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Sarubhakta (Bhakta Raj Shrestha) is a well-known Nepali playwright, novelist, poet, songwriter, and the recipient of Madan Puraskar, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of Nepali literature. Some of his notable works are ‘Yuddha: Uhi Gas Chamber Bhitra’, ‘Pagal Basti’, and ‘Pratigandha’. Anushka Nepal from ApEx talked to Sarubhakta about his writing career.  How has your writing journey been so far? My writing journey started when I was a child. I used to listen to my teachers read poems and stories out loud in my class, and that always made me want to write something of my own too. It was in 1976, when I was in sixth grade, that my poem got published in one of the newspapers. I think it was from that moment that I actually started writing.  I have written a lot since then, and it has been all sorts of things: novels, stories, poems, and plays. Entering this field showed me where my talent really lies, and it has been one incredible journey. Even now, decades after I started, I still love and enjoy what I do. Was being a writer always your plan? I grew up in Pokhara and it was just a small town back then. There weren’t many people who knew what literature actually meant, not even me. We were never told that literature could be a career someone could pursue. Teachers and parents told children that education is everything, and that we needed to work hard in order to become doctors or engineers. Even now, it’s the same for many. So, naturally, I had no plans of becoming a writer. Despite that, I don’t know how but I would end up writing something or the other everytime. I was a science student but somehow I would always find my way back to writing. It was my calling.  What authors/books have inspired you?  There are a lot of books and authors that have inspired me to be who I am. But one book that will always be on top of that list is ‘Mahabharata’. I grew up listening to it. I believe there aren’t any other writings that will even come close to being as good as Mahabharata. This book covers every aspect of life and has inspired me the most to become a good writer.  I have also drawn my inspiration from Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Bhupi Sherchan, and Parijat. When it comes to English literature, I’m mostly influenced by the works of William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw, and Gabriel García Márquez.  How do you come up with a theme for your writings? Writing is an expression. So, whenever I have to decide on a theme for my work,I  always pick something I have felt, experienced, or thought about. For many writers, I think, observing their surroundings is the best way to figure out what they can/want to actually work on. It’s the same for me.  As a writer, a part of me is always looking for things or situations around me that I can express in words. I can’t repeat the same thing I have written about in the past. That’s why I’m always on the hunt for finding a new subject to write on. When I find one, it becomes the theme for my next work.  Is there a particular type of literature that you prefer to work on? My writing varies from stories to poems to plays to novels. But I have never felt like I like one better than the other. I find all writing styles equally good in their own way. What I have realized after working in this field for so long is that preferences change with time. There was a point when I was excessively into writing plays. I had always been interested in theater so directing my own plays was fulfilling for me. But that doesn’t mean I never liked writing something else. I switch my preference time and again and the best part is it never gets boring that way.  What are your favorite writings?  My all time favorite is Mahabharata. But there are also others that I absolutely love. Some of them are ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel García Márquez, ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy, ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare, and ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway.  In terms of Nepali literature, I have been the most inspired by ‘Muna Madan’ by Laxmi Prasad Devkota, ‘Shirishko Phool’ by Parijat, ‘Ghumne Mechmathi Andho Manchhe’ by Bhupi Sherchan, ‘Modiaain’ by BP Koirala, and ‘Anuradha’ by Bijaya Malla.  Bhakta’s picks Mahabharata The Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two branches of a family—Pandavas and Kauravas—who, in the Kurukshetra War, battle for the throne of Hastinapura.  One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez This book tells the story of the Buendía family, where José Arcadio Buendía, the patriarch of the family, founded the town of Macondo.  Muna Madan by Laxmi Prasad Devkota Written in 1936, Muna Madan is an episodic love-poem revolving around two characters—Muna and Madan, which ends in tragedy.  Ghumne Mechmathi Andho Manchhe by Bhupi Sherchan This book, published in 1969, is a Nepali-language poetry collection written by Bhupi Sherchan. 

Virendra Sharma is a member of the UK Parliament from the Labour Party. He has been holding this position since 2007. He has also been following Nepal for 40 years, and has always stood in favor of enhancing the Nepal-UK ties. Kamal Dev Bhattarai of ApEx talked to him during his recent visit to Kathmandu. Excerpts: How do you view the current state of bilateral relationship between UK and Nepal? The bilateral relationship is healthy, parties in both countries genuinely want to further nurture this relationship. Britain wants to assist in the infrastructure of this country. British people have a lot of respect for Nepali people. And that respect shows that there is a good relationship between Nepal and the United Kingdom. The key pillars of our bilateral relations are culture, trade and investment. Nepal should say what kind of assistance it needs from the UK. We have a lot of potential in bilateral relations, which has not been fully utilized. How could the situation be improved? It is for both parties to react. When you are negotiating, if one party is less demanding, the other party is less responding. I believe that both countries need to identify the potential in society which benefits not only the individuals but wide communities in the world. What is the current state of trade and investment between the two countries and how can it be enhanced?   First, a lot of people want to invest in and visit Nepal. Investment and tourism are two major areas Nepal needs to look at. Nepal needs to create that environment where people feel comfortable to come, feel safe to come, with the knowledge that their investment is safe and their life is safe. It is a responsibility of the Nepal government and Nepali people. In the same way, when Nepali people go overseas, including in Britain, they will look for the same facilities. It is the responsibility of the Nepal government to look at it seriously, so that we can enhance tourism and investment here. What are your suggestions to bring more investment from the UK to Nepal? I am not saying it (investment) is not there but perceptions could be wrong.  Nepal needs to identify the areas where it needs investment. Infrastructure, energy, climate change, water saving, natural resources and sharing of knowledge could be some areas. Why aren’t high-level visits taking place between the two countries? I share that concern, and I believe high-level visits create confidence to give momentum to bilateral relations. It is a mutual responsibility of both parties whether Nepal is putting pressure on the UK prime minister and others to come. I am not criticizing anybody but why is it not happening? It is a responsibility of both countries and people like myself to say why they should visit and what benefits it brings to not only the two countries but to the wider society.

Established in 2015, Prixa Technologies is among the fast-growing IT companies in Nepal specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), news websites, mobile apps, big data, content management systems, cloud hosting, IT consultation services, and social media marketing and employs over 70 professionals. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and a gold medalist of Pulchowk Campus, Manish Sharma is the co-founder and CEO of Prixa. ApEx talked to Sharma to learn about the IT industry in Nepal. Excerpts: What is Prixa currently working on? At Prixa, we recognize Nepal’s need to adopt modern technologies for growth, while acknowledging that costly foreign solutions often don’t fulfill the needs of the local market. Our main objective is to maximize technology adoption in Nepal by providing affordable, cutting-edge solutions tailored to local businesses and communities, fostering innovation and enabling them to become competitive in the rapidly changing global technology landscape. For instance, we are currently developing AI solutions targeted at the local languages in the Nepali market. We have diversified into different verticals. Over 50 media companies are our clients running on our Snowberry platform. We also work in the sector of advertisement analytics, large-scale cloud computing, display technologies, enterprise software solutions, etc. We operate one of the largest content delivery networks in Nepal scaling to billions of requests each month. We have also increased our efforts in the Internet of Things (IoT). For instance, we are working with government bodies to make low-cost high-precision weather forecast solutions in remote locations. How do you view the current state of Nepal’s IT infrastructure? The IT industry here works in multiple models. For instance, some companies are just upgrading for Nepali clients while the majority of them cater to international clients with mixed models and some are exclusively working for foreign companies. There are lots of challenges for countries like Nepal. Nepal needs to upgrade on a policy basis. We still need a foreign solution to solve our problems but we do not have an easy channel for payment and interaction. We are working with a bunch of cloud providers but we still are facing the hassle of payment. Yet, the IT industry is growing rapidly. How do you see Nepali media websites vis-à-vis the international market? I think media websites in Nepal are more advertisement centric. Business strategies are obviously essential to be sustainable in a market but, currently, we have been observing in our clients that their strategies are deviating towards subscription based for a better experience. The company itself has fully developed user personalization. Besides, I don’t think the media itself is fully prepared for investing on their websites. But, hopefully, with time, it will get better from all dimensions. Riri One is Prixa’s ambitious AI project. Is it a breakthrough for digital media? Riri One was specially designed for services that concern a text-to-speech engine for Nepali languages like Nepali, Newari, and Maithili to create inclusivity in our society of diversified communities. Riri also has Riri Two and Three which will be released soon. Riri Two understands what people are saying. It’s a speech-to-text engine and it is in the pilot phase. While Riri Three is a full end-to-end conversational engine. I feel grateful for collaborating with Annapurna Media Network for Riri One. It’s not a new thing about text-to-speech being launched as it already existed in some smaller projects. But the new breakthrough is that Riri production is life-like and in the Nepali media industry, it is the first of its kind. We are still in beta and there are many things to update. We are seeing a high rate of user response and engagement. We have worked with over 50 media houses but we are seeing the breakthrough for the very first time. Looking at the statistics, we could find that users are consuming audio news more. I believe it’s a great step to fill a gap in the digital media sector. Web security has emerged as a major concern lately. Why are our government websites so vulnerable? In the IT sector, 100 percent data security cannot be guaranteed. Having said that, I wouldn’t deny the fact that data security is a baseline responsibility of IT. I would say that carelessness in practicing ground practices could be one of those problems. The recent hack incident is being seriously investigated by the government. They have even established a security task force and hopefully, it will bring a positive outcome. The management team needs to scrutinize the bottlenecks and the government should be prioritizing fundamental security practices. The government has been managing sensitive data and has been archiving it in digitized form. So, the data breach could hamper public privacy and national security. The common responsibility needs to be examined such that IT companies and the government can coordinate to solve the problems. The data breach is not just a crucial problem in the government sector but also in the private sector. What advice do you have for IT aspirants? I suggest they explore the opportunities in diversified fields but they should be more careful about preparing themselves in a certain direction from ground level. They mustn’t think the opportunities reside only abroad. I would count myself as an example as I had abroad studies and I am doing something here in Nepal by myself and so are my colleagues. We are also accepting freshers in our company to help the aspirants. As this sector is diversified, the more you delve into it, the more you explore the problem and the more you seek out opportunities within the challenges because there are oceans of things that are left undone. What new trends in AI are emerging currently? Rapid advancements in generative AI, such as Chat GPT, Bard AI, LLaMA AI, and many more, have been achieved. The blockchain concept is being adopted by businesses, and decentralized technologies are likewise expanding. Nepal is among the top countries to log in to Chat GPT which shows how interested Nepalis are in new IT trends. The world is advancing with AI, and I think Nepal shouldn’t fall behind. This is how the business world is going toward the AI-driven landscape, which could eventually change quickly and drastically in the future.  

Nepal has seen a continued political shift since the general elections of November last year. Amid this fluidity, the interest of external powers in Nepal seem to have gone up. There have been several high-level visits to Nepal from the US, India and China over the past recent months. In this context Pratik Ghimire of ApEx talked to political analyst and Tribhuvan University lecturer Bishnu Dahal about Nepal’s political and geopolitical situations.

Why do you think the old coalition reunited? 

In internal politics, the factor remains the same, but the variable factor is geopolitics. When the CPN (Maoist Center) broke the coalition with the Nepali Congress to form an alliance with the CPN-UML, the China-card played an active role while the Indian and US-side failed to carry out their task. But as the old coalition has been reunited, I see the initial point of this event is the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact’s endorsement from parliament. As soon as the case of MCC arose, the then Nepal Communist Party (NCP) split, and the US got the Nepal government close to them.

Also, as the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government voted in favor of Ukraine in the UN, it can be clearly believed that we were in the US-led team. The Americans want a favorable government in Nepal for which they are showing their direct involvement.  As soon as Pushpa Kamal Dahal became the prime minister, China-funded Pokhara International Airport was inaugurated, a Chinese team came for Kathmandu-Kerung railway study, and the Chinese side opened all the borders.  But the US successfully took the game into its own hands. That is why the Maoists and Nepali Congress are now together.

Why do you think external forces are so interested in Nepal?

External forces come to Nepal because they see a lack of national interest and policy here. Our politicians have no political or national interest. All they have is personal interest because they always want to be in power. Nepali politicians actually invite external forces and play with them to retain power. And, the external forces like this situation because they get to project their power here. India and China always want to be in Nepal to counter each other. As for the US, it feels that it could influence Nepal and bolster its presence in the South Asian region from here. 

Do you think India's influence in Nepal has tempered down in recent years?

We are largely dependent on India. But the data has been changing. In recent years, rice import from India has declined by (around) 30 percent. Not due to our production, but a lot of people are leaving Nepal for employment and study. But these people are not going to India. They would rather go to Western countries and the Persian Gulf nations.  So, not only the political presence of India, but also the economic presence has been shifting to Western nations, especially to the US. And I have already mentioned how we are tilting toward America and why they want to be with us. 

How do you see the South Asian geopolitical scenario?

Though India and the US are close to each other these days, India has maintained a good relationship even with the enemies of the US. For example, India has maintained cordial ties with Russia and Iran for its own benefit. Even India and China have a good economic relationship. India has come closer to the US because China has enclosed India from all sides. Sri Lanka’s Hambantota International Port and Pakistan’s Gwadar Port are controlled by China. 

In the South Asian region, India has the business of around $7trn, whereas China’s is of around $18trn. Though India is doing good, China has an upper hand. I see India has both opportunities and threats from China and the geopolitical scenario of South Asia is often determined by the activities of these two nations. I hope India will review its neighborhood policy to address the problems.

Where do you see the future of Nepal in this geopolitical climate?

The geopolitical game is always there. It’s not just in Nepal and in the South Asian region, but across the globe. This comes with both opportunities and threats. For instance, the US eagerly wants to invest in our hydropower projects. We will have the opportunity to create employment by establishing large-scale industries. But if our politicians fail to grab the political opportunity for national interest, it will not help us, and we will become just a puppet and playground of big nations.