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Kabin Raj Puri is in an ecstatic trance. Two thick metal hooks have just been pierced clean through the flesh on his back and he is being raised above ground with a pulley system. It was not a beautiful sight to behold, but the man performing this act was in pure bliss. At the venue of Nepal Inked Tattoo Festival in Thamel, one expects to see and meet people who are unconventional, bizarre even. You see a guy who has covered his entire body in tattoos, there is another one with so many piercings and in so many places you thought impossible and next to him is the person who has tattooed the whites of his eyes.  But on this particular day, Puri’s suspension act seemed to be the event’s main highlight.   With the expert guidance of suspension artist Alex Pareiro and his team, Puri, a tattoo artist by profession, was swinging in the air with two metal hooks yanking at his flesh in his back. In the background, there was a steady hum of tattoo guns, metal music and mixed whispers of crowds gathered to witness the stunt, but all eyes were fixed on Puri. At one point, he starts swinging and spinning wildly shouting “This is so much fun! I fell no pain at all.” He seemed more than happy to pose for photographs. When he was finally lowered after 20 minutes or so, I talked to Puri about his act. The metal hooks from his back were removed and he was bleeding. Naturally, I asked him if it was painful. “No, it was a pleasurable experience,” he told me. “Up there, you get high.” Our conversation was brief. I was astonished, for it was my first time seeing a person performing a body suspension act before my eyes. The fact that it was Puri’s first body suspension act only left me further tongue-tied. 

Rainfall played a spoilsport for this year’s Dashain. While the festival may be over, it seems as though monsoon is still on, and at the receiving end are the farmers. Every year, farmers harvest paddy before Dashain, but they could not this year. “The gods are angry with us,” an old farmer told me as he was drying his paddy harvest in Bhaktapur on a recent afternoon. The sun was out that day but with the current weather, the sky could grow overcast and the clouds could burst any time. So the old farmer was understandably weary. The rice paddies in Bhaktapur would have been empty by this time in the previous years. I was told not even 10 percent of the harvesting has been completed this year. “Crops have been badly affected by the rain and also by the recent hailstorm,” a woman told me. For farmers of Bhaktapur, harvesting season is a cause for celebration. This is how they have been ringing in the festival season every year. They drink plenty of chhyang (rice beer), beaten rice, and vegetables and gather harvest bounty, the fruits of their labor. The harvest season came late this year. Still, the farmers were making the most of it. I was offered some chhyang and beaten rice on the condition that I take their issue to the government. “Tell the government that we lack fertilizers every year,” a genial farmer told me. I promised to do what I can.

Gulmi: Locals are flocking to play ‘Charkhe Ping’, which has started to disappear. Malika Rural Municipality-6, Khadak Chhatra Temple has seen the attraction of locals in the ‘Charkhe Ping’ installed in the Mahanawami fare. Lately the ‘pings’ made of wood have started disappearing. Iron ‘pings’ are often used in fairs and festivals. Tika Khatri, a local youth of Malika, said that wooden ‘Charke Ping’ has been kept at this place continuously for 6 years. Khatri said that 50 rupees per person will be charged for ‘ping’.

In the presence of President Bidya Devi Bhandari, a special event of Phulpati was held by the Nepal Army on Sunday at Tudikhel. During the ceremony, the army presented the helicopter show, parade, rifle wave and the gun and cannon salute.  Along with the president, Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Acting Chief Justice Harikrishna Karki, Speaker of House of Representatives Agni Prasad Sapkota, Speaker of the National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, ministers and other high-ranking government officials participated in the ceremony.