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Birth: November 7, 1937, Thankot
Death: March 29, 2021, Moscow

Krishna Prakash Shrestha wanted to study journalism in the US, the most technologically advanced country in the world.

But when the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, the Sputnik 1, Shrestha’s interest in communist Russia grew to a point that he no longer wanted to go to the US.

In 1959, Shrestha received a scholarship from Moscow State University for an MA in Journalism. On the completion of his studies, he planned on returning Nepal to serve at Gorkhapatra, Nepal’s longest surviving state-run newspaper. But that was not to be.

Shrestha, whom his colleagues and friends remember as being “straight-forward”, never wanted to work abroad, but destiny had other plans. As the Cold War intensified, the Soviet Union was eager to establish a Nepali service at Radio Moscow to counter the BBC’s Hindi and Nepali services. In Shrestha, it saw the perfect person to run the Nepali service.

Shrestha initially declined the offer but had to accept it after pressure from friends and family. Russia not only gave him a job, but also his life partner. While working for Radio Moscow, he fell in love with a Russian, Erina, and the couple took their vows in 1964.

Besides working for the radio, Shrestha was actively involved in translating Russian literature into Nepali and vice-versa. His incomparable skills gave Nepali readers masterpieces such as Gypsy, Belkin ka katha and Dubrovsky. His translation of Nepali works such as Yamalok ko juido machhe, Langado ko sathi, Muna-madan in turn gave Russian readers a glimpse of Nepali literature.

Shrestha was an active member of the Russian Writers Union and also served as a central advisor to the World Federation of Nepali Literature as well as an honorary member of Nepal Children’s Literature Society. During his 60 years in Russia, he also helped bring together peoples of two countries.

Having won the trust of officials in both the countries, he was seen by many as an unofficial Nepali diplomat in Russia. He also worked as an official translator during Nepal-Russia governmental meetings.

As it became difficult to travel, he had to renounce his Nepali citizenship at the age of 70, with a heavy heart. There were times Russian officials suspected him of being involved in espionage.

Three years ago, Erina died, leaving behind their two daughters, Janna and Marina. A devastated Shrestha took time to return to his daily schedule. During the Covid-19 lockdown, he made himself busy by attending almost every online event he was invited to.

Also in 2020, he produced a book Two Capitals: Moscow and Kathmandu by coordinating with 10 writers each from Nepal and Russia.

Shrestha received various awards and recognitions: Outstanding Radio and Television Jockey (1988), Mahakabi Devkota Satabdi Samman (2008), Jagadamba Shree (2014), Satya Mohan Joshi Satabdi (2016), among others. Besides, for the first time, Nepal Academy had announced to award Shrestha with the biggest honor in translation, Anubaad Pragya Samman.

But before he could make it to Nepal to receive the award at the President's hands, he passed away, aged 82, from Covid-19 complications at a Moscow hospital.

Birth: 8 April 1931, Thamel
Death: 4 April 2021, Chhauni

During the 1950s, education for Nepalis outside Asia was still an abstract dream, even for the elites. So Arjun Narsingha Rana struggled to convince his family to let him pursue his studies in the US. Nonetheless, after joining the Royal Nepali Army, he ended up becoming the first Nepali to complete a US Staff College course.

Regarded as a trendsetter who wanted to reform the then Royal Nepali Army, Rana was responsible for instituting many changes in the institution. The United Nations had started deploying peacekeeping forces to troubled places in the world in 1948. But it was only in 1974 that Nepal expressed its interest to deploy its army on such missions. Under the leadership of the then colonel Rana, (now) Nepal Army sent 571 peacekeepers to UNEF-II in Egypt from the Purano Gorakh Battalion, the first such contingent of UN peacekeeping troops from Nepal.

Gradually, after almost 10 years, in 1983, Rana got promoted to the Chief of Army Staff for a four-year term. Under his leadership the army in 1986 established the Directorate of Military Materials Production and the Directorate of Health Services, with the goals of manufacturing necessaries for the army inside the country and for free treatment of army personnel and families, respectively.

Even now, the Directorate of Military Materials Production oversees Sundarijal Arsenal, Saywambhu Baroodkhana, Multipurpose Garment and Plastic Industry, and Sunachuri Emulsion Plant.

Similarly, in 1986, Rana’s command inaugurated the Directorate of Animal Development and Medicine that supplies to Army Animal Hospital, Soldier Stud Farm Centre and Bhairab Bahan Battalion. It also includes the Training and Animal Selection Guide for veterinary training, animal breeding, diagnosis and treatment of army pets.

Moreover, he wanted to modernize the force and with this intent established, first, a taskforce for air service and air defense, and then built a separate army air base. He also ensured proper combat dress and insurance for every army personnel.

After retirement, Rana served as Nepal’s ambassador to Pakistan (1988-1992).

Rana completed his schooling from Aligadh and Banaras, India and returned to Nepal for his Bachelor degree education at Tri Chandra College. He joined the then Royal Nepal Army as a Second lieutenant in 1952

Rana had been admitted to Birendra Military Hospital, Chhauni when he contracted Covid-19 at the age of 91. He later passed away from pneumonia.

Three years ago, he had lost his wife and only a month ago his only son, Arun Narsingha, to cancer. He is survived by his four daughters and a daughter-in-law.

Birth: 26 April 1945, Myagdi

Death: 25 March 2021, Butwal

His biggest claim to fame came on Democracy Day 1963, in the company of then royals and other high-ranking government officials. The song he sang that day at the Rastriya Nach Ghar during in what was an inter-zonal competition had beat the entries of 13 other zones.

Tika Bahadur Shrestha’s ‘Beni ko bazara, jata maya tetai cha najar’ became an overnight sensation. In 1974, in the process of collecting and singing folk songs, he recorded the famous track with Mana Chhantyal, at Record Nepal. Soon, the two developed an unbeatable chemistry. Shrestha would go on to marry Chhantyal as his second wife in 1978, eight years after his first marriage. (It was common practice at the time to take a second wife even with the first marriage still intact.)

The song helped establishing Beni, now a municipality, as a town of lovebirds. Moreover, this evergreen song has been able to create a loyal fan-base even among the youths.

An all-round instrumentalist, Shrestha loved collecting and recording songs but for the past one decade, he had been completely out of the music industry, and inclined more and more towards social work. Separately, Shrestha was also the first person to establish a boarding school in Butwal.

Shrestha, 75, a long-time kidney patient, had spent over half a century with his first wife, before her death in late 2020. He leaves behind a spouse, two sons and two daughters.

Taking to ApEx, Premdev Giri, a senior folk song collector and composer from Pokhara, said Nepal had lost an irreplaceable pillar of folk music.

Birth: 23 April 1943, Nawalparasi
Death: 18 March 2021, Biratnagar

The year was 1985. In a cold police cell in Biratnagar with only a tiny ventilation hole allowing some rays of light, Ashok Koirala was given third-degree torture for his involvement in anti-Panchayat activities. At one point, the officers inserted a packet-full of red chili powder into his anus, knocking him unconscious. The incident, infamously known as Khursani Kanda in Nepali politics, failed to faze him though. In the grim and blurry moments that followed, he felt an ever stronger resolve to fight for democracy.

Outside, public pressure was mounting and the authorities released him after two months of unlawful custody. Koirala, a member of the outlawed Nepali Congress party, rejoined the ongoing anti-Panchayat democratic movement. Five years later in 1990, a multi-party democracy replaced the Panchayat regime. Biratnagar elected Koirala as its first mayor.

Often regarded as a man of principles by his contemporaries, Koirala was a staunch defender of democratic values. For his opposition to nepotism and never seeking favors despite his right connections, his party colleagues spoke of him highly. While former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was his cousin, another ex-PM Sushil Koirala was his elder brother.

Koirala was the fourth among 12 children of a civil servant father and a homemaker mother. He grew up in Kailali, Nepalgunj, and Siraha, as the middle-income family moved with the father’s transfers. The young Koirala did not have stable education but plenty of exposure to different places and people.

When his father got transferred to Biratnagar in eastern Nepal from Nepalgunj, Koirala’s family had to split. Ashok accompanied father Bodh Prasad and mother Kumudini to Biratnagar, where he spent the rest of his life. He married Shanta Koirala when he was 46.

Koirala got involved in student politics, and later played a key role in leading the student movement during the 1990 People’s Movement. He was a founding central committee member of the Nepal Student Union, the student wing of the Nepali Congress. He served the union as vice-president under President Sher Bahadur Deuba, who later rose to party presidency and became four-time prime minister.

He is remembered for his outstanding leadership of the second People's Movement of 2006, when he was the president of Nepali Congress Morang district committee. He was a key figure in the consolidation of party organization in its most important base—Biratnagar. Elected to the Constituent Assembly in 2013, he was among the drafters of the new Nepali constitution.

The 77-year-old was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at Biratnagar-based Neuro Hospital when he passed away. He is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter.