The Other Side of Bhutan
Repressive regimes everywhere employ torture on political prisoners to both extract information and to weaken the dissent. From the notorious Abu Ghraib in Iraq to Guantanamo in Cuba, the contemporary politics is replete with torture chambers of many kinds. It’s ironic that a country, which conjures

Somali Refugees in Nepal
This appeared in Time.comMahad Abdullahi Hassan had never heard of Nepal before the day he landed there. When the 28-year-old Somali boarded a flight from Dubai to Kathmandu on May 23, 2007, he was hoping he would finally reach his dream destination: Sweden. He had, after all, shelled out $4,000 to a human trafficker who promised to smuggle him to the Scandinavian country.Read more:

Bhutanese Refugees: Repatriation vs Resettlement
Beldangi Refugee camp, JHAPA–Here, in this sprawling refugee camp, Bishnu Kumari Khadka (see pic) exudes a calm that doesn’t beget one whose husband has recently been murdered. Karna Bahadur Khadka, Bishnu’s husband, was stabbed to death one evening while returning home. But his murder seems to be just the ti

Stories about Modern Times
This was published in The Kathmandu Post on Saturday.Dabbling in Non-LinearBy Deepak AdhikariAnamolmani Paudel, a journalist by vocation and littérateur by volition, has emerged with his first short story collection Neelima Ra Gaadha Andhyaro. This slim book contains a dozen short stories that revolve around urban life, love, trauma and the disorder of war, science, and cyber culture. But the most overarching element that encompasses these stories is conflict. There is conflict between tradition and modernity, between scientific invention (particularly test tube babies and cloning) and human emotions. Love is the recurring theme in Pa

Human-Elephant Conflict in Indo-Nepal Border
My recent story on rampaging elephants in eastern Nepal, published in The Kathmandu Post on Saturday. A Trunk Full of MiseryBAHUNDANGI, JHAPA, OCT 17 - Beneath the idyllic charms of lush paddy fields, looming green hills, rickety buses, and old wooden houses, lies a feeling of fear and trepidation. Here, in this impoverished village on the eastern fringes of Jhapa, night brings a horror that cannot be conquered by the human spirit, nor can it be subdued by wishing it away.For a decade-and-a-half, residents of this village bordering Darjeeling district in West Bengal have endured the terror and mayhem of wild elephants that venture into their