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The national capital’s air pollu­tion is so bad we have come to firmly believe that it is, after New Delhi and Beijing, the most polluted city in the world. But according to a revised data­base of the WHO, which uses data from the Nepal Health Research Council, Kathmandu has actually fallen from the #108 most polluted city in the world in 2008 to #261 most polluted city in 2015. Never­theless, Kathmandu’s air pollution level is undeniably high, with our air quality nearly five times worse than the WHO recommended levels. Globally, air pollution causes nearly 5.5 million deaths every year, and not all of them are due to respi­ratory diseases. Eighty percent of air pollution deaths are due to isch­emic heart diseases and strokes, i.e. cardiovascular ailments. The other 20 percent are respiratory (COPD, ALRI, and lung cancer).

We have been hearing a lot about the harmful effect of pollution on grown-ups, but how does it affect children and infants who do not leave their homes for the most part?

According to paediatrician Dr Nikhil Agarwal of Vayodha Hospital, children are equally, if not more, at risk of contracting respiratory and communicable diseases. “In recent years,” he shares, “there has been a sharp increase in the number of children suffering from air pollu­tion-related illnesses, and it is get­ting harder to treat them.”

Since we live in a valley, the warm air that the pollutants would nor­mally escape with stays trapped and grows dense with time, says Hemu Kafle, a scientist at the Kathman­du Institute of Applied Sciences. “Because of this, the same air travels everywhere, and there is no place free of pollution,” she says. In other words, even if you live deep in a resi­dential area with plenty of greenery, you are still being exposed to a dan­gerous level of air pollution. Locking up your family is thus no solution.

What makes children more vulnerable is their already weak immune system. Compared to adults, kids, especially infants, have low tolerance for harmful bacteria and viruses. The pollut­ants (which are matters smaller than a strand of hair) first damage their already delicate immune sys­tem. Then they attack it, causing bronchitis, asthma, flu and common cold.

Due to their constant exposure to pollutants—the dust that you can see is the least of your prob­lems— treatment takes longer than it should, and they have to be pre­scribed stronger medicines. “Simple medicines that would have cured them in the past aren’t effective any­more,” says Dr Agarwal. Stronger and more frequent doses of antibi­otics and other medicines add to the children’s health woes.

There is no easy way out. Children, infants, and even the old suffer disproportionately from air pollution. What would actually help is robust implementation of emission regulations and environ­mental policies.

But that is a tall order. The Minis­try of Population and Environment has always had plans to tackle air pollution. Yet implementation has been painfully slow. For instance the government recently announced a complete ban on vehicles that are older than 20 years. But this policy recommendation, proposed by ‘His Majesty’s Government’, was sup­posed to be implemented by 2001.

The book takes its readers deep into the intrigues of the Narayanhiti Royal Palace and provides an inside view into the momentous events of our times: the Royal Palace Massacre, king Gyanendra’s wresting of executive pow­ers, the Maoist armed rebel­lion, its genesis and the forces backing it, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the mainstream political parties and the Maoists, the end of monarchy and the advent of republicanism in Nepal.

Written with valor and at great personal risk, the book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Nepal’s contemporary history.

At the launch of ‘Wit­nessing Palace, Power and Politics’ this week in Kath­mandu, author Shah said that many friends had requested him to translate ‘Maile Dekheko Durbar’ as soon as it was out. “Now that the translation has come out,” he says, “many people who didn’t have access to Nepali can enjoy the book.”

“The book is a living his­tory,” he adds.

The book is published by FinePrint in hardcover and is priced at Rs 1,012.

Can a phone call change one’s life? It just might. Just ask Jigmee Wangchuk Lepcha.

The musician and music educator, now 41, who was born and raised in Sikkim, India. Lepcha started singing in Sunday school—the church choir—at the age of eight. He soon moved up to the senior choir, to which he dedicated his teenage life.

He then began exploring various genres of music before settling on rock, which he particularly fancied. Lepcha became part of a local band, CRABH, and started perform­ing in various shows, which earned him praise. The pos­itive response brought him even closer to music.

That life-altering call in 2001 came from his cousin, Daniel Karthak. At the time, guitar­ists Binayak Shah and Imam Shah were just back from the US after completing their study, and they had plans to work in the field of music in Nepal. Karthak showed them Lepcha’s musical demo. Impressed, they rang him up to invite him for a musical show in Kathmandu. Little did he know that the phone call would separate him from his hometown, perhaps forever. Reminiscing about it now, Lepcha smiles: “It completely changed my life.”

His plan, when he arrived in Kathmandu two months before the show, was to return to Sikkim after its completion. But life had other plans for him. Because he was born into a Christian family, Lepcha was requested to record a Gospel album by Karthak, and he had to stay back in Kathmandu for a few more months.

During the recording, yet another offer knocked his doors. Legendary drummer Dev Rana and his team of musicians were preparing to perform at the Hyatt Regency. Lepcha was invited for an audition from the front-man and immediately earned a three-month contract. Three months turned to six and six to nine—the contract kept being extended and so did his stay in Kathmandu.

“I was happy with what was happening, the music scene here was totally different,” says Lepcha. “Back home in Sikkim we used to perform rock songs only. At Hyatt, we also performed soft, com­mercial numbers which were comfortable even dance to,” he adds. Lepcha was earn­ing much more than what his band would make in Sikkim at the time. After nine months at Hyatt, he was given the responsibility to arrange con­tracts and the line-up for the in-house band.

“Things were going well but after eight years at Hyatt, I started getting tired of doing the same thing over and over again,” says Lepcha. “So I ter­minated my contract.”

Lepcha then joined a local band called Strings and entered Thamel’s music scene—which he says was totally different from what he was doing. “Performing in Thamel meant performing the songs I liked, the music I grew up listening to as a young kid—rock—which injected me with new life,” says Lepcha. Strings at that time was a very popular cover band in the Kathmandu circuit.

While at Strings, as a side project, he was also involved with The Midnight Riders for various events and concerts. “The Midnight Rid­ers made good music and it was already one of Nepal’s most sought-after bands, although the band members were in it just for fun. Things took a dramatic turn when the band members decided to get serious,” says Lepcha.

That was when Lep­cha started composing and recording with The Midnight Riders, which culminated in the release of their debut album “Yaatra” in 2017. After cutting ties with the cover band Strings, Lepcha, for the past eight years, has been the front-man for The Midnight Riders, wooing audiences young and old with his high pitched vocals and energetic stage presence.

Lepcha is currently work­ing as a music educator at a few schools in Kathmandu; even as he is still an active member of The Midnight Riders. Nearly 16 years ago, he had received that fateful phone call and was invited as a guest to Nepal. Now Nepal has become his permanent home. Lepcha is comfortably settled in Kathmandu with his wife, mother and a daugh­ter. He visits Sikkim once in a while to see his father and to keep up with the musical scene there

Kathmandu: Storycycle organized a walking tour along the traditional water route in Patan, taking in several stone water spouts, or taps, and com­munity water systems. Participants on the walk learned of the history of the water route and the significance of the spouts, many built over 2,000 years ago. The water spouts range from those used for healing purposes, those used by menstruating women, and those used for religious pujas, to the more mundane for everyday household use.

Traditionally using rainwater and gravity, the vast majority of these spouts throughout the whole Kath­mandu Valley are dry today. They are, however, still used by the com­munity as meeting places and water collection areas, as can be seen by the vast plastic water tanks now installed alongside the tradition­al, beautifully carved spouts and associated statues of deities. Interest­ingly, some of the spouts are being restored, while others are in a state of very poor disrepair.

Storycycle has been running for the past few years, with the mission of collecting grassroots and contem­porary stories and turning them into a digital museum showcase for future generations. They also run training programs focussing on innovation, collection and presentation of mul­timedia stories targeted at the next generation of storytellers.

For further information http:// www.storycycle.com