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 It might not be a book you would be comfortable carrying around because of the quite blatant title, but ‘Erotic Stories for Punjabi Wid­ows’ is an important work that you will want to recommend to every­one you meet.

The novel is audacious in its effort to defy conventions and give voice to older Punjabi women since their voices are rarely, if ever, heard. Also, there are multiple storylines with elements of rom-com, mys­tery, and family saga interwoven into the mix of erotic stories and all that make for good reading for people with different types of book preferences.

Here, the protagonist Nikki is a sin­gle 22-year-old university dropout who lives in London above the pub where she works while she searches for her true calling. Then she kind of finds what she is looking for when she lands up a job as a creative writ­ing instructor at the Sikh temple in Southall, a predominantly Punjabi area of London. Unfortunately, the creative writing class turns out to be an adult literacy class instead and the students—Punjabi widows—don’t even know how to read and write basic English.

Then the women decide that since they have lived in London for so long without speaking a word of English, they would much rather use the class for something construc­tive and begin sharing their stories instead. These stories stem from their dreams and fantasies and are deliciously romantic, erotic, and sometimes even downright scan­dalous, given the community they belong to.

The women know that if the self-appointed ‘guardians’ of South­all find out their secret they will have to face unspeakable wrath but they don’t care. Having been denied the simple pleasures that come with making their own decisions as their lives have always been about what their parents or husbands deemed fit for them, the class is the only place where each woman becomes an individual in her own right and is able to truly express herself. It’s also the thrill of the absence of shame they have carried with them for so long that keeps them going.

Then there is the parallel narrative that’s about Nikki, her relationship with her traditional family as she struggles to fit in as well as escape their ways, and her romance with a boy named Jason who has his own thing going on. You will find yourself cheering for Nikki as well while you pump your fists for the women who seem to be breaking barriers and rewriting their desti­nies. This sexy and heartwarming novel will definitely find a recep­tive audience among women who will want the men in their lives to read it too.

“The continued drive for excellence is our philosophy here at Sampurna,” said Rajan Nepal, the editor of Annapurna Sam­purna, at a program at the Annapurna Media Network corporate tower on August 30. The occasion was the first anniversary of Anna­purna Sampurna, the AMN’s weekly Nepali entertainment tabloid. “We continuously seek public feedback so that our content is tailored to the taste of our valued readers,” Nepal added.

Captain Rameshwar Thapa, the AMN chairman, said prod­ucts like Sampurna that con­tinue to do really well in print suggest that “the demise of print media is greatly exagger­ated. Rest assured, the print in Nepal will be going strong even after a decade.”

Annapurna Sampurna has been able to establish itself as a market leader in the segment right from the start of its publication a year ago. The 51 issues published in this time has offered people of all age groups something to read about: it does social issues, crimes and celebrity news as much as it covers glamor and sex. “It’s a complete package and I assure everyone that we will get better and better,” Nepal said. APEX BUREAU

Teach For Nepal (TFN), a move­ment to address education inequality in Nepal, hosted a dinner event this week to acknowl­edge the banks and corporations supporting the cause. Anil Keshary Shah, TFN's Leadership council member and Nabil Bank's CEO, host­ed the event. In attendance were over 100 CEOs and executives. Also present were TFN leadership council members Rameshwor Khanal, Jagdish Bhatta­rai, Rajan Shrestha and Chairperson Reshu Aryal Dhungana. Chairing the event was Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel.

TFN fellows are outstanding uni­versity graduates and young profes­sionals chosen through a highly com­petitive process. They go through an intensive residential training fol­lowed by two years of teaching fel­lowship in rural public schools. “The support of various banks and cor­porations is not only helping Teach For Nepal support students in rural Nepal. It is also helping create great citizens who will take a human-cen­tered approach to the challenges we face as a country,” said Shah.

 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, is a joy because, even though she’s an oddball, there’s something about 30-year-old Eleanor that makes you relate to her and instantly like her. Honey­man’s writing style is witty and it’s a delight to get to know Eleanor through her narration as she comes alive in the pages. No wonder while Honeyman was writing Eleanor Oli­phant is Completely Fine, it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress. It later won the 2018 Costa Debut Novel Award.

In the book, you will meet Elea­nor, a clerk at a graphic design office, whose existence is orderly even though completely devoid of good relationships. She works all week long and on Friday nights buys herself two bottles of cheap vodka to last her the weekend and eats pizza for dinner and doesn’t speak to anybody till Monday comes around. All this is fine with her. Her job doesn’t remotely interest her but that doesn’t matter so long it pays the bills. Her existence is unre­markable. But Eleanor also feels there’s nothing remarkable about her either, especially not when you factor in the scars that make up more than half her face.

Then Eleanor develops an obsessive teenage-style crush on a handsome and arrogant singer of a band, and she finally buys herself a mobile phone and laptop, and even opens an account on Twitter to follow and keep track of his where­abouts. She also feels the need to kind of reinvent herself if she is to grab his attention.

Also, one day, she and her col­league, Raymond, witness an old man collapse in the street. They help him and in the process Elea­nor, unwittingly, ends up forging ties with him and his entire fam­ily. There’s also the matter of her disturbing relationship with her mother whose only contact with Eleanor seems to be through once-a-week phone calls. It is all these interconnected events, and seem­ingly harmless situations, that force Eleanor to reexamine her life.

Eleanor’s experiences as a woman not used to the world yet attempting to navigate it are poignant. They teach you a thing or two about the need to understand yourself bet­ter and come to terms with your faults and cracks, and to move on. Eleanor’s voice is sharp and it cuts through the hogwash that we, as human beings, are capable of tell­ing ourselves in order to overlook our weaknesses. She will, at times, feel like a much-needed inner voice reminding you that you can turn your life around by making the right choices, no matter how difficult those choices might be.

To see what Pokhara was like before moder­nity hit the tourist town, you must turn north of Mahendra Pul and head to the old Pokhara Bazaar. Past Mahendra Pul and a number of reli­gious shops, you enter the old city of Pokhara, the old abode of Newars. There, you can get a glimpse of the authentic Pokhara. The place has plenty of old houses with carved wooden win­dows and shops that sell religious curios

If you find yourself in emotional turmoil, or are just curious to discover more about Buddhism and what it can do for you, getting to know your own mind is essential. In its course, Kopan Mon­astery transmits the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as the path to ultimate happiness and freedom from suffering.

The available courses range from introductory and intermediate courses to intensive explo­ration of the philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism. The focus is on the application of skills in your daily life—how you can use this new knowledge to improve your life, and your understanding of yourself and others.

For more information, contact: www.kopanmonastry.com

Reception office: 977-1-4821 268

 Yemen’s 31-year-old Gadam Yahuya Ali Mohammed’s Nepali visa had expired on January 24. When he went to get his visa renewed, six months after its expiry, he was arrested by the Immigration Office Pokhara and sent back to his home country. Similarly, Russia’s Yevg­eny Fedorov, Japan’s Isu Hashimoto and Sweden’s Martinson Torebhairat were also found to have overstayed their visa. From Pokhara, they were first sent to Kath­mandu from where they were deported. 

In the fiscal 2017-18, Pokha­ra’s Immigration Office has sent nine such foreigners to Kathmandu. Although many foreigners are stay­ing illegally in Nepal, sel­dom are they apprehended and punished.

According to tourism entre­preneurs in Pokhara, for­eigners who overstay, beg or sell trinkets on footpaths are mostly poor. Although many locals know about them, they are seldom reported.

“Only when they some­times fight or destroy hotel property do people bother to inform the police,” says Lal Bahadur Thapa, a police officer with the Tourist Police Unit of Pokhara. “And only then is the real status of their visa known.” He also informs that there has till date been no concerted effort to search for illegal immigrants

 The new criminal code and the proposed legislation on protection of rights to privacy pose a grave risk to press freedom and freedom of expression in Nepal. Article 17 of the new constitution guarantees every individual freedom of expression and opinion. Likewise, Article 19 says that no punitive action can be taken against a media house for “publishing, broadcasting or printing any news item, feature, editorial, article, information or other material”. Yet some provisions in the new code and legislation seem intended to take away these constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms and to reduce transparency and accountability of public office-holders. For instance the new code makes it a criminal offense to listen to or record a conversation between two people or to photograph people without their consent. The violator of this provision will be liable for a year of jail and/or Rs 10,000. Likewise, the proposed bill says the educational qualification, criminal background, character and political affiliation of public office-holders cannot be scrutinized without express consent. The violators of this law will get three years of jail and/or be fined Rs 30,000.

The government says that such a law had become vital to protect every person’s right to privacy under Article 27 of the constitution. But as the citations of the new constitution above suggest, the exaggerated concern on privacy, and neglect of other freedoms, is not in keeping with the spirit of the new constitution.

The new provisions will make it impossible for journalists to write critically about the functioning of public office-bear­ers and to do investigative stories. This in a country consis­tently ranked as one of the most corrupt and lawless.

But the drafters and enforcers of these laws stoutly defend them. “I think the curbs on press freedom and freedom of expression have been exaggerated,” says Radheshyam Adhikari, a member of the National Assembly, the federal upper house. “Reading the newspapers you feel that media personnel think they will be swiftly jailed for writing a critical report about the government. That is not the case.”

The offense has to be first established in a court of law, Adhikari points out. “So far as investigative journalism is concerned, you do it at personal risk. But if the journalist in question is honest and somehow manages to establish the truth in public, then he or she has nothing to fear. Look at what happened with Watergate!”