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Few are likely to name the unassuming refrigerator as something that has trans­formed family life over the years. But innovations over the past 60 years has indeed turned this appli­ance from a lowly kitchen box to a highly functional, ergonomic and environment-friendly product it is today. Consumers too have come to hold these products to higher standards. In this connection, LG Electron­ics has time and again pushed the boundaries of innovation and chal­lenged convention. Its dedication to consistently bring convenience-en­hancing features to consumers has resulted in a number of breakout products including the Home Bar and the InstaView Door-in-Door™ with Inverter Linear Compressor to boost overall energy efficiency and performance.

This refrigerator also supports Smart ThinQ, so that users can control the refrigerator remotely through mobile applications

Research shows that on average LG customers open their refrigerators 79 times a day. Despite this, four out of 10 customers had trouble remem­bering what was inside, resulting in a lot of spoiled food. This prompted LG to create the innovative Door-in-Door™ refrigerator in 2010. The first-of-its-kind, LG’s Door-in-Door™ innovation made it easier to orga­nize frequently accessed items in the refrigerator so that they can be easily removed without opening the big door and letting precious cold air escape. By reducing the number of times the main door was opened, food stayed fresh longer. Taking this to another level, LG introduced the world’s first Dual Door-in-Door™ in 2014 to double the convenience and allow greater flexibility in organizing foodstuff.

With efficiency now at the top of LG’s priority list, researchers discov­ered that anywhere from 50-120kwh of electricity was wasted every year from cold air escaping whenever the refrigerator door was opened. So in 2016, LG developed the InstaView Door-in-Door™ to allow family mem­bers to see what was in the refrig­erator without having to open it at all. Knock twice on the transparent door and everything would be illu­minated, allowing for a clear view of what was inside. The response from the public took LG executives by surprise—whenever consumers saw the refrigerator in a store or in a showroom, they couldn’t resist the temptation to knock on its door. The refrigerator had become a conver­sation piece because LG InstaView Door-in-Door™ transformed the way consumers used refrigerators.

The LG InstaView Door-in-Door™ refrigerator also supports Smart ThinQ™, so that users can control the refrigerator remotely through mobile applications. It is easy to operate key features such as Con­trol Temperature, Express Freeze, Smart Diagnosis and Hygiene Fresh+™ Air Purifying with simple touch of smart phones, allowing users to enjoy the convenience of a smart home.

Maintaining unity among the Madhesi parties that had come together to form the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN) ahead of the three-tier elections in 2017, it was then speculated, would be tough. The speculation has been vindicated. In a year and a half since its formation, the six top leaders in the presidium, each of whom represented a separate political party at the time of the merger, have con­tinuously sparred. Things came to a head when on Nov 20, Mahanta Thakur, the reigning presidium coordinator, was removed from the post and replaced by Rajendra Mahato, in what has been described by Thakur’s supporters as a ‘coup.’ Many reasons contributed to Thakur’s downfall. One was the disagreement over whether the RJPN should join the fed­eral government of KP Sharma Oli. After assuming the post of the coordinator, Mahato has been keen to emphasize he is in no rush to join the government, and that the party will join only after key demands of the RJPN, including constitution amendment, are first met. Nonetheless, that Mahato has for some time been negotiating with Prime Minister KP Oli over min­isterial berths is an open secret.

Thakur and his followers were against joining the government unless their demands were first met

While the Mahato fac­tion was in favor of joining the federal government, and pressing for their case from inside the govern­ment, Thakur and his followers were strongly against doing so unless their demands were first met. That was not the whole story though. Other members of the presidium were also unhappy with Thakur’s ‘unilateral’ ways. Thakur, in their reckoning, instituted a culture of nepotism by picking only those close to him to stand in the three-tier elections in 2017, a trend that has supposedly continued while filling key party positions.

If the RJPN breaks apart now, the key Madhesi agenda of constitution amendment will be virtually abandoned. The Federalist Socialist Forum Nepal, the other big Madhesi party is already a part of the federal government, even as PM Oli has shown no inclination to amend the constitution. There is a risk that if the mainstream parties in Madhes are seen to be deviating from their electoral mandate, Madhesi politics could go into the hands of extremist forces. Right now those who have always been against amending the ‘perfect constitution’ might be rejoicing. But soon they might be in for a rude shock.

Senior communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal was perhaps the only top leader in his party who was a stickler for time. Now he has com­pany. On Dec 1, the ruling NCP secretariat, the party’s top decision-making body comprising of nine leaders, including Nepal, was to convene at the Prime Minister’s residence at 3 pm. But when Prime Minister KP Oli, who is also the party co-chairman, did not show up till 3:15, the four secretariat members who had been waiting—Nepal, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Jhala Nath Kha­nal and Bamdev Gautam—decided to leave.

Apparently, this was not the first time PM Oli had kept them waiting. They say they ditched the Dec 1 sec­retariat meeting to teach the prime minister a lesson in punctuality. There are various other interpretations of their decision. But if the reason given by the four lead­ers is taken at face value, it underscores the larger ten­dency of senior government officials to disregard time. Even vital state-level functions are routinely delayed as the designated VVIPs fail to show up on time.

The four secretariat members are bang on when they suggest that as the leader of their party and as the executive head of the country, it is imperative that Oli sets the right precedent. If party chairmen and our prime minister and president show up on time, those in lower ranks are bound to be punctual. But what we see right now is just the opposite. The prime minister makes his ministers wait, who in turn make senior bureaucrats do the same, and this self-defeating ten­dency is passed down the line.

But it is not just politicians and government officials who routinely disregard the time of other people. Nepali patients have long grown used to waiting for doctors for hours on end. Our aircraft and buses, both private and public, are also infamously late. Restaurants take forever to deliver food and our trash is seldom col­lected on time. If, like the rebellious NCP quartet, more officials in leadership position insist on doing things on the dot, those working under them might learn to value time as well. Those outside the government are also sure to take notice. As Shrestha has pointed out, better time management is vital for both personal and national prosperity.

The Odaan Restaurant & Lounge is a new addi­tion to the burgeoning restaurant scene on the Bansbari road (the road from Narayangopal Chowk that leads to Budhanilkantha). They cater to the growing populations of the otherwise quiet neighborhood of Bansbari, Golfutar, Chapali, Bud­hanilkantha and other areas in proximity.

Coming back to Odaan, it is a multi-cuisine restau­rant and lounge that serves breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner and drinks. Chinese, Continental, Tibetan, American, Indian and Nepali dishes are offered on the extended menu that includes everything an empty tummy would want—from “Aaloo Choyela” to “Thai Chicken with Basil”; “Pork Thukpa” to “American Chopsuey”; and “Maharaja Non-Vege­tarian Thali” to “Pepper Chicken Sizzler”—all under one artistic roof.

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Dhido Thakali Thali Set

- Tibetan Cuisine

- Pepper Chicken Sizzler

Opening hours: 11 am - 9:30 pm

Location: Bansbari Road, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 3,000

Reservations: 01-4374939

Q. Three words that best describe you

A. Simple, hard-working, honest

Q. Your favorite country to travel to

A. Hong Kong. Been there thrice already but still can’t get enough.

Q. Best compliment you’ve received

A. That I look like Slash from Guns N’ Roses, especially with my hat on.

Q. Words that keep you motivated

A. No pain, no gain

Q. One Nepali musician you idolize

A. Manoj Kumar K.C from 1974 AD

Q. Your favorite Mongolian Heart song

A. “Sapana” from our new album Mon­golian Heart vol. 7

Q. If you could have coffee with one celebrity, who would it be

A. Binod Chaudhary

Perhaps it is a touch unfair to judge the com­petence of Nepal Police and Home Ministry on the basis of a single case. As they have repeatedly pointed out, the rape-and-murder of Nirmala Pant, the 13-year-old native of Bhimdatta municipality in western Nepal, was a rare unsolved case. In the four months since that incident, haven’t the police been rather efficient in apprehending cul­prits, and soon, in similar cases? That might be true. But it is equally true that no other case has left as big an imprint on public imagination.

Partly based on their assessment of how the state has handled the Pant case, many now see Nepal Police as irredeemably corrupt, and no more than pawns of their political masters in government. They suspect the Pant family has been denied justice as their daugh­ter’s murderers had friends in high places. This is no idle speculation. Given the length to which the police went to tamper with vital evidence at the crime scene, it does seem like they were trying to protect some peo­ple. Nor should it have taken so long to solve a straight­forward rape-and-murder.

Of late, human rights activists in Nirmala’s hometown have been staging daytime torchlight rallies, in search of that elusive justice. Is there justice for common folks in Nepal, they ask? As hope faded that Nirmala’s killers would ever be nabbed, her father, Yagya Raj, was close to losing his mind. Right now he is undergoing psy­chiatric treatment in Kathmandu. Nirmala’s mother, Durga Devi, was having to constantly shuttle between Kathmandu (to tend to her ailing husband) and Bhim­datta municipality (where she went to take part in pro­tests for timely justice).

The whole country is still riveted on the Nirmala Pant case. They see how callous the state has been towards the bereaved family. The longer this case drags on, the greater will be their cynicism of the government and its security organs. It bodes ill for the Nepali state and democratic forces when extremist outfits like the Maoist party led by Netra Bikram Chand have to step in to vouch gun-barrel justice to the fam­ily. After immense public criticism, the police on Dec 7 made an arrest in relation to the Pant case. But they have made similar arrests before. Before anyone else, they will have to convince the bereaved family that justice has been done.

The recent criticism of the government, and of the prime minister in particular, has clearly touched a raw nerve of KP Sharma Oli. The criticism was centered on how the prime minister helped with the logistics and cost of an international summit being hosted by an organization of dubious credentials in Nepal. The Nepal chapter of the Uni­versal Peace Federation (UPF) has in the past been accused of involvement in forced conversion of people into Christianity. Many commentators in this country where over 80 percent people identify as Hindus found that problematic. Others faulted the government for paying the bills of a summit from which Nepal stands to gain little. Most problematic was the prime minister’s acceptance of a reward worth $100,000 from the UPF as well as ‘blessing’ of its head who boasts of being ‘Female Jesus’. Why did the prime minister have to sink so low? There may be a few reasons. One is that the UPF has been sponsors of all-ex­penses-paid foreign trips of senior Nepal Commu­nist Party leaders, so they somehow felt beholden to the organization. There were speculations that the organizers also gave ‘heavy donations’ to the ruling parties—in return for Nepal government agreeing to confer greater interna­tional legitimacy on the UPF.

PM Oli clarified that as a secular state Nepal could not bar any faith

In his defense, PM Oli clarified that as a secular state and as a country traditionally known for its hospitality—and one that is looking to bring in two million tourists a year to boot—he found no reason to object to the religion of the UPF top brass. He also said that should the intellectuals who have recently criticized him get into a serious debate with him, the prime minister would make them lose face, exposing their hypoc­risy. He then added that the summit had greatly boosted Nepal’s international image.

But what he left out was more meaningful. He didn’t say why he was adamant on hosting the summit, despite being advised against it by senior government officials. He didn’t say how much the government had spent on security and care of the around 1,500 visiting VIPs and VVIPs. He didn’t say how being awarded by Hak Ja Han, the UPF chairperson and a leader of what has been described as a ‘divisive Chris­tian cult’, was becoming of a prime minister of a secular state.

With no easy way to wiggle out of it, the prime minister is trying to deflect genuine criticism with pure bluster. But deep down he must know he made a huge mistake.

To all the photography enthusiasts out there, Rot­aract Club of Patan in association with Mhasika Education and Entertainment is holding a month-long photography workshop. This is the perfect opportunity for those aspiring to be professional photographers as well as those with an intense passion in photography.

Commencing at the start of December, the work­shop will have only 25 participants. So hurry up! The topics that will be covered include exposure, light rules, night and low light photography, raw editing (Photoshop and Lightroom), camera type, lens type, as well as guest lectures by established professional photographers.

The content, originally priced at Rs 10,000, is now being offered at 50 percent discount.

Register at: https://goo.gl/forms/USr9JC5tHgKXTHC83

Contact: Rtr. Susmita Baskota 9849932965