The photographic exhibition Dalit: A Quest for Dignity, on at Patan Museum till November 26, brings much of our country’s exploitative history into focus.

Anyone who goes to this retrospective will quickly dismiss any suggestion that Nepali art is a second-rate derivation of Western stylistics.

The Kali Gandaki lives up to its name. It is dark and seething. Above the western banks of the river, following a serpentine road, the town of Baglung rests upon a gentle hill. From the town, one can gaze across the river and witness a ferocious history in the sheer cliffs that the river has […]

The Book Bus rolled into Gaighat, Udayapur, and parked itself inside Triyuga Multiple Campus a day before Saraswati Puja. Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom in the Hindu pantheon. She is the one who grants degrees, and she is part of an integral chain that leads towards gainful employment. She is somewhere between Ganesh, who […]

There are peculiarities to every journey. In most cases, travel is defined by its purpose. Few have the luxury or peace of mind to travel aimlessly. Even as a tourist, such abandonment is a rare experience. When one travels in a big red bus filled with books, the books form the pixellated vision of the […]

As I walked to my voting station, two things became very apparent. The first was that I had not walked down this road for a very long time. What once used to be a cow trail was unrecognizable. Two cars could pass through now. Water-filled paddy fields had given way to parched but orderly vegetable […]

Film Southasia (FSA) is a bastion of cultural programming in Nepal. It has been a source of entertainment, education and the occasional glimpse of illumination since I was a teenager. I’ve grown older, but the festival keeps on going, and I wonder if my years of flight and turmoil have added the layers of disillusionment […]