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Q. Your personality in three words?
A. Straight-forward, emotional, logical.

Q. A common misconception about you?
A. That I have a humongous attitude.

Q. Your favorite fictional antagonist?
A. Ashutosh Rana’s iconic role in the Bollywood movie ‘Sangharsh’.

Q. An advice to your younger self?
A. Be real, don’t be plastic. The more you explore yourself, the more it will help you in life.

Q. Your spirit animal and why?
A. I can’t relate to any animal because they are too innocent to be compared with humans.

Q. Favorite Nepali movie so far?
A. Balidaan, especially Haribansha Acharya’s role that was a marked contrast to his comical stereotype. By far the best actor in Nepali cinema created a character that brought tears to my eyes.

Almost a thousand partygoers gathered last weekend in Lamidanda—a usually peaceful hill renowned for its panoramic views an hour’s drive from the hustle and bustle of the capital. Located in the district of Lalitpur, Lamidada was chosen as the venue of the first edition of the Spark Music Festival (Sept 27-29)—an outdoor event that aims to introduce and celebrate all kinds electronic music in Nepal. Many electronic music aficionados braved the late monsoon rains for the pleasure. The most adventurous camped out at the venue for several days, with sanitation facilities provided by the organizers.

We at APEX were interested in the event because of the complaints from some quarters that such kind of ‘rave parties’ promote the use of drugs and licentiousness. When we contacted the organizers this year, they asked us to visit the festival and see for ourselves if there was anything illegal going on.

Electronic music was there in all its forms: electro, house, techno, trance, and reggae coexisted. The organizers repeatedly highlighted the diversity of musical genres, perhaps to dispel the myth that it was all about ‘trance’ and drugs. According to Subash KC, an organizer, “from the moment you to connect a cable to emit sound, it becomes electronic music. It would be wrong to infer that trance is the only electronic music.”

Last April, the Shakti Peak Festival Nepal, also organized by KC, was cancelled last minute as it was qualified as “trance party” by authorities, leaving several hundred international and local festivalgoers with the tickets stranded. Still a bit irritated by this memory, KC adds that “it was a forest festival to promote tourism in beautiful nature, no more no less,” and “even yoga courses were planned”.

KC started organizing this kind of music festivals in 2009 from Malaysia (where it is known as Belantara Festival). He is used to critics of such festivals, and says he is not deterred. “Outdoor music festivals can offer much more happiness and energy than the ones people are used to in Thamel, for example,” KC says.

While we were at the event, we didn’t see much evidence of drug use. Most of the peo ple were just lolling about, enjoying the music outside even as rain was a constant irritant. Of course, we didn’t have eyes everywhere and in such a big gathering, we could have missed a few things. But mostly, it appeared clean.

“There are always some bad eggs and the organizers are keen to kick them out because we want to keep organizing these festivals. It’s not a oneoff event,” says KC. Perhaps he was on the mark. There was heavy security presence at the festival, with a military camp at the entrance, and police patrolling the festival premises. In addition, there were also private security folks from “Jaguar” hired to keep things under control. Even with all these preparations, the organizers still have to be careful. They can get into trouble with the law any time. Perhaps this is also the reason the festival organizers shun publicity and let word of mouth do the advertisement for them.

Too lazy to cook or too busy playing cards and flying kites this Dashain? We bring to you some luscious food and beverage delivery options so that your Dashain fun is never interrupted. Spend more time with your family and friends and less time in kitchen and traffic this festive season.

Foodmario

Foodmario, an online food delivery service, offers food cooked by home-based chefs. So you basically get home-cooked food at your doorstep even if you don’t cook! There are hundreds of home chefs who specialize in different healthy, tasty and hygienic homemade foods, which you can check in their individual ‘Foodmario’  app profiles. Just scroll through the app, click on the fare of your choice, and proceed to check out. They remain close from 2 am to 9 am, otherwise, you can order any time you like. The standard delivery time for Foodmario is one hour and 15 minutes. Order through their app or call  9801079255.

Mothers Kitchen and Catering Service

This lunchbox service in Ghattekulo, Kathmandu is courtesy of a mother and daughter duo. Deepti Agarwal handles the catering service while her mother designs the recipes. Indian dishes like thali, chapati, paneer, paratha, pao bhaji, chola bhaji are their specialties. They also have a Nepali chef working with them to give you Nepali dal, bhat, roti and vegetable options. If you crave street food, they deliver pani puri, papadi chat and samosa chat—again home-made and hygienic! Food is prepared when the order is placed so the food is freshly-cooked. Remember them especially for breakfast or lunch services. Call 9802008571 for more information. (Food choice and delivery time may vary with the time of the day.)

Foodmandu

Explore hundreds of popu lar restaurants in Kathmandu and Lalitpur with Foodmandu app. It is an easy and convenient way to enjoy what you love from your favorite restaurant without having to leave your place. So, if a guest suddenly arrives, you can order your favorite pizza or momo and entertain your guest without the hassle  of cooking. If you crave a pizza, just head to the app, check which restaurants deliver pizza, check the prices and sizes of pizza, select and checkout. Food will be delivered to you within an hour. Open from 11 am to 8:30 pm, you can order by calling 014444177 or order through the ‘Foodmandu’ app. (Foodmandu will be closed on the  day of Tika.)

Bhok Lagyo

Feeling too tired to cook and craving some burgers at 1 am at night, just when you have hit a purple farash patch? Then you can call Bhok Lagyo, which is the first late night food delivery service in Nepal. Usually food delivery services in Kathmandu do not open all night long but Bhok Lagyo does, from 4 pm to 4 am. Delivering within an hour inside Kathmandu valley, they have their own online multi-cuisine menu that has chowmein, burger, momo, fried rice, biryani, pizza, and much more! You can order through their social media or call them at 9801009335.

Cheers

Dashain is incomplete without liquor for some. However, your nearest retailer may not have your favorite Scotch or rum. Cheers, an online liquor store, will come to your rescue. It has a website through which you can select from an extensive collection of domestic and imported liquors. Also, it offers free delivery, right at your doorstep. Place an order here between 10 am to 10 pm for not just drinks, but also liquor glasses, mixers, syrups, snacks and fruit juices. You can pay through cash or card, after you receive your goodies. There is definitely no need to drink and drive this Dashain. Order online or by calling 014265008.

We like to romanticize things. Maybe our daily lives feel so boring that we pickup on the lives of others and view them through rose-colored glasses. I almost called this piece, ‘Into the Wild’. Why? Well, if you ask young travelers what inspired them they often reply the book by Jon Krakauer who retraced the steps of and then wrote about Christopher McCandless.

McCandless began travelling across the US in April 1992. By August of that year he was trapped due to high rivers, and eventually died after eating a poisonous plant trying to stave off starvation. During this time McCandless kept a journal of his travels and thoughts which was the basis of Krakauer’s later book. This has inspired countless people to travel. Despite the fact he did not complete his journey. Despite the fact he died alone and in agony. I question, how can we romanticize that journey?

Last week I went to a showing of the film ‘The Last Honey Hunter’. It depicts the life of Maule Dhan Rai, the last in a line of harvesters of hallucinogenic honey in the hills of the Hong Valley in Eastern Nepal. The film has achieved well deserved accolades around the world for its cinematography and topic. Just as interesting was a short film about the making of The Last Honey Hunter. Here we got to remove our rose-tinted glasses as professional mountaineers on the technical/camera crew fixed their own ropes, and attempted to follow Rai up the cliffs. While Rai looks mesmerizing on hand-made bamboo ropes stretching up into the mist, the camera crew look terrified and somewhat comic as they struggle to keep balance on their modern equipment. 

So why do we like to romanticize things? We can be pretty certain that if McCandless lived we would have never heard of him. If the honey collected by Rai wasn’t known for its hallucinogenic properties, would we have bothered to watch a film about him? (In fact this film was inspired by the earlier Eric Valli work ‘The Honey Hunters of Nepal’.)  Ben Ayers, one of the producers and the driving force behind The Last Honey Hunter, explained that it took him 10 years of annually visiting the community to gain enough trust to be allowed to film Rai during a harvest. It is clear that Ayers has a deep respect for Rai and the community. No rose-tinted glasses there. Ayers knows the stark reality of life in these hills.

But many people do not see the hardships of others! We unwittingly put pressure on those whose lives are equally as hard, or harder than, ours, by mystifying and romanticizing them.  And when they can’t live up to our expectations… then what? Maule Dhan Rai took his own life not long after coming to Kathmandu for the Nepal premier of the film. We cannot speculate why. Perhaps the god his community worships, Rongkemi, was displeased Rai left even for a short time. We may even romanticize his death, saying that his strong belief in his local deity somehow impacted him enormously. But, again, how can we romanticize someone’s death? This is not Romeo and Juliet. Rai believed and indeed stated in the film that he felt cursed due to the nature of his work (taking from nature).  His life was hard both physically and emotionally.

Yet we have a tendency to dismiss these hardships by donning our rose-tinted glasses again when looking at the lives of others. Either we see them as doing things we would love but fear to do (as in the case of McCandless) or we see people as not being ‘like us’. We feel the latter’s lives are simple and un-complex. We do them an injustice with this thinking. So let’s throw away the glasses and let reality in!