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For all the art aficionados out there, the Kathmandu Art gallery has brought to you a mega-art exhibition of the year at Le Sherpa, Maharajgunj entitled “Love Revisited”. The exhibition was inau­gurated by the EU ambassador to Nepal Ms. Veronica Cody on March 13, and will continue until April 13. The event showcases about 35 different art projects crafted by eminent artist and former Chancel­lor of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, Ragini Upadhyaya Grela. Through the exhibition, Upadhyaya wants to convey a message about various fac­ets of love to art enthusiasts and the general public alike. Upadhyaya has been inspired by the various hues of love such as ‘warm red, romantic pink, green of mother earth and peaceful white’.

This is Upadhyaya’s 61st solo art exhibition. It allows visitors to see how love has evolved over the years and the significance of the human heart in making love a success. The artist has used various techniques such as mixed media style, and met­al/aluminum printing to craft her artworks, which are dedicated ‘to all the mothers and daughters’ of the world who have experienced love and pain in all forms. The exhibi­tion is about the continuation of her journey as a woman artist, the cel­ebration of the International Wom­en's Month as well as the power of mother earth.

“Generations of women have often been shackled by male dom­inance and a patriarchal society, wherein women’s roles are given little importance. It’s high time we realized the variety of ways women have showered love upon men, with unending loyalty and trust,” says Upadhyaya. “In love there is always pain. Love and pain share a unique, ubiquitous and great relationship.”

Upadhyaya says women and wom­anhood have always been an inspi­ration for her. Her artworks in this exhibition are about the purity of love and love in the age of social media. She has also made a compar­ison between the various roles wom­en play as someone’s girlfriend, wife, mother, daughter, grandmother and so on. Upadhyaya’s art especially highlights the power of love, vari­ous aspects of love, womanhood, patience and sacrifice women make for their family.

The artworks showcased in the exhibition have been given various titles, such as welcome time, time wheel, sound of love, heart (series), flying time with love, in one, love triangle, love in the air (series), kumara, love and pain (series), the kiss, shadow of love, love time (series), around the stupa, cross culture, etc.

The price of the artworks range from Rs 25,000 to Rs 800,000. And 10 percent of the proceeds from the sales will go to the projects run by Shivata Love Foundation Nepal, an NGO.

“Love provides a special linkage between our hearts and minds, transcending the physical limita­tions of our bodies. My life start­ed as a blank canvas from the moment I was brought into this beautiful world by my loving par­ents. They put their colors and shaped me into who I am today. Lat­er, my society, country and teachers molded me in even better ways. My creations are an open diary of my life, which I want to share with everyone,” says Upadhyaya.

A cup of joe: The origins of the saying are unclear, yet we do love the stuff, even though not all coffee taste the same. In Nepal coffee is grown in the mid-hills between 1,000m-1,800m. The higher the altitude, the better the coffee (as long as there is no frost). According to the Nepal Coffee Producers Association, coffee was first introduced in Nepal from Myanmar by one Hira Giri, in 1938.

But it remained an attrac­tive tree in the courtyard or a hobby until the 1970s when King Birendra declared Gulmi a coffee region, marking the beginning of professional coffee production. Yet even today few people really know that Nepal grows wonder­ful coffee. Or that in Europe Nepali coffee is considered a specialty.

I recently talked to Birgit Lienhart-Gyawali, of Kar.ma Coffee, to find out more about these magic beans. “Although in Nepal farmers receive more money per kilo for the coffee cherries than in other coun­tries, the production is very low. The reason for this is mainly migration.”

“With only the old and very young left in commu­nities, it is hard to inspire them to increase productiv­ity because for them the little income is enough,” explains Lienhart-Gyawali. With coffee trees in other countries yield­ing, on average, 10kg a season (up to 20kg in some cases), the average tree in Nepal produces a mere 300gm. Hard to believe, right? But let’s start at the beginning with the seedling.

Coffee seedlings take about a year before they are big enough to plant out. Another three to five years before you get a harvest. Meantime, the trees have to be trimmed. As a rule of thumb, a cof­fee tree should be no higher than a person and no wider than arms reach. Harvesting season is between Novem­ber and end of March, when only the red berries should be collected. There is an element of trust here as the farmers are paid instantly, by weight. It is only later that bad or under-ripe cherries are found and removed.

When the berries are later placed in a tub of water, the under-ripe, over-ripe, or bad cherries float to the top. After this the fruit flesh is removed from the good berries in the pulping machine. After pulping the beans look some­what like peanuts; that sort of color. Washed several times, it takes them three weeks to dry. Then they are packed and stored till they reach the cor­rect level of moisture.

Meantime experienced farmers can tell by biting the parchment beans whether they are ready to go to the next stage. “We work with farmers in Ilam, Kaski, Sindh­upalchowk, Gorkha and Lam­jung. When the beans reach the parchment stage we buy them from the farmers, and take off the skins, revealing the green beans. A lot of beans are lost in the process in Nepal. For example, six kilograms of cherries gives one kilogram of parchment. This makes it an expensive process. Of course, in other countries it is more mechanized”, explains Lien­hart-Gyawali.

“What is also interesting is that the coffee growers do not drink the coffee, or if they do, they drink that which is not good quality. We spend time educating them in how to prepare a good cup of cof­fee. Once they know what the different beans taste like, it’s easier to convince them not to add in green or bad cherries at the harvesting stage.”

Lienhart-Gyawali demon­strated the next stage. A normal pot, like the one used to make popcorn in households, is heated. The green beans are added and stirred with a kaptero (type of whisk made from sticks) for around eight minutes. The length of roasting affects the taste. In this process the skins come off. Now the beans are ready to be ground for use! Smells good!

I asked whether Nepali cof­fee is actually organic. Yes. Not originally a cash crop, the concept of adding chemicals is not there. And, according to Lienhart-Gyawali, farm­ers in the high hills tend not to use chemicals. There are mainly two types of coffee in Nepal: Arabica (from Ethi­opia) and Typica (originat­ing in Yemen). Arabica, hav­ing the better flavor, is more expensive. Nepal exports very little coffee, with Kar.ma Coffee exporting to Taiwan and Europe.

In Germany it is sold as a charity coffee, with profits going to fund school proj­ects in Nepal. Interestingly nothing is wasted in the Nepal coffee industry—the water from the washing stage goes into the village biogas system, the parchment skins go to feed buffalos, and the green bean skins are cleverly made into conscious living paper products by Kar.ma Coffee. Another cup?

 Finding the Belle Ville Café and Pub at Baluwatar is as easy as locating the Chinese Embassy there. You just have to stand in front of the embassy and look across the street. There’s a small parking space for bikes and cars right behind the building. You can also park on the wide road outside, but then you’ll be at the mercy of the nearby traffic cops. (Our APEX food sleuth was not lucky enough with roadside parking.)

 Inside, the simple yet elegant interior will make you want to grab one of those comfy couches and indulge yourself in a variety of multi-cuisine delicacies that Belle Ville serves. The inviting smell of freshly roasted coffee beans will add to your hunger while you wait for the friendly service staff to bring your order. The restaurant opens its doors from breakfast till dinner, also serving a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, includ­ing draft beer.

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Smoked Chicken Saandeko

- Shawarma

- Grilled Fish

Opening hours: 8:00 am to 10 pm

Location: Baluwatar

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,000

Reservations: 014411266

The 25-year-old Utsaha Joshi, better known as Uniq Poet, is a rising star of Nepali hip hop. As it is for his ilk everywhere, his music is inspired from the African-American struggle in Bronx, New York in late 20th century, rap in particular.

The extraordinary rise of YouTube has taken the art­ist to national and interna­tional fame. His latest song, “Straight Outta Kathmandu”, has garnered nearly a million views in just about two weeks and saw the first of his many collaborations with interna­tional artists.

Even the reaction videos to his music has generated hundreds of thousands of hits. YouTube is the new Gold Rush, and this artist doesn’t want to watch from the sidelines.

I meet Uniq Poet in front of Maitighar Cafe and we sit down for a conversation with a cup of masala tea.

We start with the obsta­cles of the hip hop indus­try in Nepal. Uniq starts by emphasizing the importance of record labels and lack thereof. “We know rap, we can spit verses, make cyphers, but we don’t know how to make music. I’m still learn­ing the last part,” he says. He says without music labels, artists cannot get proper guidance and management and that is part of the prob­lem. “Artists make a hit, and they don’t know what to do after that. Without guidance, they become one-hit won­ders,” he explains.

He also emphasizes the importance of right brand­ing of the culture, “It’s not Nephop. We can’t claim a cul­ture and try to make it our own; it’s still hip hop in its true form. I don’t understand why people keep saying Nephop,” he adds.

We then delve into the pro­cess of making a song. The rapper explains that he just starts with listening to a beat and then fills in lyrics off the top of his head.

He says Raw Barz opened the door for every Nepali hip hop artist. Unique first came to attention with his Rap Battle against another rapper Laure. He explains, “I had an anger, a grudge that I’m gonna do great in the scene. I felt like I didn’t do enough. That was my side of the story. A different story unfolded in my family. Some­how my mother also hap­pened to watch the video and started crying. It was rough as my father also didn’t approve. It became so difficult that I stopped visiting my in-laws. I was a sham.”

The rapper explains that he starts with listening to a beat and then fills in lyrics off the top of his head

When talking about his new song ‘1994’, he says he wrote the lyrics for it in 25 minutes and everything from making beats, shooting and editing the video was done in a day. He explained that 1994 is his birth year and the year when his favorite rap album, Ilmatic by Nas, hit the shelves. “So, it’s a representation of my rebirth into the hip hop industry,” he adds, with a hint of laughter.

Talking about the future, the rapper says he is confident about the prospect of hip hop in Nepal.

“Our work is starting to get attention and we’re col­laborating with people from overseas. It is true, hip hop has found a fan base in the hearts of millions of Nepalis,” he says. The industry, once limited to passion projects, now is slowly developing into a profession with a hefty pay and huge name and fame. “It’s a wonderful time.”

The rapper explains how Nepali hip hop has even reached the books of pub­lished research. For instance, a British scholar doing research on post-earthquake poetry approached him to learn more about his song ‘Kina?’ “We have even entered academia,” he says.

With excitement oozing from every inch of his body, Uniq adds, “You can expect a fusion between rock and hip hop in Nepal. A big local collaboration is coming out.” Collaborations with other international artists are in the works as well.

After a 45 minute conversa­tion and a flavorsome masala tea, I leave the tea shop with a newfound excitement for hip hop and enormous prospects for Uniq.