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Bookmakers in the eastern Nepali metropolitan of Biratnagar have become active again with the start of the new season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that kicked off on April 9.

Right from the first match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and defending champions Mumbai Indians, Athar Ansari of Ghoghapul Chowk, Biratnagar—who is considered one of the biggest bookmakers in Biratnagar having been in the business for a decade—has mobilized his team of bookies across the country.

Born into an ordinary family, Ansari has now built a multi-million-dollar business in Biratnagar by betting on cricket matches and offering personal loans at high interests. Ansari, who previously went to India to watch the IPL live every year, is believed to be operating his business from Biratnagar this time. Last year too Ansari had operated from Biratnagar with the 2020 IPL held in the UAE due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ansari is believed to have invested his money acquired from illegal sports betting into offshore businesses. His team now comprises of youngsters who help him connect with new betters and to spread his loan-sharking nexus.

Absconding after police crackdown on bookies last year, Ansari has since been running an underground betting business and has even mobilized some cricketers in Biratnagar. According to a source, Ansari has expanded his betting business by including cricketers who could not make it to the Nepali national team.

To whiten his black money, Ansari has sent his two brothers and their families abroad in pretense of doing business. Lately, according to sources, he has been operating various businesses in Biratnagar. For instance, he has appointed one Majahid Ansari as the manager of New Baba Service Center and Showroom at Ghoghapul Chowk in Biratnagar from where he operates an illegal betting office. About half-a-dozen people are employed at the showroom whose main job is to raise money from betters.

Ansari has four business partners. He and his partners had absconded after the incident of their holding a young man hostage for two days for betting on an IPL match in Biratnagar became public last year. The young man had apparently failed to pay up the money he had lost in betting.

It was also revealed last year that one Ronaldo Kandel—also known as Ronaldo of Biratnagar-11—had signed a check for Rs 800,000 by holding hostage and mentally torturing Pintu ‘Bachha’ Agrawal, also known as Pintu of Biratnagar.

Meanwhile, Morang Police Chief SP Santosh Khadka says the police are vigilant about betting rackets in Biratnagar. Khadka informs that the police has increased surveillance on suspected people and will step in to control betting rackets.

Nepal’s Gambling Act 1963 defines gambling as ‘any game of chance which is played upon laying a wager for gaining or losing money.’ It mandates a maximum penalty of Rs 200 for first-time offenders, and one to three months imprisonment for repeat offenders.

Kathmandu is abuzz with rumors of a lockdown. Most have heard “through the grapevine” that Covid-19 cases are surging and a lockdown is imminent. But Kathmanduites seem to be in no mood to stay at home. Not again.

Siddhi Ratna Bajracharya, 45, who owns a jewelry shop in Pulchowk, Lalitpur, says normal life has barely resumed and the economy is still struggling. A lockdown now will take us, quite literally, to the depths of despair.

“Many of us are just regaining our sense of self. We are slowly recovering from the physical, mental, emotional, and financial trauma we suffered during the lockdowns last year. Another one will kill our spirits. That’s worse than what Covid-19 may do to us,” he says.

Bajracharya contracted the novel coronavirus in the latter half of 2020. His symptoms were mild and his family members weren’t infected. He considers himself lucky that way. But the stress of having to stay at home while his business suffered huge losses every day and his savings dwindled took a big toll on his mental health.

“It was more difficult to get over that than it was to recover from Covid-19,” he says.

Indeed, every person ApEx spoke to seemed to think that being cooped up at home was worse than suffering from Covid-19. There’s definitely a general sense of unease but there’s hardly any fear. Most people have had enough. They just want to go about their days as they did before the pandemic and let destiny take its course.

Balvadra Subedi, 52, owner of Subedi Store at Babarmahal, Kathmandu, says a lockdown isn’t the solution anymore. The lockdowns in 2020 didn’t accomplish what they were supposed to primarily because Nepal went into a lockdown when there were hardly any cases of Covid-19 and came out of it as cases were beginning to show.

The government, Subedi says, should now focus on minimizing crowds and speed up the vaccination drive. Meanwhile, sealing the borders and controlling inter-district movement could help.

“Last year, a lot of people suffered from Covid-19. But many also suffered because of hunger. Nepal shouldn’t make the mistake of being apathetic towards its poorest citizens again,” he says.

Cause for concern

The consensus was that lockdown is a luxury of the rich. It’s Dashain come early for those with palatial homes and sizeable bank balances. But for those who depend on daily earnings to feed their families or are confined in small spaces, it’s a harrowing and humiliating ordeal.

Kumari Tamang, 37, a daily wage earner who has been working and living in Kathmandu for over two decades, says another lockdown will mean packing her meager belongings to go live in the village.

Tamang cleans and cooks for a family in the morning and evening and runs a tiny store during the afternoon. She is the sole earner in her family of four and is barely able to make ends meet after paying her children’s school fees.

“I couldn’t go to school so I will do whatever it takes to make sure my son and daughter get a good education. That’s always been the priority,” says Tamang. Unfortunately, that means she will be unable to pay rent and buy food if there’s another lockdown and her work is affected.

Similar to hers is 39-year-old Prabina Shrestha’s story. She says when you have rent, bills, and daily expenses to manage, lockdown brings about a lot of instability and anxiety.

Shrestha, who runs a small grocery store in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, says she fears the disease but she’s worried about her daughter’s future even more.

Her daughter, she says, has already spent a year away from school, hampering not just her formal education but her learning abilities as well. Shrestha thinks a lockdown will make children, who already don’t particularly enjoy studying and going to school, even more unruly and complacent.

“Children need a sense of routine and discipline. This kind of on-and-off lockdown and uncertainty are harmful for their growth,” she says.

ApEx spoke to some students who expressed their concerns over the necessity and impact of a lockdown. A lockdown, they believe, won’t be effective in stopping the virus from spreading. What it will do instead is instill unnecessary fear and drain our energies as well as resources.

“The government needs to learn from its past mistakes and find other measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It shouldn’t implement a futile control method just to show it’s doing something,” says Sejal Sainju, 19, a student at St Xavier’s College.

Her friend Rahul Shrestha, 19, who studies in Kathmandu Model College, says online education is still a new concept and thus it’s not as effective as classroom learning. You tend to be distracted as well as procrastinate a lot when you study/work from home, he adds.

Shifting the focus

All the people ApEx spoke to said there are no upsides of a lockdown, only disadvantages and harmful consequences. Not even one spoke in its favor.

The problem is that currently most Nepalis aren’t following basic safety measures. Those in the government have also allowed mass gatherings and rallies when it has suited them. The collective opinion is that you can’t run amok like the pandemic never happened and then shut yourself at home when things get out of hand—which essentially seems to be the government’s approach. A lockdown only makes sense when you have exercised all other precautionary methods and nothing has worked.

Bhairabi Ghimire, 31, executive at Chaudhary Group, says limiting movement from one district to another and imposing stricter rules around border areas could be an efficient way to curtail infection. A partial lockdown—closing of public places and restricting movement during certain hours—could work if implemented early on.

“The government should give priority to building proper quarantine and isolation facilities and equip hospitals to better handle Covid-19 cases. The focus needs to shift to minimizing infection and ensuring recovery,” she says.

Ghimire’s statement was met with approval when people were asked if they thought that could be a sensible, more humane way of dealing with the pandemic. 

Hari Shrestha, 43, businessman, says government efforts have been directed largely at stopping the spread. But in a pandemic caused by an air-borne virus, it’s perhaps only a matter of time before the majority of the population contracts it in some form. How to deal with the infection isn’t an area the government has looked into but it’s high time it did, he adds.

Speaking at Nepal Health Conclave on April 6, Minister for Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi said Nepal government would take necessary measures to avoid another lockdown.

He added that daily cases of Covid-19 could peak around June this year, if proper measures aren’t taken. The government has begun antigen testing at border entry points as coronavirus cases are increasing in India. Tripathi also urged people to be vigilant and exercise caution to reduce risk of infection.

His statements, however, did nothing to pacify people who called it routine and redundant. What’s worse is that people no longer take the government seriously because it’s notorious for saying something and doing the exact opposite. Hari Shrestha says he wasn’t surprised. He expected the government to tell people that the onus lies on them and do the bare minimum themselves.

“The government can’t afford to be lackadaisical in its efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus if it is honest about avoiding a lockdown,” he concludes.  

All children, regardless of race or nationality, when given equal opportunity and a conducive environment, learn fast and enjoy learning—especially when the lessons are practical and include audio and visual stimuli. By emphasizing the practicality of a lesson, the children can see the relevance of the teachings to real life and embrace what they learn.

The most fundamental teachers to each and every child are their parents, or for those who have lost their parents, their caregivers or guardians. In other words, the grownups they are being brought up by are their first direct teachers. In this regard, parents are at the core of a child’s psychological, behavioral, spiritual, mental, and physical growth. As such, they are the perfect guides to introduce the children to meditation practice. They are in a good position to practice together with their children, providing them with a platform to quickly learn this Buddhist art of living.

The environment in which children are brought up also plays a major role in their spiritual and physical growth. Regardless of whether we are speaking of adults or children, we have similar patterns of likes and dislikes, and wholesome and unwholesome mental states, which include anxiety, happiness, sadness, anger, and restlessness. And it is very important to show children that everyone experiences these emotions and that meditation can help us control them.

When children start with a meditation practice, the sessions should not be too long so that the children can enjoy the sessions, and the teachings discussed during the lessons should equate to the level of the child so they can comprehend the topic being introduced.

Encouraging the children to relate their own experiences to the teachings will help keep them interested in the mindfulness exercises, while emphasizing that they can be open and share their experiences and feelings during the meditative period. On the same note, the teachers must also give examples of their own experiences when they are teaching meditation to children, and let them know what the outcomes and results are of a positive and successful meditation practice.

At the start, rewards can be given to motivate the children and to make sure a habit is developed, at which time the meditation becomes part and parcel of their everyday lives.

We all need assistance, and it is very important to guide the children in every aspect of their meditation practice. The one giving guidance should explain all the steps that are required to achieve the goals and objectives of meditation to the children. It is important to ensure that they understand the lotus position and all other postures used during meditation. Children should be taught that, once the meditative postures are learned, the most fundamental aspect of mediation is breathing, which is an exercise practiced by each and every living organism.

If children leave a meditation session feeling inspired and able to see the relevance of what they practiced for their daily lives, then the session has been taught well. Some teachers make a huge effort to inspire their pupils by coming up with inventive ways of teaching and using real-life examples to show how meditation practice is a part of everyday life. Children often don’t realize the range of available meditation practice methods and have narrow views about what being a meditator means. In many cases, children only picture somebody using mediation to work toward religious goals and achievements, so it is important to show the children that meditation is also relevant to them.

Parents and teachers should explain that scientific research has revealed that there are many health benefits when we practices meditation in the right way. Some of these benefits are—but not limited to—lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, and reduced risks of heart disease and stroke. Relief from stress, depression, insomnia, sleeplessness, anxiety, worry, and increased productivity in learning are also common benefits.

Starting a meditation practice at an early age prepares children both mentally and physically for growing up. It teaches them to be become better beings and enables them to develop good personal qualities rooted in their meditation practice, allowing them to forge a good path ahead. Mediation teaches qualities such as compassion, loving-kindness, endurance, tolerance, patience, and clarity, as well as inner peace and being in harmony with the nature and with everyone else. 

Most children and teenagers here in Africa love the supernatural—as do most adults. It has become such an important part of our everyday lives that most people cannot imagine not believing in what they see in movies, for example. Younger children especially like supernatural figures such as super heroes. Something changes in their imagination as they grow up and teachers start to introduce more complex concepts and employ more theory than practice in their lessons. This also happens when teachers move away from “fun” experiments, for instance in science class, to teaching theory—something that, at first glance, seems less relevant to the real world.

Some might argue that children are not interested in meditation, but I don’t think this is true at all. They might not enjoy meditation lessons at a temple, but that is something very different.

In workshops, meditation should be an interactive performance. Children should be left to create their own interactive processes covering the meditation they have just been hearing about. The language used in this interactive process must take the language the children grew up with into account; they not only need to understand the language but also to be able to share what they have learned. So, in some instances, it is a good idea to include a lot of humor in the lessons. When the children respond to humor, it is a good sign that they are engaged and understand what is being discussed. It is also impressive by how enthusiastically children embrace the tasks set for them when learning new things.

African children like songs, dancing, and playing, and it is of the utmost importance to include some singing and dancing in practice sessions to make the meditation practice lively and enjoyable. This can include organizing tours to meet and interact with friends in a similar practice, or visiting game reserves, lakes, and mountains—which are ideal places for an inspiring meditation practice.

Ben Xing (the Dharma name of Simon Manase Masauko) grew up in Malawi and underwent a three-year monastic training course at the African Buddhist College in South Africa. He was a volunteer at the Amitofo Care Center in Malawi.

Buddhist door global

More than 10 million people die each year from air pollution, according to a new study—far more than the estimated 2.6 million people who have died from Covid-19 since it was detected more than a year ago. And while Covid is headline news, ordinary air pollution remains a side issue for policy wonks and technocrats.

You might wonder whether the estimate of 10.2 million excess deaths from pollution is accurate. The study, which specifically examines global mortality from particulate matter generated by the combustion of fossil fuels, does deploy some complex measurement techniques. Still, if you believe that smoking is bad for people and sometimes kills them—a well-established fact—it stands to reason that air pollution is also bad.

I have been a frequent visitor to China and India over the years, and it was not unusual for the air pollution to be so terrible that I wanted to stay in my hotel room all day. As a relatively well-to-do visitor, I had this luxury — but many of the city’s residents do not. When they go outside, the air damages their respiratory and circulatory systems, shortening their lives.

The 10.2 million estimate draws upon 2012 data, and since 2012 China has cut its emissions considerably. Yet many other countries have seen more economic growth and more pollution over that time, so the inaccuracies from the limited data can cut in both directions.

If you are still skeptical, note that earlier World Health Organization estimates for annual deaths from air pollution typically range between 6 million and 7 million. To repeat: That is per year.

Why aren’t these deaths a bigger issue in U.S. political and policy discourse? One reason may be that 62 percent of those deaths are in China and India. The number of premature deaths due to particulate matter in North America was 483,000, just slightly lower than the number of measured deaths from Covid to date. An estimated 876 of those deaths were of children under the age of four.

Another reason for the weak political salience of the issue may be its invisibility. Air pollution causes many deaths. But it is rare to see or read about a person dying directly from air pollution. Lung cancer and cardiac disease are frequently cited as causes of death, even though they may stem from air pollution.

Another problem is that the question of how to better fight air pollution does not fit neatly into current ideological battles. You might think Democrats would emphasize this issue, but much of the economic burden of tougher action would fall on the Northeast, a largely Democratic-leaning area.

Or you might ask why there isn’t more focus on how many people die each year from global warming, either directly or indirectly. It is difficult to find an accurate estimate of that number, although it is almost certainly nowhere close to 10 million.

Talking more about air pollution also might distract from the larger fight against climate change, which seems to be a more salient issue for many intellectuals and activists. They may also think, perhaps correctly, that if they succeed in limiting climate change, air pollution will significantly decrease.

Still, the truth-teller in me is not quite happy with those explanations. If something is killing 10 million people a year, or even close to that, that phenomenon should be the main focus of debate. Is it so unreasonable to expect a nation’s politics and culture to have an explicit obsession with its biggest problems?

As for policy implications, this does raise the global social return to the U.S. search for greener energy sources. It also suggests a policy role for easing international licensing agreements for new energy and biomedical technologies. There are less costly but innovative responses: Since 2008, for example, the U.S. Embassy in China has been tweeting regular updates about Beijing’s air quality, making the Chinese public much more aware of the issue and leading to change in China and elsewhere.

The broader lesson is clear. Once you start taking air pollution seriously, the whole world starts to look different.