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After successfully introducing the international franchise ‘Idol’ in Nepal in the form of Nepal Idol, AP1 HD, the first HD channel of Nepal, has now added another famous franchise to its schedule—Boogie Woogie. Boogie Woogie was an Indian dance competition television series created and directed, in 1996, by Naved Jaffrey and Ravi Behl for Sony Entertainment Television and Sony Entertainment Television Asia.

Boogie Woogie-Nepal will be judged by Dilip Rayamajhi, Pri­yanka karki and Kabiraj Gahatraj. The show airs every Thursday at 8 pm on AP1 HD television. APEX managed to briefly talk to Dilip Rayamajhi, one of the top Nepali actors who is famous for his dance moves, about the show.

How do you feel as a judge of Boogie Woogie-Nepal?

Nepali audiences have long seen me as a dancer and an actor. Maybe this was why the AP1 television choose me. I am thankful for the opportunity but, to be honest, I am scared too. To judge talent is a huge responsibility and a big-big challenge. Since people have different views and perspec­tives, to carefully weigh these to arrive at an integrated judgment is tough. The responsibility is immense, there­fore I have mixed feelings.

What kind of a judge are you?

We have a diverse panel of judges, each with own area of focus. For instance, Kabiraj Gaha­traj judges the technical aspects of dancing. I prefer to be a ‘sweet judge’, who judges the entire dance performance, from beginning to the end, acknowledging every feature of the act and the contestant.

Can you tell a little bit about the show and the contestants?

We have been watching inter­national reality dance shows. We get astonished by their talents and performances. Little did we know those talents could be matched in our own country. Boogie Woogie- Nepal will prove that. The audi­ence will be surprised by the sheer variety of our contestants and their dance acts.

I, for one, didn’t expect such tal­ents. But when we started shooting I was stunned by the dance perfor­mances of the participants. Now I can proudly say the standard the viewers expect—after watching many inter­national dance reality shows—will be matched by Boogie Woogie-Nepal.

How is Boogie Woogie different from other shows?

It’s different in every possible way, from its concept to the shooting stan­dards. The stage, the lights, and the props being used have never been used in Nepal before. This show is big, as the viewers will notice when they see it for themselves. It’s all been set to international guidelines. I feel till date there has never been a dance reality show this big in Nepal.

What would you like to say to pos­sible viewers of the show?

I request the viewers to watch Boogie Woogie and to give us your assessment of the show. Today it’s us who are choosing the contestants but tomorrow, in the following rounds, the responsibility will be passed on to you. Help us to select the first ever winner of Boogie Woogie-Nepal.

The Nepalese Society of Implant Dentistry (NSID) organized a conference ‘International Implantology Congress 2018’ on April 7 and 8, on the theme of ‘Broadening Horizon’ at Hotel Yak and Yeti, Kathmandu. Thirteen acclaimed speakers from Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Serbia, Thailand, India and Malaysia shared their views on the latest science and ways to provide better care to dental patients. Some of the more renowned speakers were Prof. Dr. Mauricio Araujo from Brazil and Prof. Dr. Alesksa Markovic from Serbia.

“The conference was organized with an aim to exchange ideas on the latest technology and developments in implantation,” Dr Neil Pande, president of NSID, told APEX. “Implan­tation is one of the best methods in dentistry. It’s been 13 years since some of us started using it here and it’s time for more Nepali dentists to adopt it”.

The conference was attended by more than 175 dental surgeons and experts from around the world. It was the first conference of its kind in Nepal and it is expected that it’d be of immense benefit to the profession of dentistry. Some of the major actors in implantology par­ticipated in the conference and provided their insight on the technique. APEX BUREAU

“Microwaves are life savers,” says Laxmi Neupane, a young working woman. “I use micro­wave ovens almost daily. My hus­band and I are both busy. Micro­wave ovens give us the flexibility to prepare quick meals or to heat up the leftovers.” While there may be many fans of microwave ovens in urban cit­ies like Kathmandu, few seem to know the threat to health that they pose. They effectively poison your food.

To understand the ‘magic’ microwave ovens work on our food, we need to understand how a microwave oven actu­ally works. Microwaves, as the name suggests, cook food by injecting them with microwaves, a form of energy. Inside the guts of a microwave, a device called magnetron channels electrical energy from a power outlet to a heated filament, creating a flow of electrons that in turn transmits microwaves to the cooking cham­ber through an antenna.

Microwaves bounce around in the chamber and cook food by radiation heating—exciting molecules within an object—by becoming lodged in water, sugars, and fats.

The harm lies not in the device itself, but mainly in the plastic containers used to heat food. These containers contain two components that health experts are most concerned about: phthalates and bisphenol-A (BPA). The compounds are often referred to as endocrine disrup­tors because of their ability to affect estrogen and testosterone levels in humans.

They could also hamper with the development of the brain and reproductive organs in grow­ing foetuses.

Some may argue, ‘it’s the food we eat, not the container’. But according to Bhupal Govinda Shrestha, assistant professor at the Department of Biotechnology at Kathmandu University, you should care about the container, too, because after heating, the molecules holding the container vibrate, and loosen, causing some BPA and phthalates to leak into the food. The same with plastic wrappers: they tend to melt (not physically or in a way obvious to the naked eye) and drip, and contaminate the food.

The signs on the containers that read ‘microwave proof’ or ‘micro­wave safe’ only indicate that they are going to blow up and set you house on fire while cooking. They offer no guarantee whatsoever of being ‘leakage proof’, which is, if you think long term, is the greater evil.

So what should you do? As Shrestha of Kathmandu Universi­ty puts it, “Fire-cooked meals may take a little longer to prepare, but they pose less risk health-wise”.

“Where do you send your kids to school?” is a com­mon question I get from those with school-going kids. I tell them where my boys go and I see an unfamiliar expression on their faces. Because they go to a very com­mon school, not so “fancy” in other words, and thus not very popular. The season of graduation of young kids is on. Schools and parents are both competing—schools with other schools to attract more students through innovative programs and services; parents against each other to send their kids to well-known schools. Thousands of parents are eyeing schools like St. Mary’s and St. Xavier’s that provide good edu­cation at affordable fees.

The same parents who strong­ly oppose “examination” while their kids are in preschool, des­perately want their little ones to “prepare” and sit for the “entrance” exam for grade one. I find the pressure on the children around just six to go through this new “iron gate” worrisome.

Equating fees and the brand with quality of education has also created a kind of class divide among the low­er-middle, middle, and upper-mid­dle class urban Nepali families. It gets associated with status—high­er the school fees paid, higher the social status. Education is no doubt important but should you spend so much? There are schools charging monthly fees equivalent to 11 grams of gold. Has education become a new luxury good?

I graduated from 10th grade two decades ago from an inexpensive school that focused on nothing but bookish knowledge. I never had a chance to learn dance, play sports, or do anything that would make me stand out from the rest, besides my academic performance (which I wasn’t good at). I always hoped I could at least compete in some spell­ing contests, but that didn’t hap­pen either. Unlike me, kids growing up today by default learn different activities at any school, and their learning continues beyond school. They have many mediums to learn from. Internet at their fingertips, is of course, one example. Parents’ willingness to give them more, is another. Yes, working parents may not have enough time to do that but time planning is crucial; the kids won’t have their childhood back.

Nepali parents sponsor their chil­dren’s education until, in most cas­es, up to the Bachelor’s Level. The amount spent in primary or high school education could be saved and invested in higher education.

If parents spare some time for their young ones, involve them in things they do, encourage them to build their strengths, and teach them to keep their feet on the ground, not only would the family ties be stronger, the chase for a “good” school would also perhaps end.

By PRERANA MARASINI
[email protected]