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Raising kids. Educating them. Looking after family members, including elders. Attending other chores 24/7 with scant regard for personal health, well-being and career advancements, all for the family.  More than a juggling act, isn’t it? Homemakers do it every day. Isn’t it a supreme sacrifice?   By and large, though, their immense contributions are remembered, that too ritualistically, only once a year:The International Women’s Day. Is it fair? Babita Shrestha from ApEx talked with some homemakers to know the challenges, complexities and the bliss that come their way every day. ‘We deserve better’ Harimaya Shrestha, 49 In a way, I was trained to be a good homemaker at the age of learning letters. My elder sister and I got married the same day! I was not given a chance to educate myself  by in-laws and had to live my life by following strict rules. As for learning the letters, I learned them while teaching my four kids!  Now that all of my children are grown up and making money, I feel quite content as a stay-at-home mom. Children are taking over my duties, so I don’t have to do much of the chores. I feel that homemakers’ hard work is undervalued in the Nepali society. This should change. I don’t know much about Women’s Day, about the outside world. But I think the Nepali women are not getting the exposure and the opportunities they deserve.  ‘Supremacy of homemakers’ Purna Shova Lama, 49 For me, Women’s Day is like any other day: cook, clean and chill. I have coined this concept called “Hominism”. This concept shows the supremacy of housewives, which shows women’s supreme efficiency to balance between home and outside work. I was unable to continue education after marriage, but homemaking is my choice and I am proud of my caliber. This is a way to play my role in the family and the society. A housewife has to deal with every issue in the household, a great responsibility in itself. I feel like a warrior at a war. Only homemakers know the suffering of housewives. As for Women’s Day, it is an important event. But given the status of women in society, the hypocritical freedom of women and the so-called rights that are not at all practiced, I don't feel a strong affinity toward the day. ‘Women should be seen and heard’ Devu Rana, 53 When I see my children grown up and home in order, I feel extremely satisfied. Raising two kids without the help of their father was the hardest hardship for me. I had to be present everywhere. It used to be so stressful. Being able to give my children a healthy diet, a clean home and a good education, I feel satisfied. There were times when I lacked the energy to do my duties. The society should recognize the contribution of housewives for the betterment of the society. There are voices that utter about feminism, but none there who makes women visible or heard.  ‘Every day is a Women’s Day’ Poonam Mishra, 51 Even after obtaining a bachelor’s degree, I chose to become a homemaker. My conscience told me to do so, and I obliged. Though satisfied with this decision, I feel quite frequently that I could have become someone a lot greater. I lost a lot of chances during the transition from my life in India to a married life in Nepal. But I am content with my role as a stay-at-home mom. Raising all four kids and watching them doing well makes me proud. I have something to say about this societal misconception that ‘homemakers never work’. This is wrong and needs to change. In fact, both working women and stay-at-home mothers are hard workers. Much still needs to be done on the women’s rights front, though there has been some progress. On Women's Day, I urge women and men to celebrate the Day every day, not just on a particular day. It would be more meaningful that way. ‘Put women’s rights on the front-burner’ Apsara KC, 48 Togetherness in the family is what I cherish being a homemaker. After obtaining an IA degree, I had to get married. This meant inability to pursue higher education. After having two kids, I had to put them first. Society expects a homemaker to work 24/7 and still finds time to point out: she does not work. Regarding daughter and daughter-in-law as equals can make a significant impact.  Every family member deserves love and care, that is what matters the most in a family. Positive inclusiveness is valued by positive intuition. Women’s rights need far more urgent attention than superficial celebrations. As for the Women’s Day plans, I plan to spend the day at home, cooking delicious cuisines and serving them to my loved ones.

Instagram has some amazing content. From book clubs and beauty hacks to pages on yoga and mindfulness, you can find anything you need on the social media app. Many businesses have also taken to promoting their products and services through Instagram. But spoilt for choice as we are, it’s sometimes difficult to wade through all that’s available to get to what you need. Here we recommend our top five favorite Instagram accounts that brighten up our feeds and days. yoginisrishti Yoga can seem daunting, especially if you are a beginner. But Srishti Kaushik breaks it down into easy steps. Her posts on Instagram are simple asanas and exercises that you can do to lose weight, boost fertility, and manage period cramps and pelvic discomfort among others. It’s simple enough for the uninitiated but the yoga instructor also shares intermediate and advanced levels of asanas for those who have been practicing yoga for a while.   thisstoryaintover Janine is a booktuber and content creator on YouTube. She usually reviews books, shares her reading list, and vlogs her reading journey through her videos. Her Instagram page is a burst of bright colors filled with glorious photos of books and her life. It’s an uplifting page where she discusses the books she reads while also updating her followers about the new videos coming up on her YouTube channel. This is a really fun page to browse through when you want some great book recommendations. pickuplimes Sadia Badiei is a dietician who shares great vegan recipes and tips and tricks to eat better for a healthy life on her YouTube channel. She also runs a website that gives you a nice collection of easy-to-replicate plant-based recipes. Follow her Instagram account to learn more about leading a healthy plant-based life while enjoying food to the fullest. Badiei will also help you develop a better relationship with food by focusing on how and what to eat.   nytcooking NYT Cooking is the digital source for thousands of the best recipes from The New York Times along with how-to guides for home cooks at every skill level. If you think you can’t cook, just have a look at the recipes on their Instagram page and you will be inspired to whip up a dish or two. From quick breakfast ideas to fancy desserts, there’s a lot here. We tried out a few recipes and, even with minimal culinary skills, the dishes came out really nice. thescribbledstories The Scribbled Stories is a web publishing portal and India’s biggest storytelling platform on the social web. If you think you have a story in you, this is also probably where you can share it. Thousands of people submit their content every day to get featured on the platform. It also collaborates with brands to help them tell their story in a way that millennials love. Their Instagram place is a fun, entertaining, and enlightening place where you can read some relatable stuff.

Published on Oct 2022 by FinePrint, ‘Overlooked Faces of Nepal’ is a Mandala and Mithila art inspired contemporary coloring book for all ages. But it’s also a book that aims to generate awareness about the LGBTIQA+ community and help our society understand and accept people regardless of their gender identities. The artists, Dr Paridhi Sharma and Dr Arpana Pathak, have combined Mandala and Mithila artwork with illustrations that reflect the circumstances of people from the LGBTIQA+ community.  The patterns used in Mandala art are clinically certified to relieve anxiety, reduce stress, and induce sleep, which is the main reason why they decided to focus on it. “We wanted to create a book that was therapeutic. We also wanted it to entertain and educate,” says Sharma. The LGBTIQA+ community, they say, has to go through unimaginable hardships and trauma so they wanted the book to be of some catharsis. It could, they thought, be a good way of relieving stress as well.  The concept of the book took shape in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Sharma and Pathak both resorted to their hobby of sketching as a way of releasing stress and pent up emotions. Although they were both good at art since their childhoods, they say that giving continuity to that hobby became impossible in the later years. But with Covid-19 lockdown, the timing was perfect to revive their skills.  “We had no intention of publishing a book. We were just looking for a distraction during that overwhelming period,” says Sharma. Since they were already working on so many illustrations, turning that collection of artworks into a coloring book seemed like a good idea. “It was nothing but a thought. We wanted to share it with our family before proceeding,” adds Pathak, “And I am glad we did.”  It was initially just a collection of Mandala and Mithila artwork but Krishna Dhungana, Sharma’s husband and the conceptualizer of the book, suggested they use their skill to do something that had never been done before. They could turn the book into more than just another coloring book by incorporating and highlighting an important social issue.  “Our inspiration for the theme was the life story of a close friend of his,” says Pathak. His friend, a lesbian, fell in love with a woman and wanted to get married. But her family was and still is reluctant to accept that. “They both got together in the US, but have been deprived of the love and support a straight man and a woman would get during their marriage,” says Sharma.  Their story, Pathak says, was heartbreaking. But there are many others going through similar struggles. “As two straight women, we were far from understanding the pain they had to endure,” she says, although they both knew the gist of it. But just one life story was not enough to inspire their illustrations. “We needed to talk to more people in order to know how we could reflect their struggles through our artwork,” she adds.  The duo first reached out to the organizations that worked for LGBTIQA+ communities. But sadly no one seemed interested in what they were planning to do. “It was understandable since all we had was a concept,” says Sharma, “Trusting us must have been difficult.” Luckily, they were able to get in touch with Samaira Shestha, a transwoman, through a make-up artist Sujata Neupane. “We heard her story and it was just the push we needed to bring our idea to life. It felt important,” says Pathak. They met around 30-40 people from the community. “There were days when we would sob our way back home after hearing their stories,” says Pathak. They had help from Shrestha, as well as Malvika Subba and Lex Limbu, the two advisors for their book, who connected them with people willing to share their stories.  The aim of this research was to identify the common struggle that everyone in the community faced, which mostly turned out to be the transition phase during their adolescence. “Everyone we talked to had struggled with the change in sexual orientation, identity crisis, and acceptance during that phase,” says Sharma, and that is exactly what Sharma and Pathak have tried to depict through their artwork.  Some of the illustrations in the book have beautifully captured the love between two individuals regardless of their gender. “We hope that this book helps initiate a conversation, and help our society understand the LGBTIQA+ community,” says Pathak. More than that, Sharma says she wishes to see their book included in the Nepali curriculum. “My hope from this is that children will be able to freely express who they are, and have a positive outlook on the LGBTIQA+ communities,” she says.

Decorating a house can be tricky and daunting. It’s never a good idea to rush into it, rather you must take your time to do some research, be clear about what you want, and only then get into the actual process. A vision board, where you put up photos of furniture, art, and décor items that appeal to you, can help you play around with ideas before finally bringing them to life. While décor is a personal thing and what works for you might not work for your friend, some basic mistakes people make while decorating can make a space seem a little off-putting. Here are a few décor dos and don’ts that will ensure your home is as elegant and stylish as its inhabitants. Less is more while accessorizing People are generally hoarders and tend to accumulate things, especially mementos and knickknacks over the course of their travels. Displaying random things all over your house can make it seem cluttered. Rather invest in classic accessories and ensure there’s not more than one item per room. Generally, bigger statement pieces might be a better option than smaller curios. Also, don’t hang different sizes of art on a single wall. If you want to display multiple artworks together, make sure the frames are of the same size. Get the rug size right Most of us tend to use rugs and carpets the wrong way. We generally place a small one between our sofas and chairs with a coffee table on top of it. Don’t use rugs or carpets that are too small for your space as it will create an optical illusion that will make your space look smaller than it is. The edges of your rugs should always be a few inches under the furniture. It can also extend beyond the furniture by a few inches or feet. It’s also a good idea not to use area rugs all over the house. Use it selectively and sparingly.   Pay attention to the lighting Opt for a mix of light sources at different heights to create a pleasing ambiance and functional space. For that, you can invest in dimmer switches, task lighting, mood lighting, and the correct light bulbs. Also, if you want hanging lights like chandeliers, don’t hang them too low and don’t go overboard with them—stick to just one or two pieces in the house. However, lower light fixtures in dining areas will make the space seem more intimate. Add some life to your space Your home can look too sterile if we don’t bring elements of nature into it. Stone, wood, jute, and rattan items can lend your home a rustic charm while making it feel comfortable and lived in. Indoor plants can really liven up a space. Better still, some plants like snake and spider plants will even purify indoor air for you. Instead of using small plants in cute little planters (that are hard to take care of) opt for bigger ones that can act as statement pieces on their own. Don’t be too matchy-matchy Matching furniture is a big no-no while decorating. While having some matching furniture isn’t a bad thing, matching all the pieces in a room will make it feel very formulaic and boring. It will also make a space seem closed and uninviting. Decide on a theme for your room and then find different styles to match that theme instead of just sticking to one. A general rule of thumb is to follow a color scheme of not more than two accent colors and two neutral shades to avoid a space from feeling visually overwhelming.