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Singer, composer, songwriter Adrian Pradhan has over the past 30 years given Nepali music lovers some of the most memorable songs. The Kalimpong born artist and his band 1974 AD have created a niche for themselves as one of the most celebrated bands in Nepali music. “Music was a phase. After coming to Kathmandu, I used to sing songs of artists like Gun N’ Roses and Led Zeppelin. It was a plain chance that I got to sing the English portions in 1974 AD’s song ‘Samjhi Baschu’,” says Adrian. During his initial phase, he also sang songs of Narayan Gopal, Bollywood songs and songs like ‘Musu Musu’.  “I guess I got lucky that I chose a genre that the audiences appreciated,” he says. His rich discography boasts of six solo albums and many singles in several languages including Hindi. He also keeps his ears open to artists from Sikkim and Darjeeling. “My favorite is Tribal Rain. Bipul Chettri, Anmol Gurung, Girish and the Chronicles are other artists I enjoy listening to. I used to sing like them before but I changed the genre altogether after singing Nepali songs. Suraj is one of my favorite guitarists,” says Adrian. Nepali music fans were very disappointed to hear about Adrian’s exit from the band in 2015. The split lasted barely three years as they regrouped in 2019. “There are bound to be misunderstandings and conflicts when you are together for so long. But the good thing is all of us realize our mistakes and for the sake of our music and fans we got back together. It’s perfectly smooth now,” he says. The Nepali music scene has boomed over the last few years due to the internet and streaming platforms like YouTube. “Now we can sing in a room. We don’t need to come to Kathmandu like we did in the past. Tribal Rain never came to Kathmandu. Neither did Bipul Chettri. There is nothing stopping anyone from becoming famous provided one has the talent,” he says in his signature baritone. When asked about the changes in the overall Nepali music industry he says the quality has improved in terms of recording and studio technology but the market is still small compared. “It’s slightly difficult for artists to make a living. But it’s not impossible. I have been doing this for a long time and I’m happy. These days softwares can make songs. Now the challenge for artists is to sing live exactly as it sounds on record,” he says. The Nepali music industry has been on an upward trajectory as artists are getting world tour opportunities, thanks to an overwhelming Nepali and Indian diasporas listening to Nepali music across the globe. Adrian has also performed in different parts of the world including New York, Dallas, Sydney, Melbourne, Dubai and London. He says that in the 90s and 2000s there was no concept of sound engineers. The owners of sound system agencies did all the work for them. It was all very haphazard. Now there are many sound and few light engineers. There are many event management companies that take care of the many details of a show. However, Adrian believes there is still a long way to go for Nepali bands to be able to put up great shows. “We still need to work on perfecting the sound and light system which are crucial at concerts,” he says. From a small town boy to a musical legend, his journey is filled with many stories and experiences. Now, Adrian wants to focus on writing more songs in the future. “I had stopped writing due to my singing and working with the instruments. It’s high time I should start writing. There are just so many new topics to explore,” he says. When he’s not performing, he’s constantly engaged in practicing vocals, the drums, guitar, piano, and learning about music production. He calls his rich vocals ‘a gift of god’. But he says he has realized the importance of vocal practice to constantly hone his talent. On the personal front, he is very excited about his son Prajwal Raj Pradhan’s career. The 22-year-old has embarked upon his own independent musical journey. Talking about the future, Adrian says he has a slew of projects to delight his fans. As part of band 1974 AD, he is working on a new song written and composed by Manoj Singh. He is also recording a Hindi ghazal penned by Anmol Gurung. He is open to collaborations with other artists. But a recent incident has left him wondering. “Some people feel I’m trying to ride on their success when I approach them for a collaboration. I might have reacted similarly during my youth so I’m not angry. I’m sure they will come around after a few years of experience,” he says, adding 30 years in the industry have taught him to view things positively and not be derailed by setbacks.

I’m a 53-year-old woman and I’m not happy with the relationship I have with my son. His behavior towards me has drastically changed since he got married. He isn’t kind to me and thinks of me as his rival. He left the house and never came back. I have been blaming myself for that. I feel so lonely. There are times where I have had suicidal thoughts. There was a time when I couldn’t even recognize my own sister and was put in rehabilitation for a month. I was a bit better after that, but I still get aggressive most of the time, especially if I’m around people. I think I’ve really gone mad. How do I free myself from this pain?—LJ  Answered by Dr Rishav Koirala, psychiatrist and researcher I’m sorry to hear that you are going through such a tough time. It’s important for you to realize that you’re not alone and you should know that there are people who care about you. You should try accepting that this isn’t your fault. It’s okay to feel angry, hurt, and sad. But the first thing you must do is stop blaming yourself.  Generally, we can divide mental disorders in two groups for basic understanding purposes. One is a soft mental disorder. It includes anxiety and mild forms of depression. The other is hard mental disorders such as severe depression, mania and different forms of psychosis. Symptomatically, to understand it in simpler form, in soft mental disorders a person doesn’t completely disconnect from reality, whereas in hard mental disorders, they are disconnected with reality in one or many aspects of life. People with psychosis may also have hallucinations. Hearing about your situation, I understand your son and daughter-in-law leaving home after their marriage has been quite stressful. That has the potential to make mental disorders worse and might also trigger anxiety and depression. If you are predisposed to it, it may also lead to psychosis. To get to the root of the problem we need to evaluate in detail as aggressive or irritable behavior might be a symptom of milder mental disorders such as anxiety and depression but it might also be present in harder mental disorders.  Usually, the intensity of symptoms differs. Since you mentioned that you didn’t recognize your own sister, tried to hurt yourself, and were admitted at a rehabilitation center, I would say you need expert care and guidance. To be honest, we don’t usually recommend anyone to be admitted to rehabilitation centers in Nepal as they don’t have proper psychiatric care. However, there are a few good rehabilitation centers. But after hearing what you’ve said, I can say without a doubt that you need to seek professional support—a psychiatrist, to be precise. Only when there’s proper diagnosis, can we start looking for solutions. In your case, it’s best not to resort to solving the issue on your own.  Whatever degree of complexity an illness might have, diagnosis and some form of support are always possible. If only you could get rid of your aggression and suicidal thoughts, you could hopefully improve your family environment too. The sooner you see a psychiatrist, the better.

“Prime Minister Prachandaji, you will visit Indore and the religious city of Ujjain. I am sure your visit to Ujjain will be full of energy, and you will also have a spiritual experience in this journey from Pashupatinath to Mahakaleshwar.” This was the statement made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the press conference organized in Hyderabad House after a delegation level meeting with Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Modi’s statement clearly indicates he wants Nepali leaders to be more committed to Hindu religion. The next day, Dahal offered an elaborate Pooja at Mahakaleshwar temple in Indore. Images of him, a communist atheist clad in Dhoti and Janai performing an act of piety was quite a spectacle. The prime minister was joined by the members of his delegation that included five ministers. Soon after his return to Nepal, Dahal went on to perform another out-of-character move by visiting Pashupatinath temple. Here was the leader of the Maoist revolution whose party detested religion discovering faith, so to speak. His move has also triggered a debate whether it goes against the secular spirit of the 2015 constitution. Dahal has defended himself saying that he visited the temples and participated in rituals as the head of the government. But many are not convinced. Even his long-time colleague and former Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai has said: “When an individual goes to the temple, we cannot raise questions because it is a matter of his belief, but when the whole Cabinet goes there that becomes a political issue.” Why are major political parties who drafted a secular constitution in 2015 are now drifting toward Hindu religion?  Dahal is not the first leader who as a prime minister has tried to appease the Hindu constituency. Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli did the same when they were in power. For instance, Deuba as a prime minister in 2022, performed a Pooja at Kal Bhairav and Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi. As a prime minister from 2018 to 2022, Oli took a series of measures to woo the Hindu voters. Analysts say it clearly indicates that there is growing influence of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) inside Nepal’s political parties. Of late, more and more BJP leaders and RSS representatives are traveling to Nepal to step up engagements with various sections of society. A few months back, a RSS representative said: “For us, both India and Nepal are already Hindu states as we do not regard both countries as secular states.” Over the past few years, BJP has expanded its party-to-party relationship with Nepal’s political parties including the communist leaders. Publicly, BJP leaders have not told anything to our leaders about Hindu religion, but they are speaking about enhancing the age-long cultural ties. In their private meetings with Nepali leaders, BJP leaders often mention ‘cultural nationalism’ which means promotion and protection of Hindu religion Since Nepal adopted a secular constitution in 2015, BJP and RSS have been expressing their concerns about religious conversion in Nepal. They believe that there is a growing attack on Hindu religion in the name of secularism. BJP has been reportedly suggesting Nepal’s political parties to take measures to protect the Hindu religion. It is no coincidence that the voices of reinstatement of Hindu state are gaining ground inside major political parties of Nepal, including the Maoists. In the second week of May this year, Maoist leader Ram Kumar Sharma submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Dahal demanding a referendum between Hindu state and secularism. It was the first instance of the Hindu agenda being raised inside the party. Inside the NC, such voices are already strong and vocal.  NC Central Working Committee leader Shankar Bhandari and several other leaders are demanding a referendum on secularism. But party President Sher Bahadur Deuba has so far managed to quell such a demand.  During the 2018 meeting of the Mahasamiti, the party’s second-most powerful decision-making body, over 40 percent of the delegates had petitioned the party leadership to amend the party charter to address the issue. Advocates of the cause argue that the people were not consulted on religion during the writing of the constitution. Of the 1,600 party delegates assembled in Kathmandu for the meeting, around 700 (over 43 percent) supported a signature campaign to press the party leadership to reinstate Hindu state. Inside the CPN-UML, too, the call for Hindu state is growing rapidly. A chunk of UML leaders are demanding a re-think on federalism and a referendum on Hindu agenda. In the second week of May, some leaders proposed a discussion on federalism, but the party chairman, Oli, did not agree Observers say this is not only about the influence of BJP, major parties are in fact trying to appease the Hindu constituencies to gain votes. There is a growing realization among major parties that antagonizing the Hindu population, which constitutes 81 percent of total population, is not in their interests. In 2022, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, which advocates for the Hindu state, secured 14 seats in the national parliament. In a public opinion poll conducted a few years back by Sharecast Initiative Nepal, an NGO, 51.7 percent respondents—slightly down from a 15-year average of 60 percent—said Nepal should be declared a Hindu state, 40.3 percent said they are okay with secularism, while 8.1 percent respondents withheld their views. According to the survey, the support for Hindu state, at around 70 percent, is the highest in Province 2, now Madhes province. As major parties are drifting toward Hindu religion, is there a chance of a referendum? Many politicians and experts that ApEx spoke to do not rule out such possibility. They are of the view that as people’s frustration is boiling up against the current system, there are clear risks to Nepal’s secularism. One senior politician said: “In 2015, political parties had almost agreed to not mention anything about religion in the constitution, but that did not happen. There may not be a revival of Hindu state, but there may be an amendment to the constitution to remove the mention of religion.” Political analyst Dambar Khatiwada said since Prime Minister Dahal has lost all ideological, ethical and principle grounds, there is no point commenting about his recent temple visits in India and Nepal. “During the insurgency period, they [Maoist rebels] destroyed temples, killed priests and spoke about the cultural revolution. Now they have totally changed,” he said. Lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh said Dahal has abandoned all his principled position to remain in power.  “Prime Minister Dahal is traveling to the temples of India and Nepal only to appease the BJP and RSS, which is not helpful to the country. Personally he may take some benefits, particularly cementing his hold on power,” he said.  Singh does not believe that Nepal’s secularism is in crisis, but he does not rule out the possibility of debates and controversies over religion in the future. Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Rajendra Lingden, which is advocating for the restoration of Hindu state and monarchy, said Prime Minister Dahal’s Pashupati visit immediately after his India visit was significant.  “We are very happy that Prime Minister Dahal accepted the agenda of Hindu state. But if this was just an act that he was putting on to make someone happy, it will be very unfortunate.”

The Supreme Court on Sunday registered a writ petition demanding the prosecution of then supremo of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his second-in-command Baburam Bhattarai for forced conscription of child soldiers during the decade-long insurgency. In his third stint as Prime Minister, Dahal, chair of the CPN (Maoist Center), heads a coalition government that has come under fire from the opposition parties in the Parliament for what they consider a ‘poor showing’ during his four-day visit to India (May 31-June 03). The minor soldiers’ move does not come as a good tiding for Dahal. Bhattarai is a former prime minister and the chair of Socialist Party of Nepal. Nine former child combatants, including Lenin Bista, founding chairperson of the Discharged People’s Liberation Army, had moved the apex court accusing the former rebels of committing war crimes by forcing minors to join military activities in contravention of international human rights laws. On May 30, the apex court administration had refused to entertain the former child soldiers’ petition, pointing out that transitional justice mechanisms overseeing war-era cases are supposed to look into this case also. But a single bench of Justice Anand Mohan Bhattarai ordered the court staff to register the petition against Dahal and Bhattarai. A preliminary hearing on the petition is scheduled for Tuesday. The verification of former PLA combatants, which the United Nations Mission in Nepal had conducted in 2007 for integrating former rebel soldiers into the Nepali Army, had disqualified thousands of Maoist combatants, including Bista, for being minors. Of the 4,008 disqualified combatants, 2,973 turned out to be minors while the remaining 1,035 were found to have joined the Maoist ‘People’s Liberation Army’ after the first ceasefire of 26 May 2006—six months before the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in 2006. The government had provided Rs 500,000-Rs 800,000 each to combatants opting for voluntary retirement, whereas the child soldiers had received token assistance from the United Nations.