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It is 7 pm on a Friday night. We are at a dance bar. There is a stage and a pole. The red and blue lights flickering is almost blinding. The music is loud. The setting is uncomfortable. We have the luxury of walking away and not returning. This is not the case for performers who were arriving at their workplace. It was time to change. Clients need to be entertained. 

I, along with Samundra Baniya, a field officer from Biswas Nepal, a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded by former employees of the Adult Entertainment Sector (AES), visited dance bars and dohori saajh across Sundhara, Kathmandu. “The obvious reason for them to continue working here, despite several human and labor rights violations, is the financial struggle they grew up with back home,” says Baniya. It is true, but not the only reason.

In an interactive session hosted on April 10 by Biswas Nepal, 10 female performers and one male manager of a dance bar shared their struggles while working in the AES. Their identities and ages were not disclosed to maintain privacy.

These workers resonated with what Baniya said. Most started working in this field to support their families. Some had been working for years while others had just started, and all came from low-income backgrounds These workers resonated with what Baniya said. Most started working in this field to support their families. Some had been working for years while others had just started, and all came from low-income backgrounds and dysfunctional families. One of the workers has no parents, some are victims of domestic violence and chose to escape, and most do not have a supportive family to lean on during hard times. 

Survival is their biggest challenge. “I finished my high school and had joined a bachelor’s program, but the burden of paying fees, rent, and sending money back home was crippling,” says one worker in her early 20s.  To cover these costs, she began working in the sector. “I am a volleyball player,” says another who moved to Kathmandu from a hilly district. She grew up without parents and is on her own. Working in the AES was the financially sound “decision” she made to sustain her life in the city. “I play for the district volleyball team,” she adds. Little to zero financial support for athletes makes it a burdening career choice.

The saddening truth is that most of these women want to pursue different careers. However, economic realities have forced them into a job they are not comfortable with. The pressure is extensive, so much so that one worker developed mental health issues. “I started forgetting things, and in the middle of work, I once almost passed out after drinking with a guest,” she says, looking confused. She cannot understand how it happened, as that amount of alcohol had never affected her that way before. It was difficult not to wonder if her drink had been spiked.

It isn’t simply the pressure of the work, the night shifts, or the extended hours that cause these mental health issues. The AES in Nepal is not well-regulated. Although guidelines exist, most establishments take an extra-judicial approach. “There is no respect for what we do, even if we do it to make a living,” says a long-time performer. This disrespect manifests as verbal or sexual abuse, which they are forced to endure to keep their jobs. “Most guests come to me and ask if a particular girl they like is available for the night,” says the manager present at the session. “Even though I say no, I know many managers who will entertain such requests,” he adds.

If asking this upfront is considered acceptable, one can only imagine what it’s like to work for clients with similar intentions while they are intoxicated. “If we aren’t dancers, we are servers, and they write texts on their phones to show us, asking how much we will take for the night,” adds another worker.

“They [the owner] make us drink with the guests, sit with them, or even go spend the night with them if it means the customers will visit regularly,” she says. Most women agreed with what she said. “We have a choice to say no, but it means we lose our commission,” she adds, making it a compulsion rather than an option.

However, following the owner’s instructions doesn’t guarantee a fair or timely wage. While we were on the field visit, a worker in her late teens approached us. She had just started at a new establishment after the owner of her previous workplace refused her paycheck. She was owed around Rs 12,000. Baniya mentions this is a common problem.

Most establishments do not provide valid contracts. Without legally binding documents, filing a complaint is nearly impossible. Recovering their salary through legal channels is difficult because they lack evidence of employment. They further add that all they receive is an ID card valid for six months. Sometimes, not even that. 

This problem follows them home. Finding a room to rent is already a challenge for these women. “No one wants to rent to a woman whose work involves coming home late at night,” they say. It is worse when they cannot pay rent on time. “Once, my landlord would not open the door, and we spent the night on the street,” another added. Almost everyone in the room nodded. They had all experienced this.

Advocate Rasana Dhakal, an independent lawyer who handles cases involving AES, says this is a steppingstone to deeper problems. One of the biggest fears for these women is having nowhere to live. This leads them to make harsh choices. “There are women who enter live-in relationships that result in unwanted pregnancy and abandonment,” she adds.

These relationships are often born of necessity. “Staying in a live-in relationship guarantees a roof over their head,” Dhakal says. But there is more to it: safety. Their commute back home is dangerous. With no public vehicles available at 2 in the morning, some must walk 30 minutes of eerie Kathmandu streets to their destination. “It is scary, and people assume they can say or do anything to us because we work in a dance bar,” says the veteran performer in the group. Living with someone provides a sense of protection, but it creates new hurdles.

“When there is no proof of marriage, it is difficult to claim citizenship or a birth certificate for a newborn child,” says Dhakal. While birth certificates must be provided at the place of birth, many women are refused service the moment they mention they are unmarried. The bureaucratic hurdles and blunt rudeness from officials only add to their trauma.

A question lingers: why work there if it’s so bad? Most AES workers lack a formal educational background because staying in school requires financial stability they don’t have. Jobs are scarce, and when they do find one, the wage is insufficient. “I was offered only Rs. 8,000 for a different job. There were no contracts or guarantees I’d be paid on time,” one worker notes. That amount cannot cover rent and education in Kathmandu. The AES, while challenging, offers better pay.

This is also how many are lured into the sector. Most women get these jobs through friends or relatives who claim the money is “easy.” These individuals are often responsible for bringing more workers into the fold. However, this lucrative aspect of the industry often catalyzes cases of internal and external trafficking.

“The agents who find these women jobs sometimes keep several months of their salary as commission,” says Baniya. This is internal trafficking. “However, most people aren't aware their actions constitute trafficking because legal awareness is minimal,” adds Dhakal. Furthermore, workers are often pressured to leave their current workplace for “better” opportunities offered by other owners, only to end up in worse situations.

This also involves foreign employment recruitment agencies that lure workers with false job prospects abroad using ‘visit visas,’ escalating the issue to international human trafficking. “There is a worker stuck in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (the UAE), who left on a visit visa. She is not allowed to leave her workplace,” says Kalpana Sapkota, Program Manager at Biswas Nepal. The worker tried to run away but was caught and returned. Her only hope now is to reach the Embassy of Nepal for repatriation. The nearest embassy is in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. 

These issues were identified through direct conversation, but many establishments in the Durbarmarg and Jamal areas refuse entry to NGOs or journalists. It is a sign of clandestine criminal activity. Workers mentioned that clients prefer younger girls, and minors are often brought out after midnight and hidden away whenever authorities are near. While evidence is hard to gather, the workers confirm it happens.

The problem is not necessarily the industry itself, but the lack of regulation. “This industry gets a bad name because of how people view it,” says Tara Bhandari, founding chairperson of Biswas Nepal and a former AES worker. “It’s a place where you eat, drink, and watch a performance. With strict rules, this could simply be a workplace.”

The demand from these workers is not to shut the establishments down. They want job security, ensured safety, legally binding contracts, and intervention from employers when clients misbehave. “We are doing this to make a living, too,” they ask. “Why should it cost our dignity?”

Microsoft said on Saturday that its Microsoft Azure users may experience increased latency due to multiple undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea, The Business Standard reported.

In an updated status message for its Azure system, the company said its users may experience service disruptions on traffic routes through the Middle East.

"We do expect higher latency on some traffic that previously traversed through the Middle East. Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted. We'll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change," Microsoft said.

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has demanded the government to investigate the violent incidents that occurred at Tinkune area, Kathmandu and bring to book the culprits.

Chair Dahal said so  after inspecting the office of the CPN (Unified Socialist) which was also vandalized by the protestors on Friday.

Talking briefly to the media, he said the government also needs to seriously review the lapses in security arrangement.

Waste management in Kathmandu Valley is a big problem. It generates 1,200 metric tonnes of solid waste everyday, where only a few gets recycled. More than 700 metric tonnes of solid waste end up at Banchare Danda landfill site, with around 300 garbage trucks dumping waste there on a daily basis. 

The purpose of the landfill, initially, was for the disposal of solid waste that can neither be recycled. That amounts to around 30 percent of the total waste the valley generates. But sadly, that’s not the case. From degradable to non-degradable waste, everything is disposed of at Banchare Danda landfill site.

There are municipalities like Waling (Syangja) and Tilottama (Rupandehi) that have done a commendable job in managing their solid waste. Their waste management sites do not even emit foul smells. Dhundi Raj Pathak, solid waste management expert, says that the same kind of management can be replicated in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). “All we need to do is replicate the same mechanism on a larger scale, and the first place to start would be to ask every household to segregate their waste into degradables and non-biodegradables.” 

Around two years back, KMC had asked Kathmandu’s households to segregate their waste before dumping it in a garbage truck. A fine of Rs 500 was also imposed. Pathak says the initiation was good, but the problem was on how the city workers handled the segregated waste. Everything got dumped into the same garbage truck and ended up in landfills despite segregation. Eventually, people stopped segregating their household waste. 

What Kathmandu needs right now is a proper plan for the disposal of segregated waste, that can be brought into implementation as quickly as possible. For that, the city authority needs to convince every household to segregate their waste. 

KMC Spokesperson Nabin Manandhar says they are already on it. “We will be running awareness campaigns and training in every ward to segregate and collect waste.” 

This time, he adds, the city will not be imposing fines. 

“The plan is to achieve zero waste within Kathmandu,” says Manandhar. “We have completed a one year study on managing solid waste, and we are planning to create a model where every waste material is utilized.” 

There is a plan to convert organic waste into manure and biogas, and sell the dry waste to recyclers. Furthermore, the city is also planning to convert some of the dry waste into coal that can be used in brick and cement factories. To manage biodegradable waste, the city is planning to set up a plant at its garbage collection center in Teku. The facility will convert organic waste into fertilizers and biogas. 

“We can’t say when this plan will be operational, but we have taken the starting steps,” says Manandhar. 

Waste collected from Kathmandu Valley, Kakani, and Banepa end up at Banchare Danda landfill site. Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of KMC’s Environment Management Department, says if each municipality, including the ones in Kathmandu, takes responsibility for the waste they produce, it would be easier for the city to manage the waste. 

“It’s always the Kathmandu Metropolitan City that gets blamed for the situation at Sisdol and Banchare Danda, when there are other municipalities contributing to the problem,” he says. 

He claims 55 percent of the total waste generated in the city will be managed once the plan to convert organic wastes into fertilizer and biogas is realized.  

There are no plans to manage non-degradable waste though. In 2013, the KMC  had invited a tender for the management of non-degradable waste. No one applied. Over the years, the KMC officials have also taken several foreign cities to better understand how they are managing their solid waste. They gathered a lot of knowledge about waste management, but the city never took the step to implement that knowledge.  

“The plans are limited to the paper. For things to progress, the tender process that the city activated a decade ago must conclude,” says Pathak, the solid waste management expert. “Only then, the city could start by setting up a material recovery facility to segregate non-degradable waste before selling it to independent buyers or recyclers.” 

If the plans were to be put in action immediately, Pathak believes that the facilities needed for solid waste management can be up and running in approximately three years. 

“We don’t need any pilot programs to test, because we  have had multiple tests already,” he says.

In today’s competitive world, all of us are pushing ourselves beyond our limits, be it at work or in our personal lives. It can be stressful. And we often look for ways to put our minds at ease. Anushka Nepal from ApEx talked to three artists to find out about what they do when they are stressed.

Sushant Ghimire, Singer

There are usually two types of stress that I usually go through. One is just being stressed out after a hectic day or some personal issue. In that case, I just sleep. I like to give myself some rest, take a long nap, and then I feel better. Another one is when I get burnt out from work and need a long break. When that happens, I visit my hometown in Sunsari. I don’t do anything else but spend time with my family. I find that quite rejuvenating. 

Bipin Maharjan, Tattoo artist

Being around nature helps me feel better. I try taking a day or two off from work and plan bike rides or hiking—anything that will help me experience nature. The distance depends on my mood though. I might plan a short or a long trip depending on what I want to do that day. Since I might only have a day for myself, I don’t usually go trekking. I choose destinations for which I can head out in the morning and be back by the evening. Besides that, I love to paint. 

Samaira Shrestha, Model and theater artist

I like to start my day with some positive affirmations. Every morning, I read some statements out loud. It helps me feel good about myself. But when I’m extremely stressed, just affirmations aren’t enough. So I go to the gym. Working out is one of my coping mechanisms. I try to surround myself with people who create a positive and jolly environment around me. I spend time with my family and that helps too. They’re quite a funny bunch and make me laugh more than anyone else I know. Besides that, I meditate. That helps me put my mind at ease.

Syangja/Rupandehi: The mention of the word ‘dumping site’ or ‘landfill’ rarely elicits good feelings. No one wants to go near one, much less have a picnic there. But Waling Municipality in Syangja district has turned this general notion about landfill on its head. Yes, the spot where the town dumps its waste is also a picnic park—and a popular one at that. 

The first thing you’ll see as you enter the municipal waste disposal site is the greenery. The area is covered with vegetation, all the grass and trees with paved walkways. There is no whiff of foul smell about. This is explained by the fact that the municipal office only disposes of non-degradable waste here. 

Every individual household in Waling segregate their waste and municipal workers make sure that non-degradable wastes aren’t mixed with the degradable ones when they do their garbage rounds. Failure to segregate means the waste doesn’t get collected, and the concerned household must pay a fine. By simply involving the community in solid waste management, Waling Municipality has managed to keep itself tidy.    

It is also generating revenue through non-degradable waste. From plastic to paper, everything is sold to recycling companies. Once the non-degradable waste is dumped into the site, it’s further separated by the employees.
“Every material has a different price. Among glass bottles, prices differ between the bottles depending on their color. It’s the same for the plastic. Price depends on its quality,” says Dilip Khand, the former mayor of Waling Municipality, who currently manages the solid waste management site.

Annually, the municipality profits around Rs 2.5m to Rs 3m by selling recyclable waste. Multi Layered Plastic (MLP/plastic that’s found on wrappers) doesn’t get sold. But they have found a solution to manage this type of plastic as well. It gets shredded and is used as one of the components for asphalt.

As for the bio-degradable waste, it’s utilized to make vermicompost (biodegradable waste converted into organic manure with the help of earthworms). Waling Product Holding Multipurpose Cooperative is responsible for making and selling vermicompost. Some farming households make their own vermicompost, thus limiting their waste.

Fecal waste from households doesn’t get dumped in the river either. Each household is mandated to have a septic tank. The municipality is responsible for cleaning the tanks, for which each household pays Rs 5,000 per cleaning session. The fecal waste doesn’t go to waste either. It gets separated into solid and liquid forms. While the solid waste is turned into vermicompost, the liquid is turned into drinkable water.

A visitor to Waling will notice how clean the town is, from its neighborhoods to street to river.
“It is the willingness of the locals to keep their surroundings neat that makes Waling so clean,” says Khand.
But this enthusiasm and wisdom didn’t come overnight. At first, some town residents were opposed to the idea of separating their household waste, says Yogmaya Pangeni, coordinator at the Social Development Committee of Waling.
“They fell into line only after the town mayor announced that he would personally visit their homes to pick up and segregate their waste.”  

Besides Waling, the other place that’s doing a great job with waste management is Tilottama Municipality in Rupandehi, Lumbini Province. Like Waling, waste materials are segregated at their source, at the household level. Two garbage trucks are deployed twice a week, once to collect degradable waste and the other to collect non-degradable waste. But the waste is currently collected from only 11 wards (Ward No. 7 to 17) out of the total 17.

While the responsibility of solid waste management in Waling is taken by the municipality, the responsibility of managing waste in Tilottama is undertaken by WASH Cooperative. The non-degradable waste is separated, compressed, and packed for selling the materials to the highest bidder, while the degradable waste is turned into vermicompost.

These models of managing solid waste were initiated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as Promoting Green Recovery Project (PGRP/the project has already come to an end) in five different municipalities, among which two of them are Waling and Tilottama. Both the municipalities agree that this couldn’t have been possible without the UNDP’s assistance.

Before initiating the project in Tilottama, Aarju Karki, program officer for PGRP, says that the dumping site was merely a pile of garbage and nothing more. “With the combined effort of WASH Cooperative, Tilottama Municipality, and UNDP, we were able to make this dumping site systematic with added machinery and expertise on waste segregation,” she adds.

The pile of garbage that was dumped before the initiative started is also being segregated separately. “Some contractors take the responsibility of segregating certain areas from the dump and take what they need, while paying a certain amount to the cooperative,” she says. More than half of the waste from the pile has already been managed.

Besides, Tilottama Municipality is actively working on making sure that every household takes the responsibility of segregating their waste. Waste material from a household isn’t collected if not segregated. Also, the locals are encouraged to make their own manure. The municipality has distributed compost bins in every household. Dustbins have also been placed at different stops. The municipality employs two individuals in each ward to make sure no one litters the area.

“The officers are there to make sure that anyone who litter is fined (Rs 500). They also dispose of any non-degradable waste found in the area,” says Shanta Bashyal Bhattarai, one of the consumers in Tilottama.

One of the major forces driving these municipalities into managing and selling waste materials, besides keeping their environment clean, is its financial benefit.

“Solid waste management has become one of our important sources of income,” says Krishna Khand, mayor of Waling Municipality.

Even for Tilottama, their recent monthly revenue was Rs 365,880 from selling scraps. They haven’t yet started making profits, but with the ratio they’re working on, Khem Prasad Gautam, president of WASH Cooperative, says they will be making good profits in the coming years. 

The same initiative could be taken in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. “The best way to move forward is to have solid waste management sites in each ward, since the waste produced in Kathmandu is more than what we see in Waling,” says Khand, former mayor of Waling Municipality.

It’s an investment that guarantees future returns. “One could do so much with waste materials that’s generated in the Kathmandu Valley,” says Khand. “When I travel around Kathmandu and see the garbage piles, I can’t help but think that it’s money that’s being littered, not waste.”

Almost every Nepali has swiped through the videos on TikTok at least once. The videos are short and do not need a lot of your patience. TikTok has also become a good place to promote businesses as well as one’s own talent. Most content creators want to go viral and make money out of the views they receive. But several TikTok users ApEx spoke to say that the platform is being misused at the same time, especially when it comes to Nepali contents.

“People make videos just for the views, and most of them are downright disgusting,” says Pooja Subedi, a 29-year-old from Dhapasi, Kathmandu. One of the most disturbing aspects of Nepali content on TikTok, she says, is parents using their children to get more views. A few months back, Subedi came across a video where a mother filmed her daughter not older than six years on a song called ‘Anaconda’ by Nicki Minaj, which explicitly sexulizes women’s bodies. “What was the purpose of that video?” questions Subedi. The mother in question later apologized for posting the video, but did not take it down since the video had gone viral. 

Individuals ApEx spoke to have come across numerous videos where adults are filming their children for no apparent reason other than to attract viewers’ attention, no matter what the consequences. There is one video of a child crying for not knowing the answers to his/her homework, calling it cute and adorable.
“I don’t think a child crying is something that needs to be publicized,” says Asmita KC, a 29-year-old living in Hattigauda, Kathmandu. “Imagine how traumatic it’ll be for the child when he/she gets recognized just for crying on a video that his/her parents decided to post.”

Several videos don’t take people’s privacy into consideration either. People start filming videos everywhere, without thinking about timing or location. Sweksha Karna, a 22-year-old currently studying in Australia, says she came across a dance video of a woman who was filmed in Basantapur, Kathmandu, which she thought was quite inappropriate. “There was a blood donation program going on in the background. Those people did not ask to be on the video,” she says. 

Not just that, but many restaurants, in the name of promoting their business, film their customers without asking. Videos are being taken without permission, hurting the sentiments of several people involved. The same happened to the parent’s of Monika Thakuri, a TikToker who died by suicide. Her father was filmed crying at the hospital bed after his daughter’s death. The video went viral. No one wants to relive moments like that, but now it’s all over TikTok.

Also, people frequently spread misleading information just for the sake of views. For instance, if there is an accident or a fire, users post videos with a different audio from some other accidents to raise concerns among people. It creates confusion and panic when the situation might not even be serious. “I have also seen videos where people film their neighbors and add a different audio, misleading viewers into questioning if it’s domestic violence,” says KC. 

Everything that happens on TikTok comes down to the number of views and likes. The more engagement they have, the more money they make. Good contents don’t get views while the problematic ones go viral

Rekha Shah, a 40-year-old woman who runs a cosmetics store in Shankhamul, Kathmandu, feels that TikTok has made people quite inhumane. Wherever someone sees an individual suffering, she believes that their first instinct is to film the victim rather than help them out. “People are after increasing the number of viewers and likes out of someone else’s misery. I find that quite scary,” she says. 

People are going above and beyond to increase engagement in their contents. “I have seen vidoes where people stand on the edge of a cliff, pretending to commit suicide, just to match a song’s lyrics,” Shah says. “It’s promoting unhealthy behavior. I find that scary since people and children on TikTok try copying that.”

Sexual and derogatory comments circulating throughout TikTok is another huge problem. Many content creators are being harassed every day, and people are starting to normalize those activities. Meena Uprety, sociologist, says that most individuals on TikTok are the ones who enjoy negativity. “They like to argue or bring someone down through comments or videos,” she says. 

Shristi Prasain, a 36-year-old shopkeeper from Bhaktapur, says she faced the same scrutiny once when her video accidentally went viral. It was a video of her and her husband in a swimming pool. “It was supposed to be a romantic moment, but people turned it into a disgusting one,” she says. It made her quite conscious on what to post and what not to. “I was disturbed after reading the comments for several days. People chose to harass me just because my husband held my hand in the video,” she says.

These types of comments are also seen on videos posted by minors. Since the platform is not properly regulated, several individuals below the age of 18 have gone viral, exposing them to sexual harassment, including inappropriate text messages from strangers. 

“My 10-year-old daughter sometimes says she wants to post videos and go viral too. I don’t allow that but she’s quite influenced by the videos she sees online,” says Shah. She is worried that her daughter might have to face the same kind of harassment if exposed to the platform. 

“Parents are also quite ignorant on what their children are doing. Some are even promoting this type of attention their child is receiving,” says Subedi, recalling the mother-daughter duo (Sumitra Bartaula and Bibika Bartaula) who live on TikTok all the time. 

The mother frequently asks her daughter to talk to strangers, as well as sexualize the daughter. People start defending the duo if anyone points out that it’s wrong. “The mother sometimes says statements like ‘Give that uncle a kiss’ on live videos to her daughter, and frankly, I find that quite disgusting,” says Subedi.

Without proper monitoring of the online contents, sociologist Uprety believes that TikTok will do no good. The first priority would be to filter the contents and place strict regulations on what can or can’t be posted/commented on every social media platform, which should be looked over by respective agencies like cybercrime bureau. “But if this continues, we will have no choice but to ban TikTok,” she says. 

Sexual and derogatory comments circulating throughout TikTok is another huge problem. Many content creators are being harassed every day, and people are starting to normalize those activities

SP Pashupati Kumar Ray, spokesperson for the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police, says that it’s not the responsibility of the bureau to monitor any social media app. 

“In case someone is harassed online, one can go through the district court and file a case for violating the Criminal (Code) Act, 2017. Only then can the bureau step in to take down the contents that are problematic, and file a case against the individual involved,” says Ray.

Advocate Santosh Sigdel, founder and executive director of Digital Rights Nepal, an organization working to protect and promote digital rights, says that the problem is on the mindset of content creators/users, rather than the platform itself. 

“I think society is also equally responsible for making the platform safe for everyone,” he says. “The authorities as well as TikTok should also closely monitor if the contents and comments posted are following TikTok’s guidelines.” 

According to him, banning the platform isn’t the solution since the same people will end up in some other online platform. 

Everything that happens on TikTok comes down to the number of views and likes. The more engagement they have, the more money they make. Good contents don’t get views while the problematic ones go viral. 

“It’s bringing the worst out of everyone and people have no decency,” says Prasain. The platform lacks regulation, and is spreading hatred, violence, and is normalizing verbal and sexual harassment. Majority of individuals ApEx spoke to say that they would rather prefer TikTok to be banned, since it’s doing more harm than good

Santosh Kumar Yadav is a civil engineer by profession. But beyond that, he organizes exhibitions for the school students across Nepal. His aim is to give students the much-needed exposure in the fields of arts and science through project-based learning, something he lacked during his school days. Yadav, 25, was born in Siraha district and spent most of his childhood there. After completing his high school, he wanted to study engineering and applied at the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, in Lalitpur. Yadav was an exceptional student, so he managed to secure a spot in the college acceptance roster. It was during his college days that Yadav realized how little he knew about the subjects he was studying outside of the textbooks. In 2015, the students were asked to take part in a national exhibition, which caught Yadav by surprise. “I had no experience of taking part in extracurricular activities prior to the exhibition. I didn’t even know what the word ‘exhibition’ meant,” says Yadav. Not knowing how exhibitions work, preparing a project with his team was challenging for young Yadav. For him, everything was new and intimidating. He had to learn to conquer his fear of public speaking, conduct extensive research on the project the team was working on, and figure out a way to apply it in practice. “I thought to myself if I had a chance to participate in exhibitions during my school days, I would have been well prepared,” says Yadav. His fear and anxiety was only intensified when he learned that most of his team members knew what they needed to do. Yadav had gone to a school that didn’t have funds and resources to organize science exhibitions and competitions to encourage the students. He says participating in the national exhibition gave him the idea of organizing similar programs at the school level. He started from his own school in the town of Lahan, Siraha. Lahan Science and Arts Fair 2072 four categories: science, social, environment, and art. It was a success. More than 1,000 students visited the exhibition which saw participation from over 20 schools. “The preparation was hard and took nearly three months. It was a huge success which gave us the encouragement to organize a similar exhibition in other schools,” says Yadav. Two years later, Lahan Science and Arts Fair 2074 was held, which saw nearly 7,000 attendees. Another fair was held in Golbazar Municipality of Siraha, which also  saw the opening of a public library called ‘Aarambha’. “The purpose for all this was to give students that confidence and leg-up that I lacked when I was going to school,” says Yadav. Within the past seven years, Yadav says he has seen a lot of changes, in students as well as in schools. Following his initiative, many schools have started organizing intra-school exhibitions where students are exposed to project-based learning. Yadav says he feels most satisfied and happy when the students he met during exhibitions contact him to show their appreciation. “Sometimes students call me to let me know that they won the intra-school exhibition because of my feedback. That’s when I feel like I have indeed accomplished something,” says Yadav. He adds the attitude and confidence level of many students have also changed a lot, all because of the exhibitions. “Since the students have to explain their projects, they have gotten better at public speaking. They are no longer shy around strangers,” says Yadav. “Many students are now well aware of how to start a research project, work with a team, come up with new and innovative ideas, as well as learn how to present their ideas in a simple way to the audience.” Yadav believes that these were the skills he needed when he had to take part in the national exhibition. “I had no confidence at that time, I didn’t know how to do my research and give my idea a physical form, and most of all, I had a fear of speaking in public,” he says. Although Yadav could not get the needed exposure, he says that he is happy to see the school students of today getting prepared for the future. “They are getting to experience project-based learning,” he adds. Currently, Yadav works as the head of the Civics Department for Shree Namuna Secondary School in Udayapur district. He plans to organize exhibitions in every part of Nepal. “I have organized exhibitions in Madhesh and Koshi provinces, and Kathmandu. The plan is to take this program in all parts of Nepal,” he says. At the school where Yadav works, he tries to conduct as many extracurricular activities as he can to expose the students to new things, and to nurture their curiosities. “Every student is excited about the exhibitions. I feel satisfied when I see their enthusiasm,” says Yadav, “I know the students from other schools feel the same way. They just need to be given a chance to explore and experiment new ideas and concepts.”