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Birth: 27 January 1976, Mahottari
Death: 13 May 2021, Lalitpur

It was late September 2019 when Manavsewa Ashram—a social organization dedicated to rescuing homeless people—was managing logistics to start its new branch in Bhaktapur. A large sum of money was needed. But no one knew where it would come from.

Bijay Jalan, executive director and co-founder of Worldlink Communications, heard about it and donated a million rupees to the charity. Manavsewa Ashram has since considered him its advisor and guardian. 

Jalan didn’t hesitate to get actively involved in a good cause. He also didn’t hesitate when he had the idea of launching an internet service provider company in the country—even when the internet was in its nascent stage.

In 1995, Jalan, along with one of his cousins, started Worldlink—one of the pioneer internet service providers in Nepal. In the early days, the duo used to visit customers’ houses and install the service. More and more people subscribed to Worldlink in the years to come.

But in 2008, the ISP business in Nepal witnessed a slump, and Worldlink was no exception. Nepal Telecom started its ADSL service, which provided better internet connectivity compared to other companies. The situation worsened so much that Jalan and the team almost shut down the company. 

But Jalan didn’t give up. His company invested heavily in new technology and ensuring faster connectivity. Things improved gradually with the introduction of optical fiber networks and NTC’s ADSL would be no match against the new services.

Worldlink is now the largest ISP in the country as well as the largest taxpayer from the ICT sector. Almost 45 percent of internet traffic in Nepal passes through Worldlink.

Jalan recently showed mild symptoms of Covid-19. When he got himself tested, he was immediately admitted to a hospital in Lalitpur and kept on a ventilator for a week. The 45-year-old passed away on May 13. 

He is survived by his wife Anupa Jalan and son Ashwin.

Birth: 6 June 1938, Sindhupalchok
Death: 6 May 2021, Kathmandu 

A Nepali singer gets an invitation from the organizers of the Filmfare Awards in India. He performs a couple of Hindi and Nepali songs and is greeted with resounding applause. The jury members are so mesmerized that they give him the title ‘The Golden Voice of Nepal’.

That title would remain with legendary singer and musician Prem Dhoj Pradhan, one of the most popular performers in Nepali and Nepal Bhasa music in the past five decades. 

Born to a mother who had recorded a couple of songs on Radio Nepal, Pradhan was drawn to music from an early age. Although his parents were separated, and he lived with his father, he regularly visited his mother. There, he used to learn to sing as well as play instruments such as tabla and harmonium. Pradhan got more time to hone his skills after completing his SLC, as he moved in with his mother.

Soon, he would emulate his mother in recording a song at Radio Nepal. In 1955, he recorded ‘Yo Nepali Sir Uchali’—his first-ever. Mother and son would talk about music all the time, and it was this conversation that led Pradhan to toy with the idea of a song that would go on to define his entire musical career. “A guy is being followed by an unknown girl every day near the turning of the road…” his mother had narrated to him. Pradhan then came up with the words ‘Ghumtima Na Aau Hai’.

A single child born to Ratna Dhoj Pradhan and Pran Devi Tamrakar, Pradhan and his family had to face emotional turbulence due to divisions within the Newa community. While the Pradhans were considered members of the high caste, the Tamrakars were looked down upon. His father was forced to tie the knot a second time when Pradhan was just six months old. But that didn’t stop Pradhan from following his destiny. 

In 1966, famed Bollywood composer Jaidev came to Nepal to arrange music for the Nepali movie Maitighar. It was then that Jaidev was enchanted by Pradhan’s voice. The voice of this aspiring Nepali singer needed some fine-tuning and Jaidev wanted to help the young singer do that in Bombay. Pradhan went to Bombay and lived there for a month to learn music. Again, in 1970, Pradhan traveled alone to India and stayed there for a year to learn about arrangement.

Apart from Jaidev, Ustad Ganesh Lal Shrestha also played an instrumental role in his musical career. Shrestha agreed to train him for 15 months. In 1954, he had a dream in which he was singing with the ustad. Pradhan later approached him to accept him as a disciple. 

In 1965, a group of American artists performed at Tudikhel and, for the first time, he saw an artist play guitar and sing at the same time. And the rest is history. Pradhan started various trends in the Nepali music industry; his guitar and vocals would become the most iconic of them all.

He was also the first musician to organize a solo concert—he did so to build a house for his mother. For three consecutive nights, Pradhan, aided by singers such as Tara Devi and Nati Kaji, entertained the guests. 

Swar Samrat Narayan Gopal and Pradhan were friends from a young age and were together almost for a decade between 1950 and 1960. The two used to go to the cinema together—at that time the only way to listen to new songs and memorize them was to watch movies.

In his decades-long career, Pradhan gifted his fans dozens of hits like ‘Para laijau phool haru’, ‘Namana laaj yesari’, ‘Goreto tyo gaun ko’ and ‘Rajamati kumani’.

A few days ago, he was admitted to the hospital after reporting fever and chest pain. He was said to be ‘out of danger’, but a heart attack on May 6 took his life at the age of 83. Pradhan is survived by a wife and two sons—Prasanna and Kabir.

Birth: 17 December 1929, Bhaktapur
Death: 17 April 2021, Thapathali

Trade and commerce have never been easy for Nepal, a landlocked country. Nepal these days imports and exports commodities from different parts of the world. But during the 1950s, it was solely dependent on India.

When Ram Bhakta Saakha, a reputable businessman from Nepal, decided to travel to Bombay to sign a new business deal, accompanying him was his 18-year-old son Ganesh Bhakta, who had already been assisting him in business.

In Bombay, the junior Saakha was surprised when his father told him to stay in the city and study. The arrangement had not been discussed earlier but Ganesh Bhakta  couldn’t say no to his father. He lived in India for five years and returned home after completing his diploma in commerce.

Ganesh Bhakta came home with a lot of energy and the desire to do expand his family business. He first assisted his father, but gradually worked on expanding the business. In 1974, he established his first factory, Unisha Polychem, in Bhaktapur. It was followed by Nepal Paints and Saakha Steels, both of which these days belong to the Saakha Group.

In 1997, Saakha was nominated member of a government research team on the implementation of the VAT system in Nepal. But the same issue of VAT would compel his company to pay almost Rs. 7.3 million in fines to the government in 2012. After the commencement of the VAT system, all sales tax was merged with VAT. But the group accountants had not been complying with new norms.

From his early days, Saakha was interested in politics. He contested the election for the post of ward chairperson in the 1957 municipal elections. Despite not winning, he became an active member of the Bhaktapur District Committee of the Nepali Congress and also served as district treasurer.

Saakha played a key role in establishing the Bhaktapur branch of FNCCI. He continued to be involved in his family business in his old age, before passing away at 91, without any major health complications.

He is survived by four sons—Kiran Prakash, Tej Prakash, Biswo Prakash, and Jyoti Prakash; and three daughters—Usha Kiran, Kalpana Kiran, and Komal Kiran.

During the 1930s, education in the country was limited to those within the royal palace. The common people were denied access to schools.

But Laxman Rajbanshi got the opportunity to study at a one of the finest schools in the country thanks to his father’s service to the palace.

Although Rajbanshi could now study at Durbar High School, he was uninterested in attending classes. For he had found his calling even before his matriculation (SEE) examination.

In 1952, menial workers in the valley launched protests demanding salary-hike. The police brutally suppressed their agitation. School students, including Rajbanshi, who had also joined the protests, were arrested with only a few days to go for his Grade X exams.

Rajbanshi was charged with ‘engaging in criminal activities’ and given three years in jail. But thanks to a generous judge, his sentence was reduced to three months. And he also did appear in the exam—becoming the first one to do so from jail.

He failed in two subjects but later passed in the third division. Interestingly, he completed his intermediate in arts (high school) in the third division from the then Durbar College, now Tahachal Campus.

Always having a soft spot for the poor and downtrodden, it was only a matter of time before Rajbanshi was attracted to communist ideology. When he was pursuing his BA, he was elected chair of the student wing of the Communist Party of Nepal’s Tri Chandra College unit.

He had played a key role in starting an MA program at Durbar College. For this, Rajbanshi had to leave Tri Chandra and join Durbar College as the college needed to have a certain number of students to start the MA program. He was later expelled from the college for his involvement in communist politics.

Rajbanshi then joined Shankerdev Campus to complete his BA, again in the third division. He enrolled at the Tribhuvan University for his MA but there also, he was blacklisted due to his political ideology.

It was because of the same political ideology that the famous communist ideologue Pushpa Lal Shrestha and Rajbanshi developed a special bond. In 1959, Shrestha sent him to Palpa to campaign for the party ahead of elections. Right after the election, he received a telegram asking him to return to Kathmandu immediately. On reaching home, he found that Shrestha had found him a bride, his sister-in-law. He tied the knot with Sovana Rajbanshi in 1959.

Rajbansji, who faced expulsion from various schools and colleges in his student years, would soon transform himself into a reformer of the country’s education system. It all started when he was appointed headmaster of Aanand Kuti School; one of his students soon topped the SLC board. Those who knew him say his focus on practical education was a totally new experiment in the country.

In 1973, he was appointed principal of Siddhartha Vanasthali, a school mired in mismanagement with just 72 students. The teachers had been deprived of their pay for three months and the school owed Rs 36,000 to its debtors.

But the school, which would become synonymous with Rajbanshi’s name, saw its fortunes change when the veteran educationist took over its reigns. It would soon became one of the best in Nepal. There’s a saying: “Every hospital in the country has at least one doctor who went to Siddhartha Vanasthali School.”

Rajbanshi, who also worked as an advisor to the education minister in 1990, was elected to the first Constituent Assembly under the proportional system. He even presided over one of its meeting in the absence of the speaker and the deputy speaker.

Rajbanshi has numerous books to his name. He has written books and articles in Newari, Nepali, and English.

A couple of weeks ago, he slipped from the stairs and fainted in his home, family members say. Rajbanshi was rushed to Norvic Hospital, Thapathali, where he received treatment for 12 days. He died from a blood clot in his head. Rajbanshi is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.