Go eat her potatoes[The life and times of Miss Shrestha]

The last time we heard about her, she was reading poems and doing stuff. Now, the great revolutionary leader Namrata Shrestha is selling potatoes[and other stuffs].

Krishna Dhungana and company went to her restaurant and talked to her. Below is what appears to be happening. Links at the end.

After she was dragged into controversy after her 'private' videos were made public, model and actress Namrata Shrestha is slowly going back to settling normally in  the society. Not only has been seen more often in social and public functions recently, but lately she has also started in a completely new field with her friends: Restaurant business. 'Royal Potatoes' cost Rs. 110 in her restaurant, exclusive of VAT and service charge. SO who comes to her restaurant? She says the restaurant's not particularly targeted at ANYbody. "All kind of people come. I feel specially people from media come more often," she says. Coincidence--her social life was almost over because of certain people in the medial. I am not sure if she was being sarcastic with her replies, but we had gone their without any planning and informing(her).

110 Rupees? If it's any good, it's freaking cheap, because go anywhere decent and you have to pay wayy more than that for potatoes. The 'Royal' also makes it sound more--well, royal-- so huzzah, go for the royal potatoes. And brag that you ate Namrata Shrestha's potatoes.

It was an impulsive and immediate decision to go to Namrata Shrestha's Attic restaurant on Wednesday afternoon. After a very short conversation with Rishikesh Dahal and Ashok Thapa from Nagariknews, we agreed to go to Attic for lunch.

She was silent after the video scandal. Hoping to break her silence, we climbed up the stairs to the third-floor attic of an old-fashioned house in Lazimpat. The exterior is quaint, but the furnishing is modern. We had to wait for some time before Namrata arrived in a long overflowing white dress. " I am a confident and hardworking woman who likes to learn new things," she cleared. It was not difficult to guess how confident and hardworking she was: after working as a model, radio presenter, and an actress, she was here now, in her on restaurant. "It was a new experience for me," she reminisced opening the restaurant with friend Raman, "It was opened because there was a need of new ideas for a hang-out junction."

The place should be damn good if it has any Momos. It sounds nice, but more importantly, it belongs to Namrata Shrestha. So hit it. It's surprising you're still reading this: go to Lazimpat's The Attic and eat her potatoes. Wink, wink.

She's not really into restaurants, though. She considers this an experiment. For her, the restaurant is important  more for the PR than for the profit. "Melodious music, attractive exterior design and delicious food our specialties. That is why our customers are those looking for music, peaceful environment and good food."

The Attic has live musical performances every  Wednesday and Friday.On special occasions like Holi and new year, they have similar programs, with the added bonus of the presence of a lot of local celebrities.

Because she's so busy busy with films, modelling and events, Namrata cannot give much time to the restaurant. "I miss my friends then, but I feel like I am here, wherever I may be physically," she says. Aand would that 'friends' be Raman, I wanted to ask, but I bit my tongue. "You learn either the easy way or the very hard way. I learnt it the very hard way, after a pain of a year," she confides, speaking openly about the scandal for the first time in twenty minutes of the interview.

Ooh, another boyfriend? Or maybe just a friend? Cousin? The dude(who BTW is that dude in the pic below) looks nice, so unless he's her cousin, or gay, she should totally go out with him. Have fun. Do stuff.

She's working for as the lead actress for the film 'Purple Days' being produces by Prabhu Shamsher Rana. While even the male actors, who are much higher-paid than actresses, do not get Rs. 5 Lakhs for a film, Namrata is being paid the amount for the film. "The thing is, I will take what I am qualified for," said Namrata, diplomatically.

The title of the film 'Purple Days' sounds great, but it sort of reminds me of the kinds of films with other color names in them. Filthy me.

So she's getting rich, eh? Go, go gurl, you show 'em what you can do. Ahem.

Read the original Nepali version of this article here

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