Time Travels Ltd.

A massive fire sweeps through Singha Durbar palace, which hosts key government offices and parliament buildings. [Narendra Shrestha/EPA] When you think of Nepal, images of majestic mountains and serene spiritual paths likely come to mind. Today, however, this Himalayan nation is ablaze with furious protests that have fundamentally reshaped its political landscape. What began as anger over a social media ban has erupted into a political earthquake that toppled the government and left the country grappling with its democratic future. The Spark That Lit the Fire In November 2023, Nepal's government issued directives requiring major social media platforms to register locally to combat cybercrime. After platforms ignored this requirement for nearly two years, the government issued a final seven-day deadline in August 2025. When the September 3rd deadline passed with most platforms non-compliant, authorities banned 26 services on September 4th—including Facebook, Inst...

View of the valley where the attack occurred. Source: Wikipedia On April 22, 2025, Kashmir made headlines once again. A group of 25 tourists — all men were murdered in cold blood near Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in South Kashmir. News broadcasts and media outlets were quickly filled with the clamor decrying this heinous crime, allegedly carried out by either the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization or its offshoot called the The Resistance Front, though no group has officially claimed responsibility yet. It didn't take long to sense the polarising nature of these reports. They seemed designed to stoke communal tensions between two communities in this country that, after independence, have shared a strained and uneasy relationship. Many of the news reports directly highlighted the alleged involvement of the Pakistani Army in the incident. However, indirectly, they seemed almost unanimous in holding Muslims — and specifically Kashmiri Muslims — responsible for the trage...

The Environmental Crisis: A Naga Folktale Our world in the 21st century is going through tumultuous times in the wake of globalization and liberalization of economy. One specific domain in which the changes wrought have been especially catastrophic is in the area of environment and ecology. It is argued here that failure on the part of modern environmental discourse to articulate the grievances of people affected by concerns and issues vis-à-vis the environment is primarily responsible for the growing indifference, inaction and the absence of political will in the public domain. Environment today has been reduced to just another department in the government administration and a fashionable subject of academic study.   Many of the environmental issues prioritized by the special breed of environmentalists and state authorities have been shaped by western concerns and exist merely to conform to their ideals and positions. This has led to an utter disregard for issues that im...

  Tungrymbai (Fermented Soyabean) Have you ever wondered why a dog's sense of smell is so good?  If you were to ask this question to anyone in Meghalaya (the wettest place on earth), he/she would attribute it to 'Tungrymbai' or fermented beans! Tungrymbai is a popular indigenous Khasi food prepared by fermenting soybeans. Fermented beans is actually a popular food item in the culinary tradition of Northeast India. It is known as 'kinema' among the Nepalis of Darjeeling and Sikkim, 'axone' among the Sema Nagas and 'hawaijar' in Manipur.  For fermenting the Khasi Tungrymbai, dried beans are washed and boiled for about 1-3 hours till they soften. The beans are then placed on fresh salem(phrynium pubinerve Bl) leaves spread inside a bamboo basket. The beans are wrapped, and hot red charcoals put on top of it. The beans are covered again with another layer of salem. Finally, the beans are put...

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