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Different parts of Nepal have experienced devastating floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains in the past few months. Floods and landslides in the past few days have claimed many lives across the country, including in the Kathmandu Valley and the vicinity, displaced thousands of citizens and destroyed property/infrastructure worth billions of rupees like roads, complicating rescue efforts. The valley, a symbol of culture and natural beauty, now serves as a reminder of Nepal’s vulnerability to extreme weather events and natural disasters.

Nepal’s geography, home to the world’s highest peaks, also makes it prone to natural disasters such as floods and landslides. According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, Nepal is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Around 80 percent of Nepal’s population is at risk of climate-induced hazards, as factors like melting glaciers and poor land management exacerbate these calamities. While the physical destruction is visible, the emotional and mental toll often goes unnoticed.

A mental health crisis

The human cost of disasters like the recent floods and landslides goes beyond the immediate loss of life and property. As survivors grapple with the destruction of their homes, the deaths of loved ones and displacement, many experience severe emotional and psychological distress. Grief, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are some of the mental health challenges that emerge in the aftermath of such disasters.

Impact on mental health

The short-term consequences of the ongoing disaster are evident—loss of life, destruction of homes, and thousands of displaced families. But as the immediate shock subsides, the long-term effects, especially on mental health, begin to surface. Individuals who endure repeated trauma from these disasters are at higher risk of chronic anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders. Without adequate support, the trauma can result in lifelong emotional damage.

The absence of a comprehensive mental health policy in Nepal exacerbates the problem. Despite a growing mental health crisis, access to professional therapy and support is scarce, particularly in rural areas. Nepal faces a shortage of trained mental health professionals, and stigma around seeking psychological help remains prevalent.

Responding to the crisis

Amid the ongoing disaster response, mental health support must be given due priority. Mental health workers have been working at displaced sites, offering psychological first aid, group counseling sessions and therapies like trauma-focused therapy to help survivors cope with the crisis. Therapists are using techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and individual therapy, which are useful in addressing their specific needs.

However, with limited resources, these efforts fall short of reaching everyone in need. The government, NGOs and international organizations must work together to integrate mental health services into disaster response programs. Public awareness campaigns are essential to challenge the stigma surrounding mental illness and encourage those affected to seek help.

Building resilience

While Nepal continues to contend with the ongoing floods and landslides, the country must also prepare for future disasters. Strengthening infrastructure, improving early warning systems and promoting sustainable land management are crucial steps toward reducing the impact of natural disasters. But equally important is addressing the mental health toll that these events leave in their wake.

To help the Nepali community heal both physically and mentally, it is crucial to encourage open dialogue about mental health and ensure access to necessary resources. Early intervention, community support and trauma-focused care can pave the way toward recovery and resilience.

The author is a psychiatrist 

When I was a middle school student, I was very crazy about kite-flying. This was the only medium of recreation during Dashain holidays. Some of my classmates were even crazier than me. One of my classmates, Sukhdev Upadhay, became one-eyed as he used to gaze all the time at the midday sun while flying his kite instead of sparing some time to savor those rolling green paddy fields!

However, with the passage of time and adoption of modern lifestyles, students of this day and age do not do much kite-flying. They are busy with their gadgets—mobile phones, computers and laptops—which do more harm than kite-flying does. 

Back in those good old days, the limitless sky was an open canvas and popular playground for kids like us and it didn’t matter whether you were a novice or a seasoned kite-flier. 

My experience of kite-flying tells me that human imagination soars high like a kite as one lets loose the thread from the reel, letting the kite soar high in the crystal-clear sky. Kite-flying offers you breathtaking vistas of the Earth, pleasant sounds of Nature and sacred sweetness and fragrance of marigolds and a myriad other flowers in full bloom. 

Neither too hot nor too cold, the autumn season is very serene and sacred also because of the worship of several goddesses, especially Durga Bhavani. 

Those sweet young days of kite-flying are gone for many of us, but this game can help even grown-ups overcome anxieties and leave the worldly cares behind for a while, though kite-flying from the rooftop of a house generally comes with perils attached like slips, trips and falls.   

This year, View Brew Cafe and Bar is hosting a weeklong kite-flying event with delicious food, various drinks and a breathtaking view of the Kathmandu Valley from their rooftop area, which is  specially designed for a safe kite-flying experience. Kites and accessories are also available at the restaurant for participants. This is a good attempt to remind young generations of the traditional kite-flying competition. 

A break from farm labor

At this time of the year, generally, there is no rain and crops are ripening in their fertile fields, allowing farmers to wind down a bit. They use this brief period to fly kites in the vastness of clear white skies adorned occasionally with the rainbow, while praying to Indra, the god of rain, to not ruin their kite-flying season with rainfall! 

I borrow a line from a beautiful poem of one of the most prominent romantic bards, William Wordsworth, to  support my statement while reminiscing fond memories associated with kite-flying high in the autumn skies shorn of rain clouds: 

“My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky.”

A harbinger of goodness

Myriad kites of different shapes and sizes, made of multi-coloured papers, soar in the azure autumn sky of the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country. There’s a popular belief in Nepal that kite-flying brings forth happiness, sound health, peace and prosperity both in the households and in the country. 

This folk festival has health benefits attached as kite-fliers get to soak in the autumn sun, a pure medicine for the human body, which contracts all sorts of infections during the summer.

During this season, kite-flying is done in a big way in India also, including in the state of Gujarat that organizes an international kite festival, which draws global kite-fliers, coinciding with the festive season. Kite-flying is also a ritual dedicated to the Sun, thanking him for the benefaction of crops. 

Kite-flying is an international festival. A global kite-flying festival is held in Paris every year with enthusiastic participation of flies from different parts of the world. 

Making kites

Kites are made of lightweight paper and dried skewers of bamboo. Cotton strings used in kite-flying—with the help of Lattai (kite reel)—are laced with Manjha (a special mix of glass powder and rice paste) to make it strong and sharp so that it can cut other kite strings. Nowadays, multi-coloured kites of different shapes and sizes are available and they create very enchanting scenes in the skies.

“Nhamkha!” The sound of Pema’s voice echoes across the silent mountains but never reaches the motionless Nhamkha covered in snow with an inkling of red. This is a defining moment in Min Bahadur Bham’s cinematic tour de force Shambhala. Pema is truly alone, her red lachha forever woven around Nhamkha’s white fate.

Shambhala is a touching depiction of women’s reality when communal gossip in society becomes her truth. It is also a testimony to the beauty of Nepal, the stunning majestic mountains that peaks seemingly close to the skies.

Shambhala, in Tibetan, means arising to the land of happiness. The themes in the film include polyandry, patriarchy, self-hood, spirituality, nomadic lifestyle, and loyalty. While we may or may not have seen Pema (played by Thinley Lhamo) reach Shambhala explicitly, the director’s message floated around the cold mountain air of upper Dolpo, letting the audience decide if the film was about Pema’s infidelity or Pema’s journey to self-hood.

Pema is married to three brothers: Tashi (played by Tenzin Dalha), Karma (played by Sonam Topden), and Dawa (played by Karma Wangyal Gurung). The main conflict arises when Pema is accused of having an affair with one of the teachers Ram (played by Karma Shakya) in the village while Tashi is away in Lhasa for trade. This conflict leads Pema to go on a quest to prove her loyalty to her husband Tashi. Throughout the journey, we see character development in both Pema and Karma. While Karma accommodated Pema halfway through, he did not overpower her journey. But, rather we see their shared love for music, Rinpoche, and a subtle chemistry emerge.

The conversation around the film surrounds who the father is, this proves how woman’s loyalty is a societal affair. It distracts us from the other essential symbolic meanings in the film. The slow walk through the cold mountains, itself is a testament to Pema’s resilience. Karma is in the dilemma of being a good husband or following his duties as a monk. When Karma leaves Pema to fulfill his duties at the monastery, she falls asleep on the ground, and upon waking up her horse dies. This was a moment in the film when Pema is truly alone. She marches on to create a reality for herself.

The film displays the contradiction of a society where multiple husbands are the norm, but having multiple lovers is a sin. In one scene, we see Tashi warning Pema to stay away from a woman, reasoning she has multiple lovers. The story at times, towards the middle feels minute as the backdrop of the film takes much of the attention. The visuals of the mountains are stunning and even though the characters speak in Tibetan, both subtitles in English and Nepali are provided which suggests Bham’s vision of the audience not being limited to Nepalese and Tibetan-speaking people. The theme is a striking mise en scène looking at the stunning upper Dolpo while witnessing Pema’s solitude and the journey to the self. The lighting stays low-key from start to finish, indicating it is a sentimental story. As we know, cinema can act as a medium of soft power, it feels like a deliberate choice to let the mountains of Dolpo speak at a glacial pace.

This global exposure and recognition of Shambhala is a way of displaying diverse Nepali values, culture, and customs. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and also included as a Nepalese submission for the Academy Award For Best International Feature. Thinley Lhamo, who played the protagonist Pema, also won the Boccalino d’Oro Prize For Best Acting Performance at the 77th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. Shambhala raises the standard for Nepali cinema. For a film to be popular, its entertainment value is regarded as high, however, even with its slow-paced static long-form shorts, Shambhala receives an engagement among the mainstream Nepali audience as well.

The film also does a fabulous job of showing polyandry culture the way it is, and the culture of people and its stories that often get overlapped by the mountains. The film pulls you back into nature, you can hear the prayer flags in the background, the grazing of yaks, the sound of running water, and the crunch of ice on Pema’s feet. The filmmakers allow us to look at this film from an objective perspective. There are an infinite number of ways we can interpret the ending: finding salvation in God, the beauty of reincarnation, the power of society, love, and faith. In addition to that, it includes a feminist narrative exploring the interplay of individual agency and societal prejudices as a woman who is subscribed to the traditional rules and customs of society. She explores her agency and does what it takes to prove her loyalty even if it means walking through the cold, pregnant.

This story comes from a place of adversity while going through a deep personal subtle change seeing life in a new way. In the journey, the dream sequences add layers and depth to the story. Although Pema takes this expedition to find and prove her loyalty to her husband Tashi, after the reconnection, the confrontation does not give her the peace she anticipated but rather ends in an archery test to prove her loyalty. Although we are unaware if Pema hit the target, we are transported to an abstract dream-like reality of self-acceptance, or maybe a rebirth is displayed.

In this expedition, Pema explores her identity beyond being a wife and a member of society. The lingering question of ‘what will society say?’ holds weight and shows us the power that society still holds. Living in a society comes with being watched, talked about, and even questioned. The mountainous region has always been enticing, we have seen the lives of the mountain, but not its people. Pema takes us on a journey from a daughter to a wife to the self. However, we see this discovery only through loose dialogue exchange between Pema and Karma, and later with Ram when Pema says ‘Everyone has to choose their path’.

Maybe, Shambhala isn’t for everyone, but it is worth watching and contemplating its meaning, quality, and delivery in the contemporary standard of Nepali cinema. While the slow pace of nature depicted in the film has been critiqued, maybe it is a deliberate attempt to show the life of Pema within the even slower tempo of the mountains.

As many as 192 people have so far lost their lives and 30 others have gone missing in the floods, landslides and inundation caused by incessant rains.

Home Ministry spokesperson Rishiram Tiwari informed that 194 people were injured in the incidents of natural disaster.

He said that more than 4,500 disaster-affected people have been rescued so far by mobilizing all security agencies for search, rescue and relief after the floods and landslides.

Emergency relief materials, including food, have been provided to the floods and landslides affected people and the injured are being treated free of cost.

Spokesperson Tiwari said that efforts are being made to open the obstructed highway for the operation of traffic.