Miss Universe 2019 winner Zozibini Tunzi, the first black woman from South Africa to win the title, has crowned the new Miss Universe.

Meza, a model, and a software engineer had to compete with 73 other gorgeous beauties from across the world to bag the coveted title of the 69th Miss Universe pageant held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Hotel in Florida on May 16.

The 26-year-old beauty became the third Mexican woman to win the ultimate crown of the Miss Universe pageant.

When asked to address the topic of changing beauty standards during the final statement round, the Mexican beauty wowed the selection community with her brain.

“We live in a society that more and more is more advanced, and as we have advanced as a society, we have advanced with stereotypes. Nowadays, beauty is not only the way we look. For me, beauty radiates not only in our spirits but also in our hearts and the way we conduct ourselves. Never permit someone to tell you that you are not valuable,” she said.

The new Miss Universe is Mexico!!!! #MISSUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/Mmb6l7tK8I

— Miss Universe (@MissUniverse) May 17, 2021

Mario Lopez, “Access Hollywood” fame and former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo co-hosted the pageant, which featured a special performance by Luis Fonsi.

Meanwhile, Miss Nepal Anshika Sharma sported a special white jacket to pay tribute to the Sherpas, who regularly serve as climbing guides for Mount Everest expeditions. However, the Nepali beauty didn’t make it to Top 21.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepali Fashion News!

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The trekkers are the first to scale the mountain this year. Kami and the rest of the Sherpas installed ropes on the dangerous route for the trekkers to reach the summit later on safely.

Mountaineer Kami reached the highest summit first in 1994 and has been scaling the mountain annually ever since. After the unfortunate 2015 Mt. Everest avalanche, which claimed 19 lives, the trekker was asked to give up his annual trek by his family. However, Rita continued scaling the mountain, and today, at the age of 51, he is one of the guides whose experiences are prized by the trekking enthusiasts.

Apart from Mt. Everest, Rita has scaled other mountains, such as K2 and Manaslu, that constitute the roof of the world.

Owing to the pandemic, the Himalayan country issued trekking permits to only 408 foreigners this year. Nepal had initially sealed off its Mt. Everest’s southern side from trekking to curb the viral spread.

Congratulations Kami Rita Sherpa!!

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The pandemic has turned busy tourism spots into secluded destinations, and a climbing community in Nepal has leveraged this tourism hiatus to clean Mount Everest. They spent 47 days collecting and cleaning around 2.2 tons of trash and garbage scattered around the Mount Everest base camp.

A Swiss luxury brand launched an initiative called Bally Peak Outlook to preserve the world’s tallest mountains and extreme environments from the consequences of excessive tourism and global warming.

So, a group of Nepali climbers and environmental activist Dawa Steven Sherpa partnered with the brand and locals and started an initiative in 2008 to remove trash from the mountains. A team of 12 climbers cleaned the eight highest peaks in Nepal.

Last fall, a #BallyPeakOutlook expedition embarked on the first phase of our #8X8000M pledge to clean up the base camps of Nepal’s eight 8,000m mountains. Over 47 days, 2.2 tons of waste were removed from Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu. Learn more at https://t.co/k4aTRjwhWk pic.twitter.com/Drnj4J26lQ

— BALLY (@Bally) March 29, 2021

A series of five short video clips capturing the expedition team cleaning Nepal’s eight highest mountains was released recently.

The latest initiative to clean Mt. Everest was earlier scheduled to start in early 2020 but was delayed to late September due to the pandemic.

“When we take away garbage from the mountains, it must feel to the gods like taking a thorn out of their finger,” said Steven Sharma, adding that the mountain is their spiritual home, and they feel it’s their right and responsibility to protect it.

Stay Tuned to Nepali Sansar for the latest news on Nepal Tourism!

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The book follows the story of a child widow who goes through numerous hardships in her life.

Tara was born on the day of the 1990 B.S. earthquake – one of the worst earthquakes in the country’s history, which Gandhi claimed as a providential retribution for India’s failure to eradicate untouchability.

The first main event that happens in the book is Tara’s wedding. Getting married at the age of seven was seen as a norm rather than an exception during that time. And so a child unaware of what it means to be married is wedded. So, with this bit of trickery from her parents, Tara unknowingly starts her married life, bringing color red to her life.

Also Read: Nepal’s Sapana Roka Magar in 100 Influential Women for 2020

In our culture, red is not just symbolic for married women but is integral for any form of celebration and worship. Following her marriage, Tara’s life follows the monotonous labor of rural area that relies on sustenance farming.

Two years after her marriage Tara is widowed.

The ideas of purity and impurity are central to our culture with even people and their actions being seen as pure/impure and auspicious/inauspicious.

Mensuration and childbirth are two of the incidents which make women impure and untouchable in our culture, barring them from kitchens, and any religious and cultural places.

On top of this, widowhood makes a woman permanently impure and inauspicious. Not being allowed to be married again in the future, and excluded from almost all festivals and ceremonies, widowhood does literally takes all colors out of their life along with forcing them to clad in white clothes for the rest of their life.

Returning home after widowhood gives Tara a semblance of hope – she can live like a son, her mother says. But tragedy again befalls her in the form of her mother’s death which is followed by her father’s second marriage to a child.

Also Read: Human Trafficking in Nepal

Despite not having any kids of her own, Tara is the primary caretaker for her younger brothers until she does not feel comfortable in her father’s house anymore and at the age of 33 years, leaves for Devghat.

Devghat is a place people go to devote their lives to spiritual pursuits. The concept of Sannyas is an old tradition in our culture, meaning purification of everything in Sanskrit.

To quote Bhagavad Gita, “He is known as a permanent Sannyasin who does not hate, does not desire, is without dualities.” Hence, this action by Tara can be seen as the fulfilment of both the need for purification and the renouncement of desires.

But Tara’s feelings portray anything but this. At the beginning of the journey, all she desires is for her brother to come calling for her, to stop her from going. And throughout the journey, she has other desires, as she continues hoping and fantasizing for an alternative to where she is going.

She fantasizes about marrying a fellow traveller, becoming a wife, and taking a different life path than the one she is travelling towards.

Throughout her young adulthood, we see Tara pondering about her desire for love, sex, and relationships.

Human desire is said to be the fundamental motivation of all human actions and even in our own religious textbook Rig Veda, desire is said to be the first seed of minds. But despite this, personal desire is seen as something that needs to be repressed or sacrificed in our culture, specifically in the period that follows the main protagonist of our book Tara.

Tara suffers through almost all of the social evils that our country’s women of that time had to suffer. It might have been a melodramatic sob story about misery had it not been realistic for a woman to happen during that time.

Along with Tara’s story, the novel follows the lives of two other women whose story arcs seem to be there just to tell us how Tara’s lives would have been in different cases.

Yamuna, Tara’s friend who is still married embodies the life that Tara might have lived had her husband not died and the plot of her fellow child widow, Pabitra, embodies the life that Tara might have made for herself had she not shackled herself to the expectations of the society and given into all her desires and pleasures.

All three women do go through their share of trials and tribulations and end up in the same place in their old age almost if to showcase the inevitable rigidity that the society had provided to these women.

The novel always draws a parallel between the colorless and harsh life of Tara and the colorful fantasies and desires that she has for herself.

Through our modern lens, her desires do not seem outrageous or even unreasonable at any point but it seems impossible for any of them to come true for Tara. While Pabitra may be seen at the surface level as someone who did extract herself from the shackles of patriarchy but would we have felt that way if we had followed her journey as closely as we followed Tara’s?

Contributed by: Achala Sharma

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The group of Nepali climbers paused 70 meters away from the peak of the world’s second tallest mountain Karakorum’s ‘Savage Mountain’ to wait for each other before making the world record together at 4:56 pm.

The ten climbers are:

• Nirmal Purja
• Gelje Sherpa
• Mingma David Sherpa
• Mingma G
• Sona Sherpa
• Mingma Tenzi Sherpa
• Pem Chhiri Sherpa
• Dawa Temba Sherpa
• Kili Pemba Sherpa
• Dawa Tenjing Sherpa

However, their success was marred by the unfortunate death of famous Spanish climber Sergio Mingote, who is also on the expedition to climb K2 in winter. He fell down a crevasse on his way down to Base Camp.

“Sad death of Sergi Mingote on K2. He wanted to keep on making history by being part of the first expedition to climb this mountain in winter, and a tragic accident ended his life,” tweeted Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, in the wake of the accident.

As many as 49 climbers from several teams are now on K2 making attempts to reach the peak.

Also Read: Nepal, China Announces New Height of Mt Everest at 8,848.86M

K2 winter summit by Nepali climbers – Watch video

K2 is the only mountain over 8,000 meters that had not been ascended in the winter. It is dangerous for its steep slopes and high winds, particularly in winter as the surface becomes slick ice. Since the first attempt in 1954 by Italian Achille Compagnoni, 367 climbers had summited the mountain by 2018. And 86 had lost their lives in an attempt to scale the mountain.

The previous record of highest height scaled on K2 in winter was 7,750 meters, set by Denis Urubko and Marcin Kaczkan nearly two decades ago.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest News on Nepal!

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The thirty-four-year-old chef now based in London impressed the judges on his way to making it to MasterChef 2020 finals.

Competing for the Final Three on Wednesday, shah cooked lamb marinated in spices with fermented mustard greens, a bone marrow curry sauce, and a mint paratha in the first round.

In the next round, the chefs were supposed to prepare a dish for someone they love. Santhosh prepared a meal for his mother. He cooked:

• Fried okra stuffed with ginger and fig
• Mango and coconut chutney
• Potato, fenugreek, and pomegranate salad
• Saffron rice wrapped in rice paper
• Crab curry sauce
• Poori bread with fried green chillis
• Carrot, chocolate, and raspberry pudding in a white chocolate dome
• Raspberry puree
• Payan leaf ice cream

The judges nearly unanimously praised his dishes and selected him for the Top 3 Finals.

“Getting into The Final is a dream come true,” said Shah after he secured a spot in the finals.

“I entered this competition to promote my country’s food to the world, and being able to cook Nepalese food in the competition is very special. I believe Nepali cuisine is waiting for the right platform to be introduced to the global audience,” he said about his passion.

“I see a lot of scope, as all the native Nepali dishes are easy to cook and are healthy.  ‘I want to put Nepalese cuisine on the world map of culinary food one day,” added Santhosh.

Shah, the head chef for The Cinnamon Collection, will be cooking against two other chefs tomorrow for the Masterchef Champion 2020 title.

Santosh Shah was born in Karjanha, a small village in the south-eastern district of Siraha, Nepal. He started his career as a dishwasher at a local restaurant in Gujarat, India, and it’s here where he found his love of cooking.  After working in India for ten years, Shah moved to London, where he now works as an executive chef at Saffron Circle UK besides being a head chef at the Cinnamon Collection.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepali News!

More News:

• Namrata Shrestha Wins ‘Miss Nepal 2020’ Title
• Ethiopia’s Yehualaw Finishes Delhi Half Marathon with 2nd Fastest Run Ever!
• Nepal’s Sapana Roka Magar Named in BBC’s 100 Influential Women for 2020!
• Nepal, China Announces New Height of Mt Everest at 8,848.86M
• COVID-19 to Heighten the Threat of Poverty and Income Inequality!

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The 23-years old model bagged the ‘Miss Nepal World 2020‘ title by beating 19 other finalists at the 25^th edition of the Miss Nepal beauty pageant organized by The Hidden Treasure (THT) in Kathmandu. Namrata was crowned by her predecessor Miss Nepal World 2019 Anushka Shrestha. She will now represent Nepal at the ‘Miss World 2021’ beauty pageant to be held in China.

Along with the Miss Nepal World title, Namrata bagged two other subtitles, namely ‘Brij Cement Miss Confident 2020’ and ‘The Kathmandu Post Miss Intellectual 2020’. She also won a cash prize of NPR 250,000 and a brand-new Yamaha Fascino Scooter.

This is the second attempt for Namrata in Miss Nepal Pageant. In 2016, she stood among the Top-5 finalists of Miss Nepal 2016. The Kathmandu-based model is a certified Kindergarten teacher and aspires to become an impactful educator.

“I am a person driven by passion having an attitude of gratitude, and is an avid learner. I am an ordinary girl with an extraordinary dream,” said Namrata.

Miss Nepal Earth 2020 – Supriya Shrestha

24-years old Supriya Shrestha won the ‘Miss Nepal Earth 2020’ title and was crowned by Miss Nepal Earth 2019 Riya Basnet. The Kathmandu-based model stood as the first runner-up in the Miss Nepal 2020 beauty pageant. She was awarded a cash prize worth NPR 250,000.

Miss Nepal International 2020 – Sandhya Sharma

Beauty queen Sandhya Sharman from Mahottari bagged the title of ‘Miss Nepal International 2020’ and was crowned by Miss Nepal International 2019 Meera Kakshapati. She also won subtitles, including IME Pay Beauty with a Purpose, Livon Life Miss Popular Choice, and Ruslan Women of Substance. She won a cash prize of NPR 250,000.

Miss Nepal Supranational 2020 – Shimal Kanaujiya

Shimal Kanaujiya won the ‘Miss Nepal Supranational 2020’ award and was crowned by the Chief Judge of the pageant Meekha Mathema. The 24-years old model hails from Kathmandu. Shimal bagged a cash prize worth NPR 250,000.

Miss Nepal 2020 Subcategory Winners:

• Altroz Miss Stylish – Merisa Singh Suwal
• Goldstar Miss Fitness – Subhangi Khatri
• Nepal Tourism Board Miss Tourism – Riya Shrestha
• Nepal Medicity Miss Healthy – Neha Sarkar
• Creative D Studio Miss Photogenic – Astika Shrestha
• Berger Miss Glamour – Yojana Bhattarai

All these subtitle winners received a cash prize of NPR 25,000.

Miss Nepal 2020 Grand Finale – Live Stream

List to Top-12 Finalists at Miss Nepal 2020:

• Astika Shrestha
• Namrata Shrestha
• Merisa Singh Suwal
• Riya Shrestha
• Arnika Rajbhandari
• Pragati Shrestha
• Supriya Shrestha
• Aayesha Shrestha
• Sija Chaulagain
• Sajana Panta
• Simal Kanaujiya
• Sandhya Sharma

Want to know all the 25 Miss Nepal winners? Read on ‘List of Miss Nepal Titleholders (Video)

The post Namrata Shrestha Wins ‘Miss Nepal 2020’ Title appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The 21-year-old Ethiopian athlete completed the 21.09-kilometer course in one hour, four minutes, and 46 seconds. She won USD 27,000 in prize money and an additional USD 10,000 as an event record bonus.

Previously, Yehualaw achieved her personal best 1:05:19 when she finished third at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 last month. She bounced back with aplomb at this World Athletics Gold Label road race in New Delhi to finish the race 1 minute 14 seconds better than the previous record.

“My training since the world championships told me that maybe I could break the course record as I ran 1:05:19 there, but this was more than I expected, and I hoped for a win here after just losing by a second a year ago,” said Yehualaw.

“My plan was to push hard with two kilometers to go, and that helped my fast time, and it was also very nice weather with early morning temperatures in Delhi around 12-14 degrees Celsius,” she added.

The world record in women’s half marathon was set by Ethiopian athlete Ababel Yeshaneh when she finished the course in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 31 seconds at Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates in February.

Top Five Finishers in Airtel Delhi Women’s Half Marathon 2020:

• Yalemzerf Yehualaw (ETH) – 1:04:46
• Ruth Chepngetich (KEN) – 1:05:06
• Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH) – 1:05:21
• Irene Cheptai (KEN) – 1:06:43
• Tsehay Gemechu (ETH) – 1:07:16

In the men’s race, Ethiopia’s Amdework Walelegn outsprinted his compatriot and two-time defending champion Andamlak Belihu to win the race in 58:53. Belihu finished the race in 58:54, just missing an unprecedented third title.

Top Five Finishers in Airtel Delhi Men’s Half Marathon 2020:

• Amedework Walelegn (ETH) – 58:53
• Andamlak Belihu (ETH) – 58:54
• Stephen Kissa (UGA) – 58:56
• Muktar Edris (ETH) – 59:04
• Leonard Barsoton (KEN) – 59:10

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Sports News!

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This year, the BBC has selected 100 women who are leading change and making a difference during the uncertain time triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Nepal’s Sapana Roka Magar has been named as one of the 100 Influential Women for 2020 for her selfless service amid the pandemic.

Sapana is working as a crematorium technician at an organization that handles the cremation of unclaimed bodies across Nepal.

“After becoming homeless for three months, Sapana traveled to Kathmandu where she became involved in an organization that cremates unclaimed bodies,” said BBC.

Amid the pandemic, the Nepali Army has been strictly managing the bodies of those who have died from COVID-19 infection. Sapana’s organization retrieves the abandoned bodies from the streets or mortuaries and makes arrangements to take the dead bodies to a hospital for post-mortem examinations.

If the body remains unclaimed for 35 days, the organization cremates the body as per the Dagbatti rituals, which in Hindu tradition are usually performed by the son of the deceased.

“There are homeless, abandoned people across the world. People who die on the streets deserve proper last rites. I do this job not as a social service but for my own peace of mind,” says Sapana.

The list also includes Sanna Marin (Prime Minister of Finland), Michelle Yeoh (Malaysian Actor), Sarah Gilbert (Scientist at Oxford University working to create COVID-19 vaccine), as well as Jane Fonda (Two-time Academy Award-winning actress).

In a bid to honor countless women around the world who are making a difference amid the pandemic, the BBC has left the first place on the list open with the title ‘Unsung Hero.’

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Mahila News!

More News:

• Mrs. Nepal 2020 Is Open! Register Now!
• Nepal Concludes Multiple Beauty Pageants Amid Festive Season!
• Kamala Harris Becomes First Woman, First Black, First South Asian US Vice President
• Nepali Women Laxmi Rayamajhi Gets Recognition From Bill Gates!

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The big news for Nepali cricket fans is that Nepal’s former captain Paras Khadka has been nominated for the prestigious ICC Men’s Associate Player of the Decade.

According to the list released on November 24, six players have been nominated for the accolade. Besides Paras, Callum Macleod (Scotland), Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), Richie Berrington (Scotland), Peter Borren (the Netherlands), and Asad Vala (Papua New Guinea) have been selected.

Let’s take a glance at the various ICC awards for the decade and the players nominated for each category:

🔟 years
🏏 3711 games
⭐ Countless memories

The #ICCAwards are back, this time with an entire DECADE in focus 🤩

We’ll be giving away some incredible fan prizes too, so keep your eyes peeled 👀 pic.twitter.com/7B1UyU6eQa

— ICC (@ICC) November 24, 2020

• ICC Men’s Player of the Decade

Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Joe Root (England), Steve Smith (Australia), AB de Villiers (South Africa), and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

• ICC Women’s Player of the Decade

Nominees: Mithali Raj (India), Meg Lanning (Australia), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Suzie Bates (New Zealand), and Sarah Taylor (England)

• ICC Men’s Test Player of the Decade

Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Steve Smith (Australia), Joe Root (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), James Anderson (England), Yasir Shah (Pakistan), and Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)

• ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Decade

Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Rohit Sharma (India), MS Dhoni (India), Mitchell Starc (Australia), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

• ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Decade

Nominees: Mithali Raj (India), Jhulan Goswami (India), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Meg Lanning (Australia), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), and Suzie Bates (New Zealand)

• ICC Men’s T20I Player of the Decade

Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), Rohit Sharma (India), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Aaron Finch (Australia), Imran Tahir (South Africa), Chris Gayle (West Indies), and Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka)

• ICC Women’s T20I Player of the Decade

Nominees: Meg Lanning (Australia), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Alyssa Healy (Australia), Deandra Dottin (West Indies), and Anya Shrubsole (England)

• ICC Women’s Associate Player of the Decade

Nominees: Sornnorin Tippoch (Thailand), Nattakan Chantam (Thailand), Chanida Sutthiruang (Thailand), Sarah Bryce (Scotland), Kathryn Bruce (Scotland), and Sterre Kalis (the Netherlands)

• ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade

Nominees: Virat Kohli (India), MS Dhoni (India), Anya Shrubsole (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan), Katherine Brunt (England), and Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka)

The ICC will decide the winners in all ten categories based on the number of public votes a player receives.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepali Cricket News!

More News:

• Nepali Athletes to Participate in 2020 World Powerlifting Championship!
• After 8 Months of Hiatus, Nepali Cricket Team to Resume Training!!
• Nepal Cricket Board Signs Contract with Female Cricketers!

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