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Many culinary enthusiasts may be familiar with ‘Kanchhi Kitchen’, a YouTube channel dedicated to traditional village cooking.  

The channel has over 281,000 subscribers and more than 48m views. But oddly enough, its creators, Kanchhi Maiya Bhandari and her son Prakash, never set out with the intention of creating content for the masses. 

It all started when one day Prakash, a tour guide by profession, decided to film his mother going about her daily life at their village home in Sangkosh of Dhading district. He was without a job because of the pandemic at the time, so he decided to utilize his free time taking pictures and videos of village life, featuring his mother. 

One of the earliest videos the mother-son duo made, remembers Kanchhi Maiya, was of her preparing a fish curry in her kitchen.

“I only agreed to make the video at my son’s insistence,” says Kanchhi Maiya, a self-described shy person. Her timid nature can be seen in her videos, where she rarely speaks.

Dressed in traditional Nepali attire of ‘Gunyu Cholo’, the 50-year-old is seen cooking various Nepali dishes on a traditional firewood stove in her kitchen and sometimes outdoors. But there are no voice-overs, no explaining of the recipe, no addressing the invisible audience.            

The crackling and hissing of burning firewood, the hissing and sizzling sound of ingredients hitting the boiling oil, and the weirdly pleasing noise of people eating give the videos ASMR and mukbang vibe.  

Kanchhi Maiya is doubtless a talented cook. She can rustle up anything from simple root vegetable and green leaf curry to more complex whole chicken roast and mutton ribs, all of which look mouth-wateringly delicious. 

Some of these videos are particularly endearing because they promote the communal bond and culture of the village, as they show cooking occasions during picnics and weddings and pujas.    

“I was motivated to make more of such videos after the picnic video became popular,” says Kanchhi Maiya.  

The 17 minute-long video with over one million views shows Kanchhi Maiya gathering fallen twigs and branches in a forest to make fire to cook a delicious meal served on traditional leaf plates for fellow picnickers. 

Most of the dishes she prepares on her videos are her own ideas, which she learned to cook in the village. But of late, she says, she also makes non-Nepali dishes like pizza and grilled chicken.

“My son suggests them after watching other cooking shows and I use my experience and skills to make them,” she says.  

Whatever Kanchhi Maiya cooks, she gives them her own touch and finesse. She feels her YouTube cooking journey has been both a teaching and learning experience.

For most part of her life, Kanchhi Maiya says, she spent her life in the kitchen cooking for her family. In the past, cooking was like an everyday chore for her, but now she finds it liberating and empowering.   

“I had never expected all of this,” she says “I feel very blessed and lucky.”

Buoyed by the love and support from her viewers, Kanchhi Maiya plans to start a homestay in her village one day.  “It is a request made by many of my viewers and I intend to fulfill that request,” she says.

It is not lost on her that her success at this stage of life is due to those millions of viewers who watch her videos regularly. 

“A simple gesture of support and guidance can turn a person’s life around,” says Kanchhi Maiya. 

“I have learned a lot from this journey and I wish many more women get the same level of support in their lives.”

Do you guys remember the Luxembourgish series ‘Capitani’ I reviewed back in March 2021? The second part has just been released on Netflix. I’d planned on reviewing it this week and watched the whole series just to find out that it had gotten a bit too slow and predictable. So I decided not to. 

Then I found that there’s another new sports drama from India on Netflix. I think we’ve watched one too many Indian sports dramas in the past few months but this one mixes magic with sports and love, hence the name ‘Jaadugar’ (‘Magician’). 

Written by Biswapati Sarkar of The Viral Fever (TVF) fame and directed by Sameer Saxena, ‘Jaadugar’ features Jitendra Kumar in the lead role as Meenu Narang, a small-town magician. Now Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh is no ordinary town. In this football-crazy place people from different colonies compete in an annual tournament to win the most coveted Dhabolkar trophy. 

Even though Meenu comes from a footballing family he is probably the least athletic person in town, with a deep disinterest for the global game. Unfortunately, he lives with his uncle Pradeep Narang (Javed Jaffrey) after his parents die in an accident. Pradeep is the passionate coach of a local football team from Adarash Nagar colony, ironically called the ‘Sikandars’. The team has not won a single match in years, and in the last tournament the only time they scored was in their own net. 

In order to make it big as a magician and avoid football, Meenu meets and falls desperately in love with Disha Chhabra (Arushi Sharma). Now Disha turns out to be the only daughter of magician Chhabra (Manoj Joshi), Meenu’s inspiration and mentor. He now has to impress both the daughter and her father to be able to marry Disha. And long story short, father Chhabra puts up a condition that he will only agree to their marriage if Meenu’s team reaches the Dhabolkar trophy’s finals. How Meenu uses his magic and charms to try and take his team of misfits into the finals is what makes up the rest of the film. 

Like most of TVF’s past productions, ‘Jaadugar’ is grounded and touches the roots of its setting. Even with the concept of magic embedded in its storyline, the film does not appear surreal. It keeps proceedings realistic, besides a few necessary scenes where a bit of gimmick is forgivable and even necessary. Biswapati Sarkar (look him up, please) is the true magician behind the film. Even in a lighthearted coming-of-age film, Sarkar manages to plant words of wisdom while not making life lessons overbearing for the audience. The writer, along with director Saxena, have also managed to capture the essence of a small town in Madhya Pradesh and the lives of the people there. 

Even more popular as Sachib ji in the ‘Panchayat’ series, actor Jitendra Kumar punches the right weight in this film too. His strength is that he can easily blend into any given situation. 

Although most of the cast puts up a convincing performance, the name Javed Jaffrey deserves a special mention because of the actor’s versatility. In the industry for almost two decades, actor Jaffrey always delivers. In ‘Jaadugar’, he is a former footballer, a passionate coach and a loving uncle. The actor adds both comic relief and serious intensity whenever required. He even gives himself a subtle speech impairment which is not immediately noticed but adds color to the character. 

My only qualm is with the film’s length: 2hrs 47mins! As I could not chop off unimportant parts and disposable tropes, the film gets tiresome at times. The mind starts wandering because of the loose ends in the screenplay, editing and direction. 

Who should watch it? 

Despite its length and production that could be called a bit too organic, ‘Jaadugar’ is a good watch. People who have watched TVF productions or anything the team has ventured beyond TVF will most definitely enjoy the film. Even otherwise, ‘Jaadugar’ is a fun movie on Netflix for a lazy session when you don’t have to use too much of your brain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7yFiUio0u0 

On Netflix 

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Sports drama

Director: Sameer Saxena

Actors: Jitendra Kumar, Arushi Sharma, Javed Jaffrey 

Run time: 2hrs 47mins

‘Unpredictable’ would be the word to describe Kathmandu’s weather in the month of July. One moment the sun is smiling down on you and the next, the skies are pelting down, sending you scrambling for cover. It’s no fun being outside. So where would you go for fun? Well, Fun Land, for one.

Situated on the Maitighar-Bhadrakali cut-through road, Nepal’s first ice-skating rink is housed in what looks like a large storage building. There, children and adults alike can enjoy a great day without having to worry about the turbulent weather outside.

I visited a recent afternoon, a weekday, expecting few people. But to my surprise the place was a hive of activities. Gaggles of children and teenagers screaming and laughing inside the rink. Most were using skating guides in the shape of dolphins for stability. Those brave enough were guideless—flailing about and falling, yet still getting up for a repeat.

The facility, which opened in April, has around 20 coolers to keep the ice rink cool and firm. The place also offers other fun activities like trampolines, rock-climbing and mechanical bull-riding, but ice-skating is easily the biggest draw.

I was tempted to give it a try but after seeing many people slip and fall, I decided to sit at the nearby food court and watch instead. “How hard could it really be?” I was asking myself after seeing even the adults using funny-looking dolphin guides that also doubled as sleds.  

Bhim Bahadur Adhikari, the ice skating captain of Fun Land, satiated my curiosity: “You’ll need to practice sincerely for two to three days if you do not want the support dolphin.”

Fun Land also offers an ice-skating training package. In fact, the instructors, I found out, were trained right there.   

Encouraged by Adhikari, I decided to give it a try. A staff member helped me wear the skating boots and I was ready… or so I thought. To my embarrassment, I discovered it was much more difficult than I had thought. I couldn’t maintain balance even with the support dolphin. I had to be held by the instructor just to find my balance, to learn how to stand correctly, before I could use the inanimate plastic dolphin. 

Even though I was skating on an ice surface, there was a lot of sweating and panting. I sympathized with the people I was photographing earlier. 

Harmita Shrestha exudes confidence as she climbs down from her bike. She’d just arrived at work after dropping off her daughter at school.

The 39-year-old is one of the four female drivers for Sajha Yatayat’s new electric buses—and a proud one at that. She started her career as a tempo driver and has never looked back. From a 10-seater tempo to a 26-seater electric bus, it has been quite a ride for her.

Shrestha learned to drive when she was still a little girl growing up in Dharan. “It was my family’s white Martui van that I adored,” she says. She feels lucky that she gets to do what she loves.

She had never thought a woman could become a professional driver, a job almost exclusively associated with men even today. Then, when she came to Kathmandu, Shrestha saw women working as tempo drivers. Inspired by those women, she also got a license to drive a tempo and hit the career ground running, driving on the RNAC-Sinamangal route.

Shrestha went on to work as the driver for Durga Pokharel, former chairperson of National Women’s Commission, and for the United National Development Program (UNDP). She particularly enjoyed working with the UNDP, as she got to travel to many remote places of Nepal.

“This one time, I drove to a village in Madi for some field work and the villagers welcomed me with garlands, colors and musical instruments,” says Shrestha.

But a woman driver is seldom praised, let alone encouraged.

“Most people prefer male drivers because they are physically stronger and therefore considered more competent,” Shrestha says. She has been subjected to many stereotypes and discriminations for being a woman driver.

Within a month of joining Sajha, the city’s traffic authorities confiscated her license on four occasions. “I hadn’t breached any traffic regulation but still they tried to slap me with a 15,000-rupee fine,” she says. “My only fault was that I was a woman.”

One time a woman police officer hurled obscenities at Shrestha while she was parked at a designated bus stop in Maharajgunj. Shrestha found such behavior of one woman towards another deeply hurtful.

It was not so when she used to work for the UN. Back then, she says, traffic police were polite and considerate. “Maybe they are trained that way: to respect drivers in vehicles with blue number plates,” she says.

Shrestha is a hardworking mother of two children, whom she provides for working as a bus driver. She starts her job at 6:30 am and reaches home at around 8 pm. It is a difficult and thankless job, especially if you are a mother. All she desires is a modicum of respect while on the road. But that is hard to come by in a patriarchal society where nearly everything a woman does is a suspect.

By being on the road daily, driving her bus around the city, Shrestha has been fighting the old stereotypes. Every now and then, some of her passengers praise her work. These are the occasions that inspire her to continue.  

Shrestha strongly believes that women should be given opportunities and proper environment to succeed, both in government and non-government sectors.

“Working women face unique challenges. For instance, we might be having a particularly difficult menstruation. Having proper toilets at bus stops would certainly make things a lot easier for us,” Shrestha says.

Shrestha finds the experience of driving an electric bus safe and more comfortable. “It takes a fair bit of skill but definitely less physical effort,” she says. “With electric vehicles, you also don’t get muscle soreness, which is a big thing for professional drivers.”

She believes Kathmandu’s traffic and pollution woes could be significantly eased by having more electric buses. To boot, there would also be more jobs for women.

Asked how long she plans on working as a driver, Shrestha replies: “If I could drive only electric vehicles, I could easily do this job until I am 60.”