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Juggling between signing papers and answering rushed phone calls, Tilak Bahadur Khadka, chief tax officer of the Inland Revenue Department, was already deep in his daily work as I entered his office on a recent morning. 

He set aside the files on his table for the interview, but every now and then our conversation would be interrupted by phone calls. It’s a busy job being a tax officer.   

Khadka has been working in the sector of civil service for more than 20 years now. “All my life, I have taught myself to figure things out as I go along, and I've never looked back and regretted my decisions,” he says. 

Khadka was born and raised in a simple family in western Rukum. He passed the school leaving certificate (SLC) test in 1988, securing the highest percentage in his district. In his heart, he wanted to study science and become an engineer or a doctor. But things didn’t pan out according to his plan.

After passing the SLC exams, Khadka got a job offer to teach Maths, Science, and English at a local secondary school. To his surprise, he found the teaching process enjoyable. He even managed to offer private tuition to the students. He did his Bachelor’s in Education from Rukum, majoring in mathematics. 

“Back then everybody studied for Public Service Commission exams to land a government job. Although I genuinely enjoyed teaching, I also prepared for commission’s exams because everyone around me was doing it,” Khadka says. 

He passed the tests and came to Kathmandu, where he enrolled for a Master's degree in Public Administration. And when the time came to sit for the Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (SSC CGL) exams, he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to go to the department of administration or revenue. Khadka gave the test for both departments and passed both of them. 

Khadka passed the interview for the revenue department, thus beginning his career. "I did better in revenue exams, and so I felt confident in pursuing in the field," he says. 

He started as a non-gazetted second-class officer in Achham district in November 2002.

Khadka has been working in the Inland Revenue Department, Koteshwor branch, Kathmandu, since 19 October 2020. Before that, he used to work for the then Province 5 Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning in Butwal, now Lumbini Province.

Khadka says though there are endless ups, downs, and overtimes in his line of work, he has also learned a lot over the years. 

“I honestly have no complaints,” he says. “My favorite part of this job is the thought of how my contributions here add to the economy of the country.” 

Khadka’s work sometimes demands extra working hours, which encroaches upon his private life. But he says he has grown to enjoy his work. “This has become my life at this point,” he laughs stacking files on his desk. 

Khadka and his colleagues are normally swamped with work during the tax season. He says things could be much simpler if people and businesses paid their taxes regularly and on time.  

“Paying taxes on time is one’s responsibility, not something they are forced to do,” he says.

The traditional gender norms never made sense to Himshikha Golchha.

The so-called feminine things like having long hair, dressing up in pink and wearing makeup have always been against the spirit of this aspiring filmmaker.

Growing up, Golchha had a tomboyish personality, had guys for friends and related more to them than girls.

“So coming out was a liberating experience for me,” says the 25-year-old, who identifies as non-binary and prefers the “they” pronoun.  

“Accepting myself for who I am also helped my creativity.”

Golchha was born in Mumbai, India, and grew up in Kathmandu. Growing up, they say, gender dysphoria was very difficult, because the Nepali society at the time was not as accepting of the LGBTQIA+ people as it is now.

“I was looked down upon because I didn’t fit in the traditional gender role. It made me question myself and my sexuality,” they say.

The young Golchha found escape in movies, particularly Bollywood flicks. For them, movies were someone’s imagination brought to life—they were everything real life wasn’t, where one could become anything they wanted.

“I wanted to make a Bollywood film of my own,” they share. “Making films would allow me to shape the world I envisioned. I would have control”

Golchha used to make films with their cousins at home for fun. Despite being born in a family with a business background, they dreamt of becoming a filmmaker.

Golchha’s mother was from Mumbai, home to Bollywood movies, where they would visit often to meet their maternal grandparents. The experience of staying in the Bollywood city also had a significant impact on Golchha.

Actor Preity Zinta was Golchha’s biggest inspiration. Golchha attended St. Xavier’s School in Jawalakhel and The British School in Sanepa before moving to India for higher studies. In India, they studied Business and Film and then moved to London. After a yearlong stay in London, Golchha again moved to the US to study BBA.   

It was while studying in the US where they transitioned to a non-binary gender identity.

“I knew that I didn’t want to fit into any binary gender labels,” says Golchha about their decision to come out at the age of 19. “And it was easier to come out in the US, more than it would have been in Nepal.”

It was a turning point in Golchha’s life. They embraced their true personality, quirks and weirdness. And this offered them the creative freedom they had always longed for. 

Golchha dropped out of college two months shy of graduation, because they had found a purpose in life.

“I knew what I wanted to do in my life, which was to work in films and further the causes of LGBTQIA+ through art form,” they say.

Golchha passed up on the opportunity to settle in the US and decided to return to Nepal. At home, as a sexual minority, they had a battle in the waiting—a battle to win acceptance of the society. They knew very well that they could be tutted and taunted, but that didn’t discourage them the slightest.

Golchha had learned to accept themself and could tune out the criticisms thrown out in their way. They would not be distracted.

“I didn’t want to give myself a chance to get distracted by what people thought of me,” they share. 

Soon after returning home, Golchha kept themself busy. They started working at their father’s company, Neoteric, as the business development manager of Neo store that sells phones and laptops online. They also worked in Neosphere, an e-learning educational institute, for a couple of months. 

But the passion for filmmaking remain undiminished in Golchha’s heart. In 2021, they founded Moonstone Production, a film production company that would allow them to realize their dream of telling stories in music and visual art form. Already, Moonstone has brought out 15 music videos of which Golchha is very proud.

“‘Ma Esto Movie Banauchu’ and ‘Adhuro Rahar’ are two of my works that are closest to my heart,” they say.

At the present, Golchha and their production are trying to experiment in film forms to tell compelling stories. They also plan to make feature length films, possibly under Bollywood’s banner, in the future.

They also want to empower the LGBTQIA+ people and promote their causes through films or any other art forms and activism.

Despite prevalent discrimination and bullying against sexual minorities, Golchha seems headstrong and driven toward their goals.

“It takes so much to not listen to others and focus on my goals,” they say. “I have to be strong.”

A little after midnight on September 5, Death-Cast, a company that alerts people the day they are going to die, calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to tell them of their fate. But the company doesn’t tell them exactly when or why they are going to die. What they do inform you is that it’s going to happen in the next 24 hours, giving them a chance to say goodbye and get their affairs in order.

Mateo and Rufus are complete strangers till they meet through the app called ‘Last Friend’ that allows those who are dying a chance to connect with someone on their ‘end day’.

The title gives away the book’s ending. You know Mateo and Rufus will die at the end. Nothing’s going to change that. But I found myself hoping the writer would deliver a twist and save these precious boys. It didn’t happen and that left me a little bereft. ‘They Both Die at the End’ isn’t the smartest story but it has some tender and heartfelt moments. It is a stark reminder that there’s no life without death and that love comes with the inevitable risk of loss. But that shouldn’t make you sick with worry. Rather, you would do well to live your life to the fullest, focusing on what matters and letting the rest go.

They Both Die at the End could have been a dark and depressing read. But peppered with the duo’s adventures as they live it up before they kick the bucket, it’s fun and engaging. It’s a story about death but it’s also a story about family, friendship and love. How Mateo and Rufus deal with their dear ones when they find they won’t be around for long makes you want to hug your parents and call your friends, lest they never realize just how much you love them. Also, the book is narrated from the perspectives of many other characters who are in some way or the other connected to either Mateo or Rufus. The effect is almost dizzying, but in a good way as it keeps things interesting.  

Despite the fact that it’s a young adult book and the writing is simple (so much so that it feels dumbed down in places), I feel people of all ages will enjoy it as it’s really easy to put yourself in the characters’ shoes and start wondering what you would have done differently had you swapped places with them. Mateo and Rufus have such distinct voices that you will identify with one and empathize with the other. It’s not a hopeful tale but it urges you to get out of your comfort zone and live the life you want instead of just wishing for it. And to do it while there is still time.

Three stars

Fiction

They Both Die at the End

Adam Silver

Published: 2017

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 373, Paperback

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7577278.Adam_Silvera

“The Adam Project” on Netflix has an amazing ensemble cast. It’s basically Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) meets Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) meets Elektra (Jennifer Garner) meets Gsciamor (Zoe Saldaña). So we have a star cast that’s been a part of some of the highest grossing Hollywood movies, getting together for this science-fiction adventure directed by Shawn Levy.

Like most Hollywood movies based on time travel, The Adam Project starts with an overused trope—a dystopian future and the devastation of mankind. (Maybe that’s where the current Russia-Ukraine war is leading us to as well.)  So it’s Earth 2050. The opening scenes show fighter pilot Adam Reed (Reynolds) trying to fly back to 2018 on his time-jet, while being shot at by a bunch of enemy jets. He wants to find his wife Laura (Saldaña) who was left back in the past after a failed mission.

But Adam accidentally crash-lands in 2022, where he meets his younger self (Walker Scobell). The 12-year-old Adam has just lost his father Louis Reed (Ruffalo) and is struggling to cope with the situation alongside his mother Ellie (Garner). Adam is soon followed into 2022 by Maya Sorian (Catherine Ann Keener), the scientist behind time travel who has taken over the world in the future.

Maya wants to take Adam back with her, while Adam, with the help of the younger Adam, plans to get to 2018 so that they can destroy time travel altogether and save the world. A struggle ensues between the two colliding parties as the rest of the characters get pulled into the battle.

The story of The Adam Project unfolds in multiple time-streams. While it is not difficult to keep up with the film’s timelines, someone who’s watched many time travel movies will feel like this particular movie sort of redefines the time travel paradoxes. Although there are explanations behind its time travel theories, they are hardly convincing. It was quite difficult to wrap my head around a timeline where three Adams exist at the same time. Or how inconsequential each encounter between people of different timelines was to the future.

The time travel paradox is not the only thing that does not sit well in the film. Its intended audience also seems unclear. The Adam Project wriggles somewhere between a family movie and an out-and-out action adventure flick. At times it wants the young Adam to become the hero of the movie while in some other scenes, he’s just a helpless kid who needs protection from adults, even if that adult is his own future self.

The 12-year-old Adam is also pictured as physically weak, small for his age and with the gift of the gab that lands him in trouble with school bullies. His transformation into the 2050 Adam, an excellent pilot and a great fighter who can take on a bunch of enemies with breaking sweat, is never explained, leaving the audience with too many unanswered questions.

There are many such flaws right through the film’s 1hr 46mins length and the audience never gets to breathe and let things sink in. When things get slow, they’re just slow without the intensity that would make them interesting. It is indeed strange to think that a movie with an instantly recognizable action adventure lineup would cast them in half-baked roles. Talent goes painfully wasted in The Adam Project.

The film has its moments though, with Reynolds getting a lot of screen time along with his young co-actor. Their interactions are the highlights of the film while the rest of the cast is just there to fill in slots. The visual effects, for a film of this genre, are also average and not worth wasting a paragraph on.

Who should watch it?

The Adam Project is mindless if you don’t think about it too much. Then the film becomes a decently paced action-adventure that could impress the audience of this genre. There’s also a bit of family drama embedded if that’s what you prefer.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Genre: Action/adventure

Director: Shawn Levy

Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner

Run time: 1hr 46mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE8HIsIrq4o