Our Mountain Travel office was located in the grounds of Gen Shamrajya Rana’s splendid but crumbling palace in Naxal. The walled garden bustled with activity, bright tents and sleeping bags spread on the grass to dry in the Himalayan sun. Prayer flags fluttered from the eaves, and inside the rooms were high-ceilinged and airy, icy in winter.&nbsp; This was the domain of Al Read, Managing Director of Mountain Travel from 1973 to 1984. With craggy good looks, bearded and burly, (he later became affectionately known at the Great Yak of Moose Wyoming), Al brimmed with a contained energy and the calm confidence of a crisis manager. The consummate mountain man, Al brought to Mountain Travel a background of first ascents, ski instructor roles and mountain guide qualifications.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240205100220_79d25a6da890e3aa36e60eaeb28544f746b1a192560941446763c54e962403c8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240205100220_79d25a6da890e3aa36e60eaeb28544f746b1a192560941446763c54e962403c8" data-rendition-name="original" width="300" height="471" loading="lazy" alt="Al Read"> <figcaption>William Albert Read 19 Nov 1936 – 15 Jan 2024</figcaption> </figure>  Perched on a hard chair in his imposing office, I felt like he would rather be striding towards a Himalayan peak with rope coiled over his shoulder or navigating a white water rapid in one of Nepal’s lesser-known rivers. A typical visit from my own office in Darbar Marg might mean running into hairy trek leaders, celebrity climbers, record-holding speed-skiers, record-seeking balloonists, world-class kayakers, high altitude medics or National Geographic filmmakers.&nbsp; Or Al might be briefing one of the superstars who flocked to Nepal’s trekking trails in those days: Robert Redford, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, John J Kennedy Jr., Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Bruce Chatwin and of course King Charles III on the 1980 Royal Trek with Prince Dhirendra. Al spent three years at the American Embassy Kathmandu following a posting in Calcutta before he was persuaded to take over the management of Nepal’s first trekking company which had just joined forces with Tiger Tops.&nbsp; He arrived wreathed in rumour of CIA connections at a time when all foreign residents were routinely alleged to have spook associations. Although in his case, history has revealed them to be true. It must have been a courageous decision to leave the security of State Department life to run Mountain Travel for its pioneering but quixotic owners Col Jimmy Roberts and AV Jim Edwards.&nbsp; But Al was never short of courage. His established mountain integrity, people skills, solid safety protocols and entrenched US networks strengthened and expanded Mountain Travel at a period when 40% of all clients came from North America and only a handful of trek companies were registered in Nepal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240205100224_985a9a0a41e1d6db87ee1e2800988ba0d4742c1375c18af92ebbac84c307f6c5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240205100224_985a9a0a41e1d6db87ee1e2800988ba0d4742c1375c18af92ebbac84c307f6c5" data-rendition-name="original" width="3300" height="2178" loading="lazy" alt="Al Read"> <figcaption>A typical Mountain Travel trek group in the 1970s below Machapuchre. At its height, up to 300 trekkers in small groups were supported at any time throughout Nepal.</figcaption> </figure>  With his flair for logistics, Al led the Mountain Travel team of Col Jimmy’s highly trained Khumbu Sherpas and skilled Nepali office staff to organise expedition support for climbers such as Chris Bonington and Reinhold Messner, and to deliver fully equipped treks throughout Nepal for as many as 300 trekkers at any one time. Al’s sporty dark-haired wife Jennifer would lead treks and host Mountain Travel groups in their historic Dhobighat home with its mud floors and wonderfully overgrown garden. With Jennifer, I trekked the Annapurna circuit in the days before roads penetrated the high valleys.&nbsp; Crossing Thorong La, we were horrified to encounter a frozen body emerging from a snowdrift, probably a porter tragically lost in a previous winter storm. &nbsp; Al and Jennifer’s daughter was born December 1974 in Kathmandu and named Kristen Annapurna. Today Kristen writes: ‘I have such fond memories growing up … it really was such an extraordinary place and time in the history of early tourism and travel in Nepal… I loved popcorn and hot lemon in Tiger Tops lodge after riding elephants.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240207040212_eddbb49d483ef33af3d5a0c24cf1a9790e9c7c39b51c22405067802f52e8c5d1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240207040212_eddbb49d483ef33af3d5a0c24cf1a9790e9c7c39b51c22405067802f52e8c5d1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1282" height="1758" loading="lazy" alt="AL Read"> <figcaption>Al and Jennifer Read setting out on safari with baby Kristen Annapurna at Tiger Tops, Mountain Travel’s sister company, in Chitwan 1975.</figcaption> </figure>  Every off-season during the Nepal monsoon the Read family disappeared to run the Exum Guide Service in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park where Al had guided since 1959, rubbing shoulders with America’s mountaineering elite.&nbsp; With friends, he eventually purchased the Exum concession and as president employed some of the most accomplished mountaineers, building it into a renowned and highly respected guide service.&nbsp; As a child Al had accompanied his father, a respected paleo-botanist and geologist, on horseback to the Navajo Nation Reservation of northern New Mexico. Brought up in Colorado, his enduring love of mountains bloomed in Denver whilst at the University of Colorado in Boulder. A master’s degree at Georgetown in international relations was followed by a stint with the Peace Corps in Puerto Rico, Colombia and Nicaragua. Al Read’s US climbing record included the first ascent of the East Buttress of Denali in Alaska and many Teton summits in Wyoming. As new peaks became permitted in Nepal and later Tibet, Al relished this period of Himalayan exploration.&nbsp; As deputy expedition leader, he survived the ill-fated 1969 attempt on the challenging South East Ridge of Dhaulagiri in which five Americans and two Sherpas were killed by an avalanche on the upper slopes.&nbsp; The collapse of the wall sent a thunder of tumbling death into half the American Dhaulagiri Expedition, crushing and burying…’ wrote Al, who had earlier collapsed unconscious with advanced pulmonary edema. Jim Morrissey his friend the team doctor carried him to lower elevations, thereby saving both their lives.&nbsp; Al’s Nepal ‘adventure-life’ as he called it, involved not only arranging logistics for Mountain Travel client, but as base camp manager he personally coordinated Dhaulagiri in 1973, Gauri Shankar in 1979 and the first ascent of Cholatse by the southwest ridge in 1982. He led some of the first treks to Tibet, and managed expeditions to Minya Konka in Sichuan in 1980 and on the north ridge of Everest in 1986.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240205100224_5474d00d95de0d018a12d19c493d1d855a0cbd771fdf65e46af2c91326fb6c4f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240205100224_5474d00d95de0d018a12d19c493d1d855a0cbd771fdf65e46af2c91326fb6c4f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1442" height="1107" loading="lazy" alt="Al Read"> <figcaption>The Mountain Travel team: Back row: Maj Tej Lama, Col Jimmy Roberts, Antonia Deacock, Al Read Front row: Warwick Deacock of Ausventure, Pertemba Sherpa, Ang Phu Sherpa and Lhakpa Tshering Sherpa.</figcaption> </figure>  One of Al’s most enduring achievements was the exploration and establishment of river running in Nepal, a Colorado-perfected sport that was little known outside North America at that time. I remember him vanishing for weekend jaunts to investigate rivers in newly-imported rubber rafts with other thrill-seeking expats that included Johan Reinhard, Skip Horner, Gabriel Campbell and Ed McCarthy.&nbsp; Close shaves included the first upset in ‘Upset’ rapid on the Trisuli and flipping in a waterfall on the Sun Kosi during a monsoon run. In November 1975, Al led the first descent of the Trisuli River from Trisuli Bazar to the Indian border, stopping over at Tiger Tops Chitwan. &nbsp; Himalayan River Exploration (HRE) was the first river company in Nepal, set up as part of the Tiger Tops Mountain Travel group by Jim Edwards with help from Col John Blashford Snell. Al invited Mike Yager, an experienced rafting guide from Jackson Hole, to set the safety standards and train the eager local ‘river rats’.&nbsp; Anthropologist Johan Reinhard writes: ‘Few people are aware that Al Read and Mike Yager are the fathers of commercial rafting in Nepal.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240205100224_27d062133c3742ea9ca05842c59e69e45cda7a22c399d14744e6115f8bc76551.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240205100224_27d062133c3742ea9ca05842c59e69e45cda7a22c399d14744e6115f8bc76551" data-rendition-name="original" width="792" height="510" loading="lazy" alt="Al Read"> <figcaption>Al Read explored the rivers of Nepal during weekend jaunts, leading to the establishment of the river running industry. Photo: Johan Reinhard</figcaption> </figure>  In 1982, Al helped to establish InnerAsia, a San Francisco-based adventure travel company known today as Geographic Expeditions or GeoEx. He battled to preserve the sanctity of the Mountain Travel Nepal name, negotiating an out of court settlement with Mountain Travel USA which is still operating at MT Sobek.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240207040212_fb9bbb132caf5f5b499ee30c304cf6fed4c92ff728d6c5f676aca33c49d0efd1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240207040212_fb9bbb132caf5f5b499ee30c304cf6fed4c92ff728d6c5f676aca33c49d0efd1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1940" height="1381" loading="lazy" alt="Al Read"> <figcaption>Al Read (right) with Col Jimmy Roberts and Elizabeth Hawley late 1970s at the bar in Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Soon after, in 1984 the Reads left Nepal for California and Wyoming. Although we kept in touch, I seldom saw Al and his second wife Susan after that. With my small sons we visited them in the Tetons one summer and enjoyed a consulting mission together on a tourism strategy for Kyrgyzstan. We galloped along the shores of Issykul Lake and tracked snow leopards in the wilds of the Tien Shan range. When I heard the news of Al’s death last month in San Francisco, my thoughts went to the day in November 1976 when I crashed on landing at Meghauli airstrip in a Royal Nepal Airlines Twin Otter.&nbsp; He had asked me to escort Himalayan-hero Eric Shipton from Pokhara but the plane was wrecked, mercifully with no fatalities, so we never reached. Rescued back to Kathmandu that afternoon, I walked straight through the crowds at the airport arriving shaken and weak-kneed to report to Al Read in his huge office – shock was setting in. &nbsp; Rising from his desk, he handed me a hot drink and hugged me: “I was told you were dead!” The rumour mill had been buzzing. “But you know what they say.’ grinned Al. ‘Any landing that you walk away from is a good one!” This incident seemed to exemplify everything about Al’s endearing reliability, his humour and humanity. He lived a full and vibrant life in pursuit of adventure, calculating risks, forging friendships, and contributing at a crucial period to establish Nepal as a leading and responsible mountain tourism destination.&nbsp;

Lisa Choegyal

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Mountain man Al Read, 87

112 dead, 65 missing in Nepal floods

Ayan Dallakoti spent his childhood in Japan, speaking Japanese and for all intents and purposes, considered himself Japanese. It was only as he grew older that he realised he was actually from Nepal. &nbsp; Ayan was eight years old when his mother Pratibha brought him and his younger brother Avan back to Nepal. Their father Anjay, who is still in Japan, had decided to send the boys home so they could “become Nepali”. Ayan was somewhat familiar with the Nepali language and the country, but in Kathmandu, everything felt foreign, including the education system. “Things were a little easier when he had a classmate who had also returned from Japan, but making Nepali friends did not come easily for them,” remembers Pratibha.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040928_c4a683bc4723ce1f5b5683d41add972c915ea6b6fc229a44b713c707381d8787.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240922040928_c4a683bc4723ce1f5b5683d41add972c915ea6b6fc229a44b713c707381d8787" data-rendition-name="original" width="5856" height="3904" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT 3"> <figcaption>All photos: GOPEN RAI</figcaption> </figure>  Japan is now a major destination for Nepali families like the Dallakotis. Officially, there are 180,000 Nepalis in Japan and 35,000 more left just in the past year – a 30% increase from the year before that.&nbsp; Japanese embassy figures show that of those who left last year, 23,124 were on student visas, 8,566 were on working visas and 7,849 were dependents. While most of the older generation of Nepalis in Japan are cooks who went as ‘skilled labour’, the new crop of migrants are mostly on student visas, working part-time. For the Japanese government, a student visa is a carefully calibrated temporary migration system to fill the country’s labour shortage in the service sector. Unlike the Gulf, Korea, Malaysia and other countries, Nepalis in Japan can also take along their families. Which is why Nepali schools have sprung up in large cities in Japan. These schools teach Nepali language, culture, and also English. But for families who work far away from those cities, the children have no option but to get a Japanese education.&nbsp; Anjay Dallakoti initially went to Japan as a student, but extended his stay with a working visa. Pratibha joined him a few years later as a dependent. Ayan was born in Japan, and six years later Avan. After 12 years, Pratibha is back in Nepal with both her boys.&nbsp; In many Nepali families in Japan, it is the children who are having to adjust to being caught in between two worlds. Many have to cope with the double adjustment of first arriving in Japan, and then returning to school in Nepal. According to Masako Tanaka, a professor at Tokyo’s Sophia University, nearly 20,000 Nepalis in Japan are minors. Tanaka has been working closely with Nepali migrants in Japan, and says many mothers are bringing their children back to Nepal because of worries that they are losing touch with their identity and culture back home. The other reason is that the children are not learning enough English, and the parents fear they will lose out in later life. &nbsp; “Returning to Nepal and studying in schools here helps create an environment for the children to either stay and work in Nepal in future or go to a third country,” says Sapana Kharel, who also returned to Nepal with her two children. For Nepali families who have not yet got permanent resident status, staying on in Japan and continuing their children’s education is too uncertain. They worry that this could interrupt their children’s education if they have to leave Japan midway through school.&nbsp; “There is fear that the children will neither have a place in Nepali schools nor there in Japan,” adds Kharel. Others say that they would have returned to Nepal for the sake of the children no matter what, even if they got permanent residence in Japan. Indeed, there are Nepali mothers who are already permanent residents who have opted to return with their children.&nbsp; Take the Subedi family who have permanent resident status in Japan, but brought their daughter Shibika to Nepal after she completed Grade 1 in Japan.&nbsp; Many migrant children like Shibika had to repeat grades they had already studied in Japan. She had to repeat Grade 1, and is now in Grade 9. Her mother Nitu Bista Subedi feels that repeating a year was necessary to strengthen her daughter’s foundation in the Nepali curriculum.&nbsp; “Shibika has fond memories of Japan and misses being together with the whole family there, and she worries that her Japanese classmates are getting ahead of her,” says Subedi. Ten-year-old Ahana Odari had her own struggles when she was brought to Nepal by her mother a year ago. She too had to repeat Grade 3. “She just wouldn’t speak for the first few months because of the language problem,” remembers her mother, Balika Odari. “Ahana took a whole year to adapt and adjust to Nepal and its ways. But this was necessary.”&nbsp; Like a lot of parents, Balika feels that although Japan’s education system is one of the best in the world, children there are more reclusive and do not socialise as much. “We were worried our children would turn out the same way, and that is why we decided to bring them back and introduce them to their country and culture,” she explains. In more extreme cases, migration can hinder the psychosocial development of returning children. &nbsp; “Early-age children are good at learning dual or multiple languages, but because of the limited vocabulary they are exposed to, they might not always have words to express how they are feeling. And that is where the problem lies,” says Srijana Adhikari, a clinical psychologist at Happy Minds.&nbsp; “For healthy development, the environment the child grows up in and the needs to be stable,” she adds. “If not, this may lead to problems adjusting, separation anxiety and struggles in building relationships.” Sneha Khatri, now 14, oscillated between Nepal and Japan over the years. She was born in Japan but was brought to Nepal when she was six. She studied here until Grade 3 and then went to the Nepali-run Everest International School in Tokyo.&nbsp; Sneha came back to Nepal a month ago to appear for her Basic Level Examination (BLE) but is worried about her results. She is taking extra tutorials in mathematics.&nbsp; Ayan is now in Grade 7, and is also worried about his BLE next year. He says in Japanese-accented English: “Social Studies is my first hardest subject, and Nepali is the second hardest.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040932_3ddaf6b56253baac855f2b4de4f9a646b1c80a677cc8e9d73d469a3c37496ea7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240922040932_3ddaf6b56253baac855f2b4de4f9a646b1c80a677cc8e9d73d469a3c37496ea7" data-rendition-name="original" width="5477" height="3651" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT 4"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040932_3b59646b4c1f30831b039caf8c5e9018fb0ce23349dacebfa0cbee024b4bd885.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240922040932_3b59646b4c1f30831b039caf8c5e9018fb0ce23349dacebfa0cbee024b4bd885" data-rendition-name="original" width="5928" height="3808" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT 5"> </figure>  Speaking Nepali with family and friends is not hard for the returnee migrant children, but Nepali as an academic subject is difficult.&nbsp; Professor Tanaka says migrant children have fallen through the cracks between Japan and Nepal. She asks rhetorically, “Who will think about the welfare of the migrant children? Who is responsible for them?”&nbsp; Tanaka was in Kathmandu recently for a workshop on Nepali language education for migrant children during which she presented research findings of her Migrant Children Language Education project. Tanaka’s conclusion is that mother tongue Nepali language education is the best way to help the reintegration of children returning from Japan. “The government can start by developing Nepali language learning resources for online or home learners abroad, training teachers abroad, and organising and encouraging events for Nepali children overseas,” Tanaka told Nepali Times.&nbsp; “Nepal can learn from countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil which are working on national language education for their migrant children in Japan.” To be sure, there are also students who are doing well despite the culture shock of moving back and forth between Japan and Nepal.&nbsp; Sapana Kharel’s daughter, Saurya was born in Japan. She came to Nepal when she was six to study in Nepal. Soon after, she went to Japan. She came back when she was 12 to appear for the Nepali BLE. She initially struggled and had low confidence, but soon overcame it and did well. “Now, I’ve realised the importance of learning my mother tongue and have taken up Nepali classes as part of my course,” says Saurya, now 17, in flawless Nepali. But for other migrant children whose parents do not speak enough Nepali when they were in Japan, mastering the mother tongue is still a big hurdle.&nbsp; Ayan’s mother looks at her two children playing at her home in Kirtipur, and says, “The sacrifice we made as a couple, living far from one another, is for our children, their education and for a better future.”&nbsp; <h2>Nepali in Nippon</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240922040928_bb476f3818df3d28240779b520cb93b2aee216f9a1023e0bbe0fccd3abbcd6f6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240922040928_bb476f3818df3d28240779b520cb93b2aee216f9a1023e0bbe0fccd3abbcd6f6" data-rendition-name="original" width="6000" height="4000" loading="lazy" alt="Japan-born Nepali children NT "> </figure>  In June, when the SEE (Secondary Education Examination) results came out, one of the students who passed was a Zambian national student from Japan. He was studying at the Everest International School Japan (EISJ) in Tokyo which follows the Nepali curriculum, and accommodates the need of families in Nepal and other countries in Japan to also learn English. Initially started in 2013 by the Nepali community, this school came under Nepal’s Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2015. EISJ is the only school in Japan that is certified to take Nepal’s SEE in Japan.&nbsp; Other schools that follow the Nepali curriculum have also opened up, over the years. But only two of them, Tokai Batika International School in Nagoya and Himalayan International Academy in Tokyo are certified to conduct Nepali curriculum as per Nepal’s Ministry of Education. But both provide education only below Grade 10.&nbsp; “As of now, the only country to have schools that follow Nepali curriculum is Japan,” says Parshuram Tiwari, director at the Education Review Office at the MoE in Kathmandu. The majority of Nepali families and a few non-Nepali families working in Japan decide to send their children to schools like EISJ because of the English medium. But these are private international schools, unlike the Japanese government schools which are free of cost. And because these schools are not certified, the Japanese government provides no subsidy, no transportation discount among other privileges to these schools, says Professor Masako Tanaka at Sophia University in Tokyo. &nbsp;“Most importantly, graduates of EISJ cannot get visa status independently even after graduation from high school level, while the migrant students who graduate from Japanese schools are eligible.” Many Nepali families enrol their children to such schools without knowing this, adds Tanka. But even those who know about drawbacks want to provide their children with the opportunity to get international exposure with English language skills. Nepali curriculum schools are mostly based in and around Tokyo, and many Nepali families who live in the suburbs of Japan opt to come to Nepal for their children’s education. (Adjoining article) “We lived in Niigata. It would take us six hours to travel to Everest International School in Tokyo. So, we came to Nepal to give our children English medium education,” says Pratibha Dallakoti, who returned from Japan with her two sons in 2020. While schools that follow the Nepali curriculum in Japan have been a relief for Nepali parents who want their children to pursue Nepali curriculum education, these schools getting certified by the Japanese government would be better. “There are several other international schools in Japan that are certified by both Japanese and foreign dual standards like the &nbsp;Kyoto Kokusai School,” wrote Professor Tanaka in an email interview. “It is for the better that these Nepali curriculum schools like EISJ become similar to KKS which makes it easier for the children as they can get a certificate from both the government. ”

Japan-born Nepali children struggle to ‘be Nepali’

This late monsoon storm was not a surprise. Weather forecasts had warned of heavy precipitation a week before, the Met Office predicted heavy rain on 27-28 September, SMS warned people to take precaution, radio stations issued bulletins, and night buses were banned in 56 districts.&nbsp; The tragedy was compounded because we knew what was coming, and did not do enough to prepare. The accurate weather forecast made no real difference on the ground. When it started raining on Thursday morning and did not stop till Saturday, there was no sense of the scale of this emergency. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/60-dead-64-missing-in-nepal-floods">More than 200 people lost their lives, dozens are still missing.</a> Thousands of homes were swept away, Nepal lost nearly half its electricity generation capacity because of damage to power plants, Kathmandu has been nearly cut off with bridges and sections of highways swept away. Yes, this was primarily a natural disaster. Kathmandu Valley and its surroundings got half the average annual precipitation in just 40 hours, the heaviest rainfall measured since records started being kept in 1972. But the high death toll was totally manmade.&nbsp; Three buses were buried by a mudslide in Dhading, killing at least 35 people. This was an eerie reminder of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/100-101-102-hh5uvzf9">Simaltal accident on 12 July </a>when two intercity buses were swept by a mudflow into the Trisuli River at night, killing 62. The buses have still not been found.&nbsp; In both cases, heavy rainfall on a poorly engineered local road up the mountains triggered the initial landslide that swept debris to the highway below. This was manslaughter, not an ‘accident’.&nbsp; We said it then, and we are saying it now: most mountain roads follow no reason or science. It is a corruption-fed activity in which local governments and their cronies plan roads ad hoc and rent their own bulldozers. Debris accumulated during construction is dumped over the edge, where monsoon rains wash them to settlements, farms and highways below. Last weekend’s disaster is a warning that accurate weather early warning is just the first step – it is not enough to prevent a huge loss of life. After the warnings, there should have been door-to-door miking along hazardous river banks urging people to move to higher ground, shelters should have been in place, rescue equipment and rafts pre-positioned, live monitoring of precipitation in the catchments. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) was just posting situationers on social media. The Home Ministry became a Ministry of Condolences and Empty Promises.&nbsp; This disaster is a reminder of the 1993 Central Nepal cloudburst that hit the Lothar Khola in Chitwan, the Kulekhani areas, and highways blocked highways marooning Kathmandu for weeks. More than 1,300 people were killed.&nbsp; The death toll in Kathmandu this time was compounded by the fact that the city has spread into the floodplains of the Vishnumati, Manohara and other tributaries of the Bagmati. Natural waterways have been hemmed in by streets. The rivers were just reclaiming what was theirs.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240930150944_1221b4fb442a21e8d2dbf1aeeca61b7a8d791c117d6a93401f15ba2a95d49a69.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240930150944_1221b4fb442a21e8d2dbf1aeeca61b7a8d791c117d6a93401f15ba2a95d49a69" data-rendition-name="original" width="1949" height="1299" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal floods"> <figcaption>Kathmandu Valley, especially its southern fringes looks like an epicentre of a major quake following the rains. Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption> </figure>  Urban pressure has also forced settlements to move up the Valley’s rim, below steep hillsides with topsoil already saturated in the late monsoon. The torrential downpours caused the slopes to fail. The damage to Upper Tamakosi and dozens of other hydropower plants also is a warning not to put all our eggs in one basket. The Sikkim disaster exactly this time last year was proof that these are at high risk from glacial lake floods and landslide dammed rivers suddenly bursting. More logical would be to build smaller, better designed, plants on many rivers. The Himalaya is also the youngest and most fragile mountain range on earth, Nepal has always had either too much or too little water, and climate breakdown is making this contrast more extreme. Combined, this means we in Nepal live in a multi-disaster prone country with seismic, hydrological and climate risks.&nbsp; After multiple floods in early 1990s, a Japanese grant helped set up the Disaster Prevention Technical Centre (DPTC) in Pulchowk, which was later renamed the Department of Water Induced Disaster Management. We have not heard much from them lately. With the government AWOL, it is ordinary Nepalis who have shown extraordinary courage in saving those being swept by flood water, rescuing babies on canoes (pictured), or digging for passengers trapped in buses buried by landslides. The Nepal Army and the Police rescued thousands, but there was an absence of coordination.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240930150944_cb55edb93eb3aad169b22bc4dec06b5478746fbe75417c628bf671ec698f7912.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240930150944_cb55edb93eb3aad169b22bc4dec06b5478746fbe75417c628bf671ec698f7912" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Nepal floods"> <figcaption>Photo: SOCIAL MEDIA</figcaption> </figure>  Now, the attention must focus on urgent relief and rehabilitation. But that might be a tall ask just before everything shuts down for Dasain, and when governance fails, lack of accountability and transparency is the norm even without holidays.&nbsp; Sonia Awale

When it rains it pours

In the middle of a rainstorm, surrounded by forests and temples, Jung Bahadur faces off against the fearsome masked Lakhe Aju in a boss scene in the new Nepali video game, Jange. Wild red hair thrashing about, eyes glowing, Lakhe Aju pursues Jung Bahadur, who is dressed in a red shirt, blue cape, and a bird of paradise shripech crown. Jung is trying to avoid taking damage, while getting some hits of his own on the mythical demon. The Lakhe hurls fireballs that have to be dodged.&nbsp; The larger story at play here is a fictional, extrapolated historical Nepal where the country is under attack by infected aliens. Jung Bahadur, on horseback, wields a sword against the invaders.&nbsp; This is digital artist Ashim Shakya’s newest video game project that uses interactive gaming visuals to bring alive Nepali history and culture. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240923140924_82e368d0acd6eb89202124df358ab76e582b6e61efe5cafe56d85c44ad96ad28.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240923140924_82e368d0acd6eb89202124df358ab76e582b6e61efe5cafe56d85c44ad96ad28" data-rendition-name="original" width="2250" height="2079" loading="lazy" alt="Ashim Shakya | Allare NT"> </figure>  It is a work in progress, and we find Shakya working solo in constructing the game, integrating his many interests and talents in digital art, 3D modelling, music, video, and game development. It has been six years since he started the Jange project, and he documents recent progress on his YouTube. When he prepares a new aspect of the game, like vehicles, earthquakes or the Lakhe fight scene, Shakya uploads the sequence. “As the protector of Kathmandu Valley, Lakhe Aju is patrolling the borders of his domain and tests Jange’s might to decide whether to bless or devour him,” Shakya explains.&nbsp; Even Jange is a detour from another more lengthy, complex project called Allare, which translates to ‘directionless bum’ or words to that effect.&nbsp; Shakya explains: “Allare is about a young man who gets into a lot of trouble in his village and moves to old Kathmandu, where he must dabble in crime and struggle in order to shape up.”&nbsp; Allare is set in Kathmandu Valley in the 1960s, and has period visual elements like vintage blue jeeps, rattly buses, bicycles, and dirtbikes. Characters in the game are clad in traditional wear, and will talk to the player in Nepali when approached.&nbsp; A drunk character named Twake occasionally spews slurs, threats and starts fights. Shakya experimentally leveraged his YouTube audience to voice the drunk character, and received many &nbsp;enthusiastic submissions.&nbsp; It is obvious from the gameplay that a lot of effort has gone into it, and this is even more striking because Shakya is working on it all by his lonely self.&nbsp; “It is easier for me to do all the parts myself, instead of explaining what I want to someone else,” says Shakya, who used to be better known as a Nepali pioneer in digital art.&nbsp; Shakya puts in 16-18 hour days, breaking only to eat or to stretch. "Coffee helps, and if I hit a creative block I switch attention to making music, or to do client work.”&nbsp; Shakya is self-taught in skills and software tools in his workflow. He uses Maya and Nomad Sculpt to make the 3D models, then Photoshop and Procreate for their textures, and Unreal Engine and Blueprints for programming and game logic. Shakya draws from his previous experience in game development, having published on Google Play Store for Android devices. One of them is titled Flight: The Valley, described as ‘an offline meditative flying adventure’ where a player can become a monk that turns into a raven in Kathmandu.&nbsp; Two other games, Didi and Urban Legends - Survival, are also exploratory 3D games that feature models of Nepali buildings and objects. Urban Legends, in particular, is available for free, has registered over 100,000 downloads and has earned a 4.0 star rating. &nbsp; Jange and Allare will be released first on PC and then perhaps adapted to console and &nbsp;mobile. Given Shakya’s artistic skill set, his ability to integrate them, the time and effort he has put in, and his approach to story and community engagement means aficionados here and abroad can soon play exciting games that also pay tribute to the legends of old Kathmandu. &nbsp;

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When it rains it pours

Turning legends into games