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A few weeks back, Irfan Khan, an animal rights activist and founder of Paaila, a team that works for animal welfare, rescued a stray dog from Imadol, Lalitpur. The dog was suffering from hypothermia and was in critical condition. The illness was the outcome of releasing the dog into the street on the same day it was neutered (surgery done to prevent reproduction). The dog recovered but the pain it had to endure, he says, was unimaginable. There are many instances, Khan says, where he has had to rescue stray dogs after their condition worsened after castration. “Most of those dogs were released before their wounds would heal. The situation is worse if it’s during the summer/rainy season,” he says. The problem is not just limited to infections but is much more critical. Sneha Shrestha, the founder of Sneha’s Care, an organization working for animal welfare, says that she has gotten several calls in the past, looking for assistance after the surgery wounds got worse. “There are times when we have found dogs with their intestines exposed,” she says. Beena Pant, animal rights activist and a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Nepal, an organization working for animal rights, says that a dog needs to be kept for at least three days before it’s released back into the community. In the case of stray dogs, most of them don’t have a caretaker in their community. Furthermore, they get involved in dog fights, which, activists say, increases the risk of stitches tearing up, resulting in severe, often life-threatening conditions. Pant adds that when dogs are released on the same day as they are neutered they might still be disoriented from the general anesthesia used during the surgery. This increases their risk of being prone to accidents. “We came across an incident where a dog was released immediately after surgery and got hit by a truck and died on the spot. It was still reeling from the aftereffects of the anesthesia,” says Shrestha. However, there are many countries/organizations that follow the catch-neuter-vaccinate-release (CNVR) scheme, where a dog is neutered, vaccinated, and released on the same day unless there are any visible complications. But that might not be the most ideal method in the case of Nepal, says Shrestha. “The scheme is good for population control and rabies prevention but there are factors that complicate it,” she says. When released on the same day, stray dogs are under the influence of antibiotics to heal their wounds, whose effects last for 72 hours. “Antibiotics make them weak, and they are in need of nutritional food, which they don’t get when out on the streets,” says Shrestha. One way this method could work, she says, is if the organizations are to coordinate with locals from every community. “There are many dog lovers willing to help the organizations out. If there are people in a community who can take responsibility for feeding as well as taking care of these dogs, the CNVR scheme would have a better outcome,” she says. It might not be the same for every locality. There are only a handful of people, Pant says, who look after stray dogs in their community. “Most of them [people] are ignorant. In that case, no matter how hard we try, it’s still not possible to get assistance from the locals,” she says. Unfortunately, this ignorance goes beyond not taking care of the dogs. Radha Gurung, communications officer, Animal Nepal, an organization working for animal rights in Nepal, says that sometimes female dogs are injected with birth control shots meant for humans, which can be detected when performing a midline surgery (surgery done by making an incision in the abdominal area) during castration. “Sometimes, it’s the veterinary professionals who suggest the use of this vaccination,” she says. Shrestha adds that there are instances where veterinary technicians who aren’t authorized to perform surgeries neuter dogs. Besides being illegal, the chances of complications are high when surgeries are performed by inexperienced technicians. “Even for people who work in this field, not everyone is sincere,” says Pant. Many dogs have been dropped off at the wrong locations post surgery. Bijay Shrestha, a 32-year-old local from Boudha who takes care of the stray dogs in his community, says one of his dogs got misplaced a year back. “Fortunately, I was able to retrieve my dog, which was dropped off a few kilometers away, after getting in touch with the person responsible for releasing him,” he says. It’s the knowledge and empathy that people lack towards animals, Pant says, that’s responsible for such carelessness. Dogs like to mark their territory, and they don’t prefer to wander off beyond that, as they fear getting attacked by other dogs. When dogs are picked up from the same area, she says, it’s important to also know in which locality they belong. Not having this information, activists say, dogs are dropped off at one place, assuming they will reach the community they belong to. “They [dogs] have to go through a lot of psychological and physical trauma just for survival,” says Pant. Shristi Singh Shrestha, animal rights activist, says that the failure of organizations to communicate with one another is an issue too. Most organizations, she says, are unaware of the areas where other similar organizations have worked or are still working on castrating dogs. Although neutered dogs are given a mark (a visible and permanent cut) on their left ear, there are times, Shrestha says, when neutered dogs are accidentally captured for surgery. “While the professionals find out about it later, the dog has to go through a lot of psychological trauma from being captured repeatedly,” she says. However, Shrestha from Sneha’s Care, who is also the president of the Federation of Animal Welfare Nepal (FAWN), a national association of organizations working for animal welfare, disagrees. Most of the organizations working in this sector, she says, are registered at FAWN. “We have a group message where all of these organizations keep us posted on the works they do,” she says. She believes that it’s the groups that work on castrating dogs independently, as well as technicians performing surgeries illegally, that fuel the problem of repeated animal captures. Neutering dogs might be the best solution for population control, but the problems surrounding the solution are far worse. The government is well aware of this, says Dr Awadesh Jha, Senior Veterinary Officer at the Division of Agriculture and Livestock, under the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. “While we are trying to perform castration as systematically as possible, there are a few problems we have been facing,” he says, one being the tedious process of procuring medications needed to neuter dogs. The process is tender-based, and it takes nearly three months to procure these medicines. The distribution takes another couple of months. “Sometimes, we don’t receive the medicines at all, forcing us to blacklist the responsible party, ” he says. But the new plan they’re proposing, Jha says, should solve all the issues faced during castrating stray dogs. This strategy is the extension of their old project called ‘Manumitra’, a project solely dedicated to controlling stray dog population in Kathmandu. The project has been dormant for more than a year. The new plan is to mobilize any non-governmental organization interested in working with the government to different wards, starting with Kathmandu Metropolitan City. There are a few criteria these organizations must meet, which include being able to provide shelter for at least two days post operation, a good surgical team, and a vehicle for capturing the dogs. “They will be assigned a particular ward, and they can move on to the next only if the particular ward’s chairperson gives a written notice that every dog in that ward has been castrated,” he says. For each dog neutered, the organization will receive Rs 2,500 but it will be solely responsible for procuring the required medications. The plan, he says, should be up and running by the end of the current fiscal year. As of now, there are six organizations that have agreed to assist them in this strategy. “I believe it will eventually be adapted in other metropolitan cities and municipalities,” he says.

What is beauty? Who is beautiful? The answers will vary; they will be full of abstractions and absurdities. Above all, it sounds bizarre to ask such self-centered questions in this mundane world where figure, shape, and size define beauty. Mainly, today's materialistic people run after cosmetic beauty, exhibited through pageants. The whole world has been seeing a rise in the number of beauty pageants, with many such contests happening in a small country like Nepal as well. The world seems to be enjoying this cosmetic culture of which beauty contests form a part. The number of participants, organizers and titles on offer is increasing day by day, pointing at a growing popularity of such contests. The appreciation of beauty goes a long way back. Per scriptures, Heaven or Indra Lok (the kingdom of Indra) is where such contests used to take place with the angels competing to win the hearts of Indra and his men. The holy books describe Indra Lok as the world of angels and righteous souls. Therefore, people living on Earth desire to lead their posthumous lives there. In contests at his kingdom, Indra would select the angels for the awards on the basis of criteria like their dancing skills, walking and other artistic skills, providing gems and jewelry to the best performers. These books point at Indra’s fondness for angels. In fact, heaven is all about angels and beauty, displayed through the angels’ dances and other artistic skills. Today’s beauty contests resemble Indra’s assembly or Indra Sabha, where Indra and his near and dear ones, seated comfortably on the front-row, watch the performance of an angel (Pari). The assembly is no different from a modern-day beauty pageant, where the organizers and the judges, presiding over the show, select the top contestants. The sole purpose of these modern beauty shows is to entertain the guests and the judges like in the Indra Sabha. The contestants have to win the judges' hearts whether it’s in Indra Lok or in modern pageants. Dance skills, ramp walk, speech delivery and vital stats matter the most in both fora. In Indra's realm, the angels were said to be very attractive. They would dance, act, and show other artistic skills to win awards from Indra, including precious gems and jewelry. Modern beauty shows are no different, with the participants compared with the angels of heaven. Like in Indra Sabha, winners get jewelry and cash as awards. Most of the beauty contests are city-centric and held at star hotels, where a majority of judges and the audience are men, as in Indra Lok. Liquor, beauty, and boldness are the glittering elements of such shows. Despite a dominant presence of men in the jury, most of the pageants are for girls. These men watch the shows as if they were the Indra of modern times. Their body language, gestures and the way they ask questions to the contestants show that they consider themselves no less than Indra himself, while the contestants present themselves as if they were some angels. The organizers act as if they have established a new trend in the beauty world, though they actually are following in the footsteps of Indra, knowingly or unknowingly. Going beyond the glitter, it’s not difficult to find several flaws in such programs. The contestant must have a fair complexion, toned figure, and good height to participate in a beauty contest, which makes it clear that appearance is what matters the most. A few years ago, one of the judges of Miss Nepal, Rashmi Gurung Sharma, came down heavily on the contestant for not applying makeup. Also notable is the fact that Nikita Chandak and Sugarika KC face lots of criticism for their complexions, pointing at a shallow notion of beauty. In our context, the organizers set the criteria for beauty. There are certain eligibility criteria for participation in a beauty contest. How can a judge do justice to a contestant merely by going after her appearance? Most importantly, who gives you the authority to judge on the basis of tone and figure and reject chubbiness? In fact, this is the biggest flaw of these so-called beauty pageants. The judges would do well to remember that different communities have different notions of beauty. Actually, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. For instance, Karishma, Rekha and Namrata might be called the most beautiful women in Nepal, but different notions of beauty apply in Africa, where thick lips and a dark complexion are among the symbols of beauty. So, it's vain to tag somebody as beautiful. The physical appearance—height, weight, smile—can be no measure of beauty or caliber. These features do not form a sound basis for judgment. Rather, they are manmade and subjective elements that should be done away with. There are many examples to prove that physical appearance does not matter much. Socrates was not handsome, Stephen Hawking and Jhamak Ghimire cannot be called good-looking, going by the strict criteria of beauty contests. But their contribution to their respective fields is immense. These examples make it clear that character is more important than physical appearance. These false assumptions and notions of beauty must be rectified as soon as possible. Otherwise, the beauty of Indra Lok and the Earth will be for a particular profit-making mob. Lastly, we can't ignore the dark side of beauty pageants. Cases of sexual harassment against contestants taking part in such shows are coming to light. One of the notorious organizers, Manoj Jaisi, was  imprisoned  on a sexual harassment case. So, the state should monitor these contests seriously and the people should also be aware of the ugly aspect of the shows.

Sagar Ghimire is a 29-year-old emerging actor whose debut movie, Blue Flower, recently received a nomination at the Nepal International Film Festival (NIFF), a premier film and cultural event that celebrates diverse storytelling and narratives worldwide. Ghimire began his career as a model and, since then, has appeared in various Nepali music videos. In the movie, he plays the role of Tikal, who identifies himself as gay and belongs to a rural household in Nepal. Born and raised in Biratnagar, Ghimire says most of his childhood was spent doing mimicry. The allure of the Nepali film industry, he says, was one of the many reasons for him to get into acting. “I’m a huge fan of Dilip Rayamajhi and I grew up watching his films. His work has inspired me a lot,” he says. Although he started off with mimicry, his journey led him to modeling and music videos. “I have gone through many auditions, faced several rejections, and the process was tougher than I had ever imagined,” he says. Getting a call from Sunil Babu Pant, the director of Blue Flower, was a shocker. “I wasn’t expecting any of that but then I got a call to give an audition,” he says. Ghimire says that initially, he was skeptical about taking on this opportunity. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to be in front of the big screen. Knowing that Pant was offering a workshop in acting for the cast encouraged him to sign up for playing the role of Tilak. “Once I read the script, I had no doubt about how much I wanted to play the role I was offered,” says Ghimire. The movie wasn’t a mainstream one and he was blown away by the fact that his debut as an actor would be in a movie that highlights hidden identities, ignored emotions, and the gender stereotypes that the Nepali society still holds. “I could connect with my character on a personal level. At times, Tilak touched my heart, and we are both optimists,” he says. He credits the actors, storyline, and plots of the movie for its success, although he is still shocked to see people praising and appreciating his role in the movie. “In the process, I got the opportunity to capture the priceless panorama of the acting industry,” he says. Having versatility in acting, he mentions, is equivalent to possessing a precious asset. If given the further opportunity to attend workshops, he says he is willing to take on any role. “It was daunting for a novice like me at first, but the workshops and training allowed me to hone my skills,” he says. After receiving his first nomination for Blue Flower, Ghimire has been occupied with promotions and charitable events. He hopes that the NIFF nomination will present him with other great opportunities in the future. When compared to music videos, Ghimire claims that being in a movie is much more difficult. “You have an easy chance to appear in music videos if you can dance and put up expressions. But, for movies, it’s different. There are a lot of elements for an actor to keep in mind,” he says. “There are a lot of incredible Nepali actors I’m hoping to get a chance to work with in the future,” says Ghimire, especially with ones whose work has inspired him the most. In the Nepali cinema industry, besides Dilip Rayamajhi, he says his favorite actors are Bipin Karki, Dayahang Rai, Khagendra Lamichhane, Niruta Singh, Surakshya Panta, Swastima Khadka, and Namrata Shrestha. “It would be an honor to get a chance to work with them,” he says. Despite the success he has seen early on in his career, Ghimire is quite concerned about the future of new and emerging actors. “The acting industry is evolving and has become more demanding than it was a few decades ago,” he says, adding that it will be more difficult for him to succeed in the media and entertainment industry because he has no prior connections or much experience in the field. “But I’m not deterred,” he adds. Ghimire has only started his journey and he says he is ready to transform into whomever he aspires to be. “There might be many obstacles and challenges along the way but what I need to do is maintain consistency, dedication, and have faith,” he says.

The country has been witnessing a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases since the past week. Health experts say the rise in infections in India, with which Nepal shares an open border, is a major reason behind the rise in the number of infections. Several Indian states and territories like Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have seen a surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the past week. The new variant XBB.1.16, the Omicron recombinant sublineage, is currently driving the new Covid-19 spike in India and is also the dominant strain spreading in the city, various Indian media have reported. “Open border with India and the lack of surveillance in land crossings have resulted in the rise in infections in Nepal,” says Dr Baburam Marasini, public health expert. He points that the people’s tendency of taking infections lightly and not bothering about preventive measures is also to blame.  The XBB.1.16 variant, however, has not been detected in the country till now. “The number of people suffering from influenza has increased in the country also because an increasing number of people are opting for medical tests,” according to Dr Anup Bastola, tropical and infectious disease expert. Experts stress the need to ramp up tests warning that infections on the rise in communities can spread further if control measures are not taken. They suggest people to practice preventive health measures such as wearing masks and frequent handwashing. But seven districts in Madhes Province—Parsa, Rautahat, Bara, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Siraha and Saptari—have stopped PCR tests as they lack human resources. The World Health Organization on Wednesday said it is monitoring XBB.1.16, an omicron subvariant that has been documented mostly in India. “We're monitoring it because it has potential changes that we need to keep a good eye out on,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, said at a press conference. “The surveillance must be increased both along land crossings and international airports,” says Dr Marasini. Experts also suggest people to take the vaccine against coronavirus and its additional doses to protect themselves. A total of 12,020 people have succumbed to the infection till March 30 in the country.