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I am a 16-year-old student and just completed my high school. I am good at my academics and I have many options available to pursue further studies. I am struggling to make my mind up as to which subject to pick. I am afraid I will make a wrong decision and end up regretting the subject of choice. Any suggestions? - A worried student

Answered by Kapil Sharma, Counseling Psychologist, Hudec Nepal

Nepal votes on Nov 20 to elect representatives to the seven provincial assemblies. The provinces will form new governments for another five years after the polls. But the legacies the outgoing provincial governments will leave behind are not all too good. Most of them were affected by the political instability at the center and as a result, underwent frequent chief minister and minister changes. Consequently, development works took a hit. Province-1 saw Sherdhan Rai, Bhim Acharya and incumbent Rajendra Kumar Rai as its chief minister in the last four and half years. With the new chief minister came new sets of ministers. “We saw chief minister changes in Province-1 and nothing in terms of physical infrastructure and policies,” says political analyst Prof Badribishal Pokharel. Among the few achievements of the provincial government are naming Biratnagar as the provincial capital and setting up offices and the basic foundation for running the government. Madhes government too has little to show for when it comes to development of the province. It has raised nearly Rs 78bn in five years but the eight districts in the province do not have one single project that has been completed. Finance Minister Shailendra Sah, also the spokesperson for Madhes government, had no answers when asked about the exemplary projects completed by the government. The government of Bagmati province claims to have built a road network and dozens of bridges to connect all 119 municipalities. Besides, it has also included passing of 65 legislations, naming of the province and designating the capital as its achievements. Bagmati has seen three chief ministers—Dormani Poudel, Astalaxmi Shakya and Rajendra Pandey—and 37 ministers so far. Frequent changes of chief minister and ministers affected the development projects. Gandaki has fared well in terms of introducing policies related to health and rural road connectivity. However, the province was not immune to political instability. Its first chief minister Prithvi Subba Gurung stepped down barely four years into the office and was replaced by Krishna Chandra Pokharel. The provincial government has undergone eight cabinet reshuffles so far. This led to communication breakdown between provincial and local governments. The government of Lumbini too has delivered little over the years. Its first chief minister Shankar Pokharel spent nearly three and half years in office before Kul Prasad KC replaced him. “An unstable government left the development work and budget spending of Lumbini in a state of disarray,” says Bhoj Prasad Shrestha, a former minister. “People are asking if we really need federalism.” Karnali province, meanwhile, has failed woefully to utilize its budget. Its government is struggling to spend the budget, and most of the allocations have been made towards covering administrative and non-development expenses. “Since we were entering a new model of governance, we had difficulty working at the beginning,” says Finance Minister Bindaman Bista. “We are still trying to improve our budget spending.” Karnali has had two chief ministers— Mahendra Bahadur Shahi of the CPN (Maoist Center) and Jivan Bahadur Shahi of the Nepali Congress—so far. The provincial assembly has 40 members and nearly half of them have so far become ministers. In Sudurpaschim province, Chief Minister Trilochan Bhatta has had a rare opportunity to lead the government for a full term. Still, the people in the province never got a sense of stability. Frequent building and breaking of coalition at the center led to Cabinet reshuffle. The government announced many ambitious projects, but half of them were never initiated. The Maoist Center is the largest party in Karnali with 14 seats in the provincial assembly. Of the 14 assembly members, 11 have become ministers.

This is the kind of love story I want to read. ‘The Heart Principle’ by Helen Hoang was so-so good. I can’t stress that enough. It was believable. It wasn’t over-the-top. I don’t particularly enjoy love stories but if they were all like this one, I would devour them and become a sucker for romance novels. ‘The Heart Principle’ is the final book in the three-book series by Hoang, the first two being ‘The Kiss Quotient’ and ‘The Bride Test’. You don’t have to read the books in chronological order. The stories aren’t connected. I haven’t read them but I have heard that they too are good. But those who have gone through all three keep saying that ‘The Heart Principle’ is the best. Anna Sun is a violinist who shoots to fame when a YouTube video of her performing on stage goes viral. But she has since been replaced by a 12-year-old prodigy and is struggling to make music. Nothing she comes up with seems to be good enough. Then her boyfriend, Julian, suggests they open up their relationship. He wants to be sure she is the person he is meant to be with. When Julian says he knows Anna won’t date anyone, she becomes determined to prove him wrong. Enter Quan, who has just recovered from an illness and is looking to get back on the dating scene. The two connect through a dating app and hit it off right from the start. But Anna’s family doesn’t approve of Quan. She has also not broken up with Julian, who her mother and sister absolutely adore. Anna isn’t the type who can assert herself, say no when she wants to. It doesn’t help that she has recently been diagnosed as autistic but her sister thinks it’s just an excuse for her ‘poor’ behavior. Hoang writes with a lot of empathy for her characters. You find yourself mentally defending even difficult characters like Pricilla, Anna’s elder sister, who tries to dictate how other people act and live and generally comes off as annoying. You see she’s driven by her desire for what she assumes is good for her family. Her intentions are right, even though that may not be obvious. There’s a lot to unpack in The Heart Principle. The book deals with trauma, grief, family pressure, and the need to conform among other things. It’s a really wholesome love story.

Fiction

The Heart Principle

Helen Hoang

Published: 2021

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 339, Paperback

I remember Vivek Oberoi’s debut back in 2002 in the Ajay Devgn-starrer ‘Company’. Oberoi played Chandu—a rookie henchman turned gangster—in one of the most iconic Hindi gangster films. The young Oberoi not only won the hearts of the audiences and critics alike but also went on to win multiple wards for his performance, promising a glorious career in Bollywood.   Fast forward to 2022 and Vivek Oberoi is no more a big name in Bollywood. His filmography is light in big banner films, which is surprising given his dashing debut. Although he has had a few commercial hits, they’ve mostly been ensembles with someone else taking the center-stage.  We don’t really want to get into Oberoi’s personal life and controversies. But it’s really painful to see an actor with so much potential go almost unnoticed in the Indian film industry.  Anyway, I first want to tell the audience that I watched the latest Malayalam language film ‘Kaduva’ just because Oberoi was in it—and also because Amazon Prime did not have anything more interesting to offer this week. Directed by Shaji Kailas, Kaduva is set in the late 90s in a village called Pala in Kerala, India.  Kaduvakunnel Kuriyachan aka Kaduva (Prithviraj Sukumaran) is a wealthy planter who lives in Pala with his wife Elsa and three children. Kaduva is known in the area not only as a successful businessman but also as a good, church-going Samaritan who helps everyone in need and goes out of his way to punish any wrongdoing.  These characteristics of Kaduva and an incident at the local church pit Kaduva against Joseph Chandy Ouseppukutty (Oberoi), the Inspector General of the region. The corrupt Joseph, backed by high ranking politicians, is one of the most powerful persons in the region. Riled up by Kaduva’s attitude towards him, Joseph lets loose a barrage of attacks against Kaduva and his family. Kaduva, the survivor that he is, fights back with full force.  ‘Kaduva’ is a mainstream Malayalam movie. Meaning, rather than a strong script, storytelling and acting, there are other elements that appeal more to the mass: like the protagonist Kaduva sending policemen flying with his kicks and punches and not getting any major injuries himself no matter how hard he is hit.  Nevertheless, the film has a strong script and great execution. As the protagonist Kaduva, Prithviraj Sukumaran is highly convincing. The film’s also brought out by his own production company. The actor seems to know what he is doing: the movie has grossed well at box office.  But what Prithviraj and the filmmakers fail to do in ‘Kaduva’ is fully utilize the talents of Vivek Oberoi. The actor they borrowed from Bollywood has been reduced to an unintelligent antagonist who does not contribute much to the film’s outcome.  Although he has been given a very powerful position in the film, his character lacks that ferocity and intelligence expected of a villain. Oberoi does try to make an impact on the screen but is limited by what’s written for him. Disappointing, as he was the reason I watched the film in the first place.  Kaduva’s screenplay also leaves a lot of unanswered questions and little mysteries. It keeps the audience thinking till the very end and then in the climax, gives them a strong hint of a sequel. A clever ploy, I’d say. And I’d definitely want more of Vivek Oberoi if there’s a sequel.  Who should watch it?  ‘Kaduva’ is not a bad film. Overall execution is pretty decent and readers who enjoy South Indian films will definitely like it. Vivek Oberoi fans will be a bit disappointed but the sequel looks promising for his character.  Rating: 3 stars Genre: Action, drama Actors: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Vivek Oberoi Director: Shaji Kailas Run time: 2hrs 35mins