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The biggest festival of Kathmandu Valley, Indra Jatra, began on Saturday with the worshipping of Indra, the King of Heaven, also known as the God of rains. Nepal President Ramchandra Paudel, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah and other dignitaries visited Basantapur to observe the festival and offer prayers. Chariots of living deities Kumari, Bhairav and Ganesh were also pulled at Hanumandhoka, Basantapur and other parts of Kathmandu. President Paudel amidst a special ceremony worshipped Goddess Kumari and received her blessings as per centuries old tradition. The eight-day festival starts on Bhadra Shukla Chaturdashi as per the lunar calendar. During the festival, various cultural items — including Mahakali dance, Lakhe dance, Pulukisi dance and Bhakku dance — are performed and Dasavatar is shown in the core areas of Basantapur and Hanumandhoka complex. There is a legend behind the Indra Jatra festival. When Indra came to Kathmandu to pick up Parijat, a special flower, for his mother Dakini, riding on his elephant Erawat, he was caught by the local farmers and tied to a tree mistaking him for a thief.

The brain has its own waste disposal system – known as the glymphatic system – that's thought to be more active when we sleep. But disrupted sleep might hinder this waste disposal system and slow the clearance of waste products or toxins from the brain. And researchers are proposing a build-up of these toxins due to lost sleep could increase someone's risk of dementia. There is still some debate about how this glymphatic system works in humans, with most research so far in mice. But it raises the possibility that better sleep might boost clearance of these toxins from the human brain and so reduce the risk of dementia.