Submit your Article

Birth: 8 April 1931, Thamel
Death: 4 April 2021, Chhauni

During the 1950s, education for Nepalis outside Asia was still an abstract dream, even for the elites. So Arjun Narsingha Rana struggled to convince his family to let him pursue his studies in the US. Nonetheless, after joining the Royal Nepali Army, he ended up becoming the first Nepali to complete a US Staff College course.

Regarded as a trendsetter who wanted to reform the then Royal Nepali Army, Rana was responsible for instituting many changes in the institution. The United Nations had started deploying peacekeeping forces to troubled places in the world in 1948. But it was only in 1974 that Nepal expressed its interest to deploy its army on such missions. Under the leadership of the then colonel Rana, (now) Nepal Army sent 571 peacekeepers to UNEF-II in Egypt from the Purano Gorakh Battalion, the first such contingent of UN peacekeeping troops from Nepal.

Gradually, after almost 10 years, in 1983, Rana got promoted to the Chief of Army Staff for a four-year term. Under his leadership the army in 1986 established the Directorate of Military Materials Production and the Directorate of Health Services, with the goals of manufacturing necessaries for the army inside the country and for free treatment of army personnel and families, respectively.

Even now, the Directorate of Military Materials Production oversees Sundarijal Arsenal, Saywambhu Baroodkhana, Multipurpose Garment and Plastic Industry, and Sunachuri Emulsion Plant.

Similarly, in 1986, Rana’s command inaugurated the Directorate of Animal Development and Medicine that supplies to Army Animal Hospital, Soldier Stud Farm Centre and Bhairab Bahan Battalion. It also includes the Training and Animal Selection Guide for veterinary training, animal breeding, diagnosis and treatment of army pets.

Moreover, he wanted to modernize the force and with this intent established, first, a taskforce for air service and air defense, and then built a separate army air base. He also ensured proper combat dress and insurance for every army personnel.

After retirement, Rana served as Nepal’s ambassador to Pakistan (1988-1992).

Rana completed his schooling from Aligadh and Banaras, India and returned to Nepal for his Bachelor degree education at Tri Chandra College. He joined the then Royal Nepal Army as a Second lieutenant in 1952

Rana had been admitted to Birendra Military Hospital, Chhauni when he contracted Covid-19 at the age of 91. He later passed away from pneumonia.

Three years ago, he had lost his wife and only a month ago his only son, Arun Narsingha, to cancer. He is survived by his four daughters and a daughter-in-law.

Birth: 26 April 1945, Myagdi

Death: 25 March 2021, Butwal

His biggest claim to fame came on Democracy Day 1963, in the company of then royals and other high-ranking government officials. The song he sang that day at the Rastriya Nach Ghar during in what was an inter-zonal competition had beat the entries of 13 other zones.

Tika Bahadur Shrestha’s ‘Beni ko bazara, jata maya tetai cha najar’ became an overnight sensation. In 1974, in the process of collecting and singing folk songs, he recorded the famous track with Mana Chhantyal, at Record Nepal. Soon, the two developed an unbeatable chemistry. Shrestha would go on to marry Chhantyal as his second wife in 1978, eight years after his first marriage. (It was common practice at the time to take a second wife even with the first marriage still intact.)

The song helped establishing Beni, now a municipality, as a town of lovebirds. Moreover, this evergreen song has been able to create a loyal fan-base even among the youths.

An all-round instrumentalist, Shrestha loved collecting and recording songs but for the past one decade, he had been completely out of the music industry, and inclined more and more towards social work. Separately, Shrestha was also the first person to establish a boarding school in Butwal.

Shrestha, 75, a long-time kidney patient, had spent over half a century with his first wife, before her death in late 2020. He leaves behind a spouse, two sons and two daughters.

Taking to ApEx, Premdev Giri, a senior folk song collector and composer from Pokhara, said Nepal had lost an irreplaceable pillar of folk music.

Birth: 23 April 1943, Nawalparasi
Death: 18 March 2021, Biratnagar

The year was 1985. In a cold police cell in Biratnagar with only a tiny ventilation hole allowing some rays of light, Ashok Koirala was given third-degree torture for his involvement in anti-Panchayat activities. At one point, the officers inserted a packet-full of red chili powder into his anus, knocking him unconscious. The incident, infamously known as Khursani Kanda in Nepali politics, failed to faze him though. In the grim and blurry moments that followed, he felt an ever stronger resolve to fight for democracy.

Outside, public pressure was mounting and the authorities released him after two months of unlawful custody. Koirala, a member of the outlawed Nepali Congress party, rejoined the ongoing anti-Panchayat democratic movement. Five years later in 1990, a multi-party democracy replaced the Panchayat regime. Biratnagar elected Koirala as its first mayor.

Often regarded as a man of principles by his contemporaries, Koirala was a staunch defender of democratic values. For his opposition to nepotism and never seeking favors despite his right connections, his party colleagues spoke of him highly. While former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was his cousin, another ex-PM Sushil Koirala was his elder brother.

Koirala was the fourth among 12 children of a civil servant father and a homemaker mother. He grew up in Kailali, Nepalgunj, and Siraha, as the middle-income family moved with the father’s transfers. The young Koirala did not have stable education but plenty of exposure to different places and people.

When his father got transferred to Biratnagar in eastern Nepal from Nepalgunj, Koirala’s family had to split. Ashok accompanied father Bodh Prasad and mother Kumudini to Biratnagar, where he spent the rest of his life. He married Shanta Koirala when he was 46.

Koirala got involved in student politics, and later played a key role in leading the student movement during the 1990 People’s Movement. He was a founding central committee member of the Nepal Student Union, the student wing of the Nepali Congress. He served the union as vice-president under President Sher Bahadur Deuba, who later rose to party presidency and became four-time prime minister.

He is remembered for his outstanding leadership of the second People's Movement of 2006, when he was the president of Nepali Congress Morang district committee. He was a key figure in the consolidation of party organization in its most important base—Biratnagar. Elected to the Constituent Assembly in 2013, he was among the drafters of the new Nepali constitution.

The 77-year-old was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at Biratnagar-based Neuro Hospital when he passed away. He is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter.

Birth: 14 October 1932, Kathmandu

Death: 16 March 2021, Gangalal Hospital, Kathmandu

Maniklal Shrestha, a leader of the Newari language movement, analyst of left politics, and respected academic, died aged 89 in Kathmandu.

A mentor for most of Nepal’s current and ex-communist leaders, Shrestha had for long been fighting kidney and heart ailments and was hospitalized a few weeks ago after falling unconscious.

Shrestha first started reading extensively as a student of Tri-Chandra Campus in Kathmandu, where he also came across the works of Marx and Engels. Deeply inspired by Marxist philosophy, he cultivated a close-knit network with Nepali left-leaning intellectuals and communist leaders.

A good friend of late Pushpa Lal Shrestha, founder of the Communist Party of Nepal, he helped draft the young party’s manifesto. Later, the royal regime arrested him for his involvement in the communist movement. 

The man behind the establishment of Nepal Sambat and Kirat Sambat (calendars based on the history of Newar and Kirat communities), Shrestha also helped establish Nepal Bhasa (Newari language) as one of the country’s official languages. A sharp historian, learner, and mother-tongue activist, Shrestha was known for his uncanny ability to explain difficult ideas in simple, everyday terms. He had an extraordinary memory and often mentioned exact historical dates, time, and even page numbers of books while giving talks. He was a walking encyclopedia for fellow researchers and students.

Shrestha had an MA in English and an LLB, both from Kolkata University, India, before returning home to start teaching at Tribhuvan University. He was the first Nepali to graduate in Constitutional Law.

Elected ward-chairperson of Kathmandu-9 (now Kathmandu-17) in 1958, Shrestha in his lifetime never visited any temple or performed religious rites. He was a women’s rights activist and, unknown to many, was the first to lobby for and ensure women’s voting rights in his electoral constituency, even before Switzerland did so in 1974.

He was also a journalist and wrote articles for Nepal Bhasa daily and various other national and international newspapers. He wrote and translated extensively, and authored acclaimed books like Historical Development of Juche Cause (in English), Manab Samaj ko Bikash Bare Marxbadi distrikon (in Nepali), and Samalochanayam Siddhanta (in Newari).

Shrestha was married to late Sushila Singh, the first female judge of Nepal’s Supreme Court, who passed away almost a year ago on 22 May 2020. He is survived by two sons: senior cardiologist Dr. Malakhlal Shrestha and physician Dr. Situlal Shrestha.

Communist leaders and intellectuals have expressed sorrow over Shrestha’s demise. Posting a picture of himself with hospitalized Shrestha, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said on Twitter: “The country has lost an extraordinary intellectual figure.” Political analyst Shyam Shrestha remembered his senior colleague Maniklal Shrestha as “a very down-to-earth, helpful, easily accessible, and welcoming man”. Chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said: “The demise of Prof. Shrestha is a blow to the whole progressive-communist movement of Nepal.”