Submit your Article

If you’re a regular TikTok scroller, you must have come across the videos of Mamta Siwakoti. Usually clad in formal attire and dark shades, the 25-year-old lawyer welcomes you with a ‘Namaskar!’ Then she proceeds to give information on Nepal’s constitution and raise awareness on the country’s legal system.

It was boredom that first pushed Siwakoti, also popularly known as The Digital Lawyer, to step into the video-sharing platform. The first Covid-19 lockdown took its toll on her and she found solace in singing and dancing on the platform and watching content by both national and international creators.

During one of these scrolling sessions the lawyer came across a foreign doctor who was talking about his experience in medicine and giving advice. By then, Siwakoti had already passed her bar exams and gotten a license to practice law.

The lockdown had put the brakes on her plans. But she still wanted to use her free time to share her knowledge. “I thought I would put my education to good use,” she says. “But I never expected the kind of feedback I eventually got.”

She began with a ‘How to be a lawyer in Nepal’ video, which garnered over 330,000 views. After the video’s success, and the sudden realization that law was an area of interest for many Nepalis, Siwakoti decided to make more videos.

As her content got traction, people started commenting on the clips, often presenting hypothetical situations to understand how the law works. Today, the lawyer makes videos on everything from family law and property distribution, to adoption and Nepal’s constitutional history.

Growing up, Siwakoti got the first peek into law from her lawyer father, who always encouraged his daughter to ask questions. However, it was when she started getting seemingly self-evident questions from masses that she realized how most Nepalis were uninformed of their country’s laws.

“I even had people ask me the legal age of marriage in Nepal,” she says. While the subject of law is vast and can often seem exhausting to learn, it’s also something that governs our lifestyle. This is why Siwakoti has a small segment on her TikTok called ‘Know your laws’ where she talks about people’s right to education, safety, food, and against discrimination.

Since TikTok has a three-minute limit, Siwakoti has shifted to YouTube for longer videos and her channel there now has over 2,900 subscribers. However, her biggest audience is still on Tiktok, where she has more than 124,000 followers.

With such a massive following, Siwakoti has received her share of hate and controversy. After she made videos on laws against domestic abuse and property partition after divorce, Siwakoti was, for instance, accused of promoting divorce.

“I don’t mind being criticized over my content,” Siwakoti tells ApEx. She wants to keep improving and constructive feedback always helps. But when she receives personal attacks from strangers, it does get to her. “Our society is still largely patriarchal and there are many comments on my posts which stem from deep-rooted misogyny,” she says. In some severe cases, she’s also had to disable the comment section.

But these setbacks haven’t deterred Siwakoti from pursuing her love for law. Gone is the young girl who got 90 percent in SLC exams and pursued science in +2 because that was what was expected of her. Today, Siwakoti is determined to change people’s perception of law.

Siwakoti is right now working to establish a website for The Digital Lawyer with the help of different academic researches. She’s also an advisor at National Law College, freelancing as a legal report writer and taking law cases. In between, she makes Tiktok videos.

“What I’ve learned is that patience is the key,” she says. “When one door closes, another opens. You mustn’t lose hope.”

Nepali YouTuber and comedian Pranesh Gautam became a household name in 2019 when he was arrested for a satirical video review of a movie, ‘Bir Bikram 2’, and detained for nine days.

Amid an outpouring of anger on social media against his arrest, and protests at Maitighar, the High Court cleared Gautam of the defamation charge pressed by director Milan Chams.

Gautam, a film buff since childhood, didn’t mean harm to the director or the movie actors. But the 2019 incident taught him far more about the trade than all the movies he’d watched.

“No comedian is ever out to hurt people,” he says. “Their only intent is to make the audience laugh.” And that was what he wanted to do with the video uploaded on Meme Nepal’s YouTube channel.

“I grew up watching Hollywood movies,” he shares. Genre icons like ‘The Terminator’ and ‘The Matrix’, which he watched in his sixth grade, made Gautam an avid film lover and he quickly sorted through the classics, expanding his knowledge. It saddened him that Nepali films rarely had that level of storytelling.

His review was only meant to highlight the reviewed movie’s absurdity, and plots of most movies that hit the box office. But it soon became more than that.

Yet Gautam has grown out of that incident now. Today, he runs his own YouTube channel ‘Pranesh Gautam ko Channel’ with over 27,000 subscribers. Aside from his regular comedy skits and travel vlogs, Gautam also has a segment called ‘The Worst Covers’ in which he sings cover songs.

He also has a band, Purple August, which he started with his friend Roshan Magar. The two used to do live shows in restaurants up until the first lockdown. The architecture student is also one of the core team members of the design firm Ramro Mato.

But his most adventurous career move so far has been participating in the first season of Comedy Champion TV show—something that was never in the plans.

“You know how it goes, a few of my friends heard the show was happening and talked me into it,” he confesses. The fact is, most great things that have happened to Gautam are the stuff he’d never planned. “I’m very easily influenced,” he laughs.

As a child, he was always into stage performances and music, and his caricatures were funny. He remembers a mimicry of former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala he watched in the early 2000s that left a deep imprint on him.

In the eighth grade, he took part in a school play and remembers the audience appreciating a satirical drama he was a part of. Even though he gravitated more to music in high school, he found his way back to comedy after a friend encouraged him to visit stand-up comedy shows organized by Comedy Tuk Tuk in 2017.

“My first performance on stage was really good,” Gautam says. “But the next five or six months were difficult as doing comedy felt like breaking new grounds.” For the next two years, he continued improving his skills, practicing on and off the stage.

When he was arrested, his perspective on doing comedy professionally kept changing, moving from fear to anger to hope to despair. On being acquitted, however, he decided not to do comedy that hurt others. “The biggest lesson for me was that you cannot get personal with jokes in this profession,” he says.

“I understand the cancel culture to some extent and people should be held accountable for their actions,” Gautam tells ApEx. “But ruining people’s careers over tweets and taking their statements out of context to paint them in a bad light isn’t cancel culture, it’s social media toxicity.”

It is one thing to bring to attention things that call for violence or incite hate, he adds, but completely other when you turn influencers and their lives into punching bags.

Despite these hurdles, Gautam is determined to stay in this field and give his best. He’s currently working on a few comedy skits for his channel and a ‘secret’ project. “I’m an artist,” he says. “So I’m not going to focus on influencing or activism—just on my art.”

When Bijaya Tripathi, 23, heard about a thrift shop her friend enjoyed visiting, she wasn’t expecting anything special. But when she did visit, she found trendy clothes for half the price of any retail store.

After just a single visit, she was sold on the idea. And since the second lockdown, she often finds herself going through thrift pages online. Even when she has no intent of buying, she still asks the price of products in messages, marveling at how inexpensive and accessible they are.

Tripathi isn’t the only one who is surprised by the sudden rise of thrift shops around Kathmandu. Since the lockdown, social media users have been bombarded with sponsored posts from countless online clothing outlets—many of them thrift stores.

“I’d never planned on opening a store,” says Suman Koirala, owner of Thriftilicious. “But I had a lot of unused stuff in my closet and I’d heard people were willing to buy second-hand clothes. So I thought, why not?” In December 2020, Koirala started an Instagram page for her store and it soon started gaining traction.

Since then, she’s been uploading pictures of second-hand clothes on the page almost every day. Like Koirala, Sobiya Shrestha from Reuse 101 and Pooja Tamang from Thrift Luga both discovered second-hand clothing businesses on Instagram.

Roneeshma Shrestha from FeriFeri store had always been interested in fashion. But it was only when she spotted a few secondhand shops around the city that she thought of starting something similar.

“I knew about thrifting from YouTube videos on clothing hauls,” she tells ApEx. “I understood thrifting as an eco-friendly way of shopping and when I started FeriFeri, I had that sustainability in mind.”

The thrift shopping culture began long ago. But within the country, it grew during the global pandemic, as one could see a surge of new thrift shops on Instagram and Facebook. Online businesses of all kinds were booming during the latter half of last year’s lockdown.

These stores usually sell clothes that previously belonged to store owners. “I’ve always been a bit of a shopaholic,” Tamang confesses. But the clothes bought to catch up with the latest trend seldom see the light of day again after the style reaches its expiration date. Most owners ApEx spoke to had opened their thrift stores to get rid of that pile of unused clothes at the back of their closets, and in return for a decent price.

Occasionally, however, thrift store owners also receive goods from friends and family, asking them to sell their unwanted clothes. “I check the condition and type of attire they ask me to sell,” says Roneeshma Shrestha. Some even sell clothes that have been passed down from their mothers—80’s clothes that aren’t their taste but could be of interest to others. “For many who come to our shops, discovering old-school clothes is equivalent to finding hidden treasures,” says Koirala.

Sometimes, attires brought in by other people aren’t in a wearable condition and can’t be sold. But when they are, the stores take a cut from the sales. The price usually depends on the clothes’ condition, material, and newness. The owners are known to cut the price by 35-40 percent and some clothes, if used a lot, can go for 50 percent discount.

But there are exceptions for designer items. “If you deduct the price of designer goods a lot, people will think you’re selling a knock-off,” Roneeshma says.

Overall, the prices are feasible for both the sellers and buyers. Customers get fairly new clothes and accessories at an affordable price and the owners can earn money out of things they no longer use.

“You’re always told that you need to have a model and a lot of investment to run a business,” says Koirala. “But running thrift shops barely requires any investment other than your time.” Since opening Thriftilicious in December, Koirala has already made around Rs 30,000 from the online business.

But the work isn’t hassle-free. Despite the easy spread of thrift culture in the city, there is still an underlying stigma around buying and selling second-hand clothes. After talking to a few consumers, ApEx found that while some enjoyed thrifting and often browsed through these online shops, others were reluctant to even look in.

Says 21-year-old Argav Shrestha, “I’m never buying second-hand clothes. You don’t know where they’ve been or how they’ve been used. I wouldn’t risk it.”

Another issue is lack of menswear. The thrift stores that ApEx spoke to said that they did get queries from male customers, but only rarely. According to them, comparatively, fewer men are interested in trendy, fashionable clothes so there is a smaller market for menswear. They’ve also had a hard time coming up with second-hand products for men.

ApEx spoke to ten men and as many women. Among the men in the 15-30 age group, only four knew of thrifting and among those four, only one had gone thrift shopping. However, among women, nine knew of thrifting and seven had participated in it before.

Tripathi, who’s bought products from two different shops in the past few months and browsed through countless thrift stores online, says that she loves the concept. “Not only am I getting quality products, I also feel good that I am doing something that is eco-friendly,” she says. “I’m not the kind to shop a lot but thrifting makes it fun and affordable.”

Antee Gurung didn’t know fashion would be her calling. Sure, she always found comfort in drawing croquis and dresses of her own. But Gurung was a shy, introverted kid. Never did she imagine becoming one of the most celebrated fashion designers in the country.

“I always knew my way around clothes,” Gurung tells ApEx. “Garment colors pulled me and made me more interested in their forms and functions whereas the construction and fluidity of apparels fascinated me.” But even with an instinct for design and a passion for clothing, she didn’t know fashion designing was a career option.

Instead, she initially opted for fashion blogging. At a time it was still an alien concept in Nepal, Gurung enjoyed creating content about fashion online while she was still a high school student. Upon graduating from school, she became convinced fashion designing was a passion worth pursuing.

That was more than a decade ago. Today, Inspire Studio, Gurung’s clothing brand, is one of the biggest Nepali brands selling bridal and traditional wear and boasting over 23,000 followers on Instagram. Her designs have made it to countless stages and special ceremonies. Launched in 2014, the label took off after consumers started noticing her attention to detail.

With the brand’s growth Gurung also developed as a person. She feels like she’s learned more while working on her brand than she did in design school. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” she says. “As a young designer, I was more interested in media coverage and audience appreciation. But once I got that, I realized personal and artistic growth was way more valuable than momentary gains.” This understanding also made Gurung focus on details.

Inspire Studio has become a go-to brand for those seeking formidable stage presence. Many celebrities have reached out to the brand for clothing items, including winners of the Miss Nepal beauty pageant. Gurung designed the gown that won Asmi Shrestha—Miss Nepal 2016—the best evening-wear award, in what is among Gurung’s most memorable accomplishments. Her designs have also been showcased in London, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh.

But Gurung isn’t the only one that demands perfectionism at every turn. Her clients expect quality clothing that fulfill their needs, and much of Gurung’s working days are spent catering to them. “Most of my clients say the brand’s essence, the feminine and elegant touch my collections exude, is what makes it stand out,” she says.

While much of the label’s focus has been on women’s ethnic and cultural clothing, as the designer wanted to cater more to occasion and bridal wear, Gurung can design any kind of attire as long as it makes people happy. This is why she’s also officially launching Antee Gurung. Co, an everyday fashion brand that focuses on modern wear for contemporary women. “The idea came to fruition during the Covid-19 pandemic,” she says. “It was a saving grace to be able to work on new things during these otherwise trying times.”

As all of her products are made from scratch in Nepal—something she takes a lot of pride in—and her responsibilities go beyond making designs. Aside from meeting her clients, she is also busy managing her business.

“The biggest misconception is that designing is an easy, fancy job, but there is much more to it than what they see on the runway and ads. Beyond the glossy images, you need to put in both physical and creative effort to run a fashion business,” she says. “As a self-made designer, I have struggled to make a name for myself. But my struggles have made me stronger and more perceptive too.”

Birth: 18 May, 1943, Bangemudha
Death: 20 July, 2021, Tokha

When Professor Dr Yog Ratna Sthapit’s children were growing up, they often saw their house filled with students reaching out to him for letters of recommendation or asking for revision classes.

Sthapit happily helped students who came. Their success brought him great joy. His children often heard him say that being able to do his job well was his biggest source of happiness.

Born in 1943, Sthapit got his school-level education at Juddho Daya School and studied in Nepal until he earned his Master’s degree. He was decorated with the Mahendra Vidya Bhusan award after he topped his class in MSc. He then completed his PhD in Mathematics from Lucknow, India.

After returning home, he authored a handful of books with his colleagues and students. Some of the more popular ones are ‘Basic Mathematics’ (Vol I and Vol II), included in grades XI and XII syllabi, ‘Algebra and Geometry’ for Proficiency Certificate Level, and ‘Three Dimensional Geometry’ for BSc and BA courses.

At the age of 25, he tied the knot with Roopsova Sthapit, and together they had three children. They remember him as a loving father and a strict disciplinarian, but empathetic to their feelings. Sthapit supported his children’s choices, especially over their careers.

At the Central Department of Mathematics, Tribhuvan University, where he worked, he was loved for his devotion to teaching. To this day, he is known for his patience and hard work as he was always willing to go the distance to help his students. Sthapit’s consistency and dedication didn’t go unnoticed; he was soon named the department head.

Sthapit’s other source of joy was reading. A morning person and a bookworm, he also loved good food. His friends say that he could never say no to momos, fish, and mangoes.

Sthapit had been diagnosed with hypertension and heart ailments. A few of his students remember him teaching in class with sweat dotting his forehead and him panting. But he would still continue with his class.

As the years went on, his health deteriorated. In 2017, he had an open-heart surgery. He retired thereafter and started spending more time at home.

Soon, he was bound to a wheelchair. Nepal Mathematical Society organized a program to honor Sthapit’s contribution to the field and his efforts to popularize Mathematics in higher education.

A few weeks ago, he was admitted to Grande Hospital following a stroke. He had recovered a little after a few days at the hospital. But then his condition suddenly deteriorated. He passed away on July 20, at the age of 78. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and one son.

It’s no secret that Buddhi Sagar, a prominent Nepali fiction-writer, poet, and a columnist, is a fan of Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho. But few know how this love affair started.

One day in 2003, Buddhi Sagar, who back then read every Nepali and Hindi book he could lay his hands on, found Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ on a friend’s shelf. Back then, reading books in English was a struggle for him, but this particular copy was translated into Hindi and he thought, why not?

Little did he know he was about to meet his all-time favorite author.

“The Alchemist is one of the most touching books I have read,” shares the 40-year-old writer. In fact, the quote, ‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it’ is one of his favorite lines in literature. “I find that quote to be true even in my personal life.”

Years after he read the bestseller, in Hindi, he heard people talk about how good the book was in English. By now he had started reading English novels and he picked up the book again—this time in English. “There were parts I didn’t understand,” he confesses. “But as I knew the story and had the Hindi copy with me, it was easy to look up things that were unclear.”

After finishing the book, he picked up ‘The Zahir’, another of Coelho’s books. One after another, Buddhi Sagar read all of the bestselling author’s books. The Nepali author finds simple answers to complicated philosophical questions in the Brazilian’s works. Coelho has a style tailored to untangling life’s mysteries, he says, and that’s something he hasn’t found in other authors.

Simplicity in storytelling isn’t something Buddhi Sagar is unfamiliar with. Fans often describe his novels, Firfire and Karnali Blues, as simple but heart-touching reads. But the native of Kailai district clarifies that his works are not influenced by Coelho’s writing.

“I have a passion for books, both reading and writing them,” he shares. “But it’s only when I’m reading stories that are completely different to the kind I write that I enjoy them the most. I find novels that I’m familiar with repetitive and even boring.”

Buddhi Sagar finds Coelho’s versatility, directness as well as his outlandish plots utterly fascinating. “The Zahir is my favorite,” he says. “The main character becomes a whole new person to the one he was at the beginning of the book!” A book about transforming one’s ingrained beliefs and perspectives, the 2005 novel has a special place in his heart.

Buddhi Sagar isn’t shy to flaunt his love. His Twitter bio contains the aforementioned quote from The Alchemist and much of his time on social media is spent retweeting and sharing Coelho-related stuff.

Buddhi Sagar is also an avid reader of the author’s blogs. He has been such a loyal follower that Paulo Coelho himself has taken note. The two follow each other on Twitter and have spoken via direct messages. Buddhi Sagar has received countless books, movies, and TV shows recommendations from his favorite author, further increasing his respect for Coelho.

“Being recognized by someone I’ve looked up to for such a long time is one of the most memorable things to have ever happened in my life,” he shares.

Buddhi Sagar notes that just like him Paulo Coelho also came from a family with no literary history. “Family support for our profession was something that we had to earn,” he says.

The newly quadragenarian finds it endlessly exciting that two people so far apart physically can nonetheless feel so close thanks to their common love for literature. 

Online education has taken the world by storm and opened countless doors for students.

An online learning platform, Udemy is a website with over 155,000 courses on subjects ranging from art and graphic design to public speaking and finance management. The teaching marketplace is full of video lessons you can buy at a reasonable price. As Udemy courses are behind a paywall, direct payment might be an issue for Nepali students. But Nepal Rastra Bank now allows ‘A’ and ‘B’ class commercial banks to provide prepaid dollar cards for online transactions. You can also reach out to various service providers on social media who can help you access online classes.

This week, ApEx brings to you three Udemy course recommendations each from three business and finance instructors teaching at various colleges in Kathmandu.

Amit Shrestha, lecturer of finance at Pokhara University and teacher of financial accounting and reporting at the British College

Financial Planning & Analysis: Building a Company’s Budget by 365 Careers 

With a rating of 4.6, this 3.5-hour course begins with the basics then builds upon topics of revenue forecasting, cost planning, working capital development, fixed assets roll-forward, and cash flow calculation. The course is self-paced and structured with 25 downloadable resources.

Mergers & Acquisitions – M&A, Valuation & Selling a Company by Jon Colley 

The course aims to improve the students’ understanding of corporate valuation, management buyout, negotiation, and term sheets, and get a peek into the sales process. This seven-hour corporate finance course comes with 73 downloadable resources.

Technical Analysis 102: Secrets of Trading Revealed by Luca Moschini

This four-hour course gives you an insight into the global stock market, market direction, and market cycles that affect price action. It also informs you about consolidation patterns and how frequency trades work.

Prakash Sapkota, teacher of finance at St. Xavier’s College, strategic management at Shanker Dev Campus and finance and entrepreneurship at K&K International College

The Complete Digital Marketing Course – 12 Courses in 1 by Rob Percival and Daragh Walsh

This 22.5-hour online course includes 351 lectures, 21 articles, and one downloadable resource and covers the fundamentals of digital marketing with live demonstrations and examples. With advice on increasing traffic on your preferred media and increasing followers, you can build an online business from scratch. The course has a 4.5 rating from more than half a million students. 

Financial Modeling for Startups & Small Businesses by Evan Kimbrell and Symon He

For entrepreneurs looking to learn about financial modeling for startups, this course helps you understand model user growth, expenses, revenue, and attrition and forecast cash needs for your business. Targeted at beginners, it has a defined framework of lessons with 80 lectures, two articles, 76 downloadable resources, and 11.5 hours of content. 

Ecommerce & Marketing Course: Agency, Marketer, Affiliate by Rad Group and Pouya Eti

This course covers basic subjects like analyzing traffic online, creating an interactive website and social media marketing to designing powerful funnels to drive sales, customer characteristics analysis, designing structures of eCommerce, and selling products online. With 51 hours of content, 362 lectures, 19 articles, and 15 downloadable resources, the course is easy to follow and understand even for beginners.

Ruchin Singh, ex-teacher of marketing at St. Xavier’s College

An Entire MBA in 1 Course by Chris Haroun

Considered one of the most comprehensive and stellar courses on the website with over 300,000 students, this course by Haroun consists of 82 lectures totaling around eight hours and simplifies the concepts behind business, accounting, and finance. Applauded for its interactive sessions, market analytics presentation, and for giving students insight into subjects like company financials, venture capital, fast networking, and the value of communication skills, this is one of the most coveted courses on the internet. 

Social Media Marketing – Complete Certificate Course by SO ME Academy

In the age of small business owners gracing our social media, this course talks about how you can use social media, not just for marketing, but also for PR and customer service by understanding the media’s foundations. Learn how to build a social media strategy, audit organizations and how content marketing can help you boost sales with 14 downloadable resources and 75 lectures. 

Microsoft Excel – From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours

Many of us tend to underestimate the functions that Microsoft has made available for its users. With this course, you can begin with the fundamentals of Excel and then move on to the advanced features that only a few are aware of. With a Microsoft Certified Master Instructor with over 15 years of experience, you can learn how to create Excel project files, Excel templates, create passwords to protect your documents, harvest data from the web, and create online forms to gather data.

Birth: 12 March 1948, Dailekh

Death: 4 July 2021, Dailekh

For those who only knew Jagat Jung Thapa casually, he came across as an intimidating figure. But those who knew him up close remember him as a kind-hearted and soft-spoken man who dedicated his life to the country’s betterment

There are, in fact, few in Dailekh district of Karnali Province who have not heard of Thapa.

Born on 12 March 1948 in Narayan Municipality-2, Dailekh, Thapa got his early education at Kathmandu’s Anandakuti Vidyapeeth. He then enrolled into Amrit Science and Tri Chandra campuses for higher education. 

After completing his Masters in Political Science, he stepped into politics in 1966 through a democratic student union protest at Tri Chandra Campus. Following this, in 1970, he also contested a position in a student union group from Far-Western districts.

From 1972 to 1976, Thapa worked as a teacher at Tribhuvan Secondary School located at the heart of Dailekh Bazaar, where he helped various youth organizations around the Bheri region organize during the Panchayat regime. Then, in 1991, he was elected a member of the Congress Mahasamiti and a district party representative.  

In 2017, he contested the general election from Dailekh-1 but ended up losing. Thapa was magnanimous in his defeat. In fact, he was admired for his equanimity in both victory and loss.

Thapa had his ups and downs in politics but this never stopped him from working for the country. Throughout his career, he worked with organizations like Nepal Family Planning Organization and Nepal Red Cross Society. He was also the chairperson of the Nepal Children’s Organization.

Thapa, 71, had recently contracted coronavirus and was admitted to Dailekh District Hospital, where he was kept in isolation. He succumbed to the virus at around three in the morning on July 4. Thapa is survived by his wife and six daughters.