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Rabindra Basnet is a senior physiotherapist at HAMS Hospital. Basnet, 33, regards physiotherapy as a manual art rather than just a treatment with various systematic protocols.

After he had completed high school, a relative from the medical field informed him about the scope of physiotherapy, which prompted him to pursue a course in India.  “At first, I was just going because my parents wanted me to. I wasn’t very interested,” he says.

However, after seeing patients with disabilities during the second year of college, the boy from Pharping changed his mind. He felt compelled to help those in need and make them feel better. And he realized physiotherapy could be the answer to many health issues.

Once he knew what he wanted to do in life, it wasn’t difficult to put his heart and soul into it. During his undergraduate years, he participated in most of the college events. He even earned the title of Mr Fresher and was admired by his teachers and friends for his diligence.

Driven by curiosity and passion, he started getting engaged in different research programs. During the winter breaks, he preferred taking up small odd jobs instead of coming back to Nepal. He says he wanted to work as much as he could.

During his senior year, he worked as a physiotherapist at a hospital in New Delhi for eight months. Eventually, he also joined different hospitals and clinics as a consultant physiotherapist. He even had the opportunity to be the Department Chief of Physiotherapy in 2015, and that was the post he held for two years before returning to Nepal.

After his return, he opened his own clinic and later joined HAMS Hospital where he has been working for six years now. “It doesn’t even feel like work and that’s the best part of my job,” says Basnet. He believes he is doing what he was born to do. He says being able to help people fills him with a sense of peace.

Talking about a 21-year-old patient who had GB syndrome, a rare condition when a person’s immune system attacks the nerves, he recalls how he was able to make him walk. “The patient was on the verge of depression since he could potentially lose movement of his limbs. He could have been wheelchair-bound but now he’s out and about on his motorbike,” says Basnet.

Besides working at the hospital, Basnet has an active social life. He is involved with several sports clubs. He has been associated with cricket tournaments like Cooch Behar Trophy U-19 Match and Ranji Trophy Match in 2011, 13th SAFF Championship, Maldives Cricket Team in 2012 as well as Qatar Airways Martyr’s Memorial ‘A’ Division League Football Tournament in 2019. He has also served in the Nepal Super League in 2021. He has been part of several wrestling tournaments and was involved in the blockbuster movie ‘Sultan’ in the capacity of a physiotherapist.

His primary area of expertise is musculoskeletal physiotherapy—treatment for muscles, bones, joints, nerves, tendons, and ligaments. “My main job is to provide quality care and ensure a speedy recovery,” he says, adding he wants to make patients better as quickly as possible despite the circumstances. Because his abilities and practices revolve around mobilizing the body and boosting patients’ strength, he always meets them in person for accurate diagnosis. Even during the pandemic, he never stopped working.

As a form of home therapy, different massage machines are used in Nepal. But they are mostly used for temporary relaxation. On the other hand, physiotherapy gets to the root of the pain rather than just easing it. It encourages people to seek diagnosis rather than relying on assumptions. Through his work, he hopes to educate people about muscle mobilization and exercise for healthy body movement.

Basnet is quite a cheerful man, earning patients’ trust through both his words and work. At the same time, he can be stern when patients are careless about their health. He has a natural flair for convincing people and makes sure his patients know what they are going through and how Basnet can help them. By doing so, he fills patients with hope, which he counts as one of his strengths.

He tries to educate his patients about exercise, mindful eating, and living a healthy lifestyle, as he is extremely conscious about health and fitness. He plays futsal with his colleagues and friends at least four days a week. To maintain a good work-life balance, he listens to music, watches movies, and spends quality time with his family.

Basnet adds that today’s generation spends a lot of time bound to their office desks and that it can result in postural issues. To spread awareness about how correct posture and gait can prevent a lot of physical problems, he has conducted workshops at various banks and schools. And he intends to keep at it.

He has also participated in many hospital-led campaigns and rehabilitation programs. In 2021, he was honored with Hams Champions for his outstanding performance. In the future, he wants to expand pulmonary rehab centers across Nepal to assist people with respiratory difficulties as well as work on more awareness programs targeted towards pregnant women and the elderly. 

An indefinite curfew order has been issued in the district headquarters of Sarlahi, Malangawa.

The curfew order was issued from 10 pm last night until further notice after two communities clashed while immersing the idol of Lord Ganesh, Chief District Officer of Sarlahi Indra Dev Yadav said.

The curfew order has been issued up to Jhim river in the east to Musaili canal in the west and Nepal-India border area in the south to the police post near Baba Petrol Pump in the north, the administration said.

The locals have been asked not to travel, gather and carry out any outdoor activities during the time of curfew order.

Likewise, Chief of District Police Office, Sarlahi, Naresh Raj Subedi said that the situation in the district headquarters is normal at present after the curfew order.

Khambe Damai from Barekot Rural Municipality-2 in Jajarkot faced disappointment when he visited the Ghatbazaar food depot earlier this week only to find it closed. He returned empty-handed, wondering how he would provide food for his family.

“The subsidized rice provided by the government made our lives much easier. We cannot afford the high prices of rice in the local market,” he lamented. Prem Bahadur Bohora from Barekot-3 shares a similar story. “Festivals are approaching, but we have no rice. Many people like me are eagerly awaiting the arrival of rice shipments at the government depot.”

The depot has been closed for three months due to a shortage of rice stock. In the remote villages of Jajarkot, people are compelled to purchase rice from the local market at double the price charged at the government depot. The Ghatbazaar-based depot of the Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has remained shut for three months. Bir Bahadur Giri, the Chairperson of Barekot Rural Municipality, revealed that the locals in Barekot are facing a severe food shortage. “Since the depot has been closed for three months, we have urgently requested the Chief District Officer to supply rice to the Ghatbazaar depot and the sales point at Kaule,” he added.

The food shortage is not limited to Barekot. Other local units of the district like Nalgad Municipality, Kuse Rural Municipality, Chedagad Municipality, and Junichande Rural Municipality are also seeing food shortages. Food depots and sales centers in these areas have exhausted their food stocks. With the exception of Surkhet and Salyan, all other districts in Karnali have also run out of stock. As new harvests are not yet ready, and food depots are depleted, local residents are struggling to get food. In the rural areas of Jajarkot, locals cannot access rice even if they are willing to pay for it. This crisis has arisen because the FMTC failed to initiate procurement and shipment processes on time. Even after starting the bidding process, the company has not yet selected a transport company for rice delivery to rural districts.

Ram Prasad Poudel, the chief of the Jajarkot district office of FMTC, mentioned that all four depots and sales centers in the district have run out of stock. “The process of selecting the company for rice supply is in its final stages, and preparations are underway to supply rice before the Dashain festival,”  he said. Jajarkot district headquarters currently has only 660 quintals of rice in stock.

According to FMTC, the depletion of rice stock in remote depots and sales centers is attributed to the increase in international market prices, India’s ban on rice imports, and delays in the tender process for procurement and transportation. In the remote areas of Karnali, people face food deficits as their agricultural output is insufficient to sustain them throughout the year. Consequently, the government has been providing subsidized rice in these areas through food supply and trading companies.

The Surkhet Office of FMTC has initiated the necessary steps to supply food grains to remote depots. They are sending 4,000 tons to Humla, which is not connected to the national road network, via Tibet. Madhav Mishra, the head of FMTC’s regional office in Surkhet, reported that 1100 quintals of rice were sent to Jumla, 770 quintals to Mugu, and 170 quintals to Kalikot. He stated that they have taken the necessary initiatives to transport rice to depots and sales centers in Jumla, Humla, Dolpa, Jajarkot, Mugu, Kalikot, Dailekh, Rukum West, and Bajura of Sudurpashchim Province before Dashain. “There won’t be a shortage of rice this festive season. We have already initiated the shipment process, and we have also begun procuring rice,” he added.

Nepal Teachers’ Federation launched a Kathmandu-centric protest on Wednesday against the Education Bill tabled in the Federal Parliament, with around 15,000 teachers of government schools hitting the streets by disrupting teaching-learning activities as well as road traffic in Kathmandu in their bid to ‘teach’ some lesson to the government and the Parliament about the possible consequences of ignoring their demands.  

Per the federation, the bill has failed to address issues like job security of temporary teachers, creation of non-teaching staff positions, concerns of pre-school teachers, promotion of teachers, appointment of the principal, transfer of teachers as well as performance appraisal. The bill’s provision on empowering local units to evaluate and transfer teachers has also not gone well with the federation, which earlier boycotted a meeting that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had called.

The protesting teachers gathered at Maitighar Mandala and marched to Baneshwor Chowk, causing traffic congestions along various stretches, including the Maitighar-Baneshwor-Tinkune-Koteshwor section, and forcing traffic police personnel to reroute traffic.  

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has urged teachers not to disrupt teaching-learning activities. In a notice, KMC stated that the teachers’ act of depriving children of education so as to press for the fulfillment of their demands is not acceptable.

The school is a zone of peace and school closure a violation of the law, it said, calling teachers not to shut schools but to opt for some other forms of protest to raise their concerns related to professional development.

If a school within the Kathmandu Metropolitan City is closed or forced to close or if it is found that the children’s right to education has been violated by closing educational institutions, stern legal action will be taken and the concerned individual will be held fully responsible, the KMC warned.

KMC Spokesperson Nabin Manandhar said they have urged teachers to resume classes from tomorrow. “The students’ right to education should not be violated by closing schools,” he said.