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I was listening to NPR on my way to work in the morning, and a bookstore owner was interviewed. A bookstore owner said something I cannot stop thinking about. She said many books get maybe thirty seconds of attention. Thirty seconds. Someone scans the cover, title, maybe the back, and decides whether it deserves shelf space.

She compared bookstores to real estate.

Limited space.

Then came the part that stayed with me. If books do not sell, many are returned. Some eventually get destroyed....

Reflections on Voltaire, Value, and Why Human Behavior Changes So Little

I was reading Candide by Voltaire and came across the kingdom of El Dorado, where gold, diamonds, and precious stones are treated as ordinary parts of nature. Children play with them casually. Roads are lined with what Europeans would consider unimaginable wealth. The people living there see no special value in these materials because, to them, they are simply part of the earth.

Only the Europeans passing through seem...

There is something strange about old photographs. At first, you see faces. Then, years later, you begin seeing burdens.

This picture was taken sometime around 1988. Five boys standing beside our mother in a field somewhere in rural Nepal. At the time, it probably felt like an ordinary afternoon. Someone had a camera. We lined up. My mother stood quietly at the end as mothers often did back then, never quite placing themselves at the center, even when everything revolved around them.

Looking at...

Sometimes I catch myself wondering if books are slowly becoming something we leave behind. Not all at once, not in any obvious way. Just little by little.

We live in a world where everything moves fast. Information is everywhere. We scroll, we skim, we move on. At that kind of pace, sitting with a book can feel almost out of place.

Growing up in Nepal, books were not always easy to come by. I was lucky if I got my hands on a hand-me-down novel. The pages were already yellowing, the edges worn...

There’s a quiet joy in pressing “submit” after months of living inside a story.

Today, I began sending my new novella, From the Window: The City of What-Ifs, to literary publishers and contests.

Set in late-1990s Kathmandu, the story follows a young woman who spends her nights watching the workers in the shoe factory across her alley. When a fire changes everything, she must confront what it means to witness suffering — and the cost of silence.

I wrote this book with the sounds and smells of...

A Memory from a Kathmandu Factory

Today, while going through an old album, I found a photograph that stopped me in my tracks. It was taken on the day I left the shoe factory in Kathmandu. My brothers in labor stood close, their arms around my shoulders, their faces carrying exhaustion, pride, and a silent promise of solidarity.

Author’s Note (2025): I first wrote this piece soon after publishing my debut memoir, but the lessons remain just as relevant today. Even now, my inbox fills with waves of promotional emails and lofty promises. The reflections here continue to guide me—and I hope they might help other writers, too.

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When I first set out to write A Fight for a Cup of Chai, I thought the hardest part would be telling the story—reliving the pain, shaping the truth, and...

By Sanman Thapa

I wasn’t just Aiden’s dad — for much of his childhood, I was his only playmate. As a stay-at-home father, I played every role: goalie, chess rival, LEGO architect, and pirate ship opponent armed with wooden swords and eye patches. We had no cousins down the block or siblings squabbling over toys. There was just me. And in that closeness — beautiful and intense — I became not just a parent, but a kind of surrogate sibling.

That closeness was a gift, but it also came with...

Author’s Note

When I published my debut memoir A Fight for a Cup of Chai, I knew the road ahead wouldn’t be easy—but I didn’t expect what came next. Within days of celebrating one of the most meaningful achievements of my life, I was flooded with messages that weren’t truly about my book. They were about buying back the spotlight I had already earned.

This piece isn’t just about calling out scams. It’s about reclaiming power. It’s about exposing a pattern that preys on the very vulnerability...

A Fight for a Cup of Chai: A Journey Through Labor, Loss, and Hope

By Sanman Thapa | March, 29, 2025 | 11:00 am

Have you ever felt a quiet tug—that ticking urge to share your story with the world—only to be silenced by a voice that says, Who would care?

You’re not alone. I was one of those people, too.

Reaching middle age brought with it a wave of self-reflection and, with it, a deep desire to finally own my story. I’ve always loved to write. While digging through the attic one day, I stumbled...