Nepal Now

Send us Fan Mail Of all the reasons I’ve heard for Nepalis migrating to work abroad, this one was the most shocking: to fight for the Russian Army in its invasion of Ukraine. The news first reached the mainstream media in mid-2023 but long before that, photos of young Nepali men posing in Russian Army uniforms had been circulating online. For the unemployed, or under-employed, Russia quickly becam...

Send us Fan Mail You might know Nepal as home to the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, as the place where the Buddha was born, or as the location of many sites sacred to the world’s Hindus. This country is also a geopolitical hotspot, encircled by the world’s giants—China and India—eying one another warily over the Himalayan range.  I’m Marty Logan. As a Canadian journalist who’s lived here goi...

Send us Fan Mail Nurses. I don’t know about you but when I think of people migrating for better opportunities one of the first groups that comes to mind is nurses. Not only in Nepal: I know that this is a huge issue for Caribbean countries and I read recently that in Nigeria, midwives too are being recruited to work in countries of the north. Back in Nepal, over a third of nurses have sought docum...

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re doing something different. We’re devoting this episode to last weekend’s huge rain, the flooding and other disasters it spawned, and the climate migrants who will emerge from these incidents. And here I’d like to give my condolences to the family and friends of the more than 200 people confirmed killed in the devastation.  I know: last week I guaranteed we would share...

Send us Fan Mail This is a very short episode, basically to say that we are behind schedule so this week's episode is delayed until next week.  We think that it will be worth the wait, as we'll be talking to one of many nurses from Nepal who are leaving the country for better opportunities abroad. In fact, this is not a trend only in Nepal; nurses throughout the global South are moving N...

Send us Fan Mail From Kathmandu to Kabul is not really that far in this era of daily intercontinental flights. And today’s guest Prem Awasthi is also fortunate in that he gets to make the return trip home at least every six weeks. But still, he already feels that less than a year after migrating to work abroad, his roots in his homeland are somehow shallower.  If you missed it, Prem was the first...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is not a migration story; you could even call it a non -migration story. I’m chatting with someone successful enough in her field that you could easily imagine her skills being in demand in many other countries, and that she could leave Nepal if she wished. But of course she hasn’t.  Like many Nepalis, Dr Rojina Shilpakar went to Bangladesh to study medicine, then...

Send us Fan Mail Up until now I've been recording most of these episodes speaking into a half-empty clothes cupboard. It's sounded surprisingly good, at least to me, but from next week I will have a slightly more professional setup: a dedicated — though tiny — space, basic soundproofing on the walls, and a new mic. I hope we'll be able to hear the difference. In migration news this...

Send us Fan Mail Mistreatment of migrant workers, especially those forced to work in hot, dangerous conditions, created huge headlines in the run-up to the Qatar World Cup in 2022, thanks in part to the work of today’s guest—journalist Pramod Acharya. Pramod’s subsequent reporting also made the news globally. Also done in collaboration with journalists around the world, it spotlighted the conditio...

Send us Fan Mail Last week the show reached 80 episodes. It's not a significant number, except that it brings us closer to what will be a milestone—100 episodes. I figure we'll reach that at around the end of the year, and will definitely want to mark it somehow. Maybe with T-shirts, other 'merch', or a Best Of episode? How about an online party? If you have any ideas to celebr...

Send us Fan Mail It’s amazing what you can find when curiosity is your guide. I was on a reporting trip in Taplejung district in northeast Nepal, bordering Tibet and India. I had an extra day so I thought I’d look for a school that provides meals to its students. It’s a topic I’ve been following for the past couple of years. I asked a guy I met at the hotel if he knew of a school principal in town...

Send us Fan Mail I want to start this week with a shout out to Tanka, who shared our 3 latest episodes on LinkedIn, including his favourite. His top choice was our chat with Raj and Sunita, who met, online, while working in Gulf countries, got married in Nepal and are now living here again, at least temporarily. Although they’re now pregnant, they appear destined to be a migration family, as Raj i...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve been listening to this show since we re-launched in March to focus only on migration, I think, like me, you would have started to see that there is no one type of migration story. Yes, there are two large groups of migrants — people going abroad to work and others going to study. But within those are a vast number of sub-groups, for example, people going to work because...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you to listener Trilok for pointing out a typo that was on the Nepal Now webpage for almost 4 years, from episode #1. I'm embarrassed but grateful to his sharp eyes.   Please keep the feedback coming, via LinkedIn, as Trilok did, or at the other social channels listed below. You can also email: nepalnowpod(at)gmail.com, or text the show at the link at the top left. It&a...

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re back with another personal story—two in fact: those of Raj and Sunita. I gotta admit, what I like about this story is the romance element, which is something we haven’t heard from other guests so far. What they told us, when we recorded in the ACORAB studio in Chakupat, Patan, was that they were both working in Persian Gulf countries when a colleague suggested that the...

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re taking a step back from the personal stories we’ve been hearing to get some perspective on migration and Nepal. Specifically, we’re talking about women who leave the country to work, including why a ban on them migrating as domestic workers is not a good idea. We’ll also hear – and this is the idea that jolted my brain during the interview – why we need to share positi...

Send us Fan Mail Hi everyone, this is Marty. I got a really interesting and positive email about our last interview with Soham , who first moved to the US when he was 17, a couple of decades ago, and he's been going back and forth ever since. The email was from Jennifer, and I want to read a few excerpts: "I learned so much as it's information which is not easily available. It also...

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re speaking with Soham Dhakal, who first travelled to the US when he was 17 and has been back and forth between the two countries so many times he considers himself a nomad. But before we get to Soham’s story I want to correct something I said last week. Our new text messaging service is not limited: it’s for everyone listening to the show, on any app. Sneak a quick look...

Send us Fan Mail Heard something you really liked, or disliked? You can now let us know by sending  a text message directly from the website. In the description of each episode, at the very top left, you'll see a link that says, What do you think? Send a text . Click on that and your messaging app will open on your phone and you can write us a text message, which I think is pretty cool. Full...

Send us Fan Mail Aayush Pokharel will soon be graduating from his diploma programme in Canada, and so his search for a full-time job has already started. He’ll have three years to work in the country before leaving or applying for permanent residency. For now he says he wants to come back to Nepal. Aayush was one of more than 20,000 young Nepalis officially studying in Canada in 2023, according to...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Nepal Now: Right Now, a weekly micro-episode where we share news about the show and what's happening in migration as it affects Nepal. First, I want to give a shout out to listener Sikhar for his persistence. He wrote and suggested a guest to me. And somehow I couldn't figure out how I could link that guest and their work with this, podcast on migration. And s...

Send us Fan Mail Hi everyone. I’m Marty Logan. Thank you for clicking on this episode of Nepal Now: On the Move, where we speak with some of the huge number of people leaving – and occasionally returning – to this country wedged between India and China. Bharat Adhikari is another former migrant worker who returned to live in Nepal, but his story could hardly be more different than Sushma’s, who we...

Send us Fan Mail This is the first episode of our new micro-series: Nepal Now: Right Now. These pieces will fill the gap between regular full episodes of the show, which are published every two weeks. About 5 minutes long, they will be published on alternate weeks and will focus on past and upcoming episodes — including listener feedback — sharing news about migration and Nepal, and anything else...

Send us Fan Mail Hi everyone. I’m Marty Logan. Thank you for choosing to listen to Nepal Now: On the Move from the literally millions of podcasts available. This is our third episode since we shifted the show’s focus to migration — to, from, and within Nepal. And, I gotta say: I’m biting my nails waiting for feedback from you listeners — especially long-time fans. Good, bad or indifferent, I want...

Send us Fan Mail Hi everyone. I'm Marty Logan. Thank you for listening to Nepal Now: On the Move.  Let me know what you think of this episode, and if you have ideas for future guests. My email is nepalnowpod@gmail.com. I’ve done about 10 interviews to date for the show and I can see that it’s going to be much more difficult to find female guests than male ones, so please do send me tips about...