Every Thursday ISSUE 227 RS 40 3 JULY 2014 19 cfiff( 2071 The Smarter Entertainment Weekly 4 Newsfeed k ckstart TOP 3 EVENTS Where Can I Go Watch FIFA? ROPAIN THE RICE PLANTING FESTIVAL The next best thing to watching a World Cup match in a stadium is watching a World If you want to have fun by connecting with nature, the Cup match in a bar with a raucous crowd. FR!DAY brings to you a list of happening Ropain Rice Planting Festival is just the event for you. places where the World Cup fever will be at its highest. !Rice, the staple meal of the country, is planted every summer as the rain sets in the valley. The Ropain Festival Nepal House, Baluwatar The Factory is being organized this year at Bajrabarahi, Lalitpur in the Contact: 9803573260 Thamel, 014701185 southern outskirts of the valley. Celebrate the rain showers this summer by celebrating ropain (along with sumptuous Namlo Garden Restaurant The ROX Bar, Hyatt Regency Newari dishes!). Contact: 9851103087 Boudha, 01-4491234 Date: 28 and 29 June,Time: 6:30pm - 10:00pm in UTC+05:45, Moksh, Jhamsikhel 1Ticket Price: 1950/- Adults, 1000/- Children below 10 yrs, Free for Contact: 5528362 children below 5 yrs, Tickets available at : http://www.eventbrite. com/e/ropain-the-rice-planting-festival-2014-tickets-11536751735 Sports Bar FC, Jhamsikhel Contact: 0984-9302118 Arena Sports Lounge, Thamel 01-4700283 ZUMBA AND DJ DANCE EVENT If you dance to have fun and stay fit at the same time, De gaa Restro Lounge the Zumba party is just the event for you. With 21 Kumaripati, 01-5008679 Zumba instructors from all over Kathmandu to direct you, all you have to do is move to the DJ’s beats.Once you’re done with the dancing, you can look forward to a delicious dinner, amongst the various other attractions. The ticket also provides you with a free COUNTDOWN The Kathmandu Kora Cycling Challenge 2014 will start from Zumba class at Next Step Fitness & Training centre the third Saturday of July with riders undertaking a personal (NSF), a 15% discount on any membership at NSF, a challenge of 50 km, 75 km and 100 km around Kathmandu 30% discount on any membership on the spot at NSF, Valley. In each of the editions of the Kora Challenge, riders and a 20% discount at Kiki’s Fashion House in Naxal. have pledged to raise money for a cause. Date: 27 June (Friday), Venue: Hotel Radisson, The first edition in 2011 pledged nearly half a million Nepali Time: 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm 2 Rupees for a school and orphanage in Kathmandu, the second raised nearly a million rupees to upgrade a birthing facility in Rukum, and the third edition, which had about 800 riders, raised over 1.7 million to build a birthing facility MAANKO AAKHA - WINDOWS OF MY HEART in Sharmali, Baitadi. This year’s pledge is even bigger - the Traditional ornate windows, rickety openings in the wall, campaign aims to raise two million to build an eco- designed and shutters of all kinds are a metaphor for the way birthing facility in Pyutar, South Lalitpur. Take on the we interact with the world. Windows of my Heart is an Challenge - 50, 75 or 100k - its FREE. Raise some funds @ exhibition of 100 paintings by Erina Tamrakar that displays WEEKS TO GO Rs. 100 per km. the journey between the outside world and the realm of 3 the inner self. Poets such as Sunita Rana, Pooja Maharjan, Date: 18 &19 July, Time: Jul 18 at 6:15pm to Jul 19 at 4:15am Erina Tamrakar, Chirag Bangdel, and Homraj Acharya will Venue: Patan Dhoka (Starting point), Contact: 01-4412508, http://www.kathmandukora.net 3 each be performing a poetry piece at the opening. WHAT’S ON? LIVE THE BEACH EXPERIENCE: SPLASH 2 Freak Boyz Management is bringing Special attraction: together an innovative party experience • Beach style decorations, including sand for a perfect summer day. The organizers on the dance floor along with a cool plan to recreate the ambience of a live swimming pool. Date: 27 June 2014, Venue:Image Ark, Kulimha Patan Dhoka, beach at the venue - International Club in • Shack-style bars and food stalls. Time: 5:30 pm Sanepa. Shorts and slippers make up the • DJ Koul from Denmark will be spinning official dress code, so turn up light and the deck along with local DJs - Jack D With events to the left and right, Fr!day makes it a little bit easier for you to choose events to go get the beach experience on 28 June. Frost, Sagor, and Rakesh. check out this week and the next. Here are our top three picks. • Special appearance and performances For Tickets: Contact: by Raw Barz artists. POST US: Email event details to [email protected] or 9803771431(Sanjog Malla), • A cocktail menu with beer and vodka call 5011571/ 5011639/ 5011730/ 5011731 for listings. Listings are free but 9803207051 (Saroj Giri). bongs. inclusion is not guaranteed due to limited space. Kickstart//Get Started 6 statement alone was an achievement. The exposure of the event works both ways – the people in the cities get Celebrating Rice to witness and be a part of this amazing Get down and dirty in the paddy fields as you festival while the farmers feel a sense of inclusion and appreciation for what they get a firsthand experience of rice cultivation. have been doing. In addition, similar Prabal Man Dhaubhadel events help to turn small communities like Bajrabarahi into eventful hubs. This A major part of the traditional Nepali appreciating food and the labor that goes year the celebration will last for two meal happens to be rice. Despite the into preparing a good year’s harvest.” 13% days. Students from Mid Valley College introduction of processed grain products Adding to the objective and purpose of Accounts for are expected to take part on Friday that range from corn to wheat, rice still the event, Gyawali states that Ropain foreign trade. whereas other registrants will celebrate remains dominant. For many, there’s is, in fact, a celebration. “Join us on this ropain the next day. On the management nothing more fulfilling than a helping of wonderful daylong affair; get dirty with front, SocialTours has everything taken rice - accompanied by daal, vegetables, your friends, family and even the locals. care of - from the playfield/crop-field and meat - after a long day at work. Besides all the fun you can have on a 39% and transportation to a special Newari Speaking of work, Nepal, an agro-based Saturday, you will also get to witness the Contribution treat once people have had enough of nation relies heavily on its harvest with skill and techniques that real farmers to the GDP the mud. farming being the most widely followed possess,” he adds. Ropain – The Rice Planting Festival occupation. Government statistics reveal Ropain – The Rice Planting Festival is an event that should be on the agenda that agriculture still accounts for two- promotes culture, tourism, and local of all nature lovers and those simply thirds of the employed population and empowerment. When SocialTours started 66% looking to have a good time. It will be Employment is an important pillar of the nation’s the festival a few years ago, they wanted opportunities a day filled with fun, food, and drinks, economy. Even though the Terai and people to reflect on the importance of in Nepal along with lots and lots of mud! most of the agrarian rural regions take agriculture, especially those living in well- pride in the practice, people in the urban off city environments where all one has ABOUT SOCIALTOURS areas have deviated more and more from to do is drive down to the supermarket Since its establishment in 2002, this line of work. Today, farming has to buy a sack or packet of rice. “To truly 87% SocialTours has been setting a different been limited to a small percentage of the understand the value of every rice grain, of the rice in the world is produced pace when it comes to promoting urban populace. there is no other way than to plant one in Asia. culture, tourism, and local products. Along with monsoon comes a yourself,” says Gyawali, who is quick Their services range from travel and notification from nature that the time to to point out that the event is not all tour solutions all over Nepal and even plant rice is upon us. For the last week SocialTours’ doing: a local organization in Bhutan, Bangladesh, and India. They AT A GLANCE or so, farmers all across the country have called Powerful Hands has been assisting Date have made commendable contributions been gearing up for one of their biggest them all along. “While we take care of the 28.06.2014, Sat. towards local empowerment, the festivities – Ropain i.e plantation. If logistics and marketing, Powerful Hands distribution of money in the local you are amongst those who have never coordinates and completes the groundwork Venue economy, and cultural promotions Bajrabarahi stepped into a paddy field and gotten in the local sector,” he explains. through events such as Vo-Ye - the your hands dirty sowing seeds into the Like in the previous occasions, the Duration Newari Feast, Yoga Marathon – 108 wet soil, now’s your chance. SocialTours, rice planting festival will take place in 0930-1700 Sun Salutations, Ropain – The Rice a five time Responsible Award nominated Bajrabarahi once again. For the past Planting Festival, and Kathmandu Kora Eligibility private sector tourism company, presents couple of years, people have been signing All age groups Cycling Challenge – No child born to Ropain – The Rice Planting Festival.