Mahabir’s Center for Nepal Connection, located in Mandala Street, Thamel, is a hub for people to connect, to talk development and meet like-minded people for collaborations. It also is a restaurant offering an impressive menu that is not overly-priced. But the restaurant is only a façade that helps sustain the hub and funds the many community and rural development projects that this non-profit sharing center actually does. [break]
“There are already so many restaurants in Kathmandu. And this isn’t just another restaurant. Our main goal is to bring people together to share ideas. And they can also order food, if they are hungry,” says Mahabir Pun, the Ashoka Fellow and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee who is well known for being a development practitioner and a social entrepreneur.
The Center is a platform which offers tourism activities that are run by local communities, volunteering opportunities in community development projects and connects interested people who want to be involved with potential development projects in rural areas.
Mahabir Pun, during a brief introduction on the view of mountain ranges that have been live streamed from villages in Jomsom and Mohare, at Mahabir’s Center for Nepal connection, a restaurant and hub located in Thamel. (Photo: Bijay Gajmer)
The theme of the Center itself leans towards technology and virtual connection. Upon entering the cafe, one can find a rectangular slab filled with binary codes which when decrypted, spell Mahabir’s Center for Nepal Connection, shares Bal Krishna Joshi, who is volunteering with the Center to “make sure the business engine (of the Center) works.” The ceilings represent a circuit board while the handmade antenna dish by Pun himself, is installed in one of the corners.
What is also a bonus in the café is the view of the mountains that it offers. Customers can, from the café itself, enjoy the up close and live footage of the mountain ranges that can be seen from areas such as Jomsom, Myagdi and Kaski.
“Food–wise, we serve a culmination of the best selling items from different parts of the world,” assures Joshi. Aside from the locally favorite dishes, the café serves special items such as patty melt, nachos with mango salsa and coffee spaghetti.
Be it through virtual means or networking opportunities in real time, the café aims to connect people and ideas that can join the disconnected links of development in Nepal.
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