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Information Security Response Team Nepal (NPCERT) is organizing the Global Cyber Security Summit (GCSS) 2018 in July 27-28, with the theme “Building Global Alliance for Cyber Resilience”. The summit is intended to empower professionals and organizations to build security resilience by bringing in contemporary issues of cybersecurity, mitigation strategies, and solutions with comprehensive Cybersecurity infrastructure.

GCSS 2018 will highlight the silos between business objectives and cyber security readiness in changing landscape of security threats. Some of the main objectives of the summit are to analyze roles of Cyberlaw, Cyber policy and Cyber security practices in today’s world, to identify the areas in Cybersecurity that needs to be further enhanced to meet the expectations and needs of businesses and to build a global alliance for cybersecurity resilience among others.

The GCSS also invites abstracts of presentations from cybersecurity experts, practitioners, and researchers. GCSS provides a platform to share knowledge and experience on new cybersecurity trends, technologies, practices, and innovations. For more information: http://npcert.org/callforpaper.html

Nepal: Then and Now juxta­poses historical and contem­porary photographs of Nepal to examine how the physi­cal and social landscape of Nepal has changed over time. The exhibit started on May 25 inside the premises of Bikalpa Art Center, Lalitpur. Bikalpa is a non-profit devoted to bring­ing art to the general public.

The photo exhibition shows the changes Nepal has under­gone in the past 100 years. The displayed photos repre­sent perspectives of eight dif­ferent photographers, each comparison representing dif­ferent interpretations of the theme of a Nepal in flux.

The participant pho­tographers were Shisang Khyungba Lama, Fritz Berger, Bipin Raj Tiwari, Katherine Cheng, Pablo Lopez, Shrijana Shrestha, Peter Gill and Ram Paudel. The exhibition ends on June 1.

Sometimes you don’t want to eat within the confined walls. But then you also don’t want to drive to the outskirts of the busy city just for a meal close to nature. This is when you can go to The Yard by Oasis Garden Homes at Sanepa and enjoy delicious food while marveling a beautiful garden. Located in the quiet neighborhood of Sanepa (near Nick Simmons Institute) The Yard is a continental cafe serving delicious Mediterranean and Continental cuisines. A cozy patio and picnic benches make for a casual setting for The Yard, which grows its own herbs and organic vegetables. These in turn are turned into mouth-watering dishes by its female chef Senu Ranjeet Shrestha, one of the very few women heading a restaurant kitchen in Nepal.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

Grilled Salmon fillet with pesto sauce

Peri Peri Chicken Wings

Chicken Scallopini

Opening hours: 12 pm-10 pm

Location: Sanepa

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,500

Reservations: 5532965/9851095046

To promote tourism of East Nepal, the first East Tourism Mart is being organized on June 7-9 in the eastern town of Dharan. It is the first B2B (Business to Business) event for the promotion of the ‘Virgin East’ of Nepal, which offers pan­oramic views of Mt Everest, Mt Kanchenjunga and Mt Makalu. As popular in this region is the Rhododendron Trail (Tinjure-Milke-Jaljale). East Nepal has enormous tourism prospects and a big presence is expected from different states of India, as well as from Bhutan, Bangladesh, and China. Among those attending will be buyers, sellers, national and international media, travel industry professionals and delegates. Even casual observers are most welcome. For more informa­tion visit: welcomenepal.com

Applications are open for the Social Business Challenge 2018, on August 22, an initiative of Yunus Social Business Center Nepal, King’s col­lege. The program is being held in collaboration with likeminded organizations to promote social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and job creation in order to help the country achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The objective is to develop the basic insights and understanding of social enterprise as a mech­anism to solve the socio-economy inequality and to invite participants to “Social Business Challenge” to design, present and implement the most feasible venture ideas to achieve the SDGs. The thematic areas are ICT, Sustainable Tourism, Agriculture, Renewable Energy & Environment, Education, Gender Equality, Water and Sanita­tion, Health for 2018

For details: [email protected]

Radio Annapurna Nepal 94.0 MHz celebrated its fourth anni­versary on May 29 by conferring senior singer Yogesh Baidya with its annual ‘Dirgha Sadhana Sam­man 2075’. The prize comprises of a commemorative plaque and a purse of Rs 25,000. Chairman of the Annapurna Media Network Captain Rameshwar Thapa con­ferred the honor on Baidya.

On the occasion, senior musi­cian Yadav Kharel lauded the AMN for honoring someone “who has tirelessly contributed to Nepali music for over five decades”.

AMN’s Group Editor Vijay Kumar Pandey said the AMN felt honored to be able to felicitate someone as accomplished as Baidya, who has not only enriched his field but also contributed to the strength­ening of nationalism. Likewise, Radio Annapurna Nepal’s Sta­tion Manager Thakur Belbase on the occasion informed that Radio Annapurna Nepal will soon be heard around the country via the 96.8 frequency “in the next two or three months”.

As their tokens of love, Suraj Thapa and Rita Maharjan, two young singers, sang renditions of two of Baidya’s songs.

For the first time in almost a mil­lennium, Dalits in the northeast­ern district of Dolpa have gained entry into the famous Balatripu­rasundari Bhagwati temple. Local priests claim that the shrine was built before the year 1057. Dalits, a traditionally downtrodden commu­nity, belong to the lowest rung of the Hindu caste hierarchy and continue to face discrimination even though the country’s laws ban any form of caste-based discrimination.

Local Man Bahadur Sarki says that Dalits had failed to gain entry into the temple despite repeated efforts to do so. Although there is a Dalit settlement adjacent to the temple, never before had they been able to worship in it.

“It was a huge struggle to make it possible for Dalits to worship col­lectively in the temple,” says Lila Tamata of Ked, a local NGO.

Local Dalits are extremely hap­py about the change. “In a district where caste-based bigotry is rife, the change marks an important mile­stone in the movement towards Dalit emancipation,” says Kali Chalaune, chairperson of the district interpar­ty women’s network.

BY TEK BAHADUR SHAHI | DOLPA

Type 1

There’s an open-air hair salon on the banks of the Bagmati River in Gaushala. And there is a line of men waiting for their turn to get a haircut. Dipen Thakur, the 18-year-old barber, is engrossed in his work, oblivious to the crowd and the noise around him. He throws a quick glance at me and says, “I don’t have the money to rent a room. Here, I don’t need to pay ayone.”

Dipen is from Rajbiraj, a town in the south-eastern district of Saptari. He hasn’t been to school. In Gausha­la, he lives with his parents; it’s his responsibility to look after them. “I don’t have a choice. My dad is a drunkard and doesn’t work,” Dipen expresses his helplessness.

What adds to his problem is the regular police patrol. “Then I have to run. Or else they will arrest me. In fact I’ve been caught four times already,” Dipen says, smiling. It’s been around a year since he’s been working in Kathmandu as a barber, the one who constantly fears arrest.

Type 2

Close to the KMC hospital in Sinamangal is Ganga Hair Dresser, which has been run for 35 years by 50-year-old Ganga Thakur. Thakur is originally from Gadhimai in Bara, a district in the central plains. He raised his three daughters and one son working as a barber. He doesn’t face the kind of trouble Dipen does. Thakur pays a monthly rent of Rs 7,000 and has regular customers. “I just about get by,” he says.

Type 3

The third kind of hair salons are those that are operated in large apartment buildings. Mukesh Dev, also from Rajbiraj, runs one in Kirti­pur. He has named it Hair Studio and has decorated it splendidly.

Mukesh returned to Nepal after working in the UAE for five years. He has no plans to go abroad again. “Now I want to do something here,” he says. He already employs three people and wants to hire three more within a few months.

History

It is said that the word ‘hairdress­er’ was first coined in Europe in the 17th century. Initially, the service catered to men. Beauty parlors for women were established only in the 20th century.

Archeologists, on the basis of their discovery of the remains of shaving instruments in the Indus Valley, date haircutting to hypothesize that the practice of haircutting started around 3300–1300 BCE. Over time, the occupation became associated with the caste system. Kings and landlords started summoning bar­bers to their palaces. Ordinary cit­izens also sent for them on special occasions like weddings, funerals and bratabanda (a rite of passage for Hindu boys).

Gajendra Thakur, chairperson of Nepal Barber Trade Union, says barbers are still treated as untouch­ables in some places in the Madhes. It is the Thakurs who are primarily responsible for shaving heads when a family member passes away. They are still summoned for cutting hair and nails during weddings, although the practice is disappearing. “Like bonded farm laborers, Thakurs used to get only 10kg of rice annually for their service. Later we rejected the arrangement,” he says.

In Kathmandu Valley, a particular Newar community of barbers was given the title of Napit by Jayasthiti Malla, the 14th century king of Kath­mandu valley, during his codifica­tion of the law.

How’s the pay?

It’s on Saturdays and during festi­vals that barbers earn the most.

Dipen earns Rs 400 a day on aver­age. He charges Rs 60 for a hair­cut and Rs 40 for a shave. Ganga makes more; he charges Rs 80 for a haircut and Rs 60 for a shave. He earns about Rs 700 on weekdays. On Saturdays, his income can go up to Rs 2,000. Ganga says those who run open or high-end hair salons do not stick to the rate set by the Barbers Association, and have their own, arbitrary, rates. Mukesh charges Rs 120 for a haircut and Rs 80 for a shave.

All three of them are Nepali citi­zens. Barbers from India are reluc­tant to speak with the media. Gajen­dra says there are around 10,000 workers in approximately 4,000 hair salons in Kathmandu Valley alone. He estimates 80 percent of the workers are Indian nationals. The profession is dominated by Indi­ans while Nepalis are going abroad in droves to earn as little as Rs 20,000 a month. Meanwhile, are reportedly remitting billions from Nepal’s nooks and crannies. But official figures are unavailable. No state body has data on how many hair salons are there in the country or how much money Indian barbers send home.

“You don’t find Indian bar­bers in rural parts of Tarai. But in urban cen­ters, they are ubiquitous. And in the hills, it’s almost as if they have a monop­oly on the trade,” says Gajendra. He thinks the state should do a better job at regulating and taxing hair salons. Regulations are important also because of health issues. “There are uneducated barbers who carry out their job indiscriminately. They are not careful about the creams and colorings they apply,” he says.

When asked about the general complaint that barbers charge arbi­trary rates, he responds defensively, “We don’t do that. But there are cus­tomers who want a particular Jap­anese sports star’s hairstyle. Some ask for a Hollywood star’s coiffure. Meeting such demands requires extra time, which naturally com­mands a higher rate.”

The rules

To run a hair salon, one needs to be associated with the Barbers Asso­ciation and register with the munic­ipality office. That license costs Rs 6,000. The funds thus collected are meant for emergency purposes. Thakur says Indian barbers do not abide by the rules but ask the asso­ciation for help when they run into problems. The rules prohibit estab­lishment of two hair salons within a radius of 50 shutters. The asso­ciation finds an appropriate place and helps with the initial set-up. But it doesn’t seem the rules have been followed everywhere. “I’ve been here for 35 years. If somebody opens up a hair salon close to mine, I’ll be ruined,” says Ganga.

“There are some customers who are very polite. That keeps my spirits up the entire day. But there are oth­ers who are insensitive. Sometimes, an 80-year-old guy calls my little son ‘Bhaiya’. That makes me sad,” he says.

Dipen has similar experiences. “There are some customers who use derogatory language. I’m extremely hurt when someone calls me ‘Dhoti’,” he rues.

By Raju Syangtan | Kathmandu