instagram in partic­ular, as its main platform, the company sells customized cush­ions, t-shirts and mobile phone covers, and is soon expanding into other personalized gift items. It is a good example of the success of social networking and peer-to-peer marketing online, even in a relatively poor country like Nepal. Shreya Joshi, the CEO of Pinches Artcore, started in 2012 as a freelance artist making wall art and hand-painted t-shirts on order. “I have always been interested in drawing and paint­ing. As a youngster, I started taking orders for customized hand-painted t-shirts and wall murals from friends and close circles,” says Joshi. “I had never thought I would be doing this full time as a profession.” With a passion for visual arts, Joshi first put her skills to good use to earn some pocket money. After get­ting an MBA from a local uni­versity, she started working for private organizations, with the eventual target of joining the banking industry.

“My family wanted me to be a banker and after getting ini­tial exposure of the corporate world, I applied to a few banks,” she says. Her applications were rejected. Instead, “a top banker at one bank encouraged me to continue with my work as an artist and become self-em­ployed. He said he saw potential in what I was doing.” Her big push towards entrepreneurship came via the renowned actress Priyanka Karki, whom she sees as the main inspiration behind the launch of Pinches Artcore.

“Priyanka had ordered some cushions from me to give to her fans. She was pleased with my work and recommended that I put my skills to productive use instead of looking for other jobs,” Joshi says.

“Priyanka then did some posts about me on her social media accounts, which gave an early boost to my career.” Kar­ki’s social media posts brought an influx of queries and orders for Joshi’s merchandise and thus Pinches Artcore as a company came into existence in September 2017.

With a starting price of RS 500, Pinches Artcore merchan­dise is popular among the youth for their innovative designs and personalized touch. One can have their loved ones’ names, photos or any other illustrated images printed on high-qual­ity cushion covers with com­fortable pillows inside and get them delivered at their door­steps. From a small office in Old Baneswhor, Joshi and her team cater to customers from all over the country. “Almost all my orders come from Instagram. I actively promote my business on social media and my market­ing costs are a bare minimum,” Joshi says.

Pinches Artcore client list includes actors, musicians, bankers, socialites and celebri­ties from all walks of lives who help the business by promoting its products on social media. The option to personalize mer­chandise and order instantly from computers or phones makes Pinches Artcore a digi­tally compatible business with no need for heavy expenses on marketing, advertisement and showrooms. Online catalogues and interaction with custom­ers help it take any kind of cus­tomized order. Using a team of dedicated delivery personnel as well as local couriers, the orders are sent to the doorsteps of customers in no time.

As raw materials are sourced from local markets and recy­clable, handmade materials used for packaging, the busi­ness thrives as a low-investment entrepreneurship based on cre­ative and presentation skills. “I am planning to visit a few over­seas markets to source material in bigger bulks as well as to look for new ideas for expansion,” the 29-year-old entrepreneur says. “If things go as planned, I will be taking bulk orders from corporate clients. In the near future, I plan to launch my own clothing line as well”.  

In 2020, Kathmandu is set to host the World Bicycle Forum, a yearly cycling activism event that brings together cycling enthusiasts from all around the world. They gather to discuss (and advocate for) bicycles as a mode for urban mobil­ity. Nepal had been chosen as the host of the forum’s ninth edition by voters from different countries at an event in Peru back in Febru­ary. But as activists talk of making Kathmandu cycle-friendly, the how prepared is city to accommodate commuter cycles on its narrow and busy streets?

“The hosting of the World Bicycle Forum in Kathmandu is an oppor­tunity to invite international bicycle experts, and experienced bicycle activists and get them to experi­ence the city from the perspective of cyclists,” says Shail Shrestha, Founding President of Cycle City Network Nepal, the coordinators for the World Bicycle Forum 2020. “This will give us valuable inputs on how to make Kathmandu a cycle-friendly city.”

The organizers hope the event will make the government and other stakeholders realize that Kathman­du can be turned into a cycle-friend­ly city with minimal intervention and investment, thus solving the problems of traffic and pollution. The logic being: Kathmandu val­ley has a 27-km circumference (the length of the Ring Road), with a radius of around four km. To get to the city center from any point on the periphery on a bicycle, it takes a maximum of half an hour at a speed of 8 km-per-hour.

Cycling as a mode of daily com­mute is rare in the valley. Motorized vehicles clog its important trans­port arteries, making rush hour traffic unmanageable. Also, from a layman’s perspective, cycling in Kathmandu is almost a matter of life and death as cyclists have to jostle for space on congest­ed roads with motorbikes, cars and other public vehicles speed­ing menacingly between unclear lanes. There are few designated cycling lanes as such, no separate crossings for cyclists, and no cycle parking facilities. To make matter worse, they have to breathe in the toxic air.

Saving time and energy

The existing 1.8-km Tilgan­ga-Sinamangal and 2.7-km Tin­kune-Maitighar cycling lanes are inadequately equipped for cyclists. Cycle Track Assessment of Tin­kune-Maitighar track carried out by Clean Air Network Nepal reports that the track is “inconsistent, poorly designed, and improperly networked, all of which impede seamless mobility of the users.” Despite the hindrances, cycling has its own benefits as a means of daily commute. It saves time and fuel and, while you are at it, you also get a thorough exercise.

“Cycling in Kathmandu is dif­ficult because of the dust, heavy traffic and reckless motorists who scare away most cyclists,” says Sameer Mani Dixit, a renowned scientist and a cycling activist. “But it is not impossible to cycle here. When you are aware of these urban hazards and adapt accord­ingly, it can be a convenient way of commuting.” Dixit prefers to cycle to work and is also actively involved in advocating pedal-powered mobility in the city. “If the gov­ernment takes the initiative to build designated cycling lanes and parking lots and to incorporate cycling rules and regulations in the traffic management system, Kath­mandu can be a cycle city, and with a lot less pollution and traffic jams,” Dixit says.

In 2009 a concerned group of youths and cycling activists started the informal Kathmandu Cycle City 2020 initiative, which in 2013 took the form of the Cycle City Network Nepal. An activist-led group, the CCNN is preparing to host the World Bicycle Forum and is hopeful about establishing cycling as a sustain­able alternative in order to manage pollution and traffic congestion. “Kathmandu can be a model for the world in creating a vehicle-free transit, especially as it can also help save the beauty of the ancient towns inside the valley and to create a sus­tainable future city,” Shrestha says. “We are collaboration with multiple municipalities, ministries, embas­sies and organizations to make this event possible.”

The Kathmandu Municipality’s Policies and Programs for 2074/2075 (2017-18) envision a ‘cycle city blue­print.’ To make vehicular movement safe and convenient, the munic­ipality lists a number of ways to encourage cycling. For instance it plans to create a cycling network in coordination with neighboring municipalities. Also, it is planning to build “smart cycle parking sta­tions” and cycle tracks for the whole circumference of the Ring Road as well as in the corridor roads of Bag­mati River and its tributaries. But compared to the dirty and expen­sive road expansion projects, the cost of energy-efficient mobility is nominal.

Narrow minds

“The roads are not narrow here. It is our attitude that is narrow,” says Bhushan Tuladhar, environ­mental expert and a prominent figure in the cycling community of Kathmandu. “All our development is focused on widening the roads for vehicles. We treat cars as indi­cators of development and have created a vicious circle of road wid­ening which will never end as the number of motorized vehicles will keep increasing”.

He advises that instead of hap­hazard road expansion, our focus should be multimodal transport with prioritized infrastructures for walking, cycling and public transport, which together will “save our time and money, as well as our environment.”

At present, Nepal spends billions in import of vehicles and petro­leum products. In 2016/17, the Nepal Oil Corporation imported around 2.21 million KL petroleum products worth Rs 110 billion, which is a 40 percent increase from the previ­ous year. An estimated 30 percent of the total import is consumed in the valley. Similarly, the import bill of transport vehicles and their parts totaled Rs 73.7 billion. This is the primary reason for the coun­try’s mounting trade deficits. Add to these costs the continuous need for road widening, development and repairs.

The problem is, we do not under­stand the difference between a street and a road, says Tuladhar. Only well-developed urban roads can be called streets, he explains. “While our ancestors planned their roads, streets and empty places very well. But now we’re designing our cities only for cars”.

Nepal is yet again facing a liquid­ity crisis. Banks have cut back on outgoing loans and are also increasing deposit rates to lure more money. As the country’s trade deficit keeps increasing, remittances keep decreasing and as the financial sys­tem is also yet to fully adapt to feder­alism, Nepali banks are struggling to increase their deposits and maintain healthy debit to credit balance. APEX’s Sunny Mahat talks to Bharat Raj Dhakal, President of the Development Bankers Association of Nepal and the CEO of Muktinath Bikash Bank Limited, about the ongoing liquidity crisis and how Nepali financial institutions are coping.

What is your take on the ongoing liquidity crisis?

There are multiple reasons for it. Decrease in remittance is one of the main reasons. Also, when the Nepal Rastra Bank ordered banks to increase their paid up capital, banks started lending aggressively for prof­its, which resulted in an imbalance between deposits and loans.

I also think the use of unregu­lated cash has become rampant after the NRB’s new regulations against money laundering limited cash transactions. People are avoiding banking channels and a lot of Nepali currency has gone unaccounted for.

Nepal’s growing trade deficit is yet another reason for the liquid­ity crunch. All our money is going abroad. Nepalis are spending more on their tours abroad than foreign tourists spend here. The billions we send aboard every year in abroad studies are also not helping.

What can the BFIs realistically do to cope with this crisis?

Banks have to start contributing more to the economy. We should work with the government to increase entrepreneurship skills and resources for the youth.

We have to expand our work beyond borrowing and lending and create a lucrative environment for entrepreneurs. We can also invest in all small, medium and large projects that support the economy. Maybe banks can reduce other expenses and invest more on financial literacy and creating conducive business environment. In the end, as the country’s economy improves, all our investments will also start giving high returns.

Can you tell us what the Muk­tinath Bikash Bank Limited is doing in particular?

Our bank’s ideology is, “the pub­lic does not need to go to banks, banks needs to go to the public”. We are going to people’s homes, teach­ing them about finance and money management and trying to persuade them to join the banking channels.

Our presence is mostly in rural areas and we focus on the deprived sector. But that is the most produc­tive sector in the country today. Our debtors invest in small-income enterprises. Our policy is to keep at least 50 percent of our investments in productive sectors.

What are your expectations from the left alliance government?

The prime minister has said the economy is his priority. With Yubaraj Khatiwada as finance min­ister, we are hopeful that his vast expertise and experience will help the government work out the causes behind repeated liquidity crises.

CPN-UML’s election manifesto promised double-digit economic growth, with primary focus on employment generation and agricul­ture. This has created many expec­tations. But we should understand that things will not change over­night. It is a gradual process and well should all play a responsible part in it.

How are development banks far­ing in this cash crunch?

The developments bank are doing well, I must say, mainly because we have spread our deposits and lending fairly among all income groups. Focusing on microfinance has made our investments safe as most of them are directed at produc­tive sectors.

This has brought about a change in perception of development banks. People assumed development banks gave high interest on deposits and charge even higher interests on loans. But our rates are now at par with commercial banks and in many cases, our loans have become faster to process and cheaper as well.

Is there a long-term fix for our economy, repeatedly hit by trade deficits and liquidity crisis?

All Nepalis should understand how the economy works. We have become too dependent on imports and we are also spending way too much on luxurious items. Also, the government needs to do a better job of spending its revenues. Instead of disbursing them periodically and in order, it is doing so haphazardly at the end of the fiscal year, which in turn obstructs the flow of money into the financial system.

There is also a problem with remittance. Our youths go abroad to work and send back their hard-earned money. But most of that income is being spent on consumer items. We need to teach them how to save. This is why I emphasize the importance of financial literacy. Also, remittance should come via proper banking channels. Illegal hundis take the money away from the financial system.

Finally, there is a need to invest on productive sectors. We have become too dependent on luxury items. A common man’s daily expenses have increased manifold compared to his incomes. He also takes out loans for unproductive use, which puts him in debt while also hampering the economy. We have to try to keep the money in the country

 “Nepal should focus on attract­ing foreign investment but not in unproductive sectors like real state, stock market and hire purchase,” said the new finance minister Yubaraj Khatiwada soon after assuming office. This caused a stir in the Nepali business commu­nity, especially in the share market. The already shaky share market witnessed further losses following the remark as investors started pan­ic-selling, leading to an alarming drop in the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index. Sunday, March 4, the first day of trading after a long weekend, saw a 41.56 point fall in the market, to close at a year low of 1287.74.

Khatiwada’s statement has drawn flak from investors and other stake­holders in the share market with speculators predicting record lows for the NEPSE index. Investors could lose billions of rupees.

Recognized as one of the best economists in the country, Khati­wada holds a Phd degree in Mone­tary Economics from Delhi School of Economics and has previously served two terms as the Vice Chair­man of National Planning Commis­sion. He was also a Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank.

During his tenure as Governor, Khatiwada was known for his strict measures against money launder­ing, regulation of bank loans and progressive strategies for the econ­omy. While starting his new stint as finance minister, he has said that “tackling money laundering, com­pleting pending government proj­ects and maintaining a balance in trade between India and China” will be among his to priorities.

But while there are some who blame Khatiwada for the recent bearish trend, Chhote Lal Rauniyar, the vice chairman of Nepal Inves­tors’ Forum, and also a recognized name in the share market, attributes the ‘bloodbath’ in the share market, at least partly, to the failure of the regulatory bodies. The delay in the launch of the fully automated online trading system is causing many pro­spective entrants in the market to refrain from investing now. (The online trading system is expected to be launched by June 2018.)

Also, at present, the share brokers are mostly in Kathmandu, which puts investors from the outskirts at a disadvantage. Since small investors outside Kathmandu cannot easily buy stocks, there is an oversupply of shares in the market.

“The panic is also the result of the weak mentality of investors at the moment,” says Rauniyar. “The state­ment of the finance minister just happened to increase their fears. Some are exaggerating the signifi­cance of his comments and stoking panic for their own benefits.”

The ongoing liquidity crunch and the high interest rates commercial banks are offering on deposits also dissuade investors from holding on to their stocks. Moreover, there is an oversupply of shares as paid up capital of financial institutions has increased, with most of them offering bonuses, right shares, Further Public Offerings and Initial Public Offerings.

“We have high hopes from the KP Oli government as he has always supported the securities market,” Rauniyar says. “Even during the Indian embargo in 2015, when Oli was prime minister, the share market was steady. Even now many hydropower projects are issuing shares to the general public to raise capital, so the share market cannot be considered entirely unproductive.”

The concepts of visiting crowded markets for shopping, queuing up to pay utility bills, waiting in front of the cinema hall counters for hours and finding a place to recharge one’s mobile phone are being challenged in Nepal, as the country is slowly following the global economic trend of paperless, cashless transactions.

According to a report prepared by the Nepal Telecommunications Authority in late 2017, internet pene­tration in the country has crossed 61 percent, which translates to around 16 million people.

But although the number of inter­net users has grown considerably, the number of digital wallet users is still low, which makes the ser­vice providers involved in digitizing Nepali wallets feel the market has a long way to go. “We have millions of internet users in Nepal but not even 1 percent of them are using mobile wallets,” says Amit Agrawal, Direc­tor of Khalti, a relatively new digital wallet in Nepal that has gained some popularity among Nepalis. “We see this as an opportunity to expand.”

Launched in Jan 2017, the Khalti app lets users top up their mobile balance, pay their utility bills and book movie and airline tickets. Avail­able both on Android and IOS, Khalti offers various kinds of transactions: bank to wallet, wallet to wallet, wal­let to bank and kiosks to wallet. This makes it a convenient app. With over 100,000 downloads on Goo­gle Play alone, Khalti is also one of the winners of the Google Business Group Storytelling Contest 2017.

Millions to reach

Similarly, iPay, a business subsidi­ary of the Muncha Group, has been in operation for the past five years. Currently linked with nine national level banks and around 200 ven­dors, iPay is next targeting Nepali rural areas where the internet is much more accessible than banks and financial institutions.

“Lack of awareness about our services is a hindrance to our growth. We also need to overcome trust issues related to switching from a more conventional form of commerce to a digital form,” says Bijayendra Chapagain, CEO of iPay. “There are three million mobile banking users in Nepal and around six million card users. When we gain their confidence and show them the benefits of using digital wallets, I am sure we will be able to convert many of them into e-wallet users.”

QPay, another mobile-based e-wal­let, has a business model that not only helps consumers but also small merchants. With separate download­able mobile apps for consumers and merchants, QPay offers unique prox­imity-based features that help you locate nearby taxis, ATMs, restau­rants, stores, etc and finding out about bargains and deals offered at stores in the users’ vicinity.

“Our team has a combined experi­ence of over 40 years in online pay­ment systems,” says Prajwal Bohara, CEO of QPay. “Our system is com­pletely designed and developed in Nepal, which gives us a competitive edge over others when it comes to understanding customers.”

Maximum utility

QPay lets both merchants and consumers open accounts on its system easily and make cashless transactions based on unique QR codes provided to each user. For small merchants, the added benefit of installing QPay is that they can manage their sales revenue without having to deal in cash. It also helps them prevent theft, and to track sales record, manage inventory and generate additional income by assisting people who don’t use QPay pay utility bills, and book hotels, flights and movie tickets, or to just top up their mobile balance.

Digital wallets have become a global phenomenon, with popular shopping sites like Amazon and Ali­baba integrating them into their pay­ment system. The trend has spread to Nepal, but at a snail’s pace.

Nepal needs to fast climb up the cashless ladder in order to benefit from these developments and cut down on the hassles of printing, carrying and using paper money. Digital wallets not only serve as a platform for trade, but also as tools for cost reductions, marketing and promotion, and for finding great sales deals, discount offers, rebates, etc. In short, they help make our financial lives easier.

When two-and-a-half-year old Apurva was diagnosed with autism a few years ago, her family was in disbelief. Specially her mother, a teacher by profession, who did not see the initial “signs and symptoms” of autism in her first child. As a new mother of a healthy baby who had just started speaking, learning nursery rhymes and walk­ing, it was only when relatives point­ed out the anomalies in her behavior that Binita Bhandari decided to seek medical attention. “I went to a famous hospital in Kathmandu and the doctor there diagnosed Apurva with autism. But that was all he could tell me about it. He asked me to look it up on the internet for more information,” she says. The distraught mother then started trawling the internet. But with no personal experience in rais­ing a child with special needs, she did not understand most of what she found. “That is when I came across Autism Care Nepal Society (ACNS). I took my daughter there and she was properly diagnosed. Then I started parent-child training and therapies for my daughter, which helped me enroll her in a mainstream school.”

Now aged 8 and in Grade II, Apur­va is a brilliant student. Science is her favorite subject. Blessed with exceptional memory and uncanny ability to concentrate, Apurva is one of the few children with autism in Nepal who have been able to pur­sue their studies in a mainstream school. “Timely diagnosis and ear­ly intervention helped a lot,” says Bhandari.

“For a parent, acceptance is the most difficult thing. To realize and accept the fact that your child will have this disability lifelong is the first thing a parent needs to do,” says Kalpana Ghimire Baral, found­er of ACNS, the only organization in Nepal working for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With her husband Dr Hem Sagar Baral, she started the ACNS in 2008 when most doctors, parents and other medical professionals in Nepal were still unaware about the disor­der. Now the society has more than 400 families from all over Nepal in its network.

“My daughter was diagnosed with autism in 2006. At the time, we had no idea of what this disorder meant and how to take care of someone with autism,” Baral says. “We found a few parents with the same prob­lem and started a group to help out each other.” This coming togeth­er culminated in the formation of the ACNS, which is a parent-run non-profit organization. It helps children with autism as well as their parents in assessment and diagno­sis, counselling, parent and child training, therapies and catering to the needs of children with autism.

Autism, one of the most common types of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, is a neurodevelopmental disability characterized by chal­lenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, problematic speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differ­ences. The severity of autism differs from person to person. Its exact causes are still unknown but mainly suspect a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Daily struggles

Although this disorder has been recognized in the more developed countries for decades, the study, assessment and diagnosis of autism in a relatively new thing in Nepal. In fact, the Ministry of Health used to recognize autism as a ‘mental dis­ability’ until a few years ago. But the “Disability Bill 2072” re-categorized it as a disability on its own and not as a metal disability.

“The problem for children with autism starts from their inability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADL). At the society, we start by trying to make students capable of performing ADL to make them self-reliant,” says Surendra Bajra­charya, Chief Administrator/Project Manager of the ACNS. “The next step would be to teach them how to socialize with other children.”

The society also works with par­ents to create a conducive envi­ronment for children with autism. Parents are trained on the steps to take after diagnosis: understanding autism, accepting their children will need help all their lives and creating a progressive and structur­al environment for their children. “We also do parent-child pairing activities, which helps them bond better despite their many struggles,” says Bajracharya. “These training sessions for parents also work as morale boosters.”

In the shadows

The data on people with autism is unavailable in Nepal, mainly because of the lack of diagnosis and awareness. Based on global prevalence data, an average of one percent of the total popula­tion of any country has autism. On that basis, the society estimates that there are around 300,000 Per­son with Autism (PWAs) in Nepal, out of which 60,000-90,000 are severely affected.

The problem right now is three-fold: lack of awareness, poor diag­nosis and treatment mechanisms and a shortage of qualified medical manpower. Nepal government is has also begun to realize the importance of urgently dealing with autism.

The Ministry of Education, for instance, has included teaching of PWAs in its “Inclusive Education Policy 2073.” Similarly, the Ministry of Health is also including autism in its National Health Strategy Plan (2073-2082).

Autism is not something that can be treated completely by medicine and therapy. It requires time, patience, perseverance and empathy. “Every small achieve­ment for us is substantial in helping children with autism,” Bajracharya says. “There have been instances where our children have been inte­grated into mainstream educational institutions, which is an enormous positive for us.”

For parents of children with autism, any support from the gov­ernment or the private sector is god-sent. “In the beginning, we wanted to move abroad to get our child treated. There were no resources available here. But then we real­ized that the problem is lifelong and we had to do the best to make her life comfortable,” says Baral. “Now we have a strong community to help each other out and living with autism in Nepal is not as difficult as it used to be.”

Or ‘chada lok’ if you like. Call it what you may—it is dirty, it is sleazy, it is vulgar and from the looks of it, it is here to stay.Nepali lok-dohori is probably the most popular ethnic Nepali music, from the east to west, and religiously heard by those living abroad. With ethnic instruments like the maadal, dhime, panche baaja and sarangi in the background, couplets about love, village life, its struggle and even politics formed the lyrics of the Nepali lok music. Men singing about leaving their wife and children to find work in a foreign country, wom­en singing about how they miss their husbands gone in search of work, the socially oppressed expressing their woes through their songs and daughters-in-law lamenting about the hardships at their husbands’ were woven into stories which formed the base of the Nepali lok music genre.

It was basically our version of ‘the blues’. In a country with deep-root­ed cultural biasness and basically indoctrinated by religious mistrans­lations, ‘lok-dohori’ for our previous generations was also a medium of entertainment and courtship as mild flirtations and teasing from both gender was considered normal.

Things change, always, and they have changed drastically for the lok music industry. Well, with the digitization of music production, the ethnic instruments are losing their value to computer generated samples, drum and bass loops and heavily synthesized background (un)blended with high-pitched, auto-tuned vocals mouthing distort­ed and double-meaning lyrics.

All this accompanied by badly choreographed music videos with models and dancers wearing gaudy and skimpy clothes, and keener on exposing their body parts than on actual dance moves, give an idea of what a typical lok-dohori song of today is like. From a pure form of music, a voice for expression and opinion, the paradigm has shifted to Nepali lok-dohori music becoming a ubiquitous display of vulgarism and social perversions.

The meaningful and elegant­ly poetic compositions of Master Mitrasen Thapa, Jhalak Man Gan­darbha, Janakavi Keshari Dharma­raj Thapa, Hira Devi Waiba, Daizee Barailee and the likes of that era have been replaced by cheap, com­mercial excuses for songs that basi­cally circle around lust, sex, physical attraction and the many perversions of the ‘modern’ Nepali society.

Video has literally killed the radio star here as music listeners on Radio Nepal, the original promoter of Nepali folk music, have become obscure with YouTube replacing most radio stations and television channels. The need to make a music video for popularity has giv­en the lok-dohori scene an ugly identity because of the misguided effort of some notorious names in the industry.

Search “New Nepali Lok Dohori’’ on YouTube and out of the top 20 results, most will have a skimpi­ly clad woman on the display photo with double meaning song titles. Keep skimming through the searches and you will most proba­bly be led to a point where all the results you see are categorized as “Hot Nepali Lok Dohori” or “Sexy Nepali Lok Dohori”. And to add to this farce is the fact that these songs have hundreds of thousand views on YouTube.

So who is watching them? Sure­ly not someone who loves Nepali music or any other type of music. These music videos are ‘click baits’ created by pretentious marketers selling women’s body images in guise of music. The business now is completely based on exploiting the sexuality of women (our feminist friends should pay special attention to this) while fulfilling the obstinate desires of men and in due process, creating an uncouth image of the whole Nepali folk music industry.

The whole idea of sexualizing a traditional genre of Nepali in the name of modernization is infuriat­ing. But then again, we have democ­racy so there’s probably no stopping the assaulters in this case. The best we can do now is separate their genre from our Nepali lok-dohori and segregate them as “cringe folk’’ or “chadaa lok.’’