At a time when reconstruction of heritage sites in Kathmandu Valley has been mired in protest and criticism, the use of heavy drilling tools at the 17th century Jaisi Dega, commonly known as Jaisi Dewal Temple, has drawn flak from the local community, activists and heritage conservationists.

Once a year, the day after the Capital reverberates with Gai Jatra’s laughter and merriment, Sitaram leads the age-old Payo Jatra—a tradition locals claim to have been initiated during the Lichhavi era.

TS Elliot once described a river as a “sullen, brown god,” worshipped not just as a frontier but also for the sustenance that people draw from it. It then is of little surprise that the first civilisations sprang on the banks of rivers, with early humans using the brown god and its flood plains to transform their societies from hunting and gathering to making the monumental switch to agriculture.

When Agam Singh Giri, a Darjeeling schoolteacher, handed Amber Gurung a page of lyrics in 1960, little did either know that they were about to set in motion a chain of events that would alter their lives, careers and the then still-evolving Nepali musical landscape.