While <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-are-drifting-to-digital-media">digital gadgets</a> like smartphones have saved people a lot of time, provided people with new opportunities to learn, and improved access to information, it has also stretched their attention in multiple directions. The ever-growing digital dependency is disconnecting them from real-world human connection.
The constant influx of emails, notifications, social media updates can be overwhelming and cause stress and mental fatigue. Mindfulness practices such as meditation have become <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/life-times/In-the-Mountain,181">necessary coping mechanisms</a> to navigate the fast-paced, information-saturated world.
With the increasing availability of digital devices children are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-is-becoming-a-nation-of-net-addicts">spending more time online</a> which may interfere with their learning and concentration in the classroom, as well as decrease focus and attention span. Excessive screen time has also been proven to be harmful to children's cognitive development, including attention, memory, and academic achievement. It can also cause behavioral difficulties, including impulsivity, hyperactivity, and inattention.
In this day and age of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mobile-nepal-is-hooked-on-youtube">digital distraction</a>, it is important to introduce meditation in classrooms, as it can help students develop skills in mindfulness, focus, and emotional regulation, which are critical for learning and overall well-being.&nbsp;
Meditation can also promote empathy and compassion among students, which can help to build a more positive and supportive <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/teaching-nepali-teachers-to-teach-better">classroom culture</a>. By learning to be more present and aware of their thoughts and feelings, students can develop a greater understanding of the perspectives of others and be more empathetic toward their peers. Meditation can also help them develop better concentration, focus, and problem-solving skills, which can lead to better academic performance.
Those who practice meditation on a daily basis can enhance their attention and emotional regulation abilities, allowing them to handle stress more effectively and improve their general well-being.
Digital overuse also has potentially negative effects on children's creativity and imagination. Excessive screen time and over-reliance on digital devices can lead to a lack of imaginative play and limit opportunities for children to focus and engage in deep, creative thinking. This can lead to a reduction in the quality and originality of their ideas and a decreased ability to generate new, innovative solutions to problems.&nbsp;
To avoid these possible adverse effects it is important to encourage them to participate in activities such as dhyaan <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/the-real-essence-of-yoga-may-erode-as-it-globalises,2471">yoga</a> or meditation yoga that stimulate creativity and imagination. Dhyaan Yoga can help children learn to connect more deeply with themselves and others, and could also serve as a tool for helping build empathy and compassion.&nbsp;
It is necessary to separate meditation from religion. Meditation is a practice that can be approached from a secular perspective and adapted to suit a variety of cultural, philosophical, and spiritual traditions. In a secular context like classrooms, meditation can be approached as a tool for enhancing well-being, reducing stress and anxiety, and improving mental health.&nbsp;
Many schools and educational institutions are introducing meditation programs as a way to promote the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/post-pandemic-mental-health-epidemic">mental health and well-being</a> of students, without any religious or spiritual content. These programs focus on teaching students how to develop mindfulness and self-regulation skills, which can help them manage stress, anxiety, and other emotional challenges.
Modeling the meditation practice in the classroom is an effective technique to introduce students to mindfulness practices and instruct them on how to apply them to their everyday lives. Teachers can meditate in front of students to demonstrate how it is done. This can be done at specific meditation times or as part of a regular routine, such as before or after class. This helps students understand the advantages of mindfulness techniques and learn how to apply them in their daily lives.&nbsp;
Finding peace through meditation can be challenging. However, if teachers and students work together, they can create an environment conducive to meditation, promote peace in the school community, and incorporate mindfulness into their lessons. Simple exercises like mindfulness breathing, mindful walking, or mindful listening can help students stay focused and present.
Providing professional development, modeling the practice, building a supportive community, providing resources, working with outside groups, and fostering self-care may help train teachers to integrate meditation into their classes and create a conducive school culture.&nbsp;
Regular meditation practice in schools allows students to gain vital skills that will serve them both in and out of the classroom, as well as discover the missing peace in a digitally overwhelming environment.

Basu Gautam

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Practicing mindfulness in schools

A 25-year-old female nurse employed at a private hospital in Nepal has been experiencing back pain and shooting aches. She is exposed to viruses, fungi, and organic dust at work, and has developed allergies and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/like-a-sunburn-on-your-lungs-how-does-the-climate-crisis-impact-health">skin disease</a> due to exposure.
She is also at risk of radiation exposure as the hospital, has not implemented adequate safety measures to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-those-who-protect-us-from-covid">protect the workers </a>except for the use of shielding walls. This is now affecting her mental health, causing sleep and eating disorders.
<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-doctors-are-like-soldiers-fighting-a-war">Job risk for health workers increased</a> during the Covid-19 pandemic, but their burden of work-related accidents and illnesses around Nepal is still significant.
Nurses, doctors and other medical workers face a unique set of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-health-workers-battle-covid-19-but-also-stigma">occupational hazards</a> compared to other professions due to the nature of their work, which often involves direct contact with patients and exposure to various types of health and safety risks.
Some have back injuries from frequently having to lift patients, biological and chemical hazards and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/diary-of-a-covid-frontline-worker-in-nepal">mental stress and burnout</a>.
<a href="https://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/10680/6477">A recent study</a> published in the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health found that back pain was the most common injury experienced by healthcare professionals around the world, with 64.8% of the 247 respondents reporting this condition. Over half of them were also afflicted by needle prick, a sensation of uncomfortable tingling or prickling in arms, legs, hands, or feet.
The study also highlighted the prevalence of workplace hazards with over 80% of the participants viewing them as a potential cause of injury or adverse health effects. While many workers were aware of the hazards in the hospital environment and recognised the importance of protecting themselves a significant number had not received any training to do so.
Over half of the respondents cited biological hazards as the biggest threat, with 87% of healthcare professionals reporting exposure to chemicals, 88% to biological risk, and 66% to viral dangers. 
The study also found that work experience, employment status, and job type can impact the likelihood of facing hazards, with radiologists being a particularly high-risk group.
Although the measurement of radiation exposure among healthcare professionals can be challenging, almost half of the respondents reported constant exposure to radiation. 
In Nepal, after the earthquake of 2015, radiation was found to have leaked from 18 hospitals in Kathmandu Valley. A joint study by NAST, the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), and Teaching Hospital found that this leakage posed a risk to public and medical professionals' health. 
In December 2022, the Nepal Institute of Science and Technology (NAST), stopped the Thermos Luminescent Dosimeter (TLD) service, which is used to measure the cumulative exposure to radiation among health workers in X-ray and CT scan rooms, putting them at a greater risk. 
Most hospitals do not meet the radiation safety standards and there are no procedures for monitoring the use of radioactive equipment. The situation outside of Kathmandu Valley is even more dismal.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 59 million people globally work in healthcare facilities, accounting for 12% of the working population. 
The <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm">International Labor Organisation</a> (ILO) reports that millions of healthcare workers suffer from work-related diseases and accidents, and many succumb to occupational hazards. This highlights the need to address the occupational health and safety concerns faced by healthcare professionals also in Nepal. 
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is a crucial aspect of any workplace, especially in the healthcare industry where workers are constantly exposed to various types of dangers. 
The primary focus of OHS is to ensure the well-being of the workers, protect them from potential harm, and promote a safe and healthy work environment. 
Despite the efforts made by scholars and practitioners to raise awareness about <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=4747">workplace health and safety</a>, Nepal lacks legal support for OHS concerns. Apart from a few provisions in the Labour Act of 1992, Nepal's workers remain without adequate legal support for occupational safety and health concerns.
The Ministry of Health and Population has conveniently turned a blind eye to the situation. There are also no health programs in Nepal that address the prevention and control of occupational diseases and conditions.
To address these issues, hospitals in Nepal need to provide training and workshops about occupational health and safety. The government should also take steps to update policies and regulations to better protect healthcare workers. 
It is essential to ensure the well-being of healthcare workers and prevent workplace hazards to create a safe and healthy working environment.
Marasini is a public health professional and correspondence author of the research report: <a href="https://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/10680/6477">Occupational health and safety hazards faced by health care professionals in Kathmandu based hospital</a>.

Nepal health workers at risk of workplace hazards

For decades, Nepalis have lamented the country’s inability to harness its enormous hydropower potential. Now, the problem seems to be the country’s inability to use the surplus that will soon be generated. Since 1989, 123 large hydropower projects have been constructed on Nepal’s fast-flowing Himalayan rivers bringing the total generation capacity to 2,148.5MW. After new projects come online in the next six years, generation capacity could be 18,000MW during the monsoon and 11,000MW in winter. Our focus now should be not just on generating more power, but finding out ways to boost consumption by making <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-water-and-electricity">electricity more competitive and sustainable</a>. Private sector projects generate 51% of Nepal’s hydropower, and the rest are government projects. We also need to decide on these three options: whether to entirely privatise hydropower production, give more ownership to the government, or create a strong regulatory body to let private and public go hand in hand. Private investments in power projects usually revert to government ownership in 30. Given how battery and hydrogen technology is revolutionising the world, it is difficult to say what will happen in the energy sector in the next three decades. Even so, Nepal’s development may continue to rely on hydropower as the primary alternative to petroleum. At present, 95% of Nepali households have access to electricity. But domestic consumption is not likely to keep pace with the increase in generation capacity. As it is, much of the valuable electricity generated in the monsoon is ‘spilled’ in the monsoon while there is a shortage in winter when 30% of power demand is met with imports from India (at up to Rs32 per unit last year). Nepal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-1st-hydroelectric-plant-is-a-museum-piece">first started producing hydroelectricity in 1911</a> with the opening of Chandra Jyoti in Pharping. King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah ushered in the dawn of the electric age by turning on the first electric lamp in Tundikhel. Nepal was only the second country in Asia to generate hydropower 111 years ago, and it was Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Rana who brought in British engineers to commission the plant.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230313030336_9ba299ac5298b4ca31bec8e563e7cd6dc8851c4ca31a22adac01b0c7b764ba0c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230313030336_9ba299ac5298b4ca31bec8e563e7cd6dc8851c4ca31a22adac01b0c7b764ba0c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Kulekhani Dam opened in 1982"><figcaption>The Kulekhani Dam opened in 1982, and is still the only large reservoir project in Nepal. Photos: NT ARCHIVE</figcaption></figure>  The intervening decades have been characterised with inaction and wasted opportunities. Nepal now has to play catchup so that electricity is affordable and accessible to increase consumption. One way to do that is to lower the electricity tariff so that it is competitive with the price of LPG. Nepal is still overwhelmingly dependent on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/more-bullshit">biomass for energy</a>, and many rural homes use only one electric bulb for light and cook in firewood. This is largely due to the lack of access to electric stoves, refrigerators and other appliances. In 2021, the government announced that it would shift entirely to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/potholes-on-the-highway-to-nepal-s-ev-future">electric vehicles (EVs)</a> by 2031. But this means investing in the necessary infrastructure as well such as charging stations, and incentives for EVs. Cement and steel industries are the largest consumers of electricity in Nepal. Proper planning is necessary to keep <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-precious-electricity-going-waste">electricity production from going to waste</a>, especially as it is expected to rise almost eightfold by 2030. Sadly, there seems to be no sense of urgency on the part of the government. It costs about Rs200 million to generate 1MW of electricity. A waste of 5,000MW is a loss of Rs1 trillion, and that is money invested by private shareholders and banks. Under such circumstances, loans and interests cannot be paid on time, which could lead to defaults. The trickle-down effect on the rest of the economy could be devastating. Serious economic diplomacy is needed to push efforts to export surplus electricity to India at a meaningful price until domestic demand rises. Despite rhetoric to increase production, Nepal also lacks enough domestic and foreign investment in the sector. Banks do not have enough capital and the interest is too high. We do not have the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Comment/storing-water-reservoir-Nepal,1042">necessary infrastructure</a> either: project sites are accessible only for five months in a year due to bad roads during the monsoon. Extension of transmission lines is sluggish. Local obstruction like in the construction of a substation in Lapsiphedi is hindering progress. A national strategy and consensus is needed to expedite transmission lines. During the Panchayat era, a resettlement company was formed to arrange accommodation for residents displaced by the construction of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/reservoirs-of-suspicion/hydropower-geopolitics%20,3991">large projects</a>. But it was dissolved when democracy was restored in1990. Today, there is no land acquisition body at the national level. Moreover, related agencies are working at cross purposes and have conflicting interests. For example, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is not only a producer but also the sole buyer of electricity generated by the private sector. It also determines the price of power, and it is often not attractive enough for the private sector. The Electricity Production Company, Hydropower Investment and Development Company and Electricity Development Department were all formed to generate hydroelectricity but there is no effective regulation of these bodies. The Electricity Regulatory Commission does everything but solve the existing problems or prepare for future challenges. Governmental agencies like the Ministry of Energy, NEA, Nepal Stock Exchange, Nepal Securities Board, CIAA, and Electricity Regulation Commission and Parliament committees should all coordinate their activities with a national strategy in mind. With such vested interests, hydropower investors also have to navigate a sluggish bureaucracy. But if we want to secure the future of electricity in Nepal, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-precious-electricity-going-waste">not waste precious power</a>, it is imperative that a single strong regulatory body is formed to streamline the sector in the national interest. Kumar Pandey is General Secretary of the Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN). Translated from the Himal Khabar <a href="https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/134646" target="_blank">original</a>. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-they-kept-nepal-in-the-dark-ages/">How they kept Nepal in the dark ages</a>, Ramesh Kumar <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-water-and-electricity">The geopolitics of Nepal’s water and electricity</a>

Securing Nepal’s electric future

Nepal’s Transitional Justice and the West’s recalibration

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is renewed attention around the world on 'unpaid care’ work and ‘care economy’. Still, a care economy is not considered a ‘productive’ sector and care work is seen as a ‘non-economic’ activity mainly performed by women. Unpaid care work is therefore excluded from mainstream development, undermining the value of unpaid care services provided within the households. The pandemic underscored the critical importance of care work – paid and unpaid. Care work did not and cannot stop even when everything came to a standstill, the value of skills involved in care work such as empathy, creativity, patience, and resilience are valuable, but usually taken for granted. The World Economic Forum in fact highlights these skills as some of the most important competencies for future business success in an increasingly automated and digitised world. Uncertainty in the labour market and the global economic recession has brought unprecedented uncertainty for women in countries like Nepal, with its gender gap in education, digital skills, and strong sociocultural biases. The pandemic heightened care needs for elderly persons, and health care services required for preventive and curative services, and it made women more vulnerable to violence at home.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230306030352_fc6367bc8ab27a546419035be1211740478eb54a3e9cd27c6cc23b3e62de872c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20230306030352_fc6367bc8ab27a546419035be1211740478eb54a3e9cd27c6cc23b3e62de872c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Care economy figure 1"></figure>  The household sphere consists of subsistence productive activities in which goods and services are produced mainly for household consumption, and reproductive activities for the next generation. Most of these activities are invariably performed by women and are unpaid. Essentially, the ‘formal market economy’ cannot function without the foundation work provided by the ‘care economy’ with its social, emotional and physical investment within households. Outside market activities in Nepal consist primarily of migration as a source of income for households. The modern industrial and commercial sector uses reproducible capital and services for profit. Migration provides a safety valve or an outlet for alternate sources of income that people embark upon at times of hardship, or for betterment depending on the pull and push factors. We can estimate the size of the care sector in Nepal’s economy by calculating how much time people allocate for unpaid work within the household. Time use data shows that women participate to a high degree in the subsistence and household care sector spending on average 35.6 hours and 52.1 hours per week respectively. Their contribution in subsistence work is 50.4% and household care is 72% compared to men. Women, on an average spend at least 7.5 hours per day on unpaid care work at home which is 2.5 times higher than men. In addition, Nepali women are increasingly entering the labour market for wages/incomes. Women’s participation has jumped to 45.5 hours and 38.5 hrs. per week in formal and informal sectors respectively, contributing 47.3% and 42.2% share of the work respectively — almost at par with men.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230306030352_b333a26d2ecb990a074203ee64df2c0bb6d31070ef2f51e0c35369b69928f304.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230306030352_b333a26d2ecb990a074203ee64df2c0bb6d31070ef2f51e0c35369b69928f304" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Care economy table"></figure>  All activities undertaken in the market sphere within the formal and informal sectors, are considered ‘productive' modern industrial sectors that would lead to economic growth with profit and setting in competition in the market and contribute to the country’s GNP. The formal sector constitutes 17% of the total economy that represents market transactions providing a very narrow view of the visible economy, which is the formal market sector. In the informal economy goods and services are marketed, but are not formally registered and go undocumented and unaccounted by official statistics. It makes up 24% of Nepal’s economy and can include professions as diverse as drivers, rickshaw pullers, street vendors, petty businesses, micro and small enterprises, home-based workers. Beyond the informal is the household sector, constituting family farms providing subsistence, and care services providers. Family farm subsistence sector makes up 27 %, and the care sector makes up 32% of Nepal’s economy. Reproductive work is typically excluded from economic analysis considered not important for planning, resource allocation or growth. There is a tendency to view it as a ‘natural’ aspect of women’s roles and as not ‘work’ because it is unpaid. It is important to count the proportion of the population concentration in each of the sectors to see who is counted and excluded in the economy. Labour force data shows that only 16% of Nepal’s population is engaged in the market sphere (6% in formal and 10% in informal), and 84% of Nepalis engage themselves in the family farm and household care spheres. Among these population groups only a small number of women interact in the market sector undertaking formal or informal activities – they constitute less than half of their male counterparts (33% versus 67%). Women are concentrated at the bottom of the economy in the informal and unpaid care sector, but nevertheless provide basic production of goods and services essential for upkeep of families and the economy.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230306030352_087ab2e8035c6aa5e05899699572d8f839a5d4a2013240369f72dc03e291d625.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20230306030352_087ab2e8035c6aa5e05899699572d8f839a5d4a2013240369f72dc03e291d625" data-rendition-name="original" width="1280" height="720" loading="lazy" alt="Care economy Pie chart "></figure>  Using wage rates and number of hours worked by women and men are used to estimate formal and informal sectors by gender disaggregation shows that production of goods and services and unpaid care activities of women amount to Rs1.4 trillion and Rs1.3 billion respectively — making up 61% and 80% of women’s contribution respectively to those sectors (see table). The total value of unpaid care and domestic work is estimated to be between 6 % and 17 % of GDP, contributing more to Nepal’s economy than manufacturing. Analysis of three generations of national labour force surveys show potential volume of the care sector in the Nepalese economy which is quite alarming that it has the capacity to support 84% of the population in sustaining their livelihoods. The share of unpaid care work could equal 17% of Nepal’s GDP, which in 2017/8 amounts to Rs515 billion. This is nearly equal to the agricultural sector (21%) and above the industry (13%) in the gross product ranking. There is an opportunity to remove the care economy from a mere familial, social sector and transform it into a formal productive industry with these proposed measures: <ul><li>Formalise the care economy to become a paid sector where the economy can create jobs from currently unpaid activities. Most women in Nepal cannot access the labour market as they are expected to spend their time as homemakers taking care of the children and elderly. Formalisation of the care economy will mean reparation of the labour done by women, which will help in the movement to eliminate gender bias, sharing of care responsibilities and closing gender gap.</li><li>Formalisation of the care economy will require the state to assume the cost of taking care and nursing the most vulnerable people - those who cannot pay the market rates.</li><li>Treat households as family farm enterprises by bringing them under the state planning process and allocation of resources enabling them to fill emerging demand for green economy jobs and green growth.</li><li>Address structural factors built into the macroeconomic framework that systematically excludes women, marginalised groups of population and sectors that constitute the majority and larger part of the society from the development process.</li></ul> Bina Pradhan is a feminist economist with Federation of Business and Professional Women, Nepal. This article is based on larger research on Gender and Macroeconomics in Nepal, 2010/11 as a New Century Scholar.

Nepal's care economy

Her costume, all white -- a cape and a mask. In the likeness of all superheroes, she has the gait of someone whose every move is purpose. And she wears her hair in a chic long bob — almost like Elastigirl. 
My superhero is called Doctor Anu, in the spirit of the syllables most superheroes go by.
When we first met, she was seated at her desk, a glass shield between us, examining my documents with brisk fingers and the silence of someone who is thorough with the content. Later, she ran her fingers over my abdomen, investigating, letting me know I had arrived. 
Doctor Anu, the one who never abandons her post.
When the 25 April earthquake struck Nepal in 2015, Doctor Anu was in the operation theatre, delivering a baby. She had just disconnected the umbilical cord when the rattling began. One of the two nurses attending ran out, screaming, and the resident doctor sat down on the floor and started to cry. 
The mother, lying on the operating table, anesthetised only below her waist as in the case of all cesareans, grabbed Doctor Anu’s cape and said: "Please don’t leave me!" 
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-wait/">The wait</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar
I won’t, said Doctor Anu. And while the earth continued to shudder in instalments, she completed the procedure. 
For a moment, she teared up, thinking of her own toddler, who she had no way of reaching as the phones were down. She conducted two more surgeries that day, saving six lives. It would be 26 April when she would finally be able to go home. 
At the hospital cafe, she chats with her colleagues through her mask. When they break into laughter, hers is the clearest, heartiest. And I think that is her superpower — the ability to steer clear of the morbid in all situations.
She notices me, and gets up to join my table. There is a moment my eyes well up with tears as we converse and she puts one arm around me and pats. When she gets up to leave, she says: You call me or text me anytime you need, okay? 
Anytime I reach out, my phone pings back within an hour if not minutes, with brief but clear instructions— very superhero style. 

I am here, she says. And she just is. 
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/notes-from-a-musician/">Notes from a musician</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar
 *********
Prachinta is Resident 301. We have it written on a band she wears on her wrist, along with the cannula that makes her hand look like an inflating balloon. She speaks every two hours asking me if she can have some water and I keep denying her request. It will make you sick, I say. Her body is still reacting to the anesthesia, making her throw up every few hours between zoning in and out and saying the blood pressure cuff is tight. 
What time is it, she asks. 2AM. How many more hours until morning?
Prachinta’s companions in the ICU are resident women 307 and 302. And a man in 603. Resident 307 needs careful handling. While phasing in and out of sedation, she wants to know what drugs she is on and how much the hospital will charge. At the end of most sentences, she says, "don’t tell my husband I said this", constantly censoring herself. And then, I am done with being here, I will go home today.
Resident 302 murmurs. Once, she asks if I am her granddaughter and if we are in a hotel. She says, I haven’t seen my grandchildren for so long, they are abroad. Then, Babu, why are you dressed in this uniform like you work in a hospital. I work in one, Ama, I tell her. Then she apologises. I guess you are not my granddaughter. Narisaunus hai. Don’t mind me. Then she falls asleep. 
Resident 307 curses. Being born a woman is a curse, she says. If you have a uterus, you are sin and suffering.
You don’t say so, Ama. All living beings suffer in our bodies. Men fall sick, too, I explain.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/we-are-fire-breathing-dragons/">We are fire-breathing dragons</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar
Prachinta starts to stir. Even with all the painkillers we have been shooting through her veins, she appears muted by pain. She can barely speak when she finally comes awake from the sedation. I help her sit on a stool and tell her to brush her teeth. Her hands, ballooning from the cannula, can barely hold the toothbrush. How do I do this, she asks. I find a black hairbrush among her personal belongings. She has long, greying hair. It reminds me of someone from my childhood. I comb the matted strands and ask if the greys are highlights. No, just age, she says.
I use my best braiding skills and tie up her hair with a piece of gauze. You have thick, beautiful hair, I say. Like the information even matters to a person who is spending time in the ICU. Thank you, she says. 
Her inner elbows have turned blue from the repeated punctures we have had to cause. But every time we make her wince in pain, she says: thank you. 
 *********
Writes Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Fleabag: 'Women are born with pain built in. It is our destiny. Period pain. Sore boobs. Child birth. You know? We carry it within ourselves throughout our lives. Men don’t. They have to seek it out. They invent ways to. Gods and demons and things so they can feel guilty about things, which is something we do very well on our own…and we have it all going on in here, inside. We have pain in a cycle for years and years and years. And then, just when you feel you are making peace with it, what happens? The menopause comes. And it is the most wonderful thing in the entire world. And yes, your pelvic floor crumbles…and then you are free. No longer a slave, no longer a person with parts.'
Maa sometimes says: I prayed all the years of my youth for the menopause. I have been thinking lately about how much I want to arrive at the menopause, so that my body can stop self-destructing. 
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/of-anger-and-love/" target="_blank">Of anger and love</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar
Suburban Tales is a monthly column in Nepali Times based on real people (with some names changed) in Pratibha’s life.

Pratibha Tuladhar

Suburban Tales

Light of the absurd

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe11d19c7e80680e0da4f9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1366"/><figcaption>Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption></figure>No one in the Tarai remembers the winter fog being this dense and lasting so long. They are used to summer heat and sultry monsoons, but not a ground-hugging fog so thick that the sun does not shine for days, sometimes weeks.There is no specific meteorological English term for the Indo-Gangetic शीतलहर, a phenomenon in which cold winter air saturates moisture at ground level. In the old days, the sun used to burn off the mist by mid-morning. But the spread of winter irrigation increased water vapour, allowing droplets to condense on tiny suspended particles in the soot and smog.People burning straw and buffalo patties in smoky fires to stay warm increase air pollution, thickening the fog further. The sun does not get a chance to heat the ground and the fog lingers for days on end. The people of the lowlands are just not equipped to deal with these intense cold waves.This murky miasma of winter is emblematic of Nepal’s current purposeless politics, with the 7-party coalition struggling to survive domestic and external efforts to dismantle it. The NC-UML rivalry over who gets to be the next president on 9 March is holding governance hostage.The coalition calculus has implications for the plains: CK Raut’s Janamat and the Tharu-based Unmukti Party in the western Tarai are also in the 7-party coalition, but neither is happy with portfolios.The media reports on the fog as a one-off event, not as a worsening trend. People are dying of exposure, but it is blamed on old age. It is not the cold that kills them, but poverty. Like all calamities in this disaster-prone country, it is the poorest who die first, neglected by society and state.This year’s शीतलहर fog has not been as severe as 2022's, but it has lingered longer. And now that the winter is nearly over, the government and the media will again forget about this annual disaster till next year.The fog closes schools, it affects crops, disrupts transport, and increases the incidence of respiratory infections and road accidents. People need to turn on lights in the daytime.“Commerce grinds to a halt, factory production drops, workers report sick,” Madhesh Province chair of FNCCI Ganesh Lath told me one foggy afternoon when Birganj was colder than Kathmandu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe11d59c7e80680e0da4fajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="395" height="550"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The people of the Tarai have been on a two-month hibernation. With the mercury now rising, they are stirring awake, but as usual the hardships will be forgotten until next winter.There is not much we can do in the short-term, but precautions and relief measures that can be put in place.With weather extremes induced by the climate crisis, the fog is likely going to be thicker and last longer in coming winters. More than 52% of Nepal’s population lives in the Tarai, and many parts of the plains have a lower per capita income than corresponding regions to the north.An entrenched caste system and gender ostracisation means that the ‘lower’ castes and women bear the brunt of cold waves. Those affected by monsoon floods in Kailali were still in makeshift camps when the fog persisted this winter, many of their children have pneumonia.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe11d89c7e80680e0da4fbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Almost every household in Madhes Province has someone working in India, the Gulf or Malaysia. Many villages have only women, children and the elderly, and they are the ones most at risk from the cold. The men are usually seen huddled around smokey fires, while the women work outdoors or in smoky kitchens.The provincial and federal governments need to prepare a hazard map of the Tarai for next year’s winter, and declare certain areas disaster zones. This is a calamity affecting more people than landslides and floods in the mountains.The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology must have localised forecasts, and there must be cross border cooperation. The fog knows no boundary, and some weeks this winter, it stretched from Peshawar in Pakistan to Chittagong in Bangladesh right across the Indo-Gangetic plains.Waiting till next December will be too late to save lives. Urgent action needs political will, which is in short supply in the present government dysfunction.

Chandra Kishore

Borderlines

Fogbound Tarai

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe115c9c7e80680e0da4d7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="768"/><figcaption>Rescue personnel in front of a building destroyed by the 7.8M earthquake in Turkey on 6 February. Photo: TURKISH MINISTRY OF INTERIOR/TWITTER</figcaption></figure>The deadly <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000jllz/executive">7.8M earthquake</a> in Türkiye and Syria on 6 February occurred on the East Anatolia fault that had not suffered a major earthquake since 1138. There is a similar <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/in-a-disastrous-state/">seismic gap</a> in western Nepal where there has not been a mega quake since 1505.The area around Aleppo in northern Syria and southern Türkiye has also seen smaller earthquakes, including a 7.0M disaster in 1822. So far, an estimated 25,000 people have been killed with survivors camped out in the open in blizzard conditions.At 7.8M, the Türkiye-Syria earthquake was about the same magnitude as one that hit Nepal in 2015, but it lasted two minutes — more than double the duration of the Nepal quake.Preliminary reports suggest a surface displacement of 3m, whereas in Central Nepal seven years ago it was about 1.2m. The devastation in southern Türkiye and Syria is therefore much worse, with many concrete high-rise apartment blocks coming down at 4:15am when families were still sleeping, leading to a great loss of life.Even though the 2015 earthquake in Central Nepal was not a mega earthquake, it still killed 8,857 people and made millions homeless. Most of the buildings that collapsed in Kathmandu were brick mortar structures, while some multi-storey concrete buildings also came down in areas like Gonga Bu.The <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/preparing-for-the-next-big-earthquake-in-nepal">1934 earthquake</a> was 8.0M epicentred in eastern Nepal, and killed at least 16,000 people in Nepal and India. Historical records show that such mega quakes hit Nepal once every 100 years, while smaller ones like the 2015 quake are more frequent.The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/mind-the-gap/">large seismic gap in western Nepal</a> between Pokhara and Dadeldhura means so much stress has built up there because of the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian plates that an earthquake of more than 8 magnitude could happen any day.A mega quake in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/epicentre-of-two-disasters-in-west-nepal/">western Nepal</a> will impact the whole country, including northern India. This is a level of disaster the whole country needs to be prepared for, not just western Nepal. And to prepare for what we know is coming, we must waste no time in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/concrete-lessons-of-2015/">reinforcing infrastructure</a>, since two-thirds of the all buildings in Nepal are not seismic resistant.After 2015, there is a general <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/false-sense-of-security-about-strength-of-reinforced-concrete-structures,2240">misconception that concrete buildings are safer</a> because many of them survived the quake. But most reinforced concrete structures in Kathmandu would not have survived if the intensity then was slightly higher and the shaking had lasted as long as this week’s earthquake in Türkiye-Syria.Given how disaster-prone we know Nepal is, we must seriously put our efforts and money into reducing the risks. This means design earthquake resistant structures, and monitor building compliance.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150236/63fe115f9c7e80680e0da4d8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="427"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Awareness alone does not save lives, people need to change their attitude and practice. Many of us have already forgotten the destruction of the 2015 earthquake, and people have gone back to building unsafe houses as they used to.Individuals must invest a bit more to ensure that their buildings are safe, while the government can provide technical expertise. This means retrofitting especially public buildings like schools and hospitals, but this should not cost more than one-third of what a new building would.<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/not-out-of-danger-the-big-one">Retrofitting can be a lifesaver</a>. None of the schools in Central Nepal retrofitted by our organisation NSET suffered damage in 2015, and many served as shelters for the general public for months during the aftershocks.Nepal received immediate help from the international community in search and rescue (SAR) operations in 2015. There were 141 teams from 34 countries with 4,521 personnel that could fly in because Kathmandu airport was not damaged.A search and rescue team from Türkiye was one of the first to arrive on 26 April 2015 with 82 rescue members, 2 canines and stayed for two weeks. Türkiye's search-and-rescue response in Nepal under the its Prime Minister’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, known as AFAD. It also sent 16 tons of supplies including tents, food, water and supplies for children.Several other Turkish agencies including the Humanitarian Aid Foundation, Turkish Red Crescent, Search and Rescue Foundation and Confederation of Public Servants Trade Unions had sent <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/life/more-than-7-000-dead-in-nepal-quake/52510">emergency and medical supplies</a>, doctors and search and rescue experts.Nepal needs to reciprocate Türkiye’s generous and prompt assistance seven years ago, and show solidarity during this tragedy. Nepal has also been able to build back better within 5-6 years and can share some of its experience.By the time Nepal’s teams are mobilised in a few days, search and rescue operation may be already of less relevance. However, medical teams with expertise in orthopaedics, trauma care and essential medical supplies will be useful since responders have themselves been caught up in the disaster.Nepal Red Cross has a strong system and experience in local response and volunteer mobilisation, and can go with essential humanitarian supplies like shelter and non-food items.In the medium term, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/UNFOLDING-FOREIGN-AID-AND-ITS-CONTRIBUTION-TO-DISASTER-RESILIENCE-A-CASE-OF-EARTHQUAKE-2015-IN-NEPAL">Nepal’s experience</a> in rural housing reconstruction can help during the recovery and reconstruction. Organisations like NSET and others have amassed experience in helping recovery, reconstruction in other earthquakes in Gujarat, Bam, Banda Aceh, Kashmir and Nepal itself.We can offer human resource support in dealing with the planning and implementation of housing reconstruction. Technical assistance to transfer Nepal’s experiences, lessons and good practices for both urban and rural reconstruction will be of much help. Additionally, Nepal can pledge support for recovery and reconstruction.Surya Narayan Shrestha is the Executive Director of the National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET).

Turkey and Nepal face similar seismic risks

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150232/63fe10b79c7e80680e0da4aajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="1800"/><figcaption>Photos: PRATIBHA TULADHAR</figcaption></figure>Wait is like a big hole. An empty space to live in until.How long, no one knows. But in that space which is empty, is everything. In it, is the feeling of uncertainty, as well as forever. Uncertainty=Forever.In that space, is the voice of your parents, muffled as they discuss matters that must not be heard, once in a while, amplified over the sound of the hoover and the blender.“No!” says Baa. Not what I mean.“Okay, okay,” says Maa.And the feeling of uncertainty gets interrupted, delayed and even forgotten for a moment. What lingers is the sound of the hoover and the washing machine and the blender-- and other sounds the household is made of.“Life must go on,” says Baa.From the quiet of my room, I repeat after him, my lips forming the sentence in silence. Life must go on.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/memory-of-a-conversation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Memory of a conversation</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar…There are a bunch of things I carry with me in my heart. One of them is you. It is nothing spectacular for a memory, but it is still a place to hold within the emptiness.You are made up of a thousand chords in that emptiness and each when strung, makes my heart pick up a different kind of beat. When I think of the horrible things about life that I might have to reveal to you, my heart pounds, making me draw one hand to my chest and say, “stop”. Life must go on.You are also made up of soft sounds.I think of the afternoon in the sun, when you swiftly lay your heart before me and said, eat! The soft sounds of eating, when one opens the mouth, encloses a spoon between the lips and the teeth come down to do their job. Between the tongue and the teeth, the eating is done and you become a nutty pulp of nourishment for my being. You taste like childhood, like Maa’s cooking-- the only culinary that counts.Are you happy, you ask. I smile. Feed me more, I say. You smile. And it is the sound of a thousand monarch butterflies, flapping their winds softly against the start of Spring.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/of-anger-and-love/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Of anger and love</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar…Go turn your face towards the morning sun. It is when we are most adequate-- in the mornings, when our face is turned towards the sun.We were married to the sun, remember? All of us. And each of us were raised to believe in eternity. Life was going to be as eternal as the biggest star in the sky, nourishing us by the day, receding by night to allow sleep to lull us elsewhere.Being transported to that elsewhere was again, full of promise. In it were words, sometimes trapped in the ether, caught by you in the centre of your palm and then pocketed. Good things come from promise. The promise of another meeting. Just as the sun makes a promise to us every twilight-- the exact point when it will begin again at daybreak. How childlike this thought of promise and continuity! And yet, it is the image my mind lingers at-- one day at a time now.…<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150232/63fe10bc9c7e80680e0da4abjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="1024">Some days, my heart is steeped in regret for things left unsaid.When Maa put a bowl of vegetable soup before me, I got up and left the table, instead of saying “I love you”. When Baa offered to drive me to meet my friend, I got out of the car and said I can walk, instead of saying “thank you”. Reactions too, like words cannot be unsaid. I responded with my being, my body yelling at them in silence and they cannot be undone-- the getting up and out and walking away.But these were all days I needed out.For months, I told myself I have to go away. That is my destiny. I have always known I was meant to go away. Not knowing where drove me out of my wits and yet I wrote a prayer each night for my deliverance.But every time the time to leave showed up on the calendar, I dragged my suitcase to the door and stopped to stare at my parents. How can two people be so happy for your freedom? How can they revel in not knowing I have gathered the weapons to self-destruct? It is what wayward daughters do, pick the path of suffering and run swiftly towards the end of the world, with no desire to slow down, whatsoever.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/we-are-fire-breathing-dragons/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">We are fire-breathing dragons</a>, Pratibha Tuladhar…Ever wondered why growing old is such a relief? Because it lets us know that the worst has passed and that we are more prepared because of our familiarity with sadness and that even the worst will be lived through.It is full of promise, you see? Promise, that I will be right here when you want to sit down and take my hands in yours. Promise that I will always be capable of writing these open-ended, useless ramblings fit only for someone like me who never outgrew her teens.Perhaps it is true then, that we become arrested in the years when life poured the most into our fold. And from those years begin to grow the bubble that will eventually become the void. And around that, we chisel our lives, putting in a little bit every now and then, hoping for what life must become. And by the time life has come whole, we are still in the process and we continue at the attempt to architect it-- even the end must be perfect!Suburban Tales is a monthly column in Nepali Times based on real people (with some names changed) in Pratibha’s life.

The wait

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20230228150228/63fe10459c7e80680e0da48ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1620" height="1080"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>The Ukraine crisis that erupted in February last year continues with no prospect for cessation. The intensified hostilities have inflicted great suffering in population centres, and destroyed infrastructure, compelling large numbers of civilians, including many children and women, to live in a state of constant peril.The history of the twentieth century, which witnessed the horrors caused by two global conflicts, should have brought home the lesson that nothing is more cruel or miserable than war.During World War II, when I was in my teens, I experienced the firebombing of Tokyo. To this day, I remember with great vividness being separated from family members as we fled desperately through a sea of flames, and not learning that they were safe until the following day.How many people have lost their lives or livelihoods in the ongoing crisis, how many have found their own and their family’s ways of life suddenly and irrevocably altered?Many other countries have also been seriously impacted in the form of constrained food supplies, spiking energy prices and disrupted financial markets.It is crucial that we find a breakthrough in order to prevent any further worsening of the conditions facing people worldwide, to say nothing of the Ukrainian people who are compelled to live with inadequate and uncertain supplies of electricity amidst a deepening winter and intensifying military conflict.I therefore call for the urgent holding of a meeting, under UN auspices, among the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine and other key countries in order to reach agreement on a cessation of hostilities. I also urge that earnest discussions be undertaken toward a summit that would bring together the heads of all concerned states in order to find a path to the restoration of peace.Together with calling for the earliest possible resolution to the Ukraine crisis, I wish to stress the crucial importance of implementing measures to prevent the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, both in the current crisis and all future conflicts.Nuclear rhetoric has ratcheted up, and the risk that these weapons might actually be used stands today at its highest level since the end of the Cold War. Even if no party seeks nuclear war, the reality is that, with nuclear arsenals in a continuing state of high alert, there is a considerably heightened risk of unintentional nuclear weapon use as a result of data error, unforeseen accident or confusion provoked by a cyberattack.Along with reducing tensions with the goal of resolving the Ukraine crisis, I feel it is of paramount importance that the nuclear-weapon states initiate action to reduce nuclear risks as a means of ensuring that situations do not arise—either now or in the future—in which the possibility of nuclear weapons use looms.It was with this in mind that in July last year I issued a statement to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in which I urged the five nuclear-weapon states to make prompt and unambiguous pledges that they would never be the first to launch a nuclear strike—the principle of ‘No First Use’.Regrettably, the August NPT Review Conference was unable to reach consensus on a final document. But this in no way means that the nuclear disarmament obligations set out in Article VI of the treaty no longer pertain.As the various drafts of the final document indicate, there was widespread support for nuclear risk reduction measures such as the adoption of No First Use policies and extending negative security assurances, by which nuclear-weapon states pledge never to use nuclear weapons against states that do not possess them.The pledge of No First Use is a measure that nuclear-weapon states can take even while maintaining for the present their current nuclear arsenals; nor does it mean that the threat of the some 13,000 nuclear warheads existing in the world today would quickly dissipate.However, what I would like to stress is that should this policy take root among nuclear-armed states, it will create an opening for removing the climate of mutual fear. This, in turn, can enable the world to change course—away from nuclear buildup premised on deterrence and toward nuclear disarmament to avert catastrophe.Looking back, the global state of affairs during the Cold War era was characterised by a series of seemingly insoluble crises that rattled the world, spreading shockwaves of insecurity and dread. And yet humankind managed to find exit strategies and pull through.One example of this is the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) held between the United States and the Soviet Union. Intention to hold these was announced on the day of the 1968 signing ceremony for the NPT, which had been negotiated in response to the bitter lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis.The SALT negotiations were the first steps taken by the US and the USSR to put the brakes on the nuclear arms race based on their nuclear disarmament obligations under Article VI of the NPT.For those involved in these talks, to impose constraints on the nuclear policies that had been developed as the exclusive prerogative of the state could not have been easy. Nonetheless, this was a decision indispensable to the survival not only of the citizens of their respective nations, but of all humankind.Having experienced first-hand the terror of teetering on the brink of nuclear war, the people of that time brought forth historic powers of imagination and creativity. Now is the time for all countries and peoples to come together to once again unleash those creative powers and bring into being a new chapter in human history.Daisaku Ikeda is a peacebuilder and Buddhist philosopher who is the founding president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). This is a shortened version of his <a href="https://www.daisakuikeda.org/sub/resources/works/lect/2023jan11-stmt-on-ukraine-crisis-and-nfu.html?fbclid=IwAR0GdNsfEOFy33sNbT5M1iqIFSHKznZmjXslTmki1EeyQOevUF6IPvurd5o" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.daisakuikeda.org/sub/resources/works/lect/2023jan11-stmt-on-ukraine-crisis-and-nfu.html?fbclid%3DIwAR0GdNsfEOFy33sNbT5M1iqIFSHKznZmjXslTmki1EeyQOevUF6IPvurd5o&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1675415358545000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1JzyPCAzElxAMo7cZ3tnJR">longer statement.</a>