Champa Kamal sits in front of her home, holding her children. She won’t let them go to school – she’s afraid the bulldozers might come while they are away and they would get separated.

With constant threats to raze the homes along Kathmandu’s Bagmati River where Kamal lives, she sits day after day with her children in her lap, waiting.

On a mobile recharge card, below the instructions, are bold purple letters reading Maximum Retail Price (inclusive of all taxes) – Rs100. But the retailer tells you the cost is Rs 105.

Try to argue and you’re faced with their raised eyebrow aloofness – Take it or leave it.

ASHESH MALLA

“Samasya maniska nimti abhishap hoina, yo ta pragatiko khudkila ho. Chunautile bastabma bhagyamaaniko dhokama matra ghachghachaucha. Jo abhagi chha, uslai samasyale sataudai sataudaina. Jindagiko har ghadima samasyaharu airahanchhan. Chhyamatawan byaktile samasya suljhaudai janchha, murkhaharu yesbata bhagchhan wa aljhinchhan. Manismatrale bachaidekhi samana garnu parney bastabikta ho yo….Chunautisita, haaksita haar khanele safalta hasil garna sakdaina na ta jindagima pragati nai garna sakchha. Chunautibata bhagney manchhe karmasheel hudai hoina.”
-- Soch, Karna Shakya

I have a few bighas of land in the Terai and want to start farming cash crops on a commercial scale. Will banks lend money to an upstart agriculture project? I hear the Central Bank has made it mandatory for banks to lend to the agriculture sector. What impact will this have on the economy?

I’ll answer the second part of your question first. Yes, a recent circular from Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) requires banks to invest 10% of their loan book to energy and agro sectors.

I admit I’m no fan of Jackie Shroff, even though I did once watch King Uncle when I was in school. Nonetheless, I never ridiculed him.

But the other day, I saw an advert on television which made me change my mind. In this advert, Jackie Shroff is convincing people with broken hips and weak knees to apply an expensive herbal medicine that’ll get them back on their feet and running in no time.

One of the wonders of the Internet this year is the coming of age for true Internet TV, meaning that the device known as a “television set” and popular since the end of World War II is finally nearing retirement.

But to better understand this development, one has to pick apart the clutter of confusing offerings now called “Internet TV.”

In the corner of my bedroom in Kathmandu stands an antique object, about three feet tall and a foot wide. It is my heater.

I have other antiques, too – a toaster, coffeemaker, oven and, of course, the idiot box. Suddenly, they have all lost their purpose.

So I’ve finally finished watching the much-hyped-over “Twilight Saga.” Sad, I know, but at least I can now officially say that I’ve watched the movie.

I also have a better idea of what most people are talking about when they say Team Edward or Team Jacob now.

Let us all congratulate our competent policewallahs for launching their Quick Reponse Team! Now, all Valley citizens can expect our cops to show up at their homes in less than sixty seconds if somebody tries to run off with their tolas of gold or with the bottle of Dalley Khursani outside your kitchen.

The cops now have eight new motorcycles, and the tag team will show up at your door if you happen to live in a galli or place where no functional fire engine or police van can reach. I hope the Home Ministry will provide jerkins of fuel to the biker cops, or else the bikes will be rusting like our municipality trucks.

Growth and private sector

Often students and researchers express frustration over the lack of books and journal publications about Nepali economy. It is even harder to get hold of a book that focuses exclusively on economic growth and private sector development in Nepal.

Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation’s new book Economic Growth and the Private Sector of Nepal attempts to fill that void.