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Tihar is here and with that it’s time to entertain and indulge in some good food that you normally wouldn’t have the time to make. Food isn’t just something to fill your tummies with, it can be a way to foster connection and bond with family and friends. But what can you serve that doesn’t come in a box, won’t make you guilt-ridden because of the holiday weight gain, and is quick and easy to make? Here we have four ideas that might be able to help you get started on your festive meal prep.

Sooji halwa

Sooji halwa is a pudding made of semolina and all you need is three ingredients: Sooji, ghee, and sugar. It’s super easy to make. You just have to fry sooji in ghee till it’s light brown in color, add sugar and then let it simmer in water for a bit. You can replace sugar with jaggery and add some dry fruits if you want. You can batch make this dish and keep it in the fridge to dole out when guests arrive. Serve it hot or cold depending on your preference. If you want to take it up a notch, try making gajar ko halwa or moong dal halwa. The process is pretty much the same.

Masala peanuts

Who doesn’t love a savory snack especially at a time when the sweet stuff is all that you are offered everywhere you go. A really simple thing you can do is buy some peanuts and mix that with chopped onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, add some basic spices and salt, sprinkle some lemon juice and a mouthwatering snack is ready in minutes. You can also skip the other ingredients and just sprinkle spices, salt, and lemon over plain peanuts if you want a basic flavor.

Coconut barfi bites

Here’s a simple recipe for a mithai that feels indulgent and healthy at the same time. Mix all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add three eggs one at a time and a teaspoon of vanilla. Combine the dry and wet ingredients and whisk. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Once the barfi cools down, top it up with a mixture of shredded coconut, sweetened condensed milk, salt, and ground cardamom, and refrigerate for 15 minutes before cutting into bite-size pieces to enjoy.

Mango lassi

Lassi is basically a cross between a milkshake and a smoothie. Mango lassi is a simple thing to make. All you need is about equal amounts of mangoes and creamy full-fat yogurt, a little ice, and a high-powered blender to combine these ingredients into a delicious treat. You can replace the mangoes with any other sweet fruit like bananas, strawberries, or papaya and the result is just as spectacular. There is no hard and fast rule about how thick or thin your lassi needs to be. It depends on how you want it to be. But it helps to make it thinned out enough to be drinkable through a straw.

Standing in the forests at the foothills of mountains across Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa, hungry insect-eating birds seem to cry out: “Where have all the insects gone?” To their surprise, the weaver ants have devoured them all. These reddish, giant ants swarm the forest floor, feasting voraciously on insects—a familiar scene often portrayed in nature documentaries. Weaver ants consume so many insects that they leave little to nothing behind for the birds.

A team of scientists, led by Umesh Srinivasan from the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, found that in the foothills of mountain ranges across the world where weaver ants reside, the number of insect-eating birds is low. “Oecophylla [weaver ants] and insectivorous birds have highly overlapping diets,” said Srinivasan, Assistant Professor at CES. “As a result, where Oecophylla ants are present at the base of mountain ranges, the species richness of insectivorous birds is low, while the species richness of all other birds is high.”

Srinivasan, who researches climate change and bird interactions in the eastern Himalayas of India, was ignited to explore the relationship between weaver ants and insect-eating birds after a colleague in Darjeeling, India, prevented these ants from infesting trees. It was found that trees without weaver ants had more insects than those with ant infestations. Srinivasan said he had been curious ever since learning about the experiment, especially since weaver ants are considered the “oldest biological control agent.” He noted that Chinese farmers have long used weaver ants in their orchards to control insects and pests. “So they’re very effective insect predators,” added Srinivasan.

So, Srinivasan’s team categorized birds into three groups: insect-eating, omnivorous (which eat both insects and fruits), and fruit- and nectar-feeding. They then analyzed global datasets on bird elevation and recorded the lower and higher elevations at which birds lived in the observed mountain ranges. Afterward, they counted the number of bird species at different elevations in each mountain range and correlated it with the presence of weaver ants.

The research team found that where weaver ants are present, the number of insect-eating birds was lowest at lower elevations, with the bird population stabilizing only after reaching an altitude where the ants no longer exist. The population of these birds peaked at mid-elevations, around 900 meters, which is “over 400 meters higher than in mountains without Oecophylla,” the researchers wrote in their paper published in August in Ecology Letters. They also observed a “similar but weaker” pattern for omnivorous birds, with their population peaking around 700 meters higher, indicating that omnivores are less affected than insect-eating species. For other bird species, Srinivasan noted, “species richness is highest at low elevations,” suggesting that fruit-eating birds are not significantly impacted by the presence of weaver ants, as their population peaks at lower altitudes and steadily declines with increasing elevation.

“Birds eat a lot of things. Some species eat only insects, some eat only fruits, others are omnivores, and some are scavengers like vultures,” Srinivasan explained. Since weaver ants fiercely compete with insectivorous birds for the same food, only a few insect-eating birds thrive in areas where the ants are present: “Less food, less birds.” 

For hundreds of years, people have proposed numerous ideas to explain the causes behind the uneven distribution of species across elevation gradients: “Temperature, rainfall, area, and various other environmental factors,” Srinivasan said. Another factor is competition between species for resources, which Srinivasan noted hasn’t received much attention—especially competition between species that are distantly related to each other. In fact, the researchers also analyzed factors like precipitation and productivity, but they found these had less impact on the birds compared to the influence of the ants!

This new research—which exposes the link between weaver ants and insectivorous birds—is significant because it presents a new perspective on the question of why species numbers vary in different parts of the world, which is a “fundamental scientific curiosity,” added Srinivasan. Furthermore, he emphasized the rapidly changing global climate that is pushing species higher up the elevation gradient. “Because of rising temperatures, species are shifting their ranges to higher elevations,” he added. “This is not migration; this is actually a permanent shift in the range of species to higher elevations,” Srinivasan clarified. “So if these ants shift their ranges upwards, what will happen to the bird communities?”

Ben Freeman, a biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study, told Science Magazine that he considers this new hypothesis “a big-time idea, that it’s ants that shape insect-eating bird communities.” Although Freeman finds the idea interesting, he expressed a desire to see it tested experimentally in the future.

“This is a pattern that is consistent with one hypothesis,” Srinivasan added. “It's difficult to get proof of a hypothesis like this when what you’re actually asking questions about are at the global scale.” He stated that since it is extremely challenging to prove this hypothesis through large-scale experimental studies, “We can only say that this might be one of the reasons why we see a difference in species richness patterns across a global scale.”

As Tihar approaches, vendors across Nepal face the challenges of rising costs and shifting consumer habits. This has led to economic uncertainty during this festive season. Shreya Shrestha of ApEx talked to three shop owners regarding their views on the present economic status.

Sonu Tamang, 28

I’ve been selling these flowers for two years, and it’s tough to care for them because they wither quickly. I’m a street vendor and I don’t have any equipment to keep them fresh so I have to get them from the dealer every day. There are many flowers in the market and the prices are considerably low yet customers continue to bargain, which can be disheartening. I normally sell flowers till the end of the Tihar because everyone needs them as they are needed in many rituals. These days people also grow their own flowers which means fewer customers.

Sandeep Khaitu, 39

We have been running a family business for nearly three years. There is no fixed number of sweets that we sell every year. It varies. People have different tastes and want different things. So its hard for us to decide what to focus on. The most popular sweets are rasbari, lal mohan, barfi, and laddu. But the ingredients required to make these sweets are becoming increasingly expensive, making it harder to sell them at prices that consumers might consider reasonable.

Nhiche Bahadur Prajapati, 72

My wife and I have been making things with clay for quite some time. We make diyo (traditional oil lamps) and many other household items out of clay. We are planning on making more diyos for Tihar because people use them during Laxmi Puja and Mha Puja. The raw material is quite expensive because we have to buy it from different vendors. Mud was once found locally but with so much construction going around, it’s difficult to source it these days. We have to raise the cost of our products accordingly and so now they are quite pricey. 

We often hear that youth are the future; the next generation of leaders. However, this statement can sometimes ring hollow, reduced to mere tokenism. Yet, many young individuals are making real strides in addressing critical challenges, particularly in climate action and disaster management.

Recently, through LinkedIn, I connected with Prabina Raut, a consultant with Liquid Trees and a passionate climate advocate. Liquid Trees employs an innovative approach to pollution control by cultivating microscopic silica algae (diatoms) in open water bodies. These algae neutralize pollutants like fertilizers, heavy metals, microplastics, and CO2. In short, they work to purify river waters contaminated by agricultural chemicals and wastewater. Raut’s expertise extends beyond this role; she is also an Environment Leadership Fellow with WWF.

Given my interest in breaking down knowledge silos to foster cross-sector solutions, I reached out to Raut to hear her views on the recent disasters caused by incessant rainfall across Nepal. I wanted to explore the intersection between climate action and disaster management.

In an interview conducted via email, Raut shared her insights, based on extensive research and analysis.

First, she identified a key obstacle to progress: Nepal's failure to enforce its Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) policies. “While Nepal has several DRR and DRRM policies, they remain largely unenforced at both the national and local levels,” she explained. “The government often prioritizes short-term development projects over long-term disaster preparedness.”

She emphasized the consequences of this neglect. “Despite having policies and research, the government’s lack of enforcement leaves communities vulnerable. Poor coordination between government agencies and ineffective urban planning regulations have magnified the impact of disasters,” she added.

Raut proposed a series of essential actions. The first is to confront the scientific realities of climate change. “We can no longer afford to ignore scientists’ warnings. Building a resilient future requires immediate action and long-term planning,” she warned.

Another priority is overhauling Nepal’s Early Warning Systems. “We need real accountability and expanded technical and financial support to upgrade these systems across the country,” she urged. Despite advancements, early warning systems are not universally accessible, particularly in rural and marginalized communities. “Public awareness on disaster preparedness is limited, and insufficient planning has led to tragic losses that could have been mitigated.”

Raut also advocated for a stronger role for local governments in disaster management. “We must decentralize disaster risk management, but making it effective will require allocating more resources and decision-making power to local authorities.” Local governments should have the authority to initiate community-based early warning systems and disaster response training, which would enhance local resilience.

She also stressed the importance of integrating climate resilience into national development plans. “We need to prioritize sustainable infrastructure and empower local governments to take a more active role in disaster management,” she said. Urban resilience is another crucial area, particularly in Kathmandu Valley, where unregulated urbanization exacerbates floods and landslides. “Stricter building codes and land-use planning, along with green infrastructure solutions like rainwater harvesting, are urgently needed.”

Raut called for the creation of a National Task Force for DRR Implementation to address the inadequacies of the existing National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA). “A dedicated task force could ensure better coordination across departments, from hydrology to urban planning, and ensure that DRR policies are enforced at all levels,” she said. This task force could act as a stopgap measure while a more permanent, bottom-up approach to policy making is developed.
Such a bottom-up approach should involve experts from diverse fields coming together to discuss the shortcomings of the NDRRMA. These deliberations could form the basis for meaningful policy changes. Raut emphasized that enabling young professionals like herself to be recognized as knowledgeable contributors could make a significant difference. “Young people can offer expertise, ideas, and help raise local awareness.”

Raut also pointed out the lack of public awareness regarding the link between climate change and disasters, particularly in rural areas. “Community engagement is weak, and inadequate knowledge about disaster preparedness leads to higher losses during floods and landslides.” She stressed the importance of connecting local needs with international mechanisms, such as the Loss and Damage Fund approved at COP28. “International support, like the Loss and Damage Fund, will play a pivotal role in helping Nepal recover from recurring disasters.”

Finally, Raut highlighted the importance of ensuring that any international financial aid, such as climate financing, reaches local governments. “Local elected bodies must build expertise to ensure that no international climate financing is wasted,” she said.

In conclusion, Raut reflected: “Addressing the recent monsoon havoc in Nepal requires effective policy implementation, better coordination among government departments, stronger early warning systems, and international financial support. Despite the existence of policies and research, the government must move beyond short-term solutions to build long-term resilience. We cannot afford any further delays.”