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The Odaan Restaurant & Lounge is a new addi­tion to the burgeoning restaurant scene on the Bansbari road (the road from Narayangopal Chowk that leads to Budhanilkantha). They cater to the growing populations of the otherwise quiet neighborhood of Bansbari, Golfutar, Chapali, Bud­hanilkantha and other areas in proximity.

Coming back to Odaan, it is a multi-cuisine restau­rant and lounge that serves breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner and drinks. Chinese, Continental, Tibetan, American, Indian and Nepali dishes are offered on the extended menu that includes everything an empty tummy would want—from “Aaloo Choyela” to “Thai Chicken with Basil”; “Pork Thukpa” to “American Chopsuey”; and “Maharaja Non-Vege­tarian Thali” to “Pepper Chicken Sizzler”—all under one artistic roof.

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Dhido Thakali Thali Set

- Tibetan Cuisine

- Pepper Chicken Sizzler

Opening hours: 11 am - 9:30 pm

Location: Bansbari Road, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 3,000

Reservations: 01-4374939

This Saturday female-headed bands including Nattu with 11.11 NST, Mental Radio, Space, Faithom, and Somiya Baraily are coming together to celebrate women. The Butterfly Effect, organized by Sangeet Pathshala in association with Dristi Nepal, is bringing together musi­cians, celebrities, key personnel, and the general public to celebrate women and raise awareness to end gender-based violence. “With so much press about violence against women and children and with the #MeToo and #HearMeToo campaigns we felt the time was right to hold such an event,” explains Bijay Khadka, founder of Sangeet Pathshala. “We do this out of respect for women and children,” he says.

The concert will also feature Samriddhi Rai, Didi Bahini, and Superfuzz, and is the celebration phase of a bigger project to raise awareness through the contribu­tions of celebrated figures from different sectors, and, post-event, to bring skills development to women in need through the management of Dristi Nepal, an NGO working with women affected by the use of drugs and HIV/AIDS.

Aside from great music, the whole event will be inclusive and fun! The audi­ence can participate by dropping their suggestions for anti-violence against women slogans (via Sangeet Pathsha­la’s FB page). The winners will have their slogans printed on tote bags and receive gift hampers. Hampers will also be distributed on the day to lucky mem­bers of the audience. But you have to be there to win! Other souvenirs to take home include a photo booth set up to take selfies. And if you want something more permanent, Inkasm will be offering small, female-power inspired tattoos at the event, and for a few days after, for Rs 3,000. Profits from the tattoos will be given to Dristi Nepal.

The event at Tangalwood, Kathmandu, from from 3 pm onward, is free. Sup­ported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF Nepal), The Annapurna Express is the media partner for the event and proudly supports gen­der equality and equity.

Are you one of those folks who like gardening but do not have enough time to tend to your plants? Or someone who is not home often and have to ask someone to water them? Then you would per­haps be interested in hydroponics, which lets you tend to your plant just once a fortnight. Using this technol­ogy you can easily grow fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and cucumber. Hydroponics is a method of grow­ing plants without soil, using only mineral nutrient solutions in water. Terrestrial plants are grown in high-tech tunnels or pipes with only their roots exposed to the mineral solu­tion, or the roots may be supported by an inert medium such as coco peat (coconut powder) or gravel.

 Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using only mineral nutrient solutions in water

Ganesh Kumar Pandey, who start­ed hydroponics (‘soil-less farming’) in Nepal with his Hydroponics Nepal Private Limited, hopes that “the new generation can use this technology to grow their own vegetables on their rooftops.”

With rapid urbanization of Kathmandu and with land getting increasingly scarcer and expensive, hydroponics assures best use of gar­dening space. “Using hydroponics you can get the same yield in 5,400 square feet of land that you would get in 27,000 square feet of agricul­tural land,” Pandey says.

The initial investment may seem a touch high for some. For example, to install the system over a 400 square feet of land, Rs 50,000-75,000 has to be spent on pump, timer, sub­mersible pump, high-tech tunnel, containers and nutrients. But small hydroponics systems can be installed with initial investment of as little as Rs 20,000. If you plan on installing the system yourself, a knowledge­able technician would cost you Rs 1,500 a day. Pandey argues that this is good investment in long term because once installed, you only pay for nutrients and electricity (to keep the water running) for the next 15 years. Also, 400 square feet of land, if used strategically, “can easily feed a family of six round the year”.

There are other benefits too. The plants do not contract soil-borne dis­eases. In more traditional farming, a great deal of human and non-human resources as well as time are used up nurturing plants. Hydroponics, in addition to requiring less time from you, also ensures no bugs or dirt. Pandey says that vegetables grown this way taste better and stay fresh for longer, compared to those available in the market. As the plants do not have to compete for nutrients with other plants and can get nutri­ents as and when they want, they are healthier as well.

But there are some downsides too. This automatic system requires electricity for the water to run and with the power-cuts that Nepalis (still) experience, one has to have a generator to ensure smooth growth of plants. “Due to the presence of some chemicals in the nutrients, it is also only 80 percent organic,” Pan­dey informs. Moreover, the plants require controlled lights and tem­perature. Pandey assures that they are still developing the technology and in due course the system would be made even more efficient.

Pandey says that despite the gov­ernment showing some interest in the beginning, there has been no initiative to promote hydroponics in Nepal. As the nutrients for hydro­ponics have to be imported, their cost is as high as Rs 400 a kg. “If only the government made the nutrients tax-free, it would be of great help for our cause!” he says. Not everyone who is interested can afford it, thus if a banking system were available where one could pay for the system in installments, Pandey adds, per­haps more would be encouraged to take up hydroponics.

Despite all these challenges, Pandey says the company gets around 50 requests a day from people who want to learn about hydroponics. He plans on starting a training program for them in the next two months.

 “… Kathmandu is Shangri-la… you’re going to find everything you need there,” Paulo Coelho

Last week I was at a memorial gathering for Jan Salter who died earlier this year. Jan was famous for her paintings (Faces of Nepal) and for being the founder of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Center (KAT). But before that Jan was an adventurous traveler, what we would now describe as a hippie! Over wine and candlelight we reminisced how she told us of her travels through South East Asia, in the 1960s I believe, in the days of conflict, dubious border crossings, and definitely no tourists!

This brought to mind a book I have just read… Paulo Coelho’s new work Hippie is a biographical tale, taking place in 1970, before Coelho became a writer, although his budding passion as a ‘mystic seeker’ is very clear.  In the book, he describes the people, the hippies, who join him on the Magic Bus which travelled overland from Europe to Kathmandu via Eastern Europe, Istanbul, Tehran, and Baghdad. 

When I first came to Nepal, this overland route was still open, albeit in much more comfortable buses than the Magic Bus (an old school bus with static seats). Those buses would occasionally call into Bardia (where I was living at the time) and could be seen parked in hotels in Thamel. I’m not sure exactly when these overland buses stopped running: either politics got in the way, or it was too dangerous to drive through conflict zones.   Which is a shame, because I think I would love to do this now!

Perhaps the average person in the West has lost the ability to feel what those hippies and spiritualists like Coelho and Namnik felt?

Which leads me back to those ‘old’ friends of Jan living in Kathmandu. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to find out who came across land? (Please tell us!) Air travel at that time was, of course, only for the wealthy as plane tickets were expensive. Thus, the cheap overland option would have been very attractive. According to Coelho it cost $70 from Amsterdam to Kathmandu. I can’t even fly from Kathmandu to Pokhara for that price now. Despite air travel being ‘affordable’ for the masses!

Unfortunately the Shangri-la described by Coelho no longer exists. Or doesn’t it? Perhaps it’s just taken a different, harder-to-find format. Last month I watched an Avenues TV interview with Lotan Namnik, a Tibetan musician here to take part in the film ‘Dakini’ with Bhutanese film maker/writer Khyentse Norbu (Rinpoche Dzongsar Jamyang Kheyntse). Namnik is of the opinion that Nepal is still a magical, spiritual place with friendly, kind, peaceful, and grounded people. 

Serenity, calmness, and a rejection of haste, he stated, is part of the people’s make up, and is something other countries don’t have. I think that those who identify as either an original hippie or post-hippie era ‘hippie’ can agree with this to some extent. But is it getting harder to see past the bright lights of consumerism and the fast-forward towards infrastructure development, to the things that attracted them here in the first place? I also believe that, for some years now, Westerners newly arrived for extended stays often fail to see the beauty underneath the dust and cut their stay short, leaving disappointed that Shangri-la could not be found. In Kathmandu at least. 

Perhaps the average person in the West has lost the ability to feel what those hippies and spiritualists like Coelho and Namnik felt? Or is it the fact we can now be in Amsterdam, London or New York in the morning, and reach Kathmandu the same evening? Completely bypassing the mystical transition from one culture to another as we pass through the physical transit of generic airports. I wonder what those hippie travelers of the 1970’s would make of Kathmandu today! Would they be able to find Shangri-la?   

‘Hippie’ will be available in Nepali from Bookworm early 2019