Ashika Tamang: A Hero In True Sense

 Many things have been rapidly changing for the past few months in Nepal. For instance, the purity of the Gen Z revolution and its agenda have been buried somewhere amidst a lot of unwanted and unexpected issues. The strength of the newly formed interim government seems to be shaky sometimes. The general public was fed up with the old K P Sharma Oli-led government's practice of nepotism in the whole system of the country and unfortunately, people have started talking about smelling the same in the present government as well. The politically inclined people are busy forming their parties to take part in the upcoming election. 

Different rallies and protests are continuously going on in several parts of the country. However, during this unrest situation also there is also one person who is tirelessly working for a cause, i.e., to raise public awareness in different social issues and help the needy ones. This person is none other than Ashika Tamang. Ms. Tamang has begun her public appearance as an actress but her recognition was limited in this identity until she started her social movement. She first came into the general public's attention when she started posting her videos on social media. They were all about unfair social practices in Nepal. She raised her voice against everything that she found unjust. 

Animal lover 

Although people took her lightly in the beginning, she did not care about that. Some people even trolled her for every action she took to make people aware of the situation. She would directly attack people verbally who were engaged in misbehaviour, such as littering or urinating in a public place. Doing all this, she was simply trying to fix their manners. She spoke against high pricing in bottled water or food items in the highway hotels, misuse of government vehicles and many other such things.  She was nicknamed 'Khasini didi' after she posted a video where she was crying and urging people not to slaughter animals such as 'khasi, khasini...' 

Whatever people said, Ashika neither budged nor altered from her focus; she was determined to expose the ugly side of society. Gradually, she started to win people's hearts and made her identity as a social activist. She became a social media sensation for her consistent fight against all sorts of chaotic situations in the country. 

Ashika's other side was seen during and after the Gen Z revolt on the 8th and 9th September, 2025. On those days, she was on the street supporting the youths. When hundreds of people were injured and rushed to different hospitals afterwards, she firmly stood by them. She visited the hospitals to inquire about them and supplied monetary and food support. She visited the injured people's dwelling place with sacks of rice, cartons of fruit and biscuits along with money. She visited the families of martyrs to extend emotional and financial support. She collected all the money from organising crowdfunding. As a whole, Ashika Tamang tirelessly served the victims of Gen Z movement at the best of her capacity. 

These moments were really emotional. She was named as 'national didi'. Some people even compared her with Florence Nightingale. On those days, people saw compassion, selflessness, effort and hard work in her. Those who had made fun of her earlier started begging for pardon publicly. She became an inspirational figure. At present, most of the other people are busy with political calculations but Ashika is after something else. She has come up with a brilliant idea of 'Rupee One Campaign.' For this, she has urged donors to donate at least one rupee for the purpose of distributing warm clothes to school children in remote areas. 

These days, she is busy visiting different schools located in such areas to serve her purpose of distributing warm clothes to the needy students. According to a news report, she has already distributed warm clothes, school uniforms, school bags, shoes, boots and other stationery items to more than 1,500 students studying in different community schools across six districts which range from Dhading to Darchula. She aims to reach out to 5,000 students via this campaign. Through the 'Rupee One Campaign,' Ms. Tamang has once again shown us a real picture of our country as she showed us the real Gen Z youths. We live in city areas and talk about human rights, AI, climate change or geopolitical issues. 

Tip of the iceberg

But there are places in the same country where little children still struggle to fulfill their basic needs. These children are seen in shabby dress with worn-out school bags and tattered shoes. Finding them in such a poor condition, Ashika cannot control herself and breaks down in tears. Videos of these innocent children also make us cry. At least, Ms. Tamang is trying to bring some happiness to their lives. In a way, Ashika Tamang is doing a governmental job. It is the government's duty to ensure about welfare of its citizens. It must be aware of the overall condition of the country. 

Whatever Ms. Tamang is showing us is only the tip of an iceberg. UNICEF highlights that every child has the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live so they can develop in the best possible way. Nepal has also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. So, it has incorporated child rights into its constitution but sadly, the implementation side still looks incomplete. Ashika has emerged as a real hero who has dedicated her life for a good cause. If her 'Rupee One Campaign' can bring a significant difference in the needy children, why not the governmental initiatives to uplift their quality of life?   

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, November 28, 2025 ) 

Life Is Too Precious To End By Oneself

 

Recently a bad news story entered our staff room, 'A girl studying in B.Ed. third year committed suicide!' Soon, I found who the girl was. She was one of my students whom I knew personally. It was very hard for me to accept her passing away. So, I contacted her best friend for confirmation. She sent me a long message explaining the incident,

'She got married to the man she liked after talking with him on the phone for two or three months. They got married in Chaitra. After their marriage, things changed in my friend’s house. Her family did not accept her husband, and everyone stopped talking to her much except for her grandmother. My friend's relationship was not good, not only with her parents but also with her in-laws. Her mother-in-law had started feeling uncomfortable because of the gossip in the community. She wasn’t happy with the daughter-in-law and didn’t talk to her openly. During Dashain, she and her husband were invited to her parents’ home. She stayed there with her family during Dashain and Tihar. Last Sunday, she returned to her husband’s house from her parents’ home. On Tuesday night, she talked to her grandmother from around 7:30 to 8:00 p.m. before going to bed. But around 1 a.m. that same night, her family got a call saying that their daughter was no more. I had talked to her on Monday evening. We had planned to go to Jhapa in a few days, and she told me she would return home in a day or two. I heard the heartbreaking news yesterday, while I was on my way to Jhapa. We still don’t know what really happened or why she passed away.'

 This message included a lot suspicious questions, however, the girl had written a suicide note where she had not blamed anyone for her death but only herself.

It was not merely my student but two other cases of suicide appeared in the mass media this month. A singer Neetu Paudel set fire on herself and lost her life. The news reports said that she had been in a romantic relationship for about seven years and the couple was having some kind of arguments on when or whether to get married. A similar case is with Janaki Khadka, a lower secondary mathematics teacher from Bajura. She also committed suicide due to an unsuccessful love affair. What is common in all these incidents is there is an involvement of love or marriage which claimed these young ladies' life. And these are only some examples; there may be several such cases.

Globally, what available research studies show is that generally young girls or women are more likely to attempt suicide because of failed love affairs or relationship problems, while young boys or men are more likely to die under the same circumstances. Because of this, comparatively male suicide death rate seems to be higher than the female suicide death rate. However, if we consider Nepal alone the scenario looks quite different. Research indicates that young girls have higher suicide rates than boys due to failed affairs or marital problems. The main reasons for this are recorded as cultural factors, economic factors or interpersonal factors. Nepal, still being a patriarchal society, the cultural factors play the most significant role here. Females have many restrictions to follow. All these factors may quickly lead them to hopelessness and eventually to a decision to end their life.

I think it is just a fraction of time between the suicidal thought and action itself. If somebody is available at that very moment to talk to, the fatal situation may be avoided. There is a beautiful story in this line. An American airman Irving was struggling with some mental health issue, so he was thinking of ending his life. His colleague Palacious noticed something was wrong with Irving. He asked his friend, 'There's that barbecue happening tomorrow. If I let you go home, am I going to see you there?' Irving promptly answered, 'No. If I go home, I'm going to kill myself.' Palacious immediately knew Irving could not be left alone. He called for help and saved his friend's life. Like Irving's there are other hundreds of inspirational stories of  suicide attempt survivors.

Life itself is uncertain and too short. At the same time it is much more precious than anything else. So, is it fair to terminate it by self? Every suicidal person is not as lucky as Irving to find a friend on the spot to save their life. What can be done in such a critical situation then? We all have our high and low times, helplessness and other sad feelings. We have to deal with them ourselves by utilizing the available tools. I think among such tools spirituality is the most powerful one. It teaches us the temporary nature of this physical world. If one can internalize the truth that nothing is permanent including their life, family, property, love, marriage, in short, everything, it will be easier for him to accept all the gifts that life offers. No matter how happy or sad the moments are they all pass like flitting thoughts.

According to Hinduism we get human life only after passing through many other life forms. It is said that we have to go through 8.4 million different forms to be a human again. With our good karmas we have become humans this time, so why not to live this life to the fullest before it perishes itself?

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, November 14, 2025 ) 

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]

Heal the Aching Motherland

 

It has been more than one and a half month of the gen Z revolution, and general people's initial enthusiasm for change has gradually been fading away. They had expected the newly formed interim government would take an immediate action to punish those who were directly involved in the murder of more than 70 innocent people on the 8th and 9th of September. Unfortunately, there arose so many other issues to be addressed which blanketed the main issue of finding out the guilty people. This has created frustration in general public, and they are skeptical to get justice.

The current scenario of the country is full of uncertainties. There is no doubt that the government is trying its best to maintain normalcy but there are many challenges. In the first place, the council of ministers has not been complete yet and time is ticking out. More than this what is ridiculous is that several people who the Prime Minister recommends as minister to the President turn not to be with clean image. I think there must be extended research before taking any decision so that it should not be changed time and again. In addition, the process of selection could also be accelerated. Once the cabinet is full, then the government's sole focus would be on the main issues, which are to find out the guilty people involved in the mass massacre during the gen Z protest, to start working on anti-corruption and to hold elections successfully on time, i.e., on the 5th of March, 2026.

The government has formed a three-member probe commission headed by a former Supreme Court Judge Gauri Bahadur Karki to investigate everything related to gen Z protests and the commission has been given three months to complete the probe. I am hopeful that without being influenced by anything or anybody the commission has been working fairly to reach its goal.

The Nepali people are witnessing many unprecedented happenings during such a volatile situation of the country. Among them the most annoying thing that I am experiencing is that how people are spreading negativity using the social media platforms. They are posting fake news instigating awful comments. There is the use of foul language, swearing words and what not. 

Sadly, the same bad language used in the cyber world has come to the real world as well. It seems as if the Nepali people use this sort of language in their everyday life, which is not true. A language is related to people's identity, so using the taboo language what sort of identity we are creating? What will be an impact of this on little children who are in the process of learning the language and being massively exposed to swearing words?

We have recently seen different groups of unauthorized people entering the government offices with their demands and threatening the officers. They even asked for their resignation. It was absolutely a wrong doing in the name of so-called gen Z youths. A responsible gen Z group would never involve in such a filthy task. There must be a protocol to follow if you want something to be done in a formal organization which was breached by a bunch of young people who had pretended to be an authority themselves. Activities like theirs create terror and insecurities in people; and how can they work peacefully in their work place? After a couple of such incidents, the government has arrested some of the people who were terrorizing the government personnel. Let's hope this kind of irresponsible activities will not repeat again.

An acute blame game has also been developed after the gen Z revolution. If we believe what people are claiming, there is not a single person we can find in the country with a clean image. Whether you consider the great personality Dr. Sanduk Ruit, the Prime Minister Sushila Karki, the Minister of Home Affairs Om Prakash Aryal, the Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Kul Man Ghising or anyone who has done something good for the country, they are being criticized baselessly. Some renowned e-papers are also selling the same sort of stories. The interim government has a lot of tasks to do within a limited time. These nonsense stories may distract its main focus, and this may be the intention of rumormongers.  

 

Journalism is regarded as a very sacred  profession. It comes after the three branches of democracy - executive, legislative and judiciary. So, it is called the fourth branch. These days some journalists have also failed to follow their work ethics. I think such journalists are not journalists in real sense but they are self-proclaimed ones. I remember a so-called journalist who was shouting at one of the gen Z representatives to take accountability of every damage that had happened on the 8th and 9th of September. The poor gen Z boy was trying to clarify that the probe commission has already been formed to investigate the incidents of killing and vandalism happened on those dates but that pathetic journalist was unable to process this information. His stubbornness was ridiculous.

For the past some days Balen Shah's poem had got an entire attention on the social media platforms. In that poem only an expression 'as dirty as a farmer' was being attacked . A majority of people interpreted this expression denotatively instead of connotatively. They stated that Balen Shah insulted farmers saying that they are dirty people and they vented their anger upon him. More interestingly, the All Nepal Peasants' Federation even issued a press release asking Balen to remove this expression from the poem. The word 'dirty' reminded me my PhD days. At that time my research supervisors used to tell me to dirty my hands while conducting my study, then only I could succeed. Doing PhD and farming are equally daunting and without working hard neither PhD scholars nor farmers reach their goal.

All these examples are the evidence of our mental level on an average. We do not have practice of critical thinking, as a result, we are unable to differentiate between facts and rumors. During this critical time we, as responsible citizens, must be united for a common cause to relieve the country from all the problems that she is facing right now. 

(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, October 31, 2025 ) 

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]