Kathmandu, Sept. 28 -- A week before the nation-wide lockdown, on March 16, Shivraj Jung along with the members of his band, Jung Trio, were performing at GG Machan, a restaurant located in Jhamsikhel. The crowd was slightly less than usual but Jung wasn't surprised by it.

Since January, Jung had noticed that crowds at restaurants, pubs and clubs had started thinning. While coronavirus wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today, the fear of the infection was building and that, says Jung, was already keeping people from visiting restaurants, pubs and clubs.

"Back in February, I knew that if the low footfall continued, it won't be long before restaurants find it financially unwise to have live music performance, and we were worried that we'd be ...