Apropos of the news story “Prism’s first drummer George Subba no more” (THT, July 1, Page 10), I have one indelible memory of this giant of a local drummer. One day at an  office where we both moonlighted together for a few months, mighty George violently pulled out the cables from an amplifier-like communication box, picked it up,  smashed it on the ground and walked out muttering that ‘the s**t swore at me’, referring to our tyrannical managing director. George was a telephone operator, but would have none of the nonsense from the boss who used the choicest Indian swear words at everyone - blue blood and rustic red - without discrimination as part of his disciplining mechanism. George’s act of rebellion at a time when he could have been sent to jail will always stay in my mind. But those days we were fearless and would take no nonsense from anyone as we knew we were qualified for any job in and out of the country. Moving onto another subject, Goods and Service Tax (GST) has insidious connection with music as the latter is also subject to the former. But our traders and our most (in)active government will take a few months to get a grasp of Indian GST that will affect us as much as the Indian ones “Nepali traders scramble to make sense of GST” (THT, July 2, Page 1). GST debates had been raging in India for the past one year and our men in Delhi should have been automatically on top of something that will have consequences for us. Nobody tried to understand probably pretending happenings in India is not our business. Now we will pay for that negligence or musings. The government needs to do more homework before the new tax in India starts affecting imports in Nepal.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu

Gun crime

This is in reference to the news story “Gunman kills doctor and wounds six others in Bronx hospital rampage” (THT, Jul 1, Online). It is really shocking to learn how and why such nefarious incident takes place in places like hospital where people go for getting their life and health better but what is happening in contrast is that the people are on the verge of death and under great consternation because of the fact that the attack took place in a hospital. One thing I am so flabbergasted about is that when there is a terrorist attacks the American president raises his voice more effectively and poignantly, but when there is an attack of this sort outside the USA, the whole nation seems to be nonchalant. I think all attacks should be taken equally. There should not be preferential treatment for various attacks. Attacks are attacks so there is no moral consideration over which one is malicious and which isn’t to the nation. There should not be a business of gun by undermining the value of human civilisation. The gun culture in America is the main problem that leads to the death of many innocent people every year.

Shiva Neupane, Melbourne