Tune into an inspiring conversation with Sally Orange MBE and Felicity Ashley, two remarkable British athletes and cancer survivors who travelled to Nepal in May 2025 to take on the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon – the world’s highest marathon. 🏔️💪

In this episode, hosted by Juliana, they open up about:
✨ Their journey to Nepal

🚺 Experiences and challenges of women athletes

🧠 Facing mental health challenges

🎗️ Battling and surviving cancer

💛 And what it means to keep moving forward when life gives you lemons.

This episode is part of the British Council's Culture Connects programme, in collaboration with the British Embassy Kathmandu and Friends of Nepal UK.

🎧 Tune in for a story of resilience, purpose, and cross-cultural connection.

Episode 2 of Shringaar Stories

In this episode, we dive deeper into the "why" of certain aesthetic practices in Nepal's Newa and Tharu communities. These practices have survived the test of globalisation and modernisation and women remain to be the living historians of keeping these traditions alive.

Along with signifying the unspoken bond between mother and daughter, these practices symbolise indigenous identity and are important for the community to continue thriving. Even though at risk, intangible culture in indigenous communities in Nepal still have the hope of survival with the current generation's curiosities and efforts.

The podcast has been supported by the British Council Nepal Gender Grants. 

Produced by Juliana Shrestha  

Edited by Suraj Shakya

First episode on the Shringaar Stories Series

This series is very personal to us. As we grew up away from our mothers when they were working to provide for our families, we felt a void in the bond we could have and the stories of our indigenous cultures that we missed out on.

Most young people growing up in Kathmandu are undergoing an identity crisis. Women, especially mothers, are the primary holders of information on cultural norms and practices and expected to pass on the knowledge to younger generations. The modern day challenge for mothers to maintain a career - family balance means that most of this knowledge transfer is missing or lost.

The first episode of the series highlights the significance of aesthetic symbols that women in Nepal’s indigenous communities use to signify mother-daughter bonds that were in place to transfer traditional cultural knowledge from one generation to another.

Thanks to Shanti Napit, Indu Tharu and Shanti Rai for sharing their stories with us.

The podcast has been supported by the British Council Nepal Gender Grants. 

Produced by Juliana Shrestha

Edits by Suraj Shakya

Shringaar Stories is a podcast series that attempts to archive intangible cultural heritage of Nepal’s diverse ethnic communities - a curiosity of women’s indigenous identities - an appeal for tradition to thrive.

A Tharu woman's hand-poked tattoo induced with mother's breastmilk, a Newa girl's coming of age celebration with her first "alaa" and two young women travellers' exploration of their indigenous identity growing up away from their mothers - this podcast series documents how women's aesthetic symbols signify a deeper mother-daughter bond from the womb to the afterlife in indigenous Nepali communities, with the aim to archive intangible cultural practices.

The podcast has been supported by the British Council Nepal Gender Grants

Produced by Juliana Shrestha  

Edited by Suraj Shakya

In this episode, we catch up with Madina from Khan Quest, who is on a world tour with her husband Kyle. They came to Nepal after learning about the country from a server in Dubai and when her #tiktok comments were off the roof with people asking her to come to Nepal. She started travelling just before the pandemic with her husband and their channel has been growing since. In this episode, Madina shares about how contrary to popular belief, marriage brought her freedom and what life is like travelling with her husband and being recognised on the streets as an influencer. We also dive deep into the realities of full time travel and how Madina has had a range of experience when it comes to women's everyday life realities around the world. 

Make sure you listen till the end for a fatafat rapid fire with Madina!

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In this episode we have an economist and scholar Juni Singh joining all the way from LA. Juli and Juni chat about experiences of travelling the world while building a career in academia, making different cities her own and travelling Europe with her sister. Don't forget to catch the fatafat rapid fire at the end!

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In this episode, duluwa Juli caught up with Eileen to talk about how Eileen balances working for 6 months in London and travelling South Asia for the rest of the year. As women, the added social obligations could restrict us from living our travel dreams. Eileen is living those travel dreams and goals, but we seldom hear the realities behind the dreams - this episode brings you exactly that! Eileen shares about her experiences as a Westerner in South Asia, and the challenges of being a travel writer as well. 

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Travelling in Nepal with a disability is challenging - from the lack of facilities to people's demeaning behavior. Nirmala, a para-athlete and traveller shares stories of her travels around Nepal with a prosthetic leg, and compares them with her experiences traveling abroad. Her will power, courage and persistence to change people's perceptions of disabled people is inspiring! Make sure you listen till the end for a fun new segment of Duluwa Talks too ;)

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In this episode Duluwa Juli is joined by the podcast's edit team Shanti, Rejina and Binita to share their perspectives on some unpopular travel opinions. Enjoy this candid conversation with the team as they share their travel stories and some tips for your next trip!

As a child of mixed cultures, Catalina has travelled across Asia and Europe in search to belongingness, and acceptance. Growing up she struggled as a "half Thai half German" child, never fully belonging to either cultures. What does it mean to be "half" any culture? How does it shape one's identity? Why do we yearn to travel and experience cultures? This conversation between duluwa Juli and Cat is an exploration of these questions and more.  

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