<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd3939c7e80680e08f975jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2076" height="1210"/><figcaption>A NASA satellite image showing Central Nepal's river valleys and how they act as funnels for pollution from the Indian plains to travel up to the mountains.</figcaption></figure>The Himalayan mountains act as a barrier separating the clean air of the Tibetan Plateau from the polluted Indo-Gangetic plains. But Nepal’s rivers cut through the mountains, and their valleys allow smog from the plains to penetrate deep into the mountains.This haze intrusion goes up to elevations of 4,000m, and the pollution layer is more shallow and flat in winter, and inclined and parallel to the ridgeline in the pre-monsoon. The depth of this pollution layer up the valleys also decreases with elevation.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd3969c7e80680e08f976jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="780" height="325"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>These visible air pollution images are captured regularly by the <a href="https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/">MODIS</a> (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument aboard the two NASA satellites Terra and Aqua orbiting the Earth. The dull bluish haze is mostly made up of fine aerosol particles and extends right across the Indo-Gangetic plains from Pakistan to Bangladesh, as well as the Tarai in Nepal.While human-generated emissions from agricultural burning, urban, rural and industrial emissions are mainly responsible for this region-wide pollution, weather conditions and the blocking effect of the Siwalik Range also affect its spread. More interestingly, if we zoom in on the images, we can see that the haze does not just stay in the plains, but flows up into the inner Himalaya along river valleys.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd3989c7e80680e08f977jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="780" height="381"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>These satellite images provide valuable insight for researchers looking into the geographical spread and long-range transport of aerosol particles. Scientists at <a href="https://duke.edu/">Duke University</a> in the United States have developed a novel technique to use the high-resolution satellite images from MODIS and elevation data from <a href="https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/mission.htm">SRTM</a> (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) to extract the daytime haze run-up that measure intrusion length and height over the Arun Valley in eastern Nepal.The Arun River starts in Tibet, snakes around Mt Everest to find a gap between Makalu and Kangchenjunga to tumble down Himalayan gorges to meet up with the Sun Kosi and Tamor— flowing out into the Tarai at Chhatra and then through the Kosi Barrage to meet the Ganges in India. This also opens up the entry gate for haze to flow from the Indo-Gangetic Plains into the inner Himalayas.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd39a9c7e80680e08f978jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="780" height="321"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In winter, the surface temperature in the plains plummets, and the air is dry. The southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau at upper levels is also battered by the sub-tropical jetstream, with weak westerly wind below it. The low surface temperature in the plains confines the pollution to a shallow <a href="https://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Atmospheric_boundary_layer">boundary layer</a> that is lower than the Siwalik Range. Up-valley winds along the river valleys then transport the haze into the Inner Himalaya.The river valley-plains temperature contrast produces a pressure gradient that drives this flow up the valley during the day and down the valley during the night. Besides, the topography, vegetation cover and groundwater level in the slopes can also contribute to warming of valley air which could further amplify the up-valley wind.In addition, the daytime up-slope and night-time down-slope winds developing in the river valleys also play and important role in ventilating the air pollution from the valley surface.Measurements of the nature and size of fine aerosols were conducted for the first time in the middle Himalayan region in the pre-monsoon. In general, the aerosol size distribution peaks around 100nm, which is usually the oldest, most processed background aerosol and about the size of the Covid-19 virus.Another smaller peak around 20 nm, is indicative of fresh but not necessarily local aerosols. The chemical composition of PM2.5 (particulate matter below 2.5 microns) is dominated by organic matter. Organic carbon (OC) comprises the major fraction (64–68%) of the aerosol concentration followed by ionic species (24–26%), Elemental Carbon (EC) compromises 7–10% of the total composition and 27% of OC is water soluble.Elemental Carbon and Organic Carbon together are aerosols contributed by burning of wood fuels, crop-residue, coal including vehicular emission and others. The light absorbing properties of elemental carbon play a crucial role in atmospheric warming and surface cooling due to their interaction with the daytime solar heating.Industrial and vehicular emissions, biomass burning, soil dust and others including chemical transformations in the atmosphere contribute to the ionic species in aerosols. These are readily water-soluble parts of the aerosol which along with organic particles aid in their growth in presence of moisture, contributing to increase in optical thickness of haze.The aerosol concentration also changes over the day. It increases in the morning (05:00-10:00) and in the evening (17:00-22:00). The lower values in the afternoon could be attributed partly to more mixing, and increase in the boundary layer height.During the night, the downslope winds lift the warm air mass in the valley, resulting in the decrease of the aerosol concentration near the surface. On the other hand, aerosol loading can also be eventually washed away by local rainfall during the pre-monsoon and winter.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd39c9c7e80680e08f979jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="780" height="300"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>While pollution haze is visible even in satellite images, its quantitative measurements can also be made by remote sensing. Haze and dust particles in the air block sunlight reaching the ground by absorbing and scattering it. This property of aerosols is used to estimate the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD).A long-term average of winter AOD from December-February over the last 20 years in the region shows that winter haze extends throughout the Indo-Gangetic plains, with relatively higher readings for the eastern regions of Bihar, West Bengal and Bangladesh, across Nepal’s southeastern border. The regional average winter AOD also shows an alarming increase in the past two decades due to increase in emissions from increased crop-residue burning, rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, etc.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd39e9c7e80680e08f97ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="780" height="481"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Aside from transboundary haze, this winter has also seen an increase in wildfires that have exacerbated the pollution in Nepal’s Inner Himalayan valleys. The Pathivara and Annapurna Conservation Area fires in December, followed by uncontrolled wildfires in Manang, Lamjung and Rasuwa in January were clearly visible in NASA satellite images.The very high pollution levels in Kathmandu Valley on 6-7 January was also aggravated by overcast skies which subdued the ventilation mechanism of the valley, but smoke from these wildfires also acted as contributors. Since the daily satellite data is in the public domain, they could be used along with global models by Nepal’s met office to nowcast air pollution episodes over the Himalaya.While local air pollution can be brought under control in the interest of protecting public health by the local governments with appropriate policy and regulation, it is trans-boundary pollution that cannot be easily addressed. It requires regional collaboration to adopt and implement policies to reduce sources of pollution like crop residue burning, vehicular and industrial emissions. The atmospheric initiative at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) could be one such mechanism.More immediately, there is an urgent need to set up permanent air quality monitoring stations along Nepal’s major river valley outlets to monitor trans-boundary air pollution and more research by universities in Nepal to improve our knowledge of local and regional pollution so that policy makers can make better decisions.Prabhakar Shrestha is a research scientist working at Bonn University, Germany.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111132/636cd3a19c7e80680e08f97bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="89" height="103">

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How transboundary haze affects Nepal

<figure><img width="1620" height="1028" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181140/636be6189c7e80680e087788jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>There are signs that after nine months of stoppage due to the pandemic, flights between Kathmandu and Indian cities are set to resume.The Cabinet last week approved a Ministry of Tourism proposal to allow all flights to all destinations as per the pre-pandemic schedules. The Ministry, for its part, has instructed the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to begin the process of restarting the flights.“The government has decided to allow all flights to resume, and we are now starting the necessary preparations to resume flights between India and Bangladesh initially,” Ministry of Tourism spokesperson Kamal Prasad Bhattarai told Nepali Times. The prospect for the resumption of flights is looking better after a thaw in relations between India and Nepal which had been strained by the border dispute over Lipu Lekh. There was a slew of high level visits by Indian officials in November, with the latest one last week by India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.In addition, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali is scheduled to visit New Delhi on 15 December for bilateral talks that are expected to bring Indo-Nepal relations to a more even keel. “It will look odd if Minister Gyawali flies from Kathmandu to New Delhi and back when there are no scheduled flights between the two cities,” said a senior executive at Nepal Airlines. Tens of thousands of Nepali businessmen, students, families and those seeking medical treatment have been stranded in India for months, as have Indians in Nepal.Commentators have pointed out the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-baffling-ban-on-india-flights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-baffling-ban-on-india-flights/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4YAORCYxMdNHo98G3ag2BiAoMDw">absurdity of the absence of flights</a> between the two countries when air connections from Kathmandu are almost back to normal to other overseas destinations, and both India and Nepal allow unlimited domestic flights. Besides, they say thousands of nationals of both countries are crossing the land border between the two countries even though travel at official checkpoints are still supposed to be restricted.  <figure><img width="1496" height="1038" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181140/636be61b9c7e80680e087789jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>In August, India had proposed a ‘travel bubble’ with Nepal as it has with 20 other countries, including Bangladesh and Bhutan. The arrangement has allowed Bhutan’s Druk Air, for example to restart flights Paro-New Delhi. However, there was no response from the Nepal government to the proposal. Observers blamed this on strained relations between the two countries, as well as India’s delay in granting more air routes in addition to the existing two entry points for flights descending into Kathmandu through Indian air space.  The Ministry of Tourism has also been pushing for reopening India flights because the state-owned carrier Nepal Airlines is in deep financial crisis due to under-utilisation of its Airbus fleet. There <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/flights-to-nepal-limited-by-airport-capacity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/flights-to-nepal-limited-by-airport-capacity/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF3chYwaXnaT1l80LstSw9e9qGFFw">used to be up to 60 flights a week</a> between Indian cities and Kathmandu, of which Nepal Airlines flew weekly 18. The losses for the airline have been particularly heavy because of the inability to fly the money-spinning Kathmandu-Delhi route. Flights to and from Kathmandu airport were stopped on 24 March when Nepal went into complete lockdown. Although some <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/repatriation-regular-flights-to-nepal-to-resume/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/repatriation-regular-flights-to-nepal-to-resume/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjOwfiNdFT7zTk3XrcD_KmL53Xhw">repatriation charter flights </a>were allowed, Nepal remained cut off from India. Even when the ban on regular flights was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unlimited-flights-to-nepal-from-17-october/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unlimited-flights-to-nepal-from-17-october/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHfFKKcRE5Tedvf3Cf23ChQ2QRutA">partially lifted on 1 October</a>, Indian and Nepali airlines were not allowed to operate to and from Indian cities to Kathmandu. Despite the optimism, some say that flights are not likely until 1 January, when India is set to allow all regular international flights to its cities. At present only repatriation flights and some 'air bubble' regular flights are allowed on international routes from Indian cities.  The Nepal government allowed foreigners, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/trekkers-welcome-in-nepal-but-conditions-apply/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/trekkers-welcome-in-nepal-but-conditions-apply/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFUeqKDI0iYxQywZnm1zOZ-EqNiGQ">but only trekkers and mountaineers</a>, to visit Nepal from 17 October, but the resurgence of Covid-19 in Nepal, India and Europe has meant that there are not so many foreign passengers. Airlines that have resumed flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, the Gulf cities and Istanbul have done so with reduced frequency, and mostly carry Nepali families or migrant workers.   There has been a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH-pfaOkifP9PaiUme84imZ2HVC9Q">trickle of trekkers</a> coming to Nepal, but they have to spend a week in quarantine in Kathmandu and need a PCR negative test before they can head off to the mountains. However, the Ministry of Tourism is said to be pressing the government to open Nepal to all foreigners in time for the Christmas New Year holidays. Before the Covid-19 crisis, Kathmandu airport used to handle an average of 80 international flights a day, which has come down to only about 20 now. Sixteen international carriers and Nepal Airlines currently operate flights to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Istanbul, Narita, Seoul and Bangkok.  “The next step is for CAAN to approach the Indian civil aviation authorities to request for slots, and then coordinate the timetables, we do not yet know how many flights per day there will be,” explained CAAN spokesperson Rajkumar Chhetri. So far India’s Indigo and Nepal’s private carrier Shree Airlines have been flying occasional charter and cargo flights between Kathmandu and Kolkata and Delhi.  Meanwhile, domestic flights in Nepal are back to 75% of pre-Covid levels. Nepal’s domestic carriers Yeti Airlines and Buddha Air have also restarted their <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14313#.X8Yw4i8RoWo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D14313%23.X8Yw4i8RoWo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnunJNx_Y16G_F-yoQS4VZvpa-NA" style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Mt Everest sightseeing flights</a> after nine months. Both airlines have slashed fares for Nepali passengers on the Everest flights, and have offered a buy-one-fly-two scheme under which a passenger can take a companion in the aisle seat.  Nepalis have to pay Rs8,900 for a roundtrip Everest flight, and get another ticket for free. Yeti is offering the same for Rs8,998 for the one-hour flight that takes off and landed in Kathmandu, and takes passengers to within 20km of Mt Everest. Both airlines are conducting the flights weekly on Saturday mornings, and will increase frequency as per demand. Mountain sightseeing flights used to the main cash cow for Nepal’s domestic airlines which could charge foreign tourists up to $155 for the trips. Now, foreigners will also get a discount and pay Rs13,499 (USD113) for the flights, and like Nepalis get to take another passenger for free. In pre-pandemic days, Nepal’s airlines used to make up to 30 sightseeing flights on days with good weather over the mountains. “The pandemic has hit our revenue base, and the loss of the dollar fare on mountain flights has made it worse, we hope that by resuming the flights even partially will revive interest on one of the most spectacular flights in the world,” said Buddha Air’s Rupesh Joshi. Domestic airlines which <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-domestic-flights-resume/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-domestic-flights-resume/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGFo_TgDtijQs0gdgV5lQNzuI0S5Q">resumed operations on 20 September </a>are flying trunk routes at up to 50% discount for Nepali passengers following safety protocols.

Nepal-India flights may resume soon

<figure><img width="1620" height="1028" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110919118/636bed3b4b0ad905ca02eed1jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photos: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>There are signs that after nine months of stoppage due to the pandemic, flights between Kathmandu and Indian cities are set to resume.The Cabinet last week approved a Ministry of Tourism proposal to allow all flights to all destinations as per the pre-pandemic schedules. The Ministry, for its part, has instructed the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to begin the process of restarting the flights.“The government has decided to allow all flights to resume, and we are now starting the necessary preparations to resume flights between India and Bangladesh initially,” Ministry of Tourism spokesperson Kamal Prasad Bhattarai told Nepali Times. The prospect for the resumption of flights is looking better after a thaw in relations between India and Nepal which had been strained by the border dispute over Lipu Lekh. There was a slew of high level visits by Indian officials in November, with the latest one last week by India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.In addition, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali is scheduled to visit New Delhi on 15 December for bilateral talks that are expected to bring Indo-Nepal relations to a more even keel. “It will look odd if Minister Gyawali flies from Kathmandu to New Delhi and back when there are no scheduled flights between the two cities,” said a senior executive at Nepal Airlines. Tens of thousands of Nepali businessmen, students, families and those seeking medical treatment have been stranded in India for months, as have Indians in Nepal.Commentators have pointed out the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-baffling-ban-on-india-flights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-baffling-ban-on-india-flights/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF4YAORCYxMdNHo98G3ag2BiAoMDw">absurdity of the absence of flights</a> between the two countries when air connections from Kathmandu are almost back to normal to other overseas destinations, and both India and Nepal allow unlimited domestic flights. Besides, they say thousands of nationals of both countries are crossing the land border between the two countries even though travel at official checkpoints are still supposed to be restricted.  <figure><img width="1496" height="1038" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110919118/636bed3d4b0ad905ca02eed2jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>In August, India had proposed a ‘travel bubble’ with Nepal as it has with 20 other countries, including Bangladesh and Bhutan. The arrangement has allowed Bhutan’s Druk Air, for example to restart flights Paro-New Delhi. However, there was no response from the Nepal government to the proposal. Observers blamed this on strained relations between the two countries, as well as India’s delay in granting more air routes in addition to the existing two entry points for flights descending into Kathmandu through Indian air space.  The Ministry of Tourism has also been pushing for reopening India flights because the state-owned carrier Nepal Airlines is in deep financial crisis due to under-utilisation of its Airbus fleet. There <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/flights-to-nepal-limited-by-airport-capacity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/flights-to-nepal-limited-by-airport-capacity/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF3chYwaXnaT1l80LstSw9e9qGFFw">used to be up to 60 flights a week</a> between Indian cities and Kathmandu, of which Nepal Airlines flew weekly 18. The losses for the airline have been particularly heavy because of the inability to fly the money-spinning Kathmandu-Delhi route. Flights to and from Kathmandu airport were stopped on 24 March when Nepal went into complete lockdown. Although some <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/repatriation-regular-flights-to-nepal-to-resume/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/repatriation-regular-flights-to-nepal-to-resume/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjOwfiNdFT7zTk3XrcD_KmL53Xhw">repatriation charter flights </a>were allowed, Nepal remained cut off from India. Even when the ban on regular flights was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unlimited-flights-to-nepal-from-17-october/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/unlimited-flights-to-nepal-from-17-october/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHfFKKcRE5Tedvf3Cf23ChQ2QRutA">partially lifted on 1 October</a>, Indian and Nepali airlines were not allowed to operate to and from Indian cities to Kathmandu. Despite the optimism, some say that flights are not likely until 1 January, when India is set to allow all regular international flights to its cities. At present only repatriation flights and some 'air bubble' regular flights are allowed on international routes from Indian cities.  The Nepal government allowed foreigners, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/trekkers-welcome-in-nepal-but-conditions-apply/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/trekkers-welcome-in-nepal-but-conditions-apply/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFUeqKDI0iYxQywZnm1zOZ-EqNiGQ">but only trekkers and mountaineers</a>, to visit Nepal from 17 October, but the resurgence of Covid-19 in Nepal, India and Europe has meant that there are not so many foreign passengers. Airlines that have resumed flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, the Gulf cities and Istanbul have done so with reduced frequency, and mostly carry Nepali families or migrant workers.   There has been a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everest-trek-closed-open-closed-open-again/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH-pfaOkifP9PaiUme84imZ2HVC9Q">trickle of trekkers</a> coming to Nepal, but they have to spend a week in quarantine in Kathmandu and need a PCR negative test before they can head off to the mountains. However, the Ministry of Tourism is said to be pressing the government to open Nepal to all foreigners in time for the Christmas New Year holidays. Before the Covid-19 crisis, Kathmandu airport used to handle an average of 80 international flights a day, which has come down to only about 20 now. Sixteen international carriers and Nepal Airlines currently operate flights to and from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Istanbul, Narita, Seoul and Bangkok.  “The next step is for CAAN to approach the Indian civil aviation authorities to request for slots, and then coordinate the timetables, we do not yet know how many flights per day there will be,” explained CAAN spokesperson Rajkumar Chhetri. So far India’s Indigo and Nepal’s private carrier Shree Airlines have been flying occasional charter and cargo flights between Kathmandu and Kolkata and Delhi.  Meanwhile, domestic flights in Nepal are back to 75% of pre-Covid levels. Nepal’s domestic carriers Yeti Airlines and Buddha Air have also restarted their <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14313#.X8Yw4i8RoWo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D14313%23.X8Yw4i8RoWo&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnunJNx_Y16G_F-yoQS4VZvpa-NA" style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Mt Everest sightseeing flights</a> after nine months. Both airlines have slashed fares for Nepali passengers on the Everest flights, and have offered a buy-one-fly-two scheme under which a passenger can take a companion in the aisle seat.  Nepalis have to pay Rs8,900 for a roundtrip Everest flight, and get another ticket for free. Yeti is offering the same for Rs8,998 for the one-hour flight that takes off and landed in Kathmandu, and takes passengers to within 20km of Mt Everest. Both airlines are conducting the flights weekly on Saturday mornings, and will increase frequency as per demand. Mountain sightseeing flights used to the main cash cow for Nepal’s domestic airlines which could charge foreign tourists up to $155 for the trips. Now, foreigners will also get a discount and pay Rs13,499 (USD113) for the flights, and like Nepalis get to take another passenger for free. In pre-pandemic days, Nepal’s airlines used to make up to 30 sightseeing flights on days with good weather over the mountains. “The pandemic has hit our revenue base, and the loss of the dollar fare on mountain flights has made it worse, we hope that by resuming the flights even partially will revive interest on one of the most spectacular flights in the world,” said Buddha Air’s Rupesh Joshi. Domestic airlines which <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-domestic-flights-resume/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-domestic-flights-resume/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606911052484000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGFo_TgDtijQs0gdgV5lQNzuI0S5Q">resumed operations on 20 September </a>are flying trunk routes at up to 50% discount for Nepali passengers following safety protocols.

<figure><img width="1050" height="626" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a779c7e80680e064761jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Nepalis crossing the border into the country through the Gauriphanta checkpost in Dhangadi, Far Western Nepal. Photos: DINESH KHABAR</figcaption></figure>A week before Nepal declared a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-covid-19-lockdown-extended-till-7-april/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nationwide lockdown</a> to prevent imported COVID-19 cases, close to half a million Nepali migrant workers from India crossed the border into the country without any screening.  Another 1.5 million people left Kathmandu Valley for their home districts as the government announced that all long-distance buses would stop plying after 6AM on 17 March.Tens of thousands of Nepali workers driven out of their jobs in Indian cities are still trapped across the border in India – prevented from returning to their own country as the government tries to decide where to quarantine them.Darchula police records show that 128, 022 people entered Nepal before the border was sealed, there now hundreds camping out on the banks of the Mahakali River. Health desks at border checkpoints were equipped only with thermometers. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/enlisting-female-health-volunteers-to-fight-covid-19/">Enlisting female health volunteers to fight COVID-19</a>, Ramu Sapkota and Mukesh Pokhrel“It is easier to track people travelling by air, since they are fewer and the airport has the equipment for thermal screening,” says Sher Bahadur Pun, infectious disease specialist at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Kathmandu. “Local governments should not waste any time to track down such individuals and place them under quarantine immediately.”But that is easier said than done. The Health Ministry has not even been able to carry out contact tracing of the four Nepalis who flew into Kathmandu from the Gulf and Europe in March who have tested positive for coronavirus. Local governments in rural Nepal have no record of people who have come home, and are just starting to collect information of recent returnees.  <img width="640" height="295" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a799c7e80680e064762jpeg.jpg" alt="">“If anyone is infected here, it is going to be a disaster. All we have are thermometers,” says Padam Giri, mayor of the Budhinanda municipality in Bajura, one of the remotest districts in northwestern Nepal. Four individuals who returned to Sunchhahari from India recently have been placed in isolation. Of the 46 people who arrived in Bajura from Mahendranagar after the lockdown, 16 are currently in quarantine at the district headquarters in Martadi.Adds vice-chair of the Sunchhahari Rural Municipality in Rolpa Pabitra Gharti Magar: “So far no one has shown any symptoms, but if anyone did, we do not even have test kits.” The mountainous districts of western Nepal are considered to be the most vulnerable because every family has at least one worker in India who has now returned. It was also western Nepal which was worst hit in Nepal by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1990s as migrant males brought the disease home and spread it to their wives.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-workers-overseas-toil-through-the-pandemic/">Nepali workers overseas toil through the pandemic</a>, Upasana KhadkaMahendra Bahadur Shah, chair of the Barekot Rural Municipality in Jajarkot admits that they failed to keep records of people returning from India because they did not initially take the pandemic seriously. Many migrant workers who entered Nepal though the Gaidachauki checkpoint before it was closed are from Bajhang, Doti, Baitadi and Dadeldhura districts.Historically neglected by the central government in Kathmandu, western Nepal has chronic suffered food shortages and epidemics. People from the region make up the highest number of returnees. Even though only one case of the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in the region and is in hospital in Dhangadi, public health experts say the virus is out there. <img width="640" height="372" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110911110/636b7a7b9c7e80680e064763jpeg.jpg" alt="">“Hundreds of thousands of people have returned to western Nepal from Maharastra, Delhi and Bihar, which are the hardest-hit COVID-19 states in India. The one case in Dhangadi is only the tip of the iceberg,” says Bikash Gauchan, medical director at Bayalpata Hospital in Achham.Bayalpata has set up a fever clinic, and 10 isolation beds have been added. The hospital has a stock of 20 precious personal protection equipment, and is producing masks locally for staff. Municipalities, district police offices and hospitals are all on red alert for a possible outbreak of COVID-19 in the region. Adds Gauchan: “We have a few ventilators in the entire western Nepal, and a limited stock of oxygen. We will not be able to do anything if the situation is to turn for worse, but if we contact traced and isolated possibly infected people we might be able to buy some time.” Back in Kathmandu, Sher Bahadur Pun at the Teku hospital says the returnees might have already had extensive interaction with their family members and hence need to be isolated and placed under home quarantine."Even if only one person is infected, who may or may not have a symptom, there is a high chance that the pandemic will spread across the village where there is a lack of reliable healthcare services and people are not aware that they need visit the doctor even if they have a slight fever,” Pun says.Among the general public, there is now a sense of panic, and migrant returnees are being stigmatised, turning villagers against each other. Even people who die of other causes are rumoured to have died of the coronavirus. Public health experts want greater public awareness, physical distancing and expanding the so far limited testing for COVID-19.Warns Pun: “If the coronavirus has entered the country unchecked through the border, then we could have a ticking time bomb in our hands.”

Returnees may be taking coronavirus to rural Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101156/636b79a29c7e80680e064713jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="577"/><figcaption>Sunday's cabinet meeting at the prime minister's resident in Baluwatar, the first since Prime Minister Oli had his second kidney transplant two weeks ago. Photo: PMO</figcaption></figure>Nepal’s Cabinet decided on Sunday to close all land border crossings with neighbouring China to the north and India to the south for one week starting Monday.The move came after unconfirmed reports that a Nepali businessman who had gone to Patna for treatment had been diagnosed with a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-is-novel-about-the-novel-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus infection</a> at a hospital there.The businessman had recently got a kidney transplant in Sri Lanka and had returned to the border town of Birganj last week via New Delhi and Kolkata. He was sent to Patna after suffering from a cold, but Department of Health Services spokesperson Mahendra Shrestha said it was not confirmed if he indeed has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/this-is-a-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID-19</a>.Family sources also confirmed that the businessman, J Rungta had in fact tested negative for <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/global-thinking-and-local-action-on-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus</a>, and that media reports were “fake news”.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kathmandu-under-semi-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathmandu under semi-lockdown</a>, Alisha Sijapati<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-quarantines-passengers-on-singapore-flight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal quarantines passengers on Singapore flight</a>Meanwhile, the Cabinet decision came hours before Sunday midnight when <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/all-nepal-flights-cancelled-22-31-march/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all international flights from Kathmandu will be banned till 31 March</a>  Ferry flights by Etihad, Qatar Airways and others will still be landing in Kathmandu till Wednesday to fly out tourists and expatriates stranded in Nepal.Prime Minister Oli had also announced that all intercity long-distance buses will stop plying in Nepal from Monday. This has sent people scrambling to get out of Kathmandu Valley to their home districts in overcrowded buses and even lorries. Local public transport will be allowed to operate.Cabinet also decided to set up a Rs500 million fund to help medical personnel in Nepal acquire personal protective equipment including masks and gowns. The ministers agreed to donate one month salary each towards the fund.Meanwhile, towns in the central Tarai in Siraha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Parsa and other districts along the Indian border have closed border checkpoints in consultation with authorities on the other side. This is important because the Cabinet decision would have closed only the main border checkpoints.

Nepal closes land border with India, China

<figure><img width="3024" height="4032" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101140/636b75c39c7e80680e062405jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Author Joy Ma.</figcaption></figure>Besides bad food, heat and boredom, what William Ma remembers about the Deoli concentration camp is the parrots. Ma was just eight when his family was rounded up from West Bengal along with 3,000 other Chinese Indians and transported by train to a former POW camp in Rajasthan. The 1962 war between India and China had just ended, and they were to be imprisoned in the camp for five years. The parrots used to flock to neem trees in Deoli, and Ma remembers thinking: “Even the parrots have more freedom than us.”  William’s grandfather worked in the tea gardens of Hasimara in West Bengal, and cleared the forest during World War II to build an air force base that is still in operation. His father was born there and later moved to Kalimpong where William’s mother’s side of the family was involved in the Tibet trade.There was no school in camp, so William and his brother Lynden were taught by their father, who made them memorise the Oxford English Dictionary. Another boyhood memory of William’s is the camp loudspeaker playing the sad Bollywood song Bees Saal Baad over and over again, as if to send the message that the inmates had no future.  Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/business/squeezed-in-the-himalaya,3824" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Squeezed in the Himalayas</a>, Sean ShoemakerThe prisoners were released in phases. Some were sent to China where many of them had never been before, and did not even speak the language. Others returned home to Calcutta to find their houses and businesses looted or taken over. Most then migrated to Canada, Australia or the United States. William found a job in Nepal’s nascent trekking industry, and moved up to Kathmandu from Calcutta with his family. His sister Joy, born during the family’s detention in Deoli, has now co-authored a book with Dilip D’Souza. The Deoliwallahs: The True Story of the 1962 Chinese-Indian Internment documents the stories of some families, including her own. As a young reporter on the tourism beat in Kathmandu of the early 1980s, for me William was a trusted source of news. But over the 40 years I have known him, he never once mentioned his family’s imprisonment in Deoli. I found out about it only after reading his sister’s book for this review.I asked William this week why he never told us about the internment. “After enduring, overcoming and surviving all that, many of us do not want to remember and relive the past. We want to embrace the future,” he replied. “My Dad was psychologically scarred by the shock of being treated as an enemy by his own country even though he did nothing wrong.”Even now, half a century later, many Deoliwallahs do not want to rake up the past. But some have begun to speak out and to document the injustice before memories fade and the older generation passes on. Joy Ma, who now lives in California, said in an email: “I found it very difficult to tell the story because every time I brought it up I saw how much pain it caused my family and the people I knew. The breakthrough for The Deoliwallahs was that it is the story of a community. It was a terrible shared experience that they had survived and it was time the world heard about it so it won’t be repeated.” The British first brought Chinese people to India to plant tea in Assam in the late 18th century, and others fled prolonged war and poverty to settle in Penang, Singapore, and Calcutta. By 1947, there were some 200,000 Chinese in India with businesses spanning tea, tanneries and timber.   The brief Sino-Indian border war had already ended when Chinese families were rounded up in Calcutta, Darjeeling and Assam and brought to Deoli. Like Joy Ma’s book, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2017/08/07/the-guilt-of-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yin Marsh’s Doing Time with Nehru</a> documents the physical hardship and psychological mistreatment in the camps, which has strong parallels to the internment of American Japanese after Pearl Harbour.Marsh was 13 when she was imprisoned with her family. Like William, she moved to Kathmandu after being freed. There are others like Wong Shiao Leung, whose family was also in Deoli and left Calcutta <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Chinese-shoemaker-Kathmandu,4030" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to set up a shoe shop in Bag Bazar in Kathmandu.</a> Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Chinese-shoemaker-Kathmandu,4030" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathmandu's sole</a>, Shreejana ShresthaThere is a larger underlying lesson for the present day from this dark chapter of Indian history. The unwillingness of the Indian state to acknowledge the injustice, and its lack of remorse means this could happen at any time against any other minority. And in fact, it is now happening with the CAA and NRC. For the imprisoned and their families, an apology from the state would bring some kind of closure. Co-author Dilip D’Souza describes former Deoli prisoners travelling by bus from Ottawa to Toronto in 2012 after the Indian High Commission refused to accept their letter demanding an apology from the Indian government, singing in pure Hindustani, Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh. He writes: “It is easy to say that such an incarceration can’t happen in 21st century India. . . then in 2019 the National Register of Citizens raised just this spectre.The DeoliwallahsJoy MaDilip D'SouzaPan Macmillan, 2020198 pagesRs1,040 <img width="640" height="958" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109101140/636b75c89c7e80680e062406jpeg.jpg" alt="">Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18812#.XlegkiEzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">When Wen?</a>, Nepali Times

Kunda Dixit

Righting the wrongs done to India’s Chinese

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a67779c7e80680e0599dcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="1668"/><figcaption>Illustration: BHANU BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>Legend has it that the real reason Nepal stayed an independent nation state while all around us were colonised was that our powerful neighbours took one look at the terrain and people here and concluded that the country was ungovernable.In the three decades after 1990, Nepal’s elected leaders have shown even fewer smarts than past feudal dynasties. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/another-decade-to-get-it-right/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">biggest let-down has been in the last two years</a>, after the unified Nepal Communist Party swept the country’s first three-tier federal elections. The strongest government in Nepal’s democratic history is showing itself to be more feckless than those fragile do-nothing coalitions.Perhaps the latest example of shooting ourselves in the feet has been the wrangling within the NCP over the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). If there was one vivid example of how not to look a gift horse in the mouth, this is it.The awkwardly-named MCC was launched by President George W Bush in 2004 after the 9/11 attacks to reorient American aid towards the kind of infrastructure projects that USAID or the World Bank would not touch. At first, with an ongoing war Nepal was deemed ineligible for the MCC.But by 2012, with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/how-will-nepal-develop-in-the-next-decade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">progress in health and education and economic</a>, political and press freedom, as well as prospects for the rule of law, Nepal qualified for membership. A threshold program in Kathmandu went about shortlisting investments in infrastructure that could jumpstart development.Nepali planners, working with their American counterparts, singled out transmission lines and highways as main economic bottlenecks. But they worried that Nepal did not have a governance track record, transparency or policy continuity to guarantee that the MCC’s $500 million could be effectively spent in five years.Finally in 2017, the Nepal government committed $130 million as counterpart funds, and the Hetauda-Damauli-Butwal 400kVA transmission line, as well as rehabilitation of 305km of highways from Itahari-Kakarvitta and Pokhara-Butwal, were selected for the MCC.These were not chosen arbitrarily — serious homework was done to find catalytic projects that could transform economic growth through quick returns on investment. This was a departure from the way planning is normally done in Nepal: ad hoc, whimsical, wasteful. The MCC also made provisions to ensure transparency and minimise the kind of delays in large infrastructure projects that Nepal has become notorious for.Any other government worth its salt, and one that knows what is good for its people, would have jumped at a deal like this. But not Nepal under the NCP. Members of the party’s central committee have objected that the MCC is part of the US <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/between-two-oceans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indo-Pacific Strategy</a>, objecting to a clause that would require Indian go-ahead on the transmission line, and at provisions for independent outside auditing.It is true that there is rarely a free lunch in official development assistance — even a grant is somehow tied to the strategic interest of the donor. But the MCC predates both China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Yes, there is a new cold war between Beijing and Washington, the two compete globally for political, economic and military domination, and both superpowers have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-now-has-to-balance-not-just-india-and-china-but-also-the-west/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strategic concerns in Nepal</a>.But it would be in Nepal’s own strategic interest to take maximum advantage and get both the BRI and the MCC to contribute to Nepal’s infrastructure development. Instead, some sections of the NCP are doing their best to wreck both initiatives so Nepal is left with neither.The reason the MCC needs to be cleared with Delhi is because Nepal’s planners decided to upgrade the transmission line to 400kVA so it can also export electricity to India through Gorakhpur. And having Parliament ratify the compact would ensure political continuity and commitment.Last week in this newspaper we projected an optimistic scenario of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-in-2030/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">what Nepal may look like by 2030</a>. Infrastructure-led development is necessary because jobs will be created during construction, and improved connectivity will have downstream benefits into the future.However, there are good, bad and ugly infrastructure projects. The ‘excavator roads’ that maul our mountains are not just ugly, they are an environmental disaster.  <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/pokhara-nepals-new-aviation-gateway/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pokhara’s new international airport</a> is too costly for its capacity, but at least it is being built and may help diversify tourism while decongesting Kathmandu.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/does-nepal-need-a-4th-international-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed airport in Nijgad</a> is an example of ill-advised megalomania. In fact, it is not an airport project but a timber concession. Yes, it is a game changer but only in the sense that it will <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/economy-ecology-of-nijgad-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wreck both our economy and environment</a>.Decisions on large, expensive projects must be taken by technocrats and planners who know what they are doing, not by ignorant, populist politicians with edifice complexes who want to commit <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/megalomania-kleptomania/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">colossal blunders like Nijgad</a> and sabotage a worthy initiative like the MCC.<h2>10 years ago this week</h2>Go back 10 years to read <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/482" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali Times #482</a>, 25-31 December 2009, and its front page news roundup titled ‘<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16624#.XgRialUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End on a high</a>’. It shows us that the more things change in Nepal, the more they remain the same. An excerpt:‘A rollercoaster week of recriminations and reconciliations began with a three-day Maoist bandh marked by violence and intimidation across the country. It peaked with a massive Maoist assembly in New Baneswor. Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal then delivered a fiery anti-Indian tirade during which he labelled the rest of the political leadership ‘remote-controlled robots,’ who he would bypass to hold direct talks with Delhi.Amidst widespread condemnation, the Maoist supremo weakly argued the following day that his comments were meant to be a ‘satire’ on the shape of things in Nepali politics.’<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/482"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a677a9c7e80680e0599ddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="506" height="807"></a>

A millennium challenge

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a222e9c7e80680e041777jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="917"/><figcaption>COMMUNIST COVE: The bookshop Nati Bajra (above) ran was a haven for Nepali leftists, who flocked here to read books by Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung, and chat with the owner.</figcaption></figure>Last week, linguist, writer and song composer Nati Bajra passed away. He was not well known in the mainstream media, but if you were interested in reading five decades ago in inner city Kathmandu, Nati Bajra was the man to go to.People went to him for books, magazines and newspapers of all kinds. His little book store at Bhotahiti in a small alley that led into Dagu Baha was where people sat on a narrow wooden bench with a straw mat. In the age before Internet and television, and when Radio Nepal was too boring, they browsed, bought publications, and lingered to chat with him. Nati Bajra was a one-man public sphere.Among the books and magazines he sold in those days were the beautiful printed, glossy magazines called China and ‘Cheen’ in Nepali. There were some really elegant hard cover books by Kim II Sung. Today many visitors ask why or how Nepal has a Communist Party in power with a majority popular vote. Nati Bajra made a big contribution.These magazines and books painted a utopian picture of communism, and portrayed the United States as the world’s enemy. Adults read the English and Nepali editions with great care and discussed the contents at their local tea shops and rest houses. There was no Nepali translation of Animal Farm to counter the propaganda literature.When the adults were done reading, we children made these glossy publications into text book covers, greatly increasing their shelf life. Whoever designed, published and shipped these publications to Nati Bajra at Bhotahiti, achieved their mission. The publicity value of the books were immense, and 50 years later we have a Nepal Communist Party government.Beyond books, there were also film screenings of how the North Korean and the Chinese armies defeated the Americans in the Korean War.King Mahendra was right when he is said to have told Prime Minister Nehru that communism would not travel to Nepal in a taxi over the newly-inaugurated Arniko Highway. But it did travel through books, magazines and films, and brought up an entire generation of Nepalis to get a glossy and glorified version of Communism.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/we-need-answers-from-communists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We need answers from communists</a>, Krishna Jwala Devkota<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101132/636a22319c7e80680e041778jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="905">There are now Nepalis travelling to China and to the USA all the time, and this generation will vote very differently. Given the fact that our last local elections were held in 1997 and then again in 2017, we do not have a pattern to go by yet. The reason why many local leaders, representing Communist parties, got re-elected could be because they continued to serve and organise the local population despite the fact that they were not in government.Today, the world is different, but not much has changed in using the media, this time social media, to manipulate public opinion. The world of tomorrow will be the result of the electronic media and the fact that many have had a chance to visit places and talk to people with different points of view. It will be the result of the experiences we have had.During a trip to Boston, I met a group of young ‘inventors’ from Rajasthan. They had taken a ride on the brand new subway in New Delhi and were not at all impressed with the system in Boston. Young Chinese who went to the United States and took on English first names are now moving back to China with Chinese first names.Nepali worldview is also changing rapidly as the epicentre of the global economy drifts to the Eastern Hemisphere. Hence do not be surprised if we hear about more and more Nepalis coming back home to raise yaks and buffalos, instead of camel and sheep in the Gulf countries.Anil Chitrakar is President of Siddharthinc.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/migrants-return-home-after-earthquake,2241" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Migrants inbound</a>, Om Astha Rai

Anil Chitrakar

Reading up on Communism at Nati Bajra’s

Architecture can be a powerful agent of change, shaping not just spaces but the way people live, connect, and experience the world.&nbsp; For Nepal, which is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/natures-fragile-gift-to-nepal">gifted by nature</a> and rich in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/ambassador-fund-cultural-preservation-nepal,2092">cultural heritage</a>, &nbsp;reviving rural architecture with modern amenities could hold the key to more <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-sustainable-tourism-means-in-practice">sustainable tourism </a>that benefits local people more. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/bayalpata-hospital-in-nepal-wins-global-design-award">Design and architecture</a> are amazing tools to create a unique experience for visitors,” says Spanish architect Tomeu Esteva of Esteva i Esteva Architecture Studio. “Difficult destinations have beautiful hotels with design and comfort.” Esteva was in Kathmandu with his colleagues at an event organised by the Spanish Honorary Consulate at Dwarika’s Hotel last week to showcase buildings which Nepali architects can adapt with local material and design inputs.&nbsp; Rural architecture holds a unique significance: it is more than a shelter and must reflect <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/inking-an-idenity">local identity, culture</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-humla-from-heritage-loss">heritage</a>. An area’s natural and cultural harmony can be upset by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-protected-areas-from-infrastructure?fbclid=IwAR1wK0MDFlFST_2EYb3f54LS4-fPt6rYfLG1DJ1JaQsU3w8-ezyXIxGOqzk">poorly planned development</a>, speakers at the event said, but the environment can be improved and revitalised by well-integrated structures.&nbsp; Another Spanish architect, Belen Moneo, has designed hotels at elevations of 3,700m in her home country Spain that supply natural spring water spas. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/lost-in-reconstruction">Creativity in construction</a> must be encouraged. Rural architecture always shows possibilities of what we can do better,” Moneo explains, adding that designs must enhance <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-healing-power-of-nature">the beauty of nature</a> and give a natural feel at a time when steel, glass and cement dominate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rebuilding-kathmandu-after-the-1934-quake">urban design</a>.&nbsp; This is why the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/weaving-nature-into-craft">use of natural products</a> such as bamboo, local timber, straw and rammed earth are in demand from customers who want a fresh eco-friendly look encouraged in construction of rural architectural structures. The demand for boutique hotels has increased world over, with &nbsp;more and more tourists favouring aesthetics, experience and comfort over price. While creativity is an important part of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/architecture-for-mountains">construction and architecture</a>, incentives to build and use <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Building,370">rural construction materials</a> still remain minimal, and Moneo emphasises the significance of design and execution.&nbsp; Esteva helped design the Vana Retreat in Dehradun that kept the natural environment in focus, with the structure giving an elaborate aesthetic experience to visitors. Another example is Hotel Las Mercedes in the Dominican Republic which was designed and constructed by Moneo and the company she co-founded Moneo Brock, respecting and revaluing the traditional architecture of the area. Hotels providing such experience could attract tourists and revenue. The Spanish ambassador to Nepal Juan Antonio March Pujol said, “The role of architecture and architects in developing tourism is crucial, not only in urban areas but rural settings as well.”&nbsp; The concept of rural boutique hotels gained traction in Spain during the 1990s, particularly in regions like Majorca with economic and environmental sustainability as the main focus. In Nepal <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/12-full-opinion/guiding-nepal-s-tourism-industry">the tourism industry</a> directly employs about 1 million people, and makes up about 8% of the country’s GDP. In Nepal, the stone homes of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/reviving-himalayan-vulture-and-culture">Mustang and Manang</a>, bamboo and mud structures of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-tarai-s-shrinking-forests">the Tarai</a>, and the Kathmandu Valley’s terra cotta tile skylines, graceful temples, and tranquil bahal courtyards are all examples of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-traditional-seismic-resistant-designs">Nepal’s traditional architecture</a>.&nbsp; Nepali architect Sarosh Pradhan has been working for the past eight years on the Brakka Village project in Manang Valley north of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/municipalities-want-to-manage-annapurna">the Annapurnas</a>. Other examples of this kind of rural architecture for high-end tourism are the Shinta Mani Hotel in Mustang and Khumbu Lodge below <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/mt-everest-pvt-ltd">Mt Everest</a>. Says Pradhan, “There are places in Nepal that radiate purity and embrace simplicity. Creating projects in such settings require deep reflection and thoughtful planning.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421030444_a07a23f6b60fa89c0f35b9dc1aaf19937da4881e6bfb2e1858f3c27dff91729f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250421030444_a07a23f6b60fa89c0f35b9dc1aaf19937da4881e6bfb2e1858f3c27dff91729f" data-rendition-name="original" width="4608" height="2184" loading="lazy" alt="A new architecture for Nepal's tourism"> </figure>  Rural architecture is not easy, and sometimes more expensive. Inflation, energy efficiency, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/those-who-stay">the climate crisis</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">increased costs of living</a> pose obstacles to sustainable rural architecture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/forgotten-international-starchitects-in-nepal">Forgotten international starchitects in Nepal</a>, Anne Feenstra and Varun S Bapu Esteva says faith and trust between client and architect is necessary for any project to be successful. He adds that architects must practice being humble, the process of designing always involves learning and not imposing their ideas on clients. Nepal is uniquely positioned for the growth of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hiking-up-the-benefits-of-tourism">rural tourism</a> because of its stunning countryside as well as its internationally renowned traditions in holistic wellness. Creating infrastructure that is small, thoughtfully planned and that respects both tradition and contemporary hospitality standards is crucial. “Projects in Nepal can be made cost effective by using materials from houses that have been brought down,” says Esteva. “Pilot projects involving <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/local-government-by-the-people-for-the-people-of-the-people">local people </a>and simple designing also helps the process.” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/vacant-homes-become-homestays-in-nepal">The growth of homestays in Nepal</a> is a step in the right direction, but they are still a bit too rustic for the international traveller who also wants comfort and is willing to pay extra for it. Upgrading the facilities in homestays and ensuring that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-archive-of-nepali-heritage">architectural heritage</a> of the locality is preserved using locally sourced building material could allow owners to charge more. Says Sangita Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotel, “Our effort is to build upon rural architecture by empowering local communities and using what is available locally. We can fine tune and encourage indigenous design and training.” The vision goes beyond just boosting the economy, it is about building a future where tourism helps villages grow in a healthy and lasting way. Instead of using up resources, it gives back to the land and the people. It supports local communities by<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/staying-in-nepal-to-create-jobs"> creating jobs</a>, improving infrastructure, and protecting natural beauty. When done right, tourism can be a tool for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/progress-and-or-preservation">preserving culture and nature</a>, not harming them. Architects must therefore see their work as more than just designing buildings, they also need to care deeply about people and places, especially in rural areas that can benefit the most.&nbsp; With global interest in sustainable and off-the-beaten-path travel increasing, Nepal stands at the cusp of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">tourism transformation</a> that values community-driven, eco-conscious hospitality. A mix of modern ideas and traditional knowledge could transform rural tourism in Nepal. Says Shrestha, “Young architects should spend time with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/the-unsung-heroes-of-conservation">local and indigenous communities</a>, listen to their stories, and learn from their <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/life-and-livelihood-in-remote-nepal">ways of living</a>. These communities have deep knowledge about the land, materials, and climate. If this wisdom is used in new designs, it can help create tourism spaces that truly benefit everyone.” &nbsp;

A new architecture for Nepal's tourism

Extract from an addendum to Nepal's Two Wars, Chapter 2 in the updated edition of Essays on Nepal: Past and Present by Sam Cowan, a retired British Army general with a long association with the Gurkhas. The book was first published in 2018, and republished earlier this month by FinePrint exclusively on Amazon. The addendum details a one-to-one conversation the author had in the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8884">Royal Palace </a>with the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">King Gyanendra</a> in November 2002 just after he had taken his initial steps on the road that ultimately led to <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14681">the abolition of the monarchy</a> in Nepal in 2008. In the early evening of September 16, 2002, in my role as Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas, I had my second and last official audience with King Gyanendra to give him an update on the Brigade’s activities over the previous 12 months. I had some 6 or 7 such audiences with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/preserving-king-birendra-s-family-home">King Birendra</a>.&nbsp; These were official affairs with the British ambassador of the day present, along with key <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12233">palace officials</a> and a representative from Nepal's Foreign Ministry. The two monarchs were very different in character and temperament, but both treated me with the utmost civility and made the audiences as relaxed and easy for me as possible.&nbsp; It is, however, worth recording that when the official business had been covered, King Birendra, with a twinkle in his eye, often ended by asking, “Now General, what’s the gossip in London?” The second audience with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8026">King Gyanendra </a>was my last official act in uniform. We came back to Kathmandu in the first week of November (after treks) to stay for a few nights with our Defence Attaché before heading back to the UK. Waiting for me was a message from the Palace saying that King Gyanendra would like to meet me informally: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6933">no uniform</a> and no ambassador.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080420_f9046f9882d4481781d14f2b64f18c7fbbea62562e1d74e3465de6d01fb43750.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250421080420_f9046f9882d4481781d14f2b64f18c7fbbea62562e1d74e3465de6d01fb43750" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="2406" loading="lazy" alt="Gyanendra crowned page 1"> <figcaption>Nepali Times Special Edition of 6-14 June 2001 with enthronement of Gyanendra. </figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_21333d6ae21828eb47fe3f849438d215fe2804460d47bb2896ef4aee4e895ad2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250421080424_21333d6ae21828eb47fe3f849438d215fe2804460d47bb2896ef4aee4e895ad2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1857" loading="lazy" alt="Royal massacre"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 22-29 June 2001 covering the royal massacre after which Gyanendra became king. </figcaption> </figure>  Although I had no idea what the purpose of the meeting might be, events in Kathmandu since I last saw the king put me on edge. On October 4, 2002, Gyanendra had dismissed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, allegedly for failing to hold <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/what-goes-on-in-nepal-s-elections">elections</a>. He had put in place a new prime minister and a cabinet personally selected by him. When I heard the news on my travels, the people I met were generally supportive of the king’s actions. There was a general view that something had to be done, the country was going nowhere, and the king deserved his chance, not least to solve<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/14-years-after-conflict-no-closure-in-nepal"> the Maoist </a>problem. Back in Kathmandu, views were not so sanguine. The chosen prime minister, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, was a relic from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/mob-movement-and-mayhem">the Panchayat period</a> whose party had failed to win a single seat in the last elections held in 1999. Some of the chosen cabinet ministers had, to put it mildly, dubious reputations, and others had no record of proven competence in any field. There was a fear that the king’s real motive in dismissing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/deubas-denouement">Deuba</a> was to start to reverse the democratic gains made since 1990. I informed <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-britain-mark-centenary-of-1923-treaty">the British ambassador</a> about the invitation. He was strongly against accepting it, which was probably the clinching reason for my decision to do the polite thing and accept it. On the evening of November 7, 2002, I presented myself at the royal palace, alone and in civilian attire.&nbsp; As in the past, the Military Secretary, Major General Vivek Shah, met and escorted me into the presence of the monarch. This time, however, he was politely asked to leave the room and shut the door behind him. King Gyanendra greeted me warmly and invited me to sit down.&nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-ghost-of-monarchy-returns-to-haunt-nepal"> The ghost of monarchy returns to haunt Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_e382af945d0ad2a04ae41fabe5393f793dd10f54cb1220f111c7c9e7423eb558.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250421080424_e382af945d0ad2a04ae41fabe5393f793dd10f54cb1220f111c7c9e7423eb558" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="993" loading="lazy" alt="Gyanendra coup"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 4-10 February 2005 after king Gyanendra's coup imposed media censorship. anendra became king. </figcaption> </figure>  I had wondered, and to be truthful, had worried, not just about the purpose of the meeting, but about how the conversation might start and develop. I reduced my resolve to two points: be polite but speak candidly. The latter resolve was quickly put to the test with the king’s opening words: “Sam, [in previous meetings it had been ‘General’, you walk the highways and byways of this land more than most, tell me what the common man is thinking?” &nbsp;“Your Majesty, I have no idea what they are thinking, but they are waiting.” “Waiting?” “Yes, Your Majesty, they are waiting to see whether what you did some weeks ago in appointing your own prime minister and cabinet ministers is going to make any difference to their lives or whether it is just going to be more Kathmandu hot air.” “Everything is going to be difficult and is going to take time, a lot of time.” “Your Majesty, time is the one thing you don’t have. You must act quickly and decisively to take advantage of the opportunity you have created. Everyone knows that you have appointed these new ministers. Why don’t you get them in here one by one and tell them that they have three months to deliver a programme in their area of responsibility that is going to make a difference to people’s lives? Most will fail to do so. Sack them! It will be a powerful signal of your strong intent to deliver real change.” I can express the opening of our conversation in this way because just about every word is still etched in my mind. The king’s response to my last quoted words was to challenge me to give an example of something that could be delivered quickly. I can give a verbatim record of what I said in response to this unexpected challenge: “Health posts, Your Majesty, there is no shortage of them throughout the country as building them has been one of the sources of local corruption, but very few have any medicine to issue at present or have skilled people to assess and meet medical needs. Your Majesty, children are dying for lack of a few pills. Given the right priority, over a period, say of six months, every health post could be fully stocked with medicine and manned with trained people. This is something I could help to lead for you as I know it would have strong international backing. At last, people would know that you mean business.” As I warmed to the theme, I could see no sign of the king having any enthusiasm for the idea, and I quickly disengaged as it dawned on me, as it had clearly dawned on the king, that the reason for the deficiencies in health posts was to prevent any Maoist combatant from gaining access to any <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/tech-away/nepal-s-health-tech-industry-is-here-to-stay">medical support</a>, and if this meant people suffering, so be it. The subject of the Maoist insurgency inevitably came up, and I took the opportunity to elaborate on what is written in the final four paragraphs of the article above. I advised King Gyanendra that, self-evidently, since there were three parties in the conflict—him, the Maoists, and the political parties—it was imperative that he form an alliance with one of them, preferably the political parties; otherwise, he would find himself isolated, as the other two parties would inevitably, at some stage, form their own alliance. However, it quickly became apparent that the king’s mind was on a totally different track. On the Maoists, he told me that he had channels open to them, but he was scathing about the political party leaders. He made it clear that they would be waiting for a very long time before he gave any power back to them, and that is a polite way of expressing the actual words he used, but “crawling through the door” is a phrase which has stuck in my mind.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080424_5403455ff6168f0d202a96cb53edea69136d74d59b989cfcc7cc4a1d57672cb5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250421080424_5403455ff6168f0d202a96cb53edea69136d74d59b989cfcc7cc4a1d57672cb5" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1317" loading="lazy" alt="fall of monarchy"> <figcaption>Nepali Times 28 April-3 May 2005 with cover image by Ajay Joshi of jubilant protesters after street demonstrations sidelined king Gyanendra, paving the way for a ceasfire and restoration of democracy. </figcaption> </figure>  As the conversation developed, it became ever clearer that King Gyanendra had decided to go in alone, relying on the misleading assurances he was constantly receiving from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14954">the army</a>, and no doubt his close advisers, that the Maoists could and would be quickly defeated militarily, and taken out of the equation. This would obviate the need for him to do any deal with the political parties.&nbsp; Thus, the way would be clear for him to establish a version of his father’s Panchayat system, under a constitution that would be granted to the people by him, their sovereign, as his father and brother had done in 1962 and 1990. As in those constitutions, ultimate power would have remained in the sovereign’s hands. This proposed direction of travel was very clear from what the king said to me. In sum, King Gyanendra was motivated by a desire to emulate his immediate predecessors by granting his people a constitution that would restore his father’s Panchayat system in a modern form and give him a central role in decision-making. What was particularly dispiriting was that beyond this single objective he had no plan worthy of the name, nor demonstrably did he have the people with the skills to implement an appropriate plan even if one had existed. Crucially and depressingly, there was little or no indication from the king that he realised that such a course of action could put Nepal’s monarchy into serious jeopardy, as indeed proved to be the case. <h2>King Twice</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250420110436_315d519fe3d68d2406ebe1480fed54720fbf21b8907a4da5cde751fdc623d445.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250420110436_315d519fe3d68d2406ebe1480fed54720fbf21b8907a4da5cde751fdc623d445" data-rendition-name="original" width="1302" height="632" loading="lazy" alt="“Tell me what the common man is thinking!”"> </figure>  <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8371">Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah has been king twice</a>. In 1950 he was enthroned briefly as a child king (left, above) by the Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher when his grandfather, King Tribhuvan, fled to exile in India. In 2001 he was crowned king again after the massacre in the royal palace in which his brother King Birendra and nine other members of his family were killed by Crown Prince Dipendra.&nbsp; During his second reign, Gyanendra gradually asserted power by sacking Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in 2002, and then taking full control after the 1 February 2005 coup. He was sidelined after the ceasefire in April 2006, and became a commoner after the Constituent Assembly finally <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Ftnp-abolishing,624">abolished the monarchy in 2008</a>. In the past year, Gyanendra has tried to exploit public dissatisfaction with the political parties to restore the monarchy.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250421080432_26ef4a4b0e3cee9fdc6794446702efe16550d293904b4f6dd46fe35d4d10c788.jpg" data-media-id="editor_22" data-image-id="20250421080432_26ef4a4b0e3cee9fdc6794446702efe16550d293904b4f6dd46fe35d4d10c788" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Essays on Nepal by Sam Cowen"> </figure>

“Tell me what the common man is thinking!”

“It's Kathmandu.” Just as the family was sitting down for one of its extended lunches, that jubilant cry was from François Driard’s grandfather announcing the next posting for his diplomat parents.&nbsp; Driard (pictured) was 18 in the summer of 1996,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/chasing-a-nomad"> a bit of a hippie</a> already, and his life was about to change forever with the magical word “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/time-capsule-of-kathmandu">Kathmandu</a>”. “I was awed with that information from my grandfather, nothing else mattered … In France <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/tales-of-courage-and-suffering-cx95f89e">in the 1990s</a>, Kathmandu had a mythical aura,” Driard recalls. He came to Kathmandu for Christmas that year to visit his stepfather, the French Ambassador Michel Lummaux. It was to be the first of many visits during school holidays, before he decided to permanently settle down in Nepal. “Kathmandu, and Nepal, were very different then, it was magical, I liked the nature, the people, civilisation, temples, trees,” says Driard, who explored the country sitting on the top of buses. “Visitors talk about the crazy <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city">urbanisation</a>, traffic jams today, and all that is true. But Kathmandu has not <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/loss-of-soul-and-soil">lost its soul</a>.” After his stepfather’s tenure in Nepal ended, Driard worked as a business reporter for international publications but decided he did not want to be anyone’s employee anymore. In 2007 he landed in Kathmandu with €20,000 in savings to invest.&nbsp; He knew a few crucial things about himself: he liked food and nature, which is very much tied up with his upbringing--full of lively conversations during lunch and dinner at the family table between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-yak-cheese-is-on-world-map">abundant cheese, wine and cigars</a>. So he decided it would be cheese, and registered Himalayan French Cheese and went to the French Alps for a month to learn how to make Tomme de Savoie. “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-story-of-langtang-cheese">Cheese making is such an ancient craft </a>and so I thought I won’t need much money or studying which I hated and indeed, if you have a tamako bhado and fire you are set,” explains Driard. But Nepal’s temperature and humidity were not ideal, even at higher altitudes. The first customers for his cheese were the Hyatt Regency and Nina and Hager. But he needed to create a market for cheese in a country which only knew hard churpi in the north and soft paneer in the south. He started selling his cheeses at the Summit Hotel weekend market, expanding to his own 1905 Farmer’s Market which later moved to Le Sherpa in Maharajganj, where it is now, and also a market at Labim Mall in Pulchok. He had cow dairies in Nuwakot and Dhulikhel, and finally a yak cheese unit at 3,379m in Ramechhap. It was the yak blue cheese from here that went on to win a Gold Medal in France, putting Nepal’s French cheese on the world map. “People come and try our cheese at the market, they ask questions. There is a lot of education to be done about cheese,” adds Driard, who also has three cheese shops in the Valley. Driard now makes 25 types of cheese. The products are being noticed and every year he has French students coming to Nepal to learn the art of yak cheese making. “In France, one family or company makes one kind of cheese for generations. In that I’m very unique as a cheese artisan,” he says. “The students come in to learn but I tell them to also teach us something too, add another cheese to my collection.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/langtang-after-10-years">Langtang after 10 years</a>, Sonia Awale Being a foodie, Driard is now also dabbling in meat with his own charcuterie at Meatini with bacon, ham, sausage and pâtés. All of this is now served at his Emilio’s Pizza, a leafy hideaway in Lazimpat. His South Side in Moksh is probably the smallest wine bar in the world. “I call the process sublime,” says Driard of his ventures, which have grown organically. “You need the same temperature and humidity of 12°C and 80% for cheese, meat and wine.” Emilio’s speciality is the eight-cheese pizza (which has eight types of cheeses), and a pizza with bhutan topping (not the country but fried intestines and organs Nepali-style). He has opened a small branch at Courtyard in Pokhara.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250426070456_bacae302c040dc18eeecdeafda72ddf06a6d2cec138ea9be7e45fe94cdf8b5b3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250426070456_bacae302c040dc18eeecdeafda72ddf06a6d2cec138ea9be7e45fe94cdf8b5b3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="8 cheese pizza"> <figcaption>Eight-cheese pizza</figcaption> </figure>  With two artisanal cheese units, two farmers’ markets, a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-meat-of-the-story">meat processing unit</a>, a bakery, and wine bar he now envisions a vineyard so he can add Nepali wine to his repertoire. Another future plan is to start up an agri-tourism business where customers can drink, eat and work in peace. In the past 20 years in Nepal, Driard has not always succeeded in his ventures but this hasn’t curbed his enthusiasm. He is learning as he goes, and like an old wine, Nepal is growing on him. Its slowness suits his French art de vivre with eating slowly outdoors, having conversation, importing less.&nbsp; “I have proven that with even a little money you can do a lot of things in Nepal,” adds Driard. “In the West, they easily invest half a million euros on a cheese factory, I invested 10 times less.”&nbsp;

Fromage, vin et charcuterie Népalais

Bhuthan भुठान starts with Bishnu Bahadur KC played by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/dhuwa-smoke-telefilm,2671">Hari Bansha Acharya</a> on a call, requesting to speak to the visa officer. By this point, he had <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-should-now-allow-visa-on-arrival">applied for a visa </a>to Bhutan 10 times, but was denied each time. KC was a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-women-excel-in-sports-in-2024-z9ramyct">national football player </a>in Bhutan in 1988 before he and other Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people were forced out of the country in the 1990s as part of the Druk regime’s ‘One Nation One People’ campaign. Over 100,000 Bhutanese Nepalis were forced out, driven across India and dumped in Nepal where they lived in seven<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp"> refugee camps</a> supervised by the United Nations and other charities until they were resettled in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries starting in 2007. In the fictional movie with the satirical English title The World’s Happiest Man, KC has resettled in the state of Ohio in the US but wishes to visit his home country once before he dies. Between flashbacks, we learn KC has died without having fulfilled his wish. &nbsp; The drama then focuses on KC’s two families from two marriages as they debate whether to cremate him as per <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/muslim-hindu,2996">Hindu rites </a>or give him a Christian burial. A mediator played by Hollywood actor Bruce Dern urges them to take a firm decision before it is too long.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250430140420_b398a08091b866da2b0b8f6c1e6e26781609749aba896bfd2c68a10a519295c3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250430140420_b398a08091b866da2b0b8f6c1e6e26781609749aba896bfd2c68a10a519295c3" data-rendition-name="original" width="945" height="945" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutan, the movie"> </figure>  There are drawn out scenes of KC being baptised and when he is confronted by his first wife from Darjeeling played by Anuradha Majumdar, he says he changed his religion in the hope that he will be <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bhutan-s-refugees-between-hope-and-despair">allowed back in Bhutan</a>.&nbsp; We find out KC has a second wife, a Christian Nepali played by Puja Chand. Dayahang Rai as the younger son doesn’t have much screen time to flex his acting chops. &nbsp; Acharya competently portrays a man that is equal parts haunted by the memories of and longing for his home country. KC’s pain and loss is acute when he is teaching football to Gungun but between mid-scene, he freezes, perhaps lost in memories of being in Bhutan’s national team. &nbsp; In another scene, KC recalls his mother singing a lullaby in Dzongkha. He also has a box filled with medals, photographs and a football which he deflates with a knife in a powerful depiction of his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/searching-for-a-homeland-away-from-home?fb_comment_id=1506516030025634">complicated emotions about his homeland</a>. KC keeps checking his mailbox in the hopes that his <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4977">visa application</a> has been accepted. He says in Nepali: “If a tree that has already struck roots in one place is shifted to another, it will not survive.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250430140420_4a9c27410326489576c04dedf40016bda3825e8f9663317f54fbfec4cbda6d34.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20250430140420_4a9c27410326489576c04dedf40016bda3825e8f9663317f54fbfec4cbda6d34" data-rendition-name="original" width="1422" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutan, the movie"> </figure>  Dern’s character says that the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">western world</a> has become “lonely in pursuit of happiness”, another reference to Bhutan’s obsession with its Gross National Happiness index. Scenes shift quickly throughout making the story difficult to follow at times. The use of symbolism is a trite overdone. Nonetheless, भुठान is a nuanced depiction of raw pain and agony of losing one’s homeland. But one cannot help but leave the theatre feeling deflated. KC dies without having visited <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/small-bhutan-dreams-big">Bhutan</a>, but perhaps he does in his afterlife. It is up to the audience to create its own ending to this sad story of exile. भुठान Mad Monkey Films, 2025 Directed by Binod Paudel 102 minutes In cinemas in Nepal

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Fromage, vin et charcuterie Népalais

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