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Too lazy to cook or too busy playing cards and flying kites this Dashain? We bring to you some luscious food and beverage delivery options so that your Dashain fun is never interrupted. Spend more time with your family and friends and less time in kitchen and traffic this festive season.

Foodmario

Foodmario, an online food delivery service, offers food cooked by home-based chefs. So you basically get home-cooked food at your doorstep even if you don’t cook! There are hundreds of home chefs who specialize in different healthy, tasty and hygienic homemade foods, which you can check in their individual ‘Foodmario’  app profiles. Just scroll through the app, click on the fare of your choice, and proceed to check out. They remain close from 2 am to 9 am, otherwise, you can order any time you like. The standard delivery time for Foodmario is one hour and 15 minutes. Order through their app or call  9801079255.

Mothers Kitchen and Catering Service

This lunchbox service in Ghattekulo, Kathmandu is courtesy of a mother and daughter duo. Deepti Agarwal handles the catering service while her mother designs the recipes. Indian dishes like thali, chapati, paneer, paratha, pao bhaji, chola bhaji are their specialties. They also have a Nepali chef working with them to give you Nepali dal, bhat, roti and vegetable options. If you crave street food, they deliver pani puri, papadi chat and samosa chat—again home-made and hygienic! Food is prepared when the order is placed so the food is freshly-cooked. Remember them especially for breakfast or lunch services. Call 9802008571 for more information. (Food choice and delivery time may vary with the time of the day.)

Foodmandu

Explore hundreds of popu lar restaurants in Kathmandu and Lalitpur with Foodmandu app. It is an easy and convenient way to enjoy what you love from your favorite restaurant without having to leave your place. So, if a guest suddenly arrives, you can order your favorite pizza or momo and entertain your guest without the hassle  of cooking. If you crave a pizza, just head to the app, check which restaurants deliver pizza, check the prices and sizes of pizza, select and checkout. Food will be delivered to you within an hour. Open from 11 am to 8:30 pm, you can order by calling 014444177 or order through the ‘Foodmandu’ app. (Foodmandu will be closed on the  day of Tika.)

Bhok Lagyo

Feeling too tired to cook and craving some burgers at 1 am at night, just when you have hit a purple farash patch? Then you can call Bhok Lagyo, which is the first late night food delivery service in Nepal. Usually food delivery services in Kathmandu do not open all night long but Bhok Lagyo does, from 4 pm to 4 am. Delivering within an hour inside Kathmandu valley, they have their own online multi-cuisine menu that has chowmein, burger, momo, fried rice, biryani, pizza, and much more! You can order through their social media or call them at 9801009335.

Cheers

Dashain is incomplete without liquor for some. However, your nearest retailer may not have your favorite Scotch or rum. Cheers, an online liquor store, will come to your rescue. It has a website through which you can select from an extensive collection of domestic and imported liquors. Also, it offers free delivery, right at your doorstep. Place an order here between 10 am to 10 pm for not just drinks, but also liquor glasses, mixers, syrups, snacks and fruit juices. You can pay through cash or card, after you receive your goodies. There is definitely no need to drink and drive this Dashain. Order online or by calling 014265008.

We like to romanticize things. Maybe our daily lives feel so boring that we pickup on the lives of others and view them through rose-colored glasses. I almost called this piece, ‘Into the Wild’. Why? Well, if you ask young travelers what inspired them they often reply the book by Jon Krakauer who retraced the steps of and then wrote about Christopher McCandless.

McCandless began travelling across the US in April 1992. By August of that year he was trapped due to high rivers, and eventually died after eating a poisonous plant trying to stave off starvation. During this time McCandless kept a journal of his travels and thoughts which was the basis of Krakauer’s later book. This has inspired countless people to travel. Despite the fact he did not complete his journey. Despite the fact he died alone and in agony. I question, how can we romanticize that journey?

Last week I went to a showing of the film ‘The Last Honey Hunter’. It depicts the life of Maule Dhan Rai, the last in a line of harvesters of hallucinogenic honey in the hills of the Hong Valley in Eastern Nepal. The film has achieved well deserved accolades around the world for its cinematography and topic. Just as interesting was a short film about the making of The Last Honey Hunter. Here we got to remove our rose-tinted glasses as professional mountaineers on the technical/camera crew fixed their own ropes, and attempted to follow Rai up the cliffs. While Rai looks mesmerizing on hand-made bamboo ropes stretching up into the mist, the camera crew look terrified and somewhat comic as they struggle to keep balance on their modern equipment. 

So why do we like to romanticize things? We can be pretty certain that if McCandless lived we would have never heard of him. If the honey collected by Rai wasn’t known for its hallucinogenic properties, would we have bothered to watch a film about him? (In fact this film was inspired by the earlier Eric Valli work ‘The Honey Hunters of Nepal’.)  Ben Ayers, one of the producers and the driving force behind The Last Honey Hunter, explained that it took him 10 years of annually visiting the community to gain enough trust to be allowed to film Rai during a harvest. It is clear that Ayers has a deep respect for Rai and the community. No rose-tinted glasses there. Ayers knows the stark reality of life in these hills.

But many people do not see the hardships of others! We unwittingly put pressure on those whose lives are equally as hard, or harder than, ours, by mystifying and romanticizing them.  And when they can’t live up to our expectations… then what? Maule Dhan Rai took his own life not long after coming to Kathmandu for the Nepal premier of the film. We cannot speculate why. Perhaps the god his community worships, Rongkemi, was displeased Rai left even for a short time. We may even romanticize his death, saying that his strong belief in his local deity somehow impacted him enormously. But, again, how can we romanticize someone’s death? This is not Romeo and Juliet. Rai believed and indeed stated in the film that he felt cursed due to the nature of his work (taking from nature).  His life was hard both physically and emotionally.

Yet we have a tendency to dismiss these hardships by donning our rose-tinted glasses again when looking at the lives of others. Either we see them as doing things we would love but fear to do (as in the case of McCandless) or we see people as not being ‘like us’. We feel the latter’s lives are simple and un-complex. We do them an injustice with this thinking. So let’s throw away the glasses and let reality in!

Reza Khanal, 24, is celebrating Dashain by going on a trek to the Tilicho base camp. Not long ago, she used to celebrate every Dashain in Kathmandu by visiting her extended maternal family. “But now, I know of so many people who are going on treks. I see this culture of trekking just before or after the day of tika taking root,” she says, perhaps because “it is hard to get a longish leave at other times”.Khanal’s experience is represen­tative of the changing nature of Dashain celebrations. Mohan Khar­el, 65, remembers a time when he used to be excited about visiting rel­atives to get dakshina (‘blessed mon­ey’). “Dashain meant new clothes, swings and good food,” he reminisc­es. “Now the festival is not the same. People have become much more materialistic these days.”

Now people do not necessar­ily wait for Dashain to buy new clothes. Suman Pradhan, owner of UFO (clothing store) Baneshwor, says sales are usually high during Dashain and Tihar, up by around 20 percent during Dashain for UFO Baneshwor. But “most grown-ups these days don’t wait for Dashain to buy new accessories. The sales bump that we now see in Dashain has mostly to do with insistent children pes­tering their parents to get something fan­cy,” says Pradhan.

Likewise, Ganga Laxmi Shrestha, 45, who has been running Baneswor Tailors for the past 27 years, says business is down this Dashain. “Peo­ple these days prefer readymade clothes. Also, many fancy tailors have opened up, increasing com­petition.”

More social, less religious

The changing nature of Dashain celebrations may also have to do with Nepalis’ increasing exposure to the outside world and great­er recognition of oth­er cultures. Chaitanya Mishra, a professor of sociology at Tribhuvan University, argues why Dashain may no longer be seen as the biggest festi­val of Nepal. “Earlier, Kath­manduites did not celebrate Christmas. Also, Lhosar used to be celebrated mainly by the Gurung, Tamang and Sherpa communities. But even people who are not from those commu­nities have started celebrating it. The same applies to other festi­vals like Dashain and Chhat,” he says.

Mishra believes the emphasis these days is less on the reli­gious aspects of Dashain and more on its social aspect. “It is more about social gatherings now,” says Mishra. “People still get tika from their relatives and visit tem­ples. But this might be because people like visiting temples in big groups, and not necessarily because they are religious.”

Bhagwati Dhungel, 76, concurs. “It seems those who put tika on their foreheads now are not doing it to keep our tradition alive but just for formality. And they go to temples to take photos and update their social media accounts.”

Younger generation represen­tatives agree. Paribesh Bidari, 21, believes “people celebrate Dashain more as a vacation.” When he was small, Dashain was all about flying kites, but now the kites have become a rare sight. Mishra, the sociologist, attributes this to the age group of the people who fly kites now being more engaged on social media. “People go out less, not just in Dashain. They are hooked on social media and online games,” he says.

Chicken more than goat

In earlier days, people used to eagerly wait for Dashain to consume meat. “Usually Dashain used to be the only time poor people could eat meat. However, that has changed,” says Mishra of TU.

Shyam Shahi, 42, who has been running Makalu Meat Shop for the past 10 years, says that his meat business suffers during fulpati, ast­ami and nawami before recovering again on the day of tika. “Many fam­ilies have started sacrificing animals in their own homes,” he bemoans.

But Shahi has also noted a curi­ous phenomenon. Earlier, during Dashain, he used to sell goat meat exclusively. Yet in the past few years goat meat has become so expensive that more and more Dashain meat customers have started asking for chicken instead. (This year, a kilo of goat meat could cost you up to Rs 1,500, while a kilo of chicken can be had for under Rs 350.)

Meat or not meat, Dashain is always a big deal for the likes of Sujesh Mathema, 23, and Alish Maharjan, 24, who have arrived in Nepal after a long gap. Mathe­ma returned from India after five years, and says he is eager to receive tika from his relatives. “I missed visiting relatives and friends and definitely, flying kites,” he says. Alish Maharjan, 24, who is back from France, after a five-year absence from Nepal, “can’t wait to get the rato tika on my fore­head and to meet all my friends this Dashain.”

So although people these days cel­ebrate Dashain for different reasons than in earlier times, some common elements have been retained in all these years. It has always been a festival to catch up with your loved ones, in Kathmandu or at Tilicho. To gorge on good food, chicken or goat meat. To buy new things, either for you or your family, any­thing from apparels to appliances. Many people may not be overly reli­gious these days. Yet they will find it hard to resist the unmistakable Dashain vibe.

Of the 600 Newari house­holds in Ward 21 of Khokana, Shahis inhabit just around 25 houses. Bajra­charyas and Shakyas reside in a few. But the vast majority of the houses are occupied by Maharjans and Dangols.Ward chairman Rabin­dra Maharjan informs that these Dangol and Maharjan households of Khokana do not celebrate Dashain. “I do not know the exact rea­son. But legend has it that in ancient times, Khokana was inhabited by Buddhists, who adhered to the principle of non-violence and refrained from slaughtering animals. That’s why they did not cel­ebrate Dashain.” According to the ward chair, there is also an ancient belief that gods and goddesses come to Khokana looking for a peace­ful place during Dashain when animals are slaugh­tered in many temples at other places.

“Throughout Dashain, the people of Khokana cel­ebrate Sikali Jatra instead,” he adds. But although they do not put tika and jamara, they take yoghurt and visit relatives. They also invite guests between the days of Panchami and Saptami. God­dess Durga is not worshipped in Khokana, but on the day of Nawami, traditional musical instruments are.

Buddhi Maharjan, 69, shares a related folklore. “After toiling hard in their farms, Khokana’s farmers used to celebrate a jatra on the day of Janai Purn­ima. But food was not readily available on Janai Purnima in those days. So they started celebrating the jatra during the time of Dashain.” That jatra is known as Sikali Jatra, which the locals celebrate with pomp and splendor. The ward office has earmarked Rs 100,000 for the celebra­tions this year. Earlier, the Finance Ministry used to allo­cate budget for the occasion, but it has not released funds this year.