<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4bc9c7e80680e0d30b9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3745" height="2303"/><figcaption>Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. Photo: HOMOCOSMICOS</figcaption></figure>Saba Karim Khan’s debut novel Skyfall begins like the book of Genesis: with a god. Like the Biblical All-father, Sherji too has put his words and intent to action – or, at least he thinks so – and out steps Rania. He is determined in his plot, inflated and Machiavellian. Yet, for the first six months, he is disappointed. Rania is a ‘misfortune’, his ‘grand trial’. Has her mother, Jahaan-e-Rumi, anything to do with it?Jahaan-e-Rumi too has her own scheme. In a kind of balancing act, she picks up a pen and paper in the hospital, and writes for Rania: ‘She will be no stubborn, malevolent lunatic, but the fiercest girl in all the galaxies – a tempest, but never unkind.’The scene shifts and we are whisked from Lahore to the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in Manhattan, where we find Rania is an inmate. The reason for this could be anything, but Khan does not dwell on them yet. All will be revealed in good time. For now, in the cold, solitary, and sleepy pace of the prison, Rania thinks back to her past, growing up in Lahore’s famous Heera Mandi, the shadows of Kashmir, and falling in love. Thus begins Skyfall.There is an uncanny mix of hope and dread from the very first page, which goes on to characterise much of Khan’s novel. Here, Henry David Thoreau’s quote 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation' from Walden, and its famously misquoted addendum 'and go to the grave with the song still in them' is central.Set in two seemingly disparate worlds, the novel moves fluidly across the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/the-women-left-behind/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">walled city of Lahore</a>, through the streets that switch identities every 12 hours, and later in starkly different New York. The times are desperate and dangerous, and the book raises questions on freedom and autonomy, while, under the lights, music and memories become the bridge between the past and the present, East and West.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4c09c7e80680e0d30bajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="300"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Rania herself grows up in two different worlds. Sherji, her father, a resolute fundamentalist, sends out her mother and sister every night to dance and sing for, and sleep with, rich customers to make money for his madrasa. By day, she works as a tourist guide. The past is wonderful while the present cursed, and it is in music and a young Indian Hindu boy Asher that Rania finds refuge while she loathes her abusive father and her own incapacity to help her mother and sister.At the outset, the novel seems like a classic retelling of doomed romance. It checks all the boxes: violent families, star-crossed lovers, a historic and beautiful setting, mujra, India and Pakistan, Pakistan and America. But under the surface runs a searing fire. Skyfall is indeed a love story, with even higher stakes. The self struggles not just for its own independence but for an entire country’s, against injustice and violence.When Sherji finally sends Rania into the underworld because he is running out of money, it is strangely reminiscent of when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his prized son Isaac on Moriah. Things go well for Isaac, naturally, and Abraham is rewarded.But as Rania fights the men who throw her around the room, slapping her and trying to kiss her, no angel appears, no Ram. Between the two thousand years that separate Sherji from Abraham, faith is no longer a leap into the unknown but calculated and capitalist, sentenced by men, and women, in blindfolds, the innocents always under the yoke.Then later in detention, Khan pulls back the curtains on the delusions of the land of so-called freedom, as officers hurl questions at the racially profiled Rania that are leading to a conclusion drawn well before the interrogation. “Do you know the Quran by heart? Do you believe in jihad? Love jihad?” they ask. “Who forced you to fall in love with an Indian? Don’t you believe Hindus are non-Muslims?”For <a href="https://sabakarimkhan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Khan</a>, who teaches at New York University in Abu Dhabi, Skyfall is the soul of a Sufi love song and an attempt to imagine a world where coexistence is the currency. In the pages, the victory of light over darkness is in fact be possible, and we can outdo our starting points."Literature becomes even more important in an increasingly polarising milieu," she says, "not least of all because it allows us to address uncomfortable issues without pedaling or peddling an agenda or reducing things to a headline ticker." In fact, it is rather an act of co-creation between reader and writer, an invitation to go for a walk or dance or recite a piece together.As such, Skyfall is an entirely enthralling book. It weaves the reality of brutal violence with love and hope: engaging and beautifully written, interspersed with Urdu verses, following the journey of a young singer from the mohalla half-way around the world. As one delves deeper, the reader reckons with injustices fuelled by cults and mobs, by governments and families. Adds Khan: "I didn't want to downsize the problems but also didn't want to craft a world without the glimmer of hope and possibility."Skyfallby Saba Karim KhanBloomsbury, 2021290 pagesPaperback: INR599<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230112100136/63bfd4c29c7e80680e0d30bbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="666" height="1024">Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/look-back-deal-with-our-past-and-learn/">“Look back, deal with our past and learn”</a>, Ashish Dhakal<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Kathmandu-wont-let-go-of-me-samrat-upadhyay,3649">“Kathmandu won’t let go of me”</a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/novelist-returns-to-non-fiction/">Novelist returns to non-fiction</a>, Sewa Bhattarai

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Let the sky fall

<figure><img width="700" height="367" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a67fc9c7e80680e059a08jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>India Airlines Airbus300 that was hijacked on 24 December 1999 at Afghanistan's Kandahar airport.</figcaption></figure>The world was waiting with bated breath for all kinds of catastrophes to befall humanity as the decade of the 90s, the century of the 1900s, and the millennium drew to a close. But there was a different kind of disaster in store in Kathmandu.It was on Christmas Eve of 24 December 1999, and an Airbus300 of Indian  Airlines had just taken off from Kathmandu for New Delhi. Twenty minutes into the flight five gunmen stormed the cockpit and forced the plane to divert first to Amritsar. It was refused landing in Lahore by turning off runway lights, then to Dubai, and on to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The gunmen demanded the release of fellow-militants, including Maulana Masood Azhar, in an Indian jail. Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8241#.Xgs0pVUzaUl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hijack diary</a>Among the 171 passengers was Sanjay Dhital, who had just got married to Rosina, and worked with Afghan refugees for AMDA (Association of Medical Doctor of Asia) based in Peshawar in Pakistan and ran clinics in Afghanistan. The couple spent eight harrowing days inside the plane, not knowing whether they would get out of the ordeal alive.“The worst part of life is the long wait to die,” Dhital recalls, 20 years later in his Bhaisepati home where he lives with his parents, wife and two children. “But time heals, and many of the details get blurred with the passage of the years.”However, he does remember a few things he had not revealed during his <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=8241#.XgsyO9Iza70">first interview with Nepali Times on the first anniversary of the hijacking in 2000</a>. He had come to Nepal on a month’s leave to get married, and the newly married couple were going to fly out on Pakistan International Airlines. But due to the new year rush they did not get ticket, so the travel agent routed them to Peshawar via Delhi and Lahore.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYEY9xjzcxo&amp;feature=youtu.be“There were many other Indian honeymooners on the flight,” Dhital remembers, “The flight attendants had just started serving food when someone shouted ‘head down, don’t move’. There was commotion on the plane.”There were masked men with knives and pistols threatening passengers in English and Hindi. The pilot then announced that the plane was being hijacked. Night fell, and the passengers felt the plane circling, landing and taking off, they did not know they were already in Kandahar.The hijackers announced that they were Kashmiris, and if the Indian government did not release their friends, they would kill all the passengers one by one. But passengers were relieved to hear that a UN team was flying in from Islamabad to negotiate.“One of the passengers was a large man named Gajendra Tamrakar, and the hijackers would make him imitate Bollywood hero Amjad Khan, and make us all laugh, and we would for a moment forget our own predicament,” Dhital remembers. <figure><img width="640" height="693" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a67fe9c7e80680e059a09jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Sanjay Dhital and his wife Rosina immediately after being released. Photo: NT ARCHIVE</figcaption></figure>The negotiations failed, and the hijackers asked all passengers to raise their hands for their last meal because they were all going to be killed. No one raised their hand, Dhital recalls, only Tamrakar did, and he ate an entire chicken. A Japanese passenger was so stressed she kept smoking and taking pictures, and the hijackers confiscated all cameras.Dhital went to the business class area to deposit his camera, when the hijackers found Pakistani money in his bag. They asked him if he was Pakistani, and when they found out he had an Afghan visa, he was taken to the head hijacker in the cockpit. Dhital’s wife was convinced he was being led off to be executed, and started crying. But all the hijacker wanted to do was to talk to him, and thank him for his service in Pakistan. He told his comrades to treat the Nepali passenger well.“Human beings can go without food, but they cannot do without water. We were always thirsty in the plane. Fellow passengers would ask me what I would do once I was released, and I remember thinking I will drink an entire bottle of water,” Dhital says.The five hijackers all had code names: Manager, Shankar, Bhola, Burger and Doctor. Of the lot, Doctor seemed the nicest, but his job was to lecture to us about the inevitability of death, and to be prepared for it.On the seventh day, there was panic. The hijackers went through the cabin and said the talks had failed and the Indian government did not want to save the lives of their nationals on board. “We will now start executing you one by one, no one should cry, just take Allah’s name,” he said.Two of the hijackers appeared with AK-47s. Dhital wondered whether they would start killing the passengers from the front or back, and when their turn would come because they were in the middle. The newly-wed couple hugged each other and wept, waiting for certain death. The hijackers stabbed an Indian passenger with a knife. <figure><img width="700" height="472" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108151128/636a68009c7e80680e059a0ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Sanjay Dhital with his wife Rosina in Pakistan a month after the plane hijack incident. Photo: SANJAY DHITAL</figcaption></figure>But soon, it was announced that the talks had been successful, and the passengers were to be released. The hijackers asked for forgiveness. They also asked for a memento and passengers raised Rs71,000 for a model of an Airbus300, and Dhital was asked to donate the rest to the hospital in Kandahar.The couple returned to Kathmandu with the other Nepali passengers to a tumultuous welcome. After two weeks the couple flew on PIA to Peshawar, and Dhital had a model of an Airbus made in Lahore  and gave it to his staff to pass it on to the Taliban, and he gave the Rs23,000 to the Peshawar Hospital.   “I am often asked what did it feellike. I cannot put it in words, you have to live it yourself to know,” says Dhital, who is now 52 and his wife is 41. “I was convinced we were not going to make it out alive. But the experience made me less selfish, less ambitious. After that I decided to return to Nepal and work here.”

Remembering IC814

Nepal’s Gurkha soldiers have a well-deserved reputation worldwide for uncommon valour and loyalty. However, what happened in Hawaii in 1986 and the long struggle for fair pay and pension shows that the formidable fighters from Nepal also do not tolerate injustice. The Hong Kong-based 1st Battalion of the 7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles was in Hawaii for jungle warfare training exercises at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center when they beat up their commanding officer, Major Corin Pearce. &nbsp;&nbsp; The Gurkhas said Pearce had insulted them, and 111 soldiers were dismissed. Pearce suffered broken ribs and a head injury, and was himself also discharged. The incident got worldwide publicity and enforced the belief that the Nepalis were not treated fairly in the British Army. It also led some retired soldiers to begin a decades-long struggle for compensation at par with their British peers.&nbsp; Retired British Gurkha soldier Shankar Rai in his book Triumph and Tears revisits the Hawaii incident which he witnessed, and also his experience in the Falkland Islands/Malvinas war in 1982.&nbsp; He has lots of grievances: unequal treatment and injustice from the British Army towards himself and his comrades. This is an indignant and disillusioned account of the good, the bad and the ugly of being a British Gurkha, which he says let him down despite his service and belief in it.&nbsp; The book could also be a cautionary tale of how one person on a power-trip can tarnish two centuries of the shared history of Nepal and the UK, as well as ruin the lives of those involved. It also is proof that loyalty should never be taken for granted. Four years after defeating the Argentinians in the Falklands, several companies and platoons of Gurkha rifles were stationed in Hawaii in 1986 for joint US-UK ‘Exercise Union Pacific’ military exercises. The goal was to ‘perfect the art of marine warfare in collaboration with the US Marine Force’. The rules were that a British Gurkha company commander needed to have the rank of major and pass a Nepali language test. Captain Pearce was the son-in-law of a British Brigadier on extra-regiment employment, and this rule was waived. He was appointed Acting Major. Pearce didn’t bother to learn Nepali language or culture, and from Rai’s account took every chance to belittle and embarrass the Gurkhas as poor, stupid, rude, backward, and lucky to be there. He writes: ‘After Captain Pearce reached Hawaii, he began to project himself as a master and the Gurkhas as servants, to show off to the Americans.’ The author also recounts other slights, such as only receiving a fourth of the rations they were due during hard training, being forced to train even when some of the soldiers had high fever, and claims to have ‘civilised’ the Nepalis.&nbsp; Pearce had been to eastern Nepal before the training and seen the grinding poverty. He kept telling the Gurkhas how lucky they were to be in the job, and that they were making ‘more money than Nepal’s prime minister’. During the final farewell party in Hawaii, Pearce set up tables to form a saluting platform, and asked the Gurkha pipe and drum band to march around him while playing. The enraged soldiers could not take it anymore, and after the party an inebriated group ran Captains Pearce and Chandra Kumar Pradhan out of their tents and beat them up. Both officers broke ribs, and the major needed 15 stitches on his head. ‘This sorry and unseemly episode is considered to have been entirely at odds with the Brigade of Gurkhas’ tradition of loyalty and gallant service in the British Army. It is regarded as an isolated and untypical event, which will not be permitted to detract from the high esteem in which the Brigade is held,’ reads the report of an investigation. Most of the 1/7 company soldiers were dismissed whether they had been involved in the assault or not. The author describes the shame that followed, with dismissed soldiers returning to Nepal with lost face.&nbsp; ‘I burned with humiliation, and life scared me,’ writes the author, whose father told him that he was ashamed to call him his son. ‘Many of my friends’ girlfriends left them and married other people. Rifleman Khem Gurung (21162015) of Itahari committed suicide,’ writes Rai, adding that those dismissed were blacklisted, and could not get other jobs.&nbsp; They tried to pursue legal action against the British Government, but backed down when they could not afford expensive hotshot lawyers, and would not have the money to cover the British government’s legal fees in the likely case of a loss in court. Gurkhas who had served for four years in the UK were allowed to move there, an option that many of those dismissed in the Hawaii incident took, including the author, who now lives in Oxford. Rai pours out his hurt and emotion in the book. Towards the end, he writes: ‘I depend on small jobs for livelihood. In the remaining time, I actively raise the issue of the victims of the Hawaii incident. We are burdened with insults, hatred, and contempt for a lifetime. It was harsher than a court martial, too heavy to bear.’ The is a slim book, and is a quick, engaging read of an incident 30 years ago, and Rai writes with a soldier’s precision. Even though the anger shows even after all these years, there is no over-dramatisation in the narrative.&nbsp; The first part of the book is about sailing across the South Atlantic in the QEII, which had been converted into a troop ship to take the Gurkhas to war. The soldiers from landlocked Nepal were mostly sea-sick, but were happy to get two cans of beer a day. Barclays Bank even had a branch on board. Rai’s descriptions of the friendships he developed in the Company and on the battlefield are poignant. They braved Argentinian bombs, dug trenches and fought through the rain in the Southern Hemisphere winter. There are vignettes of sharing tea with fellow Nepalis, seeing comrades fall, and finding pictures of wives and children in the pockets of dead young Argentine soldiers. Behind the prestige, honour and myths of being a Gurkha soldier, it seems this is just another job with nepotism, horrible bosses and bad pay. But such is the desperation that up to 20,000 young Nepalis still apply for 300 openings in the British Army every year. &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251227041256_694a253e782c83b0bf89fc1b9840b0ade3f7beca2d0b01dbc4fcd3e63c207f50.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251227041256_694a253e782c83b0bf89fc1b9840b0ade3f7beca2d0b01dbc4fcd3e63c207f50" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Triumph and tears book details NT"> </figure>

Not taking loyalty for granted

After a week of to-and-fro that culminated in all-night bargaining, two populist young figures in Nepali politics agreed at 4AM on Sunday to join forces ahead of elections in March. Rabi Lamichhane of the RSP, who came out of jail a week ago, has forged an alliance with Kathmandu mayor Balen Shah. Both are keen to ride on the GenZ wave that radically changed the direction of Nepal’s politics that has been dominated by three mainstream parties for the past three decades. Under the 7-point deal, Lamichhane will still head the RSP, while Shah has been promised prime ministership if the party wins a majority in the federal elections. Shah will also be the parliamentary party leader. The RSP will keep its name and election symbol. “Agreements must be made not on the basis of what leaders want, but on what the country needs,” Lamichhane wrote on social media announcing the alliance. The RSP chair is said to have put his own prime ministerial aspirations on hold to ensure the Kathmandu Mayor's support for the March polls. This is an alliance of convenience. Lamichhane requires the backing from Shah’s youth voters to face the legacy parties, while the mayor needs a political platform. Ultimately the prospect of leading not just Kathmandu but Nepal itself appears to have been the deciding factor for Balen Shah. The Kathmandu mayor is reportedly keen to contest the election from Jhapa against former prime minister K P Oli in his constituency.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251228041212_1b26fd7f14e418a9bdb827a7b733914c08183c36b4a93694fc1aefda9f45d85a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251228041212_1b26fd7f14e418a9bdb827a7b733914c08183c36b4a93694fc1aefda9f45d85a" data-rendition-name="original" width="900" height="900" loading="lazy" alt="Balen-Rabi alliance"> <figcaption>Photo: BALEN SHAH, RABI LAMICHHANE / FACEBOOK</figcaption> </figure>  The two have much in common. Lamichhane, a former tv anchor, returned from the United States and launched the RSP as an alternative party four months before elections in 2022. He served as Home Minister twice in Pushpa Kamal Dahal's coalition government before being jailed for defrauding cooperatives depositers. He made a jail break during the September protests, returned to prison voluntarily, and was released on bail last week. Balen Shah stood as an independent candidate for mayor of Kathmandu in local elections in 2022, and was catapulted to victory because of anti-incumbent protest votes among urban youth.&nbsp; Both campaigned on social media, pushing a populist anti-corruption agenda and against the governance failure of the three establishment parties — the same logic that drove the GenZ protests in September that escalated into violence and brought down the UML-NC coalition. Even as government buildings smouldered on 10 September, GenZ members were strongly urging Balen Shah to be the interim prime minister, but when he declined they voted on Discord for former chief justice Sushila Karki.&nbsp; With just over two months to go for elections on 5 March, Prime Minister Karki has been trying desperately to get the mainstream parties on board. She has met twice with the top leaders of the UML, NC and the NCP. All three parties have been dealing with internal power struggles, and the UML appears to be the most reluctant to face elections.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251228051212_d42944e014b278d6864270b74f924ac842d6f7a68d5bd6817148d120522ba60b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20251228051212_d42944e014b278d6864270b74f924ac842d6f7a68d5bd6817148d120522ba60b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="Sushila Karki with political leaders"> <figcaption>Prime Minister Sushila Karki has been meeting with leaders of the mainstream parties to get them on board for the election. Photo: PMO</figcaption> </figure>  The UML’s former prime minister K P Oli has refused summons by the Judicial Inquiry Commission charged with investigating the massacre of protesters on 8 September and the arson and vandalism the next day. Then home minister Ramesh Lekhak is scheduled to give his deposition to the Commission this week. The legacy parties appear to be taking the threat from the Rabi-Balen partnership strongly, and have been trying to forge an electoral alliance so they do not compete against each other.&nbsp; They are relying on traditional vote banks among the rural electorate, and calculate that alternative forces will cancel themselves out. They could also be hoping that Balen Shah’s erratic behaviour and Rabi Lamichhane’s prison conviction will put voters off. A total of 837,094 first-time voters have been registered in Nepal ahead of the elections.&nbsp; The Kathmandu mayor is an engineer and rap artist, and had till now been reclusive, preferring to post on social media rather than face the press. His late-night online posts have been impulsive: like the one urging that Singha Darbar be burnt down, or another one recently in which he used the f-word against the US, China, India and the mainstream parties. He later deleted both posts.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251228041212_a2f87881e36fb40b82bf77e1b07003aaf36b91e2a9eb5da096f1e562654c31e3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20251228041212_a2f87881e36fb40b82bf77e1b07003aaf36b91e2a9eb5da096f1e562654c31e3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1112" height="1440" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Rabi agreement NT"> <figcaption>The seven-point agreement between Shah and Lamichhane. </figcaption> </figure>  Lamichane and Shah had also been negotiating with Energy Minister Kulman Ghising’s newly-forced Ujyalo Nepal Party, but the bargaining did not go well because Ghising refused to fight elections under the RSP banner. If the three had been successful in coming together, it would have been a formidable alliance. There are misgivings about the RSP-Balen Shah deal, even among some GenZ who see the two prominent men dividing up the power structure as just the kind of political culture they wanted to reform. Many are already predicting exactly the kind of clash of egos between the two alpha males that characterised Nepali politics since the restoration of democracy in 1990. In the coming days, as with most political change in Nepal, there will be much speculation about the geopolitics behind the Rabi-Balen deal. Balen Shah’s angry post against India-US-China as well as his past nationalistic pronouncements on Nepal’s territorial dispute with India over Kalapani will be recalled, while Beijing has misgivings about the antecedents of some GenZ figures. Dharan-mayor Harka Sampang, who has also formed his own political party, has already pronounced the Rabi-Balen deal as being “foreign backed”.

Old vs New in Nepal in 2026

Everyone in the world is running some kind of race. Some chase recognition. Some chase money. Others run simply to stay ahead of others. But there are some who run for others. They are not trying to overtake anyone, they do not do it for fame, they are not getting paid to do it. But they run to pay for the upliftment of those less privileged. Bal Joshi, 41, is originally from Surkhet. His father was involved in the democratic movement during the days of absolute monarchy and he remembers frequent police searches of the house. And with his father in hiding, the young Joshi had to take care of the family. When the family’s small shop failed, his mother took the young Bal and his brother back to the village, and that is where he completed his education, walking four hours roundtrip every day between home and school. He ran most of the way, and without realising it he has been running ever since. Life was hard. Rent, food, education. His mother struggled constantly. There were days when there was no money even to buy kerosene for the stove. At one point, he sold his calculator, worth Rs 300, for just Rs 80 to get by.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251229031252_edb16b64a3d362a8dc86870bfa5deaad03a84e67d47f37cfd0bb5a8e584691fe.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20251229031252_edb16b64a3d362a8dc86870bfa5deaad03a84e67d47f37cfd0bb5a8e584691fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Running for dear life NT"> </figure>  At 15, Joshi moved to Nepalganj to continue his education. He initially stayed with his uncles, but eventually began living on his own. The transition to city life was difficult, and he experienced significant economic hardship while trying to pursue his studies. There were times when he struggled to meet basic needs, and at one point he sold his calculator just to get by. When he was 17, after hearing that his father was seriously ill, Joshi travelled to Gujarat to bring him back home. His father died soon after, and Joshi took on responsibility for supporting his family. It was his mother who taught him that despite scarcity, life had to be lived with dignity. Joshi started working at a newspaper at the age of 16 as a proofreader, and later became a journalist. During the Maoist war when children were being orphaned as a result of violence by both sides, he became active in the Sahara Group, and at 19, he began managing an orphanage that took in conflict-affected children. In Bajhang, after the army killed a man on suspicion of being a Maoist, his wife jumped into the Seti River and ended her life. Their two children were taken into army custody. During the rescue process, Joshi met Sunaina Adhikari of the ICRC and back in Nepalganj they decided to get married. The conflict was still raging in western Nepal in 2005, when Joshi went to the United States. In Maryland, he initially worked at a Bengali-owned Subway outlet, spending long hours on his feet behind the counter. He changed jobs frequently, financing his education along the way, and ultimately graduated with a degree in finance in 2008. He joined Hancock Whitney Bank in Texas, and has risen up the ranks to be Senior Vice President. A colleague inspired him to run as a way to stay healthy. But it soon turned into something more meaningful — running more than a dozen 50km marathons for charity.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251229031252_165a6d935860cf6707178aa2ac7395733883158f425bbe0ebed125529d601f61.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20251229031252_165a6d935860cf6707178aa2ac7395733883158f425bbe0ebed125529d601f61" data-rendition-name="original" width="999" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Running for dear life NT"> </figure>  Last year, Joshi returned to Nepal to run the Everest Marathon, and raised $42,000 which he donated to <a href="https://onestepfoundation.org/" target="_blank">One Step Foundation</a> which works on health care, child welfare and cultural preservation in Nepal and around the world. In June this year, Joshi and his family climbed Kilimanjaro, raising $19,000 for 80 HIV-affected orphaned children in Tanzania. During the Diwali festival he ran 220km in Nevada’s Red Canyon and raised $25,000 for cataract surgeries through the the <a href="https://www.theruitfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Ruit Foundation</a> in Nepal for cataract surgeries.&nbsp; Joshi does not run competitions, and is not trying to break any records. His motto is: “My race, my pace.”&nbsp; Turning his childhood scarcity into helping others, he says: “We all share sunlight, rain, air, and soil, nothing is truly just your own. I grew up without shoes, and I am fortunate to be able to distribute shoes to those who walk barefoot.” We ask Bal Joshi what (and where) next? His answer: the <a href="https://www.worldmarathonchallenge.com/" target="_blank">World Marathon Challenge</a> that will go around the world to run seven marathons in seven continents in seven days beginning in Antarctica at end-January.&nbsp; Joshi aims to run wearing the daura suruwal and Nepal’s flag as to show where he comes from, and how far in life he has come.

Running for dear life

A day after Rabi Lamichhane and Balen Shah <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/old-vs-new-in-nepal-in-2026-z6l4fgrd">came together to form an electoral alliance</a>, Kulman Ghising has also joined forces with the two leaders, merging his Ujyalo Nepal Party with the RSP.&nbsp; Following last-minute negotiations before Monday’s midnight deadline for parties to file their list of candidates for the Proportional Representation (PR) seats, Lamichhane and Ujyalo Nepal chair Anup Kumar Upadhyay signed a seven-point agreement to unify the two parties, with Balen Shah as witness.&nbsp; Per the deal, Ghising will be the vice-chair of the RSP, joining DP Aryal and Swarnim Wagle as the party’s seconds-in-command. The earlier agreement between Lamichhane and Shah retained Lamichhane as RSP chief, and promised Shah prime ministership if the party wins a majority in Parliament in March.&nbsp; Ghising’s team reportedly has a 17% share on the list of PR candidates filed by the RSP at the Election Commission. Balen has also fielded his own picks, and together the party has the likes of cricketer Gyandenra Malla, actress Reema Biswokarma, rights activist Mohna Ansari, climate activist Tashi Lhazom, and singer Prakash Saput as PR candidates. Ghising had held multiple rounds of talks with the RSP chair and the Kathmandu Mayor to discuss possible collaborations, but had failed to reach a power-sharing agreement. On Monday, Ghising had met with Lamichhane heeding a last-ditch effort from GenZ leaders, in particular Sudan Gurung, as they tried for the final time to get the interim Minister on board with Lamichhane and Shah before the PR list submission deadline.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025123004128_99e23ae7b6a042e71d271e3e74f7527086a7bb55779e6781bc9e7b711c8303e7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025123004128_99e23ae7b6a042e71d271e3e74f7527086a7bb55779e6781bc9e7b711c8303e7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1595" height="1087" loading="lazy" alt="Sudan Kulman Balen"> <figcaption>Photo: SUDAN GURUNG / FACEBOOK</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025123004128_d9f530704ab4c6e27eebf51f8e9fb55fed1d4281c99d089d06455cc7448bfda7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2025123004128_d9f530704ab4c6e27eebf51f8e9fb55fed1d4281c99d089d06455cc7448bfda7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1026" height="1084" loading="lazy" alt="Balen and Sudan NT"> <figcaption>Photo: BALEN SHAH / FACEBOOK</figcaption> </figure>  The three are now set to make a formidable team to challenge mainstream parties at the polls. News of this alliance has been welcome to Nepalis who are looking for any alternatives to break the stronghold of the Oli-Deuba-Dahal trio over Nepali politics in recent history.&nbsp; But they will also carry each other’s baggage.&nbsp; Lamichhane, who was jailed for defrauding cooperatives depositors last year, was welcomed back as RSP party chair with open arms after he was released on bail last week. And while he has maintained his base of loyal supporters, he was subject to widespread criticism after he walked out of detention amid the jailbreak during the September protests, prompting his eventual voluntary return to prison.&nbsp; His party’s silencing and expulsion of critics within the RSP has also drawn direct comparison with the leadership structure of Nepal’s mainstream parties. Prominent leaders like Sumana Shrestha have left the party over disagreements with leadership.&nbsp; Meanwhile, Balen’s impassioned campaign resonated with Nepalis disillusioned with establishment leaders during the 2022 election and made him mayor of Kathmandu. The mayor’s direct, no-holds-barred style of communication and commentary has attained him much support beyond his constituency.&nbsp; But his unyielding, often unempathetic leadership style and policies— like his dismissal of street vendors and informal businesses during his drive to free up Kathmandu’s footpaths— have also earned him detractors. His recent outburst on social media in November that included expletives against both of Nepal’s neighbours and the US, as well as Nepal’s three main parties and the RSP was also widely criticised.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20251230041212_fc2088daf32bac93541ebf25ca07725d75a721ae83440749ac8fa09d8fe308f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20251230041212_fc2088daf32bac93541ebf25ca07725d75a721ae83440749ac8fa09d8fe308f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="890" height="1255" loading="lazy" alt="Agreement NT"> <figcaption>The seven-point agreement between RSP and Ujyalo Nepal Party.</figcaption> </figure>  Ghising, credited with ending Nepal’s prolonged load-shedding during his tenure as the chief of Nepal Electricity Authority, has a reputation of getting the job done. His public goodwill earned him a seat on Prime Minister Sushila Karki’s interim Cabinet following the youth protest.&nbsp; But he has also been under scrutiny for funds misappropriation as well as controversial power purchase agreements during his tenure as NEA chief. Ghising had foregone the leadership position at his Ujyalo party, preferring to play the role of patron until closer to the election date, but was nonetheless criticised for his political and electoral aspirations while being a member of the transitional government. It now remains to be seen if and when Ghising will step away from his position in the interim Cabinet and begin campaigning with his new partners.&nbsp; As it stands, the involvement of prominent GenZ figures in bringing together Ghising, Shah, and Lamichhane has established youth leaders as major players in Nepal’s post-September political landscape. These leaders will have significant pull with young and first-time voters. But not all young leaders are impressed with this new triumvirate. Some have pointed out that the unity between these three leaders is no different from the political opportunism and quid-pro-quo power-sharing culture established and followed by Nepal’s mainstream leadership for the last three decades which culminated into the GenZ movement of September.

lahore

Let the sky fall

Remembering IC814

Not taking loyalty for granted

Old vs New in Nepal in 2026

Running for dear life

Kulman follows Balen to RSP