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Subin Bhattarai is the author of the bestselling Nepali romance novels ‘Summer Love’ and ‘Saaya’. Summer Love, published in 2012, was translated into English and later adapted into a movie as well. In 2014, Saaya, the sequel to Summer Love, was reprinted in the same month as it was published. In 2022, he published his sixth and latest book, ‘Ijoriya’, which is set in the Maithili-speaking region of southern Nepal. Cilla Khatry talked to Bhattarai to dig deeper into his reading and writing habits.  Do you have a reading or writing ritual?  I’m not a disciplined reader. I read whenever I feel like it. There’s no pattern. But I must finish every book I pick up. Sometimes it takes two to three days to finish a book, and other times, it takes weeks. I enjoy reading when I have a lot of free time. I usually read in the morning and afternoon. It’s the same with writing. As a full-time writer, I’m always reading or writing so I want to wrap things up by early evening. I want to relax in the evening and night time—I might watch a movie or a series.  Which books and authors have influenced you? I’m a huge fan of BP Koirala. I wouldn’t have been a writer had it not been for his books. Reading him sparked my creative side. All his books are phenomenal but if I had to pick, I’d say ‘Narendra Dai’, ‘Hitler ra Yahudi’, and ‘Sumnima’ are my favorites.  I have also been fascinated by the works of Dhurba Chandra Gautam and Dha. Cha. Gotame. Gautam’s short stories are marvelous and I love Gotame’s ‘Ghamka Pailaharu’. Other than these three writers, I enjoy reading writers who have a good grasp on language and wordplay.  What books are currently on your TBR (to-be-read) list?  I read a lot of contemporary Nepali fiction. I want to read all the books that come out. I might not always be able to do that so sometimes I make a list of all the books that have come out in the past six months or so that I haven’t read, buy them in one go, and read them back-to-back. I believe in recommendations. When someone recommends a book, I want to pick it up.  There are also many English novels that I want to read. I have a copy of ‘It Ends with Us’ by Colleen Hoover. I have been meaning to start reading it for a while now. I want to read all her books. She’s so popular. I want to know why. I also want to read more English classics. ‘The Adolescent’ by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky is high on the list.  As a writer, how difficult is it to stay relevant?  Every writer must think about this because unless you grow, your audience will outgrow you. A writer must change with and adapt to the times. For that, it’s important to be updated and read a lot. You must read everything, from non-fiction to poetry, to be able to write well. A fiction writer shouldn’t only read fiction.  Time and experience are also excellent teachers. Life can teach you a lot if you let it as you will go through a rainbow of emotions—there will be joy, sorrow, anger, confusion, and so much more. Then, as a writer, you must never think you are a master of your craft. You have to take reviews and feedback seriously and hone your writing accordingly.  How do you feel about the current publishing scene in Nepal? I believe writers shouldn’t be in a hurry to publish their work. A book needs to go through multiple rewrites and rigorous editing. But there are many publishing houses and authors alike who are just in a rush to publish a book. This leads to many mistakes. It takes a lot of effort and investment to bring out a book, and I feel that’s largely missing these days. There’s a lack of preparation. Our publishing industry, writers included, I believe, lacks patience. That’s not a good thing because rewrites are important—it will give you a chance to make the language sharper and flesh out the characters.  Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?  To cut a tree in an hour, you have to sharpen the ax for six hours. What I mean by this is that it takes a lot of hard work and preparation before you can get a job done properly. Likewise, a story can’t be developed overnight. If you want to write well, you must do your research. You must read. You must have a lot of conversations, go through a lot of experiences, churn them in your head, and develop your narrative. Be prepared to put in the effort. 

The Bagmati Cleaning Campaign, that kicked off on 19 May 2013, marks its 500th week this Saturday, Dec 10. The cleaning campaign that started from the Kathmandu Valley has now expanded across the country. Since the beginning of the campaign, every Saturday, the team has been collecting around 1.5 metric tons of garbage from different stretches of the Bagmati river bank.  In its 100th week, 150,000 people formed a human chain. Similarly, in the 200th week, they had organized a formal program and requested schools and government offices to join the campaign. Not only that, the team requested all the local levels across the country to be involved in cleaning the rivers in their respective areas. This time the campaigners haven’t planned any special program to mark the 500th week. Mala Kharel, one of the core team members of the project says, “Due to the recent conflict between Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the squatters living on the banks of Bagmati, we couldn’t plan a special program.” They will instead be planting trees and cleaning as usual. We have captured the two sides of the Bagmati river—the clean and dirty. Because of the campaign there are now a few gardens and parks along the banks. However, the river isn’t as clean as it could be. The campaigners say that unless the government makes plans to divert the sewage system elsewhere, and stops it from emptying into the rivers, no cleaning campaign will ever be enough. 

Gajendra Budhathoki, who has been involved in Nepali media for almost three decades, says journalism is an addiction. The winner of the National Journalism Award is wheelchair-bound but that hasn’t stopped him from writing some of the best news articles and investigative pieces. And he is still striving to do more in Nepali journalism. “My disability doesn’t have to be an inability,” he says.    The 47-year-old started his journey as a reporter from Udayapur in Province 1 where he was born and raised. He was just 18 years old back then. He was associated with the town’s local newspaper, which was basically articles written by him and a few of his colleagues, he says. But, for him, education was also one of the priorities. At that time, not every district offered a bachelor’s degree. Udayapur didn’t have a bachelor’s program either. Fortunately, he was offered a job in Kathmandu at Nepal Samacharpatra. Additionally, the city also had a great bachelor’s program in communication.  Budhathoki loves reporting and his write ups are evidence of his extensive travels. He was a part of many field trips organized by various NGOs, and that helped him bring out stories from the rural parts of Nepal. Although his trips were funded by different organizations, he says he always did his best to write without bias and tell the truth. He wasn’t trying to curry any favors from the NGOs or be on their good books. “Eventually, they stopped inviting me since I wasn’t writing what they wanted me to,” he says.  He was making quite the mark as a strong-willed journalist when, in 2008, he got into a road accident. His bike collided with a four-wheeler. There had been heavy downpour and almost zero visibility. “There was no external injury as I was driving slowly. But my back hit the concrete and I injured my spine,” he says.  The time after the accident was tough on him and his family. He was given a 10 percent chance to survive the surgery he would have to undergo. His wife decided to risk it and Budhathoki is grateful for the decision she made. He has undergone many surgeries after the initial one but he is alive today and that’s what matters, he says.  Budhathoki spent seven months at the Alka Hospital in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur. He says there was a lot of uncertainty and confusion as to what to do next. He was worried about whether he could continue his work. The doctor, however, pushed him to get back to writing, which, he says, was a reason enough for him to jump start his career again. Four days after the surgery, the doctor had him sit up and handed him a laptop. He then told Budhathoki that he shouldn’t be sleeping all day and should use the time to write instead. Budhathoki confesses things were difficult but what would have been worse was if someone were to claim he was taking advantage of his disability. As soon as he was discharged from the hospital, he went to the office, like any other day before the accident. “My wife would accompany me to work. It would also have been impossible to maintain that routine if my colleagues hadn’t been supportive,” he says.   Budhathoki feared he wouldn’t be able to do investigative reporting, being bound to his desk. But he realized that with access to the telephone and internet, he could still make things work. Today, he travels around when necessary but he is able to accomplish quite a lot from behind a computer too.  Out of all the investigative stories he has worked on so far, he says he is particularly proud of the one that exposed the Coca-Cola company and their tax fraud in the series of articles published in Taksar Magazine, an economic magazine where he is the editor-in-chief. It took Budhathoki 14 months to complete the story. “I worked on it mostly from behind the desk making phone calls and writing emails. It’s not difficult to get things done if you are determined,” he says.  Budhathoki received a lot of threats after the articles were published. Once some goons came to his house with the intention to finish him off, he says. Thankfully, his neighbor, who was a retired army officer, chased them away. But these kinds of horrifying incidents, and there have been a few, haven’t deterred Budhathoki from doing what he does best—reporting on issues that matter.  Despite his love for journalism, he says it isn’t enough to provide his family the life he feels they deserve. So he has taken up a teaching position besides research work. But that is just so he has the liberty to continue his work in journalism without letting his financial situation get in the way. Several political parties have also approached him to get involved in politics. But that’s not what he wants to get into, at least not right now. He feels he has yet to make a mark in journalism and that is where his heart lies. 

In Aug 2022, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York, US, returned two archeological artifacts to Nepal: a 10th-century stone statue and a 13th-century wooden strut. These artifacts had arrived at the Met in the 90s.

The statue of Mahagauri of the 13th century was stolen in 1970 from Deopatan.

This is just one incident of lost and stolen historical, cultural and archeological heirlooms cropping up in personal and museum collections in different parts of the world. Rabindra Puri, Nepali conservationist, and his team are doing their best to return such pieces of Nepali art, history and culture. 

The statue of Dancing Ganesh of the 15th century was stolen in mid 1985 from Sanga.

Puri has started the project called ‘The Museum of Stolen Art’, which aims to preserve traditional arts, artifacts and monuments of Nepal by raising awareness about lost and stolen artifacts.

The statue of Female Divinity of the 18th century was stolen in early 1980 from Patan.

“As an initial step, we planned to display the replicas of 50 lost and stone sculptures. To date, we have already made 40 replicas,” he says.

The statue of Mahankal of the 17th century was stolen in 2009 from Inchotol, Bhaktapur.

These replicas are displayed at The Heritage Gallery in Toni Hagen House, Bhaktapur. These deities are not for sale, and will be taken to the Museum of Stolen Art in Panauti, Kavre, once the building is completed. 

The statue of Garudasana Vishnu of the 10th century was stolen in late 1970 from Hyumat Tol, Kathmandu.

All of these facsimiles were crafted under the leadership of a renowned stone artist Timir Nashan Ojha and his team of 11 Nepali and Indian sculptors.

The statue of Vishnu with Laxmi and Garuda of the 10th century was stolen in 1983 from Bhaktapur.

“The former US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry was very supportive in helping us bring back the statues,” Puri says. “I hope the newly appointed ambassador will continue to show us the similar level of support.”

The statue of Uma-Mahesvara of the 8th century was stolen in 1983 from Pashupatinath Temple.

The statue of Buddha Flanked by Bodhisattvas of the 9th century was stolen in late 1970 from Alkohiti, Patan.