Kathmandu’s cinema aficionados better roll up their sleeves, as the Nepal International Film Festival starts today and the Nepal International Theatre Festival is just a few days away.

Six miniature robots—three black and three striped red-and-white—are placed on the either side of a small green space.

On the fourth floor of a five-storey building in Kalopul, two engineering graduates in their mid-20s, are hard at work, their heads bowed over their computers.

At the first edition of the ongoing Kantipur Conclave at the Hyatt Regency in Kathmandu on Sunday, a youth-focussed panel discussion saw conversation on a wide range of issues and ideas, including homecoming, entrepreneurship, social media and freedom of speech.

Artist SC Suman came to Kathmandu four decades ago and the first site he went to see was the Pashupatinath Temple. There were more monkeys and more trees, he recalls. And less people. Everything looked orderly and beautiful.

It might not be untoward to assume that every Nepali music fan knows the words to the sombre, breezy classic Nepali adhunik song Siri ma Siri ni Kanchhi by heart.