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Last weekend when I cleaned out my bag, there were a couple of receipts, a plastic spoon (the pink ones you get when you buy a Baskin Robbins ice-cream), a crumpled zip lock, and other random items that I didn’t want to throw in the trash and vowed to find some use for. There was a tiny golden safety pin and some black thread—it was a part of the tag of a jacket I had recently purchased. A stray button had also found its way into my large and often heavy tote bag that doubles as a catchall for everything from essentials like the phone and wallet to parking stubs and pointless flyers regularly stuck on the car’s wipers. On a daily basis, I try to minimize waste. Besides the most basic things like carrying a steel water bottle and refilling it multiple times a day at the office and keeping a cloth tote bag for grocery shopping in my purse, I rethink almost everything I do. If I get an ice-cream, it will be in a cone so that I don’t have to throw anything. I have pretty much stopped eating instant noodles because there’s just so much plastic in a single packet. I segregate my waste and give away the recyclables to Doko Recyclers, a waste management company. Doko actively conserves resources by reducing, reusing, repairing, repurposing, and recycling. Their services help you do the same.   But it’s so difficult to not create waste as I go about my days. The problem is that our consumerist setting thrives on single-use items for convenience. We are governed by a ‘consume and throw away’ mindset. Even when I say no to receipts or the free samples of spices and brochures promoting sales, the attending staff at the stores I go to—for a quick coffee or to buy some groceries on my way back home from work—will invariably hand them to me or shove them in with my purchases. A few months ago, at the Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket in Pulchowk, I asked the cashier why she had printed the receipt despite my repeatedly asking her not to do so. She simply shrugged and said I could throw it away if I didn’t need it. I told her I didn’t want to waste paper which was why I had said I didn’t want a copy in the first place. She said it wasn’t a big deal and that she would throw it for me. This kind of incident happens on a regular basis. I tell cashiers I won’t be needing a customer copy of the receipt when they start ringing in my items but most of them will still print it out. Manu Karki, the founder of Eco-Saathi, a brand that provides sustainable alternatives for single-use items, says she faces similar issues every day. Karki says eating out is an ordeal because she is given single-use cutlery and straws even when she specifically tells waiters not to bring them. She carries a set of reusable bamboo cutlery but many plastic ones end up in her bag at the end of the week as she doesn’t want to throw them out. She says this shows people’s lack of awareness regarding environmental preservation. “As someone who works in the field of sustainability and practices it too, it’s very disheartening to see people being careless about consumption,” she says. Karki adds it’s almost impossible to lead a sustainable lifestyle while traveling. The problem is that potable tap water isn’t available in Nepal and we must largely rely on bottled water. This inevitably creates a lot of waste. Karki says the reaction of hotel staff when she asks for hot water is funny. They think she is trying to save money by skimping on mineral water. I have also had this problem every time when traveling. Recently, I went to Lucknow in India. Determined not to create more than a small bag of trash, I carried a water bottle and reusable shopping bags. My husband and I even chose a ‘sustainable’ hotel. Unfortunately, the only thing sustainable about the swanky hotel we stayed at was that the electronic room key was reusable. After printing out bills and vouchers that we didn’t need, sticking little tags on water bottles, and proving paper napkins instead of cloth ones at breakfast, the message on our key card thanking us for ‘helping them stay green’ by returning the key at the end of our stay made my eyes roll far back into my head. The business industry is profit-driven and sustainability has become a trend, a CSR at most. It’s not practiced responsibility or with a conscience. At Biryani Queen, one of the restaurants we went to eat at while on this trip, I asked the waiter for regular water. He told me they didn’t serve it and offered us the bottled water that was already on the table. I said they must have a lot of plastic bottles to get rid of at the end of the day, he agreed and said they couldn’t do anything about it. Even when I offered to pay the same price for regular water, he insisted on bottled water. The problem isn’t limited to water bottles only. Everything comes in packages and it’s pretty difficult to avoid. Traveling is sometimes a nightmare when I think of all the things I have to throw away. This time, I purposefully saved the little tags that the hotel would put on water bottles saying they were complimentary. I thought they would reuse it. But they would toss the old ones and use new ones every single time. They said it was hotel policy. “It’s stressful to have to explain to people why you are trying to save these little things. Most don’t get it,” says Karki. Sadly, there seems to be no way out of this situation unless things change on a policy level. “There must be more environmental awareness and policies to support an eco-friendly lifestyle,” she says.  

Balen Shah’s victory in the local elections in May earlier this year gave people a lot of hope. It seemed like the beginning of a much-needed change, said those ApEx spoke to. People wanted good, capable candidates—those who worked in favor of the people, rather than being driven by their biases and agendas. Political parties, they thought, would realize this and nominate worthy names for the federal parliament and provincial assembly elections scheduled for Nov 20. But the names that have been registered at the Election Commission reflect a different truth: It’s the same old faces—those that have been elected and reelected—from which we will have to choose once again. Madhab Maharjan, owner of Mandala Book Point in Jamal, Kathmandu, says he is unhappy with the way things have turned out. “I can stamp the ballot paper randomly as it doesn’t matter who is elected. It’s the same lot anyway and we know how they are,” he says. Nepali politics has always been a closed circle. Politicians favor their own. This, Maharjan points out, has been a trend in our society for eons and is unlikely to change soon. People must vote sensibly—choose the right person, rather than blindly follow a particular party, he says. Bhakti Shah, a transgender activist and member of Blue Diamond Society, says he is upset over the lack of representation of the LGBTIQA+ community in the upcoming elections. “With just nine percent of direct election candidates being women and only one from our community, the nominations paint a bleak picture,” he says. Grishma Ojha, a faculty member at Thames International College, says she has no faith in politics. The inclusive spirit of the constitution hasn’t been honored by the political parties. The required quota for women hasn’t been met and marginalized communities have, once again, been sidelined. Ojha is going to vote as it’s a right she believes she must exercise. But she wishes people had the option of rejecting all the candidates on the ballot paper, as they do in many other democratic countries. “Only then will things change,” she says. Political analyst Indra Adhikari says political parties’ blatant disregard of inclusion in candidate selection is shameful. Worse, she says, they will get away with it as the political nexus is strong. “Our party structure is such that there is no space for fresh faces and unless that changes, little else will,” she says.

Nepal is gearing up for the general and provincial elections—to elect the 275 members of the federal House of Representatives and 330 members of the seven provincial assemblies—on Nov 20 this year. But the LGBTIQA+ community feels grossly underrepresented and marginalized again, much like in the local elections earlier in May. Despite Article 42 of the 2015 constitution guaranteeing them equal rights in all important state organs, the reality is that lesbians, gays, and transgenders are still easily dismissed. “It’s one thing to make laws about equality and inclusion but quite another to put them into practice,” says Sunita Lama, transgender rights activist. She doesn’t want to vote in the general elections because “it doesn’t matter who is elected”. Unless there are candidates from their community, their issues will again be sidelined. “No one else will work for us,” she says. Lily Thapa of the National Human Rights Commission supports her claims and says there is little participation of the LBGTIQA+ community in politics. “They were sidelined in the local elections too. It’s a human rights violation,” she says. Surya Prasad Aryal, assistant spokesperson, Election Commission of Nepal, says there are only 185 people registered under the ‘others’ category in the voter list. It’s still too early to determine how many candidates from the LGBTIQA+ community are going to contest the elections. He says each party has to meet certain criteria for inclusiveness. But the problem goes beyond what happens at election time. That is just one of the many repercussions of a much larger issue of identity crisis. The fact that the government has tried to force-fit all identities into a single category doesn’t sit well with the LGBTIQA+ community. Transgender males identify themselves as males while transgender females identify themselves as females. ‘Others’ is basically meant for those who don’t identify with either male or female. In the previous elections, there have been issues of gender minorities not being allowed to queue with the gender they identify with. Using an umbrella term for all sexual identities is unfair and undermines their worth, say community members. “It’s humiliating to be a transgender woman and then be called by your dead name [the birth name of a transgender person],” says Lama, adding this makes many people from their community hesitant to participate in the elections. Bhakti Shah, activist, Blue Diamond Society (BDS), says they have been lobbying political parties to include them in the upcoming elections by making the polls safe and inclusive. Shah is hopeful Dilu Buduja (Badri Pun), a transgender man, and Shilpa Chaudhary, a transgender woman, both from the CPN (Unified Socialist) party, chaired by Madhav Kumar Nepal, will get elected. That way, they will at least have someone to voice their concerns in parliament and their issues could then be addressed at policy level. Following Sunil Babu Pant, who became the country’s first gay MP after the 2008 polls, some members of the LGBTIQA+ community had contested the elections in the hopes of repeating the feat. In 2013, Bhumika Shrestha got a seat in Nepali Congress and won the second Constituent Assembly election that year. Her name was then recommended for the federal elections in 2017 but she was later told it had to be pulled back as her citizenship stated her name as ‘Kailash Shrestha’. Laxmi Ghalan, who founded Mitini Nepal, an NGO working for lesbian rights, was another gender minority candidate contesting the 2013 CA election. In 2017, Pinky Gurung, president of BDS, contested the federal parliament elections as a candidate from the Naya Shakti Nepal Party. In the same year, Pun was barred from contesting local level elections in his home district of Myagdi as his citizenship was issued under the ‘third’ category. The district election officer told him he was neither male nor female and was thus disqualified. “The government has included ‘third’ gender in voter rolls, immigration forms, citizenship, and the census. But it’s still largely for show, to appear progressive,” says Pun. Lamenting the fact that people of the LGBTIQA+ community still face many challenges while applying for citizenship, he says this limits their agency and access to important national events like the elections. Elyn Bhandari, activist, BDS, says he isn’t going to vote in the upcoming elections as he isn’t yet on the voter list. The reason is that he would have had to register as a female and he isn’t comfortable with that. “I want to vote in the elections because it’s our right. But I’m not going to unless my citizenship is changed to identify me as male,” he says. Manisha Dhakal, director, BDS, agrees with Bhandari. As a transgender woman, she too feels discriminated when she can’t exercise her right in the way she wants. She says political parties are going against the constitution by not including them in their manifestos and not filing their names as candidates. Representatives from the community are holding discussions and workshops with different political parties on how this can be rectified, in the hope of changing things in future elections, if not the upcoming one. In 2007, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to end discrimination against the then estimated 350,000 people who made up the LGBTIQA+ community. Homosexuality became legal. This landmark ruling paved the way for equal rights legislation. Since then, it’s been easier for LGBTIQA+ people to come out, without the fear of persecution. But the bias and aversion are still palpable, says Nilam Poudel, transgender activist, model and makeup artist. There have been instances when people have talked about the CPN (Unified Socialist) party as ‘that party which has unnatural people’ in it. Political parties seem to have much to lose by bringing in gays and lesbians. Pun, who belongs to the party, doubts he has gotten the candidacy to represent the LGBTIQA+ community. He says he and his entire family have been involved in politics for far too long not to be picked. Poudel says LGBTIQA+ issues are a political agenda for the parties. There is rarely any commitment to uplift the community. She knows many LGBTIQA+ people won’t vote as they have lost all faith in political parties and the system. “Different political parties have approached me. They have tried to convince me and my friends to vote for them. They say they will guarantee our rights if they win. But I can tell, based on past experiences, that these are empty promises,” she says. Swastika Pariyar, who works at Mitini Nepal, says she too won’t be voting in the general elections. She isn’t interested as the community has never received any political support. But she says there is definitely a need for LGBTIQA+ people to participate in politics. “Madhesis and Dalits, who are marginalized too, have their own candidates in different parties. We need that too,” she says. Pun, on the other hand, thinks there’s a long way to go for that. Political parties aren’t progressive enough. The biases run too deep. Instead, the community could come together and form their own party. But running a political party is an expensive affair. The LGBTIQA+ community is also divided as many people have problems with one another. It needs to give serious thought to how to come together and work for a better future, Pun adds, and not put little rifts over life-altering reforms. Raunaq Singh Adhikari, advocate, says not including LGBTIQA+ people in important state organs is just a bureaucratic hurdle. From a legal standpoint, much is in favor of the community. Despite the constitutional protections, there’s still a certain level of homophobia and transphobia in those in power. “It takes time for the Supreme Court’s directives to be implemented. Those who should be working on it are not doing so,” says Adhikari. For instance, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that people should get citizenship based on the mother’s name but when people go to the ward office, they are denied this right. “We are limited by our mindsets, not by our laws,” he says.

In 2015, marine biologist Christine Figgener filmed her team removing a plastic straw stuck in a sea-turtle’s nose. In 2017, in a photo taken by photographer and naturalist Justin Hofman, a seahorse in the ocean near Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, was seen clinging to a bright pink plastic cotton swab. Eighty to 120 tons of waste end up in the sea every minute and a large part of it is plastic. Around 81 percent of this comes from Asia as many of its rivers empty into the ocean. A study by the World Economic Forum estimates that, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. In Nepal, multiple efforts have been made to ban single-use plastics. Earlier this year, the Hotel Association Nepal announced that from 2025 all types of throwaway plastic products like toothbrushes, straws, cutlery, drink stirrers and water bottles, among others, would be prohibited at the 3,000 establishments under it. But a larger commitment, from all sectors, is needed to do away with plastic pollution. Households, restaurants, cafés, and stores generate a lot of plastic waste on a daily basis, from mineral water bottles and disposable cups to bags and wrappers. “Many restaurants in Kathmandu give you mineral water and not regular water. Even when you ask for a glass of water, they say they only have bottled water,” says Payal Basnet, 35, who eats out quite often with family and friends. Basnet says at most restaurants she visits—in Thamel and Jhamsikhel, the two major party hubs of the valley—the staff will break open the seal of a bottle of water without even asking you. “These are popular places that get a lot of customers. Just imagine how many plastic bottles they throw away at the end of the day,” says Basnet. Her friend, Shova Ghimire, 37, says she carries a water bottle with her and gets it refilled at the office and cafés multiple times a day. “I still have to buy a cup of coffee at cafés to get that water refill. Very rarely do I walk into a coffee shop or restaurant and ask them to refill my bottle and get it done for free,” she says. Both Basnet and Ghimire say they want to create as less plastic waste as possible but our system isn’t supportive of that sustainable lifestyle practice. Most restaurants, they agree, don’t care about the waste they are generating as long as they can reap the profits. Sinom Magar, staff at Croissant Café in Thapathali, Kathmandu, says plastic is inevitable at restaurants. Most drinks—like iced coffees and fresh juices—require straws and customers will ask for them if they don’t put one in their drinks. Magar doesn’t see an alternative to it. Bamboo, glass or steel straws aren’t practical as they need to be cleaned rigorously, nor are they very hygienic. Similarly, many random coffee shops around Kathmandu (in Ratopul, Sanepa, Jawalakhel, and Patan) claimed, with around 70 to 100 takeaways in a day, doing away with paper or plastic cups wasn’t an option. They were, however, open to the idea of customers bringing their own cups and said they would be willing to give discounts to them as well. Right now, with the exception of one or two regular customers who bring their own mugs five out of ten times, no one does so. “It’s about convenience. No one wants to carry around a bulky mug in their bags,” says Asim Khatri, owner of Rock Beans Coffee at Arun Thapa Chowk in Sanepa and in Chobhar. He says foreigners usually bring their own mugs whenever they come for takeaways but Nepalis don’t. Instead, most will drink their coffee there and then ask for the remaining to be transferred into a disposable cup if they need to leave suddenly. Rock Beans Coffee is trying to dissuade takeaways by working on creating a good ambience, so that people will choose to sit down with a cup of coffee instead of rushing out the door with a disposable cup in their hands. Not everyone, however, shows the same inclination to cut down on plastic waste. At Paris Bakery, which has kiosks at various Bhatbhateni Supermarkets in Kathmandu, a plastic-lined takeaway box is used for every order. Even when customers want to have a single pastry or chicken patty sitting on one of the stools lining their booth, they give it in a box, coupled with a tiny plastic spoon, barely bigger than your forefinger. I recently asked the waitress at the Pulchowk outlet why they use a box even when there’s no need for one. She said they didn’t have plates, and had been instructed to use the boxes for each order. Similarly, at Thakkhola, a popular restaurant that serves Thakali food, bottled water is kept at every table. The same is true for Bajeko Sekuwa where you ask for a glass of water and they bring you an empty glass and a mineral water bottle. Most restaurants sell bottled water at up to five times the regular market price, and asking customers if they want regular water or mineral water has become a neat little business trick to earn quick profits. “That this creates a lot of waste is a last thing on their minds,” says Ghimire. Rabindra Shrestha, who owns a small grocery store in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, says bottled water is one of the fastest selling items. Every day, he sells at least 24 bottles of water along with a large roll of disposable cups (around100 pieces). Shrestha says offices in the area regularly buy disposable cups because of water shortage that makes washing up difficult. The garbage bin at the corner of his store was close to overflowing with plastic waste when I was there in the afternoon. Everything is wrapped or bottled in plastic so it’s hard to avoid, he says. When the government had initially banned plastic bags, people had no option but to carry a basket or a cloth bag for their shopping. But now shops have again started providing plastic bags. Weak implementation of rules and zero monitoring have led to repeated failure of the plastic ban. However, apart from banning plastic bags the government’s attention also needs to be drawn to all the unnecessary use of plastic at cafés and restaurants. Doing something about this could drastically reduce the bulk of trash, say those who work in waste management. Basnet adds it’s also up to us consumers to be a little conscious of our habits as well, instead of just relying on authorities to step up and do the needful. “If we all say no to disposable items whenever we can, we could make some headway in solving this plastic problem,” she says.

Tucked between souvenir shops in Agra, India, close to the majestic Taj Mahal, is a small, cozy café—the Sheroes Hangout. It’s run by five acid attack survivors and began out of a crowdfunding initiative that collected $4,500 in 2014. Similarly, at the Lahore Beauty Salon in Pakistan, acid attack survivors can train to be beauticians. Both these ventures began out of an urgent need to provide acid and burn violence survivors a means of livelihood as job opportunities were rare, their scars an instant turnoff for potential employers.  In Nepal, too, acid and burn survivors have been unable to find jobs. This has not only made it impossible for them to rebuild their lives, but also dampened their spirits on a daily basis. Sabita Mahat, a burn survivor, says her application for a foreign job got rejected after the agent saw her photo. She was just 17 when her husband set her on fire because she flushed his drugs down the toilet. “I have two small children. I still need more surgeries to be able to move my neck properly. How will I do all this if nobody gives me work?” she says. As tears threaten to spill over, she adds she hasn’t left a stone unturned in trying to earn a decent living. She used to be a makeup and henna artist. She did face-painting. She sold customized clay planters and piggy banks. She even tried starting a pickle business. Each time, her ventures either faltered after promising starts or they weren’t financially viable. Now she is over two million rupees in debt.  “I was getting my paperwork ready to go to Cyprus for a babysitting job. I thought if I worked hard for a few years, I would be able to pay back my loans. But the government apparently isn’t allowing Nepalis women to go abroad for work,” says Mahat.  Rumi Rajbhandari, founder, Astitwa, a non-profit that works for the rehabilitation of acid and burn violence survivors, says Mahat is one of the stronger ones she has seen in her over a decade-long career. But now even Mahat is frustrated. She has worked hard to turn her situation around but nothing seems to work in her favor and that can be depressing at times, says Rajbhandari. “It’s harrowing to be judged by your scars and not your capabilities,” she adds.  Living with scars and disfigurement in a society that values beauty can be an ordeal. The many acid and burn violence survivors I have met over the years have all confessed to covering up and trying to hide from prying public eyes. This makes reintegration into the society almost impossible. Worse, acid and burn violence cases often occur in low-income families, and victims are mostly women. The cost of immediate treatment and multiple surgeries thereafter coupled with zero job prospects causes an even bigger economic setback.  “People look at us with curiosity or pity. For them, we are different. And our society has never been accepting of those who don’t fit in,” says Mahat. She tells me about a friend of hers, another survivor, who is working at a bank in Hetauda, the capital of Bagmati Province. She got the job a couple of years ago because of connections but there have been multiple efforts to compel her to leave. Her colleagues don’t include her in team lunches or photos. Mahat says her friend is upset, but continues to fight for her right and refuses to quit. Quite a few acid and burn survivors work as domestic help in Kathmandu as well. But getting those jobs hasn’t been easy either. Rajbhandari recalls an incident when a burn survivor was rejected at three homes. In one, she was hired and fired in a day as the employer said “her granddaughter was scared of their new maid because of the ugly scars”. Working as a domestic help already comes with a fair share of challenges as many of the survivors don’t have full mobility in their limbs. Their scars stretch, itch, and burn, making it difficult for them to cook and clean.  Jenny Khadka, who suffered 20 percent burns on her neck, chest, and arms when her husband threw acid on her after she refused to go back home with him, says she is tired of the government’s empty promises. Promises of justice and jobs for the victims are made when there’s news of an acid or burn violence but it’s conveniently sidelined when the media furor dies down. “The government, so far, hasn’t done much to ease our sufferings. It would be foolish of us to keep hoping,” says Khadka with a shrug and a smile.  Until recently, Khadka was employed at Kumari Bank Limited, at its Bafal branch in Kathmandu. After two extensions of six months each, she is now jobless. The branch manager apparently wants her back but she hasn’t heard from her former employers yet. Employing acid and burn survivors is good for the company’s profile, she says. Once that goal is achieved, survivors are dispensable. “My colleagues were nice to me. But there wasn’t a single client who didn’t ask me what had happened to me,” she says. “She has such a pretty face, too bad about the scars,” was something whispered about her on a regular basis. Astitwa conducts training and workshops on jewelry-making, pottery and other informal skills. They sell the products made at various school and college fairs and to individual customers through online orders, says Sampada Uprety, program coordinator. The idea is to ensure survivors have some cash coming in as 20 percent of every order goes to the one who works on it. But this, Uprety adds, is by no means a regular thing. Orders are few and far between. It doesn’t fetch a stable income.  Kamal Phuyal, sociologist, talks about the theory of the three Ps—Power, Property, and Prestige—while discussing survivor’s reintegration. These are essentially what every human being strives for, he says. But in the case of most acid and burn victims, there is a lack of all three from the very beginning. “Attaining one of the three Ps will empower them and help them achieve the other two. Organizations working for acid and burn victims and the government must join forces to generate economic opportunities,” says Phuyal.  Phuyal plans to help Astitwa train Khadka to become a counselor. He says she has the potential to do well in the sector because of her own experiences, despite not having studied much. This, he believes, will establish her place in the society. Rajbhandari, on the other hand, adds she sees many changes in survivor’s attitude to life when they can earn. Being financially independent frees them from their abusers too, she says, as having nowhere to go, many victims continue to live with their husbands or in-laws.  “Money plays an important role in reestablishing their self-worth. But when jobs are difficult to come by, when they are looked at and rejected, it has a deep psychological impact that is worse than the trauma they went through when they were burnt,” says Rajbhandari. Mahat dreams of survivors like her coming together and starting something of their own—similar to the Sheroes Hangout—to create jobs for themselves. But then she isn’t hopeful it would work in Nepal. “The fact is people are still largely disgusted by us,” she says. 

The Indian state of Bihar banned the sales and consumption of alcohol in 2016. The ban was championed by local women to tackle issues of alcoholism and domestic violence. The punishments of being caught with alcohol were severe. Fines were high and you were also looking at a month in jail. Repeat offense meant a year behind bars. Nepal, which shares a 729-km border with Bihar, rushed to its help. On the Nepali side of the border, bars and restaurants sprung up where thirsty Indians could get their daily dose of alcohol. According to a report in The New York Times, men from all walks of life crossed the border to drink as much as they could before 9pm, which was when the police blew their shrill whistles and the shops had to close. “Alcohol is available everywhere in Nepal. From little corner shops to dazzling liquor stores, there are plenty of options to suit all kinds of wants and wallets,” says Sanjeev Kumar Shah, program coordinator at Sober Recovery and Rehabilitation Center (SRRC). In our society, any celebration calls for a drink or two. A hard day at work means indulging in some good Scotch (or local hooch) that night. If you are happy, you drink. If there is a problem you can’t handle, you drink. If you don’t drink at a party, you become an outlier. Everybody will ask you why you aren’t drinking and try to convince you to at least down a shot. According to Tsering Wangdu, founder of SRRC, alcohol is socially and culturally accepted and that in itself poses a problem in regulating its sales and consumption. In the Kirati and Gurung cultures, alcohol is sent to the bride’s family during marriage. The Tamang community has a ritual of offering alcohol to the deceased. Sherpas give it to new mothers and drink it to seal business deals. Likewise, the Newars brew alcohol on many important occasions. “Alcohol is addictive and drinking it under different pretexts will lead to addiction,” says Wangdu. Nepal has rules in place to regulate alcohol sales. Alcohol cannot be sold to those under 18. Liquor stores need licenses to operate, and there are restrictions in advertisements as well. Sales of homemade liquors like aila and chhyang is illegal. There is also a cap on how much of it can be produced a year. But the rules aren’t being followed. There’s an urgent need to make proper provisions regarding the manufacture and sales of alcohol in Nepal, says Tek Prasad Rai, spokesperson of the Nepal Police. Alcohol, he says, is a major cause of domestic and sexual violence, accidents, and many other crimes. Rai says there are many alcohol-related altercations and mishaps on a daily basis. They usually result in grave injuries and even deaths. As many cultures consider alcohol auspicious, it’s difficult for the police to even enforce the rules that are already in place, laments Rai. There have been instances when the police have tried to control the consumption of liquor in certain places. Their efforts have only led to furor among various communities that claimed the police tried to mock and reject traditional practices. According to a study, mortality by alcohol in Nepal increased by 376 percent between 1990 and 2016. The study also found that 21 percent males and 1.5 percent females in Nepal were habitual drinkers. A total of 3,972 Nepalis lost their lives in 2016 to liver diseases and cancer among other alcohol-induced ailments. Those working at rehabilitation centers, who have seen the impact alcohol has had on people’s health and relationships, agree the government must intervene and come up with stricter control measures. Some ways to control alcohol consumption could be putting health warnings on alcohol bottles, setting a 21-year age limit for alcohol purchase, regulating the time of alcohol sales, and imposing a ban on all kinds of alcohol ads and promotions. More importantly, there has to be a strict monitoring of alcohol sales to ensure adherence to rules. Shishir Thapa, founder of Cripa Nepal, says alcoholism is an escalating problem in the country. Despite their efforts, many of their patients relapse once they are out of the facility. Thapa says he has seen all kinds of people, from all sorts of backgrounds—from daily wage earners to reputed doctors—risk financial ruin or be estranged from their families because of their addiction. He adds that men are more likely to be alcoholics than women because of our patriarchal beliefs that allow men to do as they please. “Alcoholics are self-centered and incapable of rational thinking and empathy. They are unable to lead regular, normal lives,” says Thapa who believes alcoholism will hinder the nation’s growth besides driving many families into despair. Nepalis, Thapa adds, are at a high risk of alcohol abuse as it’s available everywhere and anyone can access it. There is also no oversight on who is selling alcohol and who is buying it. Many elderlies start drinking at the break of dawn. Their morning walks are quite literally powered by Johnny Walker or cheaper, local versions of the same. Chowks and parks not only sell tea but ‘raksi’ too, camouflaged as cold drinks in pet bottles. The government chooses to remain oblivious because of cultural associations of alcohol as well as the fact that regulating liquor will cut down on revenues. Should Nepal follow its neighbors’ footsteps and ban alcohol, like the governments in Gujarat, Bihar, Manipur, and Nagaland? Nischala Arjal, assistant professor at Kathmandu School of Law, says complete restrictions never yield the desired results. What’s important to regulate is how, when, and where alcohol is sold. That will stop regular drinkers from becoming habitual ones, she says. Thapa adds there needs to be wider awareness on the harmful effects of drinking. Wangdu agrees and says we can no longer afford to normalize the act of drinking. “The government shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this problem as the costs of alcohol dependance are just too high,” he says.

Nepal Police data show there were 191 deaths from road traffic accidents in the past fiscal: 85 of these casualties were pedestrians. Randomly and wrongly parked vehicles, on the footpath and the streetside, compel people to walk on the road where they are often hit by speeding vehicles, says Rajendra Prasad Bhatta, spokesperson of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Department. These deaths could be averted if there were a proper parking system in the city. “You can’t park on the road. This is true for inner roads as well. But, in Kathmandu, every road is littered with parked bikes and cars. It’s a safety hazard besides a leading cause of traffic jams,” says Bhatta. The MTPD is trying to control this by fining such vehicle owners but Bhatta says they is only so much they can do with limited manpower and resources. He laments that people seem to obey the rules only when the police are patrolling the streets. Else, it is chaos, he says. This comes from a lack of conscience as well as blatant disregard of the rules. People think they can get away with anything, with a little bit of aggression and connection. Then there’s also the fact that parking in Kathmandu is a huge problem. Available parking spaces are usually full, far away from your destination, or expensive (most parking lots charge above Rs 80 an hour for four-wheelers). But that still doesn’t mean you get to park on the road, Bhatta adds, even if it’s “just for five minutes” as most people claim when the police book them for the offense. Suman Meher Shrestha, urban planner, applauds mayor Balen Shah’s efforts to demolish illegal structures in Kathmandu. This, Shrestha believes, will ease Kathmandu’s parking problems by at least 30 to 40 percent as both private and government buildings have been using parking spaces for other purposes. The mayor’s actions, Shrestha says, will also reinstate the rule of law in Kathmandu. “It’s total anarchy right now because there is no monitoring and enforcement of laws. Shah is definitely going to change that and restore order,” he adds. The building bylaws have various provisions to facilitate parking in the city. Every commercial building must have its own parking area. The government has given incentives like tax deductions to systemize parking. But most building owners are taking advantage of weak monitoring to maximize profits by renting out parking lots or constructing stores or ATM lounges in the space. The local authorities could fix this problem and that is one of the many things mayor Shah is trying to do at the moment. Talking to ApEx, many Kathmandu residents complained of haphazard parking. Recounting incidents of parked cars obstructing traffic in inner roads, to handle-locked motorbikes in front of main gates, people were clearly frustrated with the lack of a system. A local of Sanepa recalled an incident where an ambulance couldn’t reach its destination as a car was parked in the one-lane street leading to the house. They had to carry the unconscious patient till the main road. Spokesperson Bhatta says people must be proactive and call the police and report such wrongdoings. This will, in the long run, make them conscious of their actions. Ganesh Karmacharya, project head, Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, on the other hand, says Kathmandu isn’t a planned city and that is the root of all our urban problems like narrow roads, lack of open spaces, congestion, etc. There is no option to constructing multistory parking lots in Kathmandu. We must use vertical space to mitigate parking problems in the city, he says. It’s not only the government’s responsibility either. Karmacharya says the private sector can and must be engaged in this. “The government can direct the private sector to make use of this opportunity in a way that benefits them as well as the state,” he says. However, parking problems can’t be solved by focusing on parking solutions alone, say the experts ApEx spoke to. Our public transport system is in a complete mess. This has forced people to invest in their own bikes or cars the moment they have saved enough or are able to take a loan for it. Shrestha says if Kathmandu had an effective and reliable public transport system, people wouldn’t need to rely on private vehicles. Arjun Koirala, senior urban planner, says other major cities in Nepal will also face problems that Kathmandu is going through right now if proper plans aren’t crafted and executed immediately. Core city areas are already congested and, with vehicle imports increasing every year, things will only get worse. “If we turn open areas into parking lots, we run the risk of losing essential breathing spaces. It’s a challenge to create more parking lots without ruining the city’s aesthetics and compromising on the greenery,” says Koirala. The current situation is the result of poor planning and lack of foresight. Karmacharya says the government needs to take urgent action—maybe start by monitoring whether building bylaws are being properly followed. Then, it has to have elaborate discussions, at all levels, on how to manage parking in the city and come up with some concrete plans. “Our economy is also suffering because of the lack of parking spaces. People hesitate to go to many places in the city—like New Road, Bagbazaar, and Putalisadak, to name a few—as they don’t know where to park,” adds Koirala. Limiting vehicular access to certain roads during certain hours could also help clear the roads. However, Koirala says this can affect people who reside in those areas so it’s best to weigh in the pros and cons before executing such plans. Another option would be using available, empty private plots as temporary parking spaces by collaborating with the owners. The KMC in its current demolition drive is taking stock of what parking places are already available. These are, however, only a few possible options for immediate management of an escalating problem. For a sustainable and effective long-term solution, experts are of the unanimous view that the focus must be on changing our mode of transport. Koirala argues that as the city grows, vehicles will only increase. That will put more demand on the roads unless the government can provide mass transport. Shrestha adds that parking and congestion issues can’t be solved unless there is a solid public transport network in Kathmandu and people no longer have to rely on private vehicles as their primary commute option.

Our environment has never been so toxic. There are many things working against us. Dr Keyoor Gautam, chairman of Samyak Diagnostic Pvt. Ltd., a pathology lab, says over 80 percent of those with fever are testing positive for dengue these days. Covid-19 is still a threat. Then there’s the trash dumped on the roadsides, giving off a foul stench and polluting the air, adds Dr Binjwala Shrestha, assistant professor at the department of community medicine at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University. Prevention aside—like wearing full-sleeved clothes to protect against pesky mosquitoes and masking up to stop the spread of Covid-19 and to save ourselves from the harmful effects of air pollution—we must also keep our immune system in top shape. One of the easiest ways to do that is by tweaking our food habits and eating right. “We can’t control external factors. But our diet is one thing we can fix. Our food choices also need to change with the seasons so that our bodies can adapt to the environment,” says Aarem Karkee, a dietician at Patan Hospital. The most basic thing we can do is eat at home and limit junk food and takeaways. In this hot weather, says Karkee, chances of dehydration, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, food poisoning and stomach flu are high. Eating at home drastically reduces that risk as we can control what goes into our food as well as ensure maximum hygiene. Then, we must also eat foods that are in season (for example, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, bell pepper, and cucumber in summers) as these contain the highest amounts of water and nutrients. Our diet mostly consists of dal-bhat-tarkari. It’s generally what we eat throughout the year. The meal is laden with garam masala, ginger and garlic, all of which are heat-generating and thus not ideal for hot summer months. Anushree Acharya, dietician at Venus Hospital, Mid-Baneshwor, Kathmandu, says Kathmandu was once a lot cooler than it is today. Our staple diet was then ideal throughout the year. Not so now. She recommends cutting down on spices especially if you have digestive and sleep issues. “Have cooling foods like salads and other leafy vegetables. Include fruits like watermelon, papaya and pineapple in your diet. Curd is another great option to cool your body in this heat,” she says. It’s also not necessary to drink copious amounts of water. Bhupal Baniya, nutritionist at Nepal Police Hospital, says you must ideally consume 30 to 40ml times your body weight of water every day, which is roughly eight to 10 glasses. Many people tend to go overboard with their water intake, which is actually counterproductive. Overhydration can lead to as many problems as underhydration or dehydration—from electrolyte imbalance contributing to weakness and nausea to loss of water-soluble vitamins. Karkee says checking the color of your urine will give you a good idea of how much water you need. If it’s dark yellow or stains the toilet bowl, you need to drink more water. Whereas, if it’s transparent, almost like water, you need to cut down. In many parts of India, people mix sattu (roasted gram flour) with water, ice, black salt and lemon to make an extremely rehydrating drink to replenish lost electrolytes. Mint-infused or lemon water, Glucose-D, and even ORS can also be consumed on a daily basis to give your body that essential supply of electrolytes, says Acharya. Experts agree that people need to be conscious of what they are eating as that can have a profound impact on how they feel. This is especially important as your mind and gut are connected, determining your overall wellbeing. As the temperature continues to fluctuate, making the environment an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and all sorts of viruses, it’s become all the more important to give your body the internal boost it needs. And that can only come in the form of good, nutritious, season-specific food. Karkee’s advice is to consume whole foods in place of the polished, refined grains. Instead of white rice, he suggests brown rice or grains with the husk still intact. Replace your regular packaged dal with unpolished versions of the same from the local bulk store. Adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables can help regulate your body temperature and digestion, two crucial aspects for the system’s proper functioning. There is also no need to be hyper conscious of your salt intake unless you suffer from conditions that require you to monitor it. Our diet, he says, is deficient in iodine. Iodine deficiency can lead to growth and development issues in children as well as pregnancy-related problems in adults. The salt we consume is fortified with iodine and should be considered a dietary requirement. “There is actually no need to swap your regular salt with pink salt and such. In fact, I suggest you don’t,” he says. The crux of ‘beating the heat’ and being your fittest, healthiest self lies in what’s happening in your kitchen. Keeping a food journal—where you jot down everything you eat and drink—can help you get a sense of what you are doing wrong and fix it. Even better, take a photo of everything you eat and review it at the end of the day or week. Dr Shrestha says the key to eating right is understanding your food habits. That way you will be better attuned to the signals your body gives out when something isn’t working for you.