Best Story - A Long Fruitful Journey

 

Shanti Thatal’s appearance belies her age. The 74-year-old is still as vibrant today as she must have been when she was younger; her face has a youthful glow, and she is very animated when she speaks. Credited with being the first female music composer in the Nepali film industry, the Darjeeling-born Thatal is certainly a woman of many talents, and has sung more than 200 songs till date.
Speaking with journalists at the nepa~laya premises in Kalikasthan, Thatal was extremely candid in sharing her life experiences. She is currently in Kathmandu for her third performance at Paleti, as part of the Paleti Utsav to be held this weekend, and has been rehearsing rigorously for the same. 
“I was always a sickly little girl,” she said, delving into her childhood. “And that meant I got a lot of attention from my family.” Thatal—the fourth among 10 siblings—said that she felt connected to music in a significant way from a very young age. “My mother always tells stories about how I would spend hours dancing and singing as a child. It’s unfortunate that there weren’t any video cameras back then; I would’ve loved to see the footage now.”
Thatal used to sing at school, and her first big-scale public performance was when she was in the seventh grade and called on to sing at a welcoming ceremony for veteran litterateur Bal Krishna Sama, an event that left an indelible impression on the young girl. “It encouraged me to continue looking for opportunities to perform,” she said. Eventually, Thatal began providing live vocals for staged dramas, because in those days, she said, they didn’t have a recording system. “One of my favourite moments was going to Kolkata to work on the play Roop Katha; I still remember it like it was yesterday,” she said.
Learning music under the guidance of Shiva Prasad Singh and Bhanu Ghosh until the eighth grade, Thatal was able to retain a focus on her particular passion that most children her age didn’t have. “I invested much more time in my music than I did on my studies.” In 1956, she was admitted into the Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata, which she attended for the next three years being trained in music. Following this, Thatal returned to her hometown of Darjeeling, and gave her matriculation exams independently, before going on to seek the mentorship of musician Amber Gurung during her college days at the Himalaya Kala Mandir, a music, arts and drama institute.
Thatal’s big break came in the form of an invite to compose music for the Nepali film Paralko Aago in 1978, based on a story of the same name by Guru Prasad Mainali. And then, four years later, she received another offer to compose for the film Bachana Chahane Haru, an assignment she took up with great enthusiasm. 
“A majority of the actors and crew members on these films were from Darjeeling,” Thatal said. “And since it was sort of a landmark moment in terms of filmmaking in the area, we all worked free of cost.”
In the long and illustrious career that followed, the
musician went on to work as a music teacher under the Central Government of Sikkim, a post that led, two years later, to her appointment as the Assistant Cultural Officer of Sikkim. “It was an incredible experience and we got to do things that hadn’t been done before,” she said. “We set up the Cultural Department, and were able to bring about a general upliftment in the music scene in Sikkim.” Thatal remained at the job until 2000, when she officially retired.
Of course, she hasn’t been idle. She has continued to compose music and sing, although her performances are few and far between. Thatal is still unmarried, something that she is asked a lot about. “It just never happened for me, but it’s not something I regret or worry about,” she said. “I’ve been married to my music, and that has been enough for me.” The singer hopes to eventually retire completely, spending the rest of her days listening to music.

Thatal is to perform on August 11.The Paleti Utsav will be held at DAV School in Jawalakhel between August 9-12 and will feature solo performances by Amber Gurung, Phatteman and Aavaas besides Thatal. The Utsav marks the completion of ten years of Paleti

News - Facebook Out Of Bounds In Singha Durbar

 

With a view to curbing civil servants’ “undue  and excessive” use of social networking sites during office hours, the government has blocked Facebook inside the country’s administrative hub Singha Durbar.
The Ministry of Finance, which provides internet facility to all the ministries and agencies inside Singha Durbar, has blocked the site from 10 am to 3 pm every day for the last two weeks. A spokesperson defended the decision, saying it was intended to avoid a ‘jam’ in the internet connectivity.
“The connection had slowed down because of the overuse of Facebook. We have blocked it in offices as an experiment,” said Finance Ministry Spokesperson Rajan Khanal. He said there was no ministerial or Cabinet level decision on the move.
However, officials at the Ministry of Information were not ‘aware’ of the development until Monday night. “We are not aware of the issue,” said Spokesperson of the Ministry of Information Sushil Ojha.
Facebook has been blocked in key institutions like the Prime Minister’s Office, the Parliament Secretariat and over two dozen
ministries. Singha Durbar houses over 50 percent of the around 20,000 civil servants stationed in the Capital.
Facebook has also been blocked from 10 am to 5 pm at the Army Headquarters in Bhadrakali.
Blogger and Social Media Enthusiast Ujjwal Acharya said such a move is not a solution to the problem and urged authorities to bring in social media guidelines to encourage its proper use.
“In this age of technology, the government should use the social media to interact with citizens rather than block them arbitrarily,” he said. “If any official wastes his/her time on Facebook by breaching the guidelines, they can be punished,” he said.

Best Story - That Prickly Prick

 

The first time I saw that sharp, sparkling thing, I didn’t know what they were doing. As they inserted that never-before-seen object into my body, its fluid passing slowly through my veins scintillating
those valves and nooks it had never before made its way through, half of my body was left paralysed. And then high-pitched shrieks filled the silence of the room, shrieks so loud their frequency could have shattered the glass. This was my first encounter with the prickly prick.
“It’s okay. Mummy’s here.” A soothing sound made its way through my ear-piercing shrieks. “Shh… you’re my brave, little boy. It doesn’t hurt much, does it?” As she held me close to her heart and sang those oh-so-familiar words, the pain began receding. My fluttering eyelids closed, and my wailing all but stopped. As I took a ride in dreamland, I knew that that first-ever prickly prick of mine wasn’t my last, that there were many such pricks that would pierce my little body with no remorse, pricks not even the thickest of armour could shield off.
•••
I knew I should have never done that. I knew that I was being hasty. Just when everything was done, I realised that I had forgotten my helmet. I ran up a flight of stairs and BAM! I lost control and hit my head on the metal baluster.
“Steady now,” the health assistant said as he cleaned the wound on my head. It seemed like steady was everyone’s favourite word, except mine. I knew my mother was giving me her I-told-you-so look. She sat across me, contemplating, rehearsing and re-rehearsing things she was going to make me listen to and follow.
It’s all because of that stupid helmet, I told myself over and over again. But as I saw the health assistant take out a brand-new needle from his medical kit, all I wanted to do was put that same, stupid helmet on and run.
“Be brave now,” my mother said in a stern voice.
They had first pricked me on my leg and I had been brave. Then my right hand, left hand, you name it, and I had been very brave. And now it was my head and I was supposed to be brave.
“This will hurt a little, okay?”
said the health assistant smiling.
‘A little’ was an understatement though, I knew.
“It’s okay. Mummy’s here.” And before I, a brave young man, could get embarrassed with those simple words, the needle did its magic.
•••
The beeping sounds of machines and doors swinging; these are the only sounds I have been hearing for the last few days. Twice a day, I hear the familiar sounds of footsteps coming close to my bed, and then I try to concentrate on listening to the needle piercing through my body. But I never hear anything. The needles always silently make their way, and now, they even don’t hurt. I try to remember the prickly pricks of those needles, the pain they had caused me. I had thought that there was nothing as painful as the pain a single prick can cause.
But I was wrong. When I got an A- in my eighth grade exam instead of an A, it pricked me worse. And when I lost my first love, the pain was so bad that I ended up crying in my mother’s arms.
“It hurts so much, mummy,”
I had said between my loud sobs.
“She doesn’t love me.” I had fumbled with these words over and over again. “It’s okay. Mummy’s here,” my mother had replied.
“But I don’t want you. I want her.” The pain of unrequited love ran deep into my heart, or so I had thought. But I was wrong again.
When I had to cut my hair short for the stitches to be done properly on my head, my head looked so bad that I had to stay home for over a month until my hair grew longer. Having to stay back home listening to my mother’s suggestions at every step was painful; the most painful time of my life.
I can hear the coughs now, loud and hoarse. I try to open my eyes but I can’t. They flutter for a while and close involuntarily. I can see a womanly figure sitting across me, hands fisted and face sober. ‘It’s okay. Mummy’s here,” I want her to say. But she remains silent. That figure walks to me and whispers in my ears, “Do you need anything, Grandpa?”
Grandpa? I try to open my eyes and see her. Who is she? And who am I? Where’s my mother? I breathe in heavily. I find it hard breathing.
Grandpa? I heave a sigh. I hear the continuous beeps. The man has stopped coughing. The raindrops have lost their way in the clouds. I try to remember my mother’s eyes as she sings a lullaby to me, her agony when I was first pierced with a prickly prick, her stern face when I made a mistake (and I made many mistakes). I remember her dancing the day
I got married, her playing with my kids. I remember her getting old and sick. And one day she was gone; the absence of her laughter so severe, the pain of it more acute than anything I had ever known.
I hear the familiar sounds of footsteps again. It’s time for those prickly pricks now. The sharpness cuts through the layers of my skin that have witnessed the innocence of my childhood, the mistakes of my youth and lamentation of my old age.
“Oh how it hurts him!” I hear my granddaughter cry. I remember carrying her and swaying her when she first had her share of a prickly prick.
It doesn’t hurt, I want to tell her, nothing hurts me now.
As my skin gets pierced, the fluids slowly move through my cranked veins. I want to fall asleep now, never to wake up again. No more pricks now, no more heartache, no more mistakes, and no more trivial acts of bravery. The beeping sounds slowly fade away, doors have stopped swinging. Everything is still, silent. And then, I hear a voice.
“It’s okay. Mummy’s here.”

Inspiration - More Than Art

 

Art culture has expanded to the point where someone could make a full time job out of attending each and every exhibition be it for art, photography, installations, and even fashion. But most do not have the luxury of making it to every event and so there is the risk of attending exhibitions which disappoint, or worse, missing out on those worthy of attention. The BFA Exhibition Project 2012, open since Monday, July 30, at Nepal Arts Council, Babarmahal, which showcases the works of eight artists from Kathmandu University School of Arts Centre for Art and Design, thankfully falls into the latter category.
My low expectations were shattered by what I saw put together by final year students studying for a Bachelor’s in Fine Art and an eighth credit student from Germany. Together, Anil Shahi, Anja Warzecha, Bindu Gurung, Laxman Bazra Lama, Nabil Nalbo, Sapana Shah, Sujan Dangol, and Sunil Pradhan have bro-ught an exhibition that showcases the individual artist in each and works beautifully as a whole. At a glance, each artist has their own style and message, but it’s clear that everyone has responded to their surroundings, albeit in distinctly different ways.
In his project Don’t Make Me Laugh, Anil Shahi presents the face of jokers with reddened wide smiles not unlike the villain ‘Joker’. Stating that these jokers are all around us, Shahi says it’s not clear whether the smiles we are surrounded by are fake, happy or genuine, “it’s just important that we smile.”  Bindu Gurung has interpreted the environment on a personal and public level with two rooms that represent a public space like a chiya pasal, and the far more private bedroom. 
Laxman Bazra Lama’s It Never Stops and It Never Ends was slightly more political; whether it’s conveying the idea of a broken state through a large cracked black egg spilling smaller eggs onto the floor or large block letters cut out from political magazines scattered on the floor—he sends a clear message.
In a different part of the room, Sujan Dangol presents Utopia 2.0 NP—the city represented through a cardboard box or though a merged metal structure. Sapana Shah takes a deeper look at how we respond to pain through scenes from a hospital mounted on x-ray light boxes in Horizon of Sympathy. Working with illusions and what looks like pasted bits of paper, Anja Warzecha explores fragments and creates spontaneous multilayered pieces. Nabil Nalbo explores the many facets of society through portraits in Human Identity, and Sunil Pradhan makes a poignant commentary on consumerism in I Love Pricetags.
While many artists come up with ideas that are impressive conceptually, they aren’t always well executed. But this exhibition sets itself apart from others. BFA Exhibition Project 2012 is impressive in terms of how much each exhibit accomplishes. Each artist has expressed a distinct idea through various materials and mediums, yet the ideas are portrayed so that viewers are able to understand something at first glance. The true brilliance is only revealed when one spends time speaking to the artists and lingering by the pieces.
The exhibition provides a titillating experience for art enthusiasts, offering what can only be a testament of the vast reservoir of talent in Nepali artists.
Under the tutelage of Sujan Chitrakar, programme coordinator at the Centre for Art and Design, these final year students have acquired a stronger sense of themselves and their project idea, resulting in solid pieces. If there is one and only one exhibition in Kathmandu you attend, make it this one.
BFA Exhibition Project 2012 is open until Wednesday at Nepal Arts Council, Babarmahal

Biography - Gehendra Shumsher

The Childhood

Gahendra Shumsher is believed to be the first scientist of Nepal. He was the senior son of the past Prime Minister, Bir Shumsher. He was born on Poush, 1928 BS. He was originally born at Kolkata, India where his father was sent as a representative of Nepal. He studied at home in his nursery classes from an English teacher and also enrolled in Durbar High School, the first school of Nepal. He was a very creative, argumentative and serious from his childhood. He loved music, physical exercise, sports and creative works and also wanted to do something different from others. He didn’t have much interest in studies rather he used to spend most of his time doing and creating the works of his interest.

Morning shows the day

When he was young, he was made In-charge of the arms and ammunition of Nepal Army by his father, Bir Shumsher. When Bir was made Prime Minister in 1942 BS, the door of opportunity opened for him. Now, he could work independently to raise the standard of arms and ammunitions of the Army. He established factories to manufacture essential equipment for soldiers. Electricity power, generator, rice mill, wind motor, etc. were also set up by him in Jannal, Sundarijal, Balaju and Meghchan in Bhojpur. Instead of importing iron and coal from other countries, he used the iron found in his own country, Nepal and used the coal found in Koilabas in Dang to make weapons.

The Achievements

His creative mind was always looking for something new things to do. So, in 1965 BS, Gehendra imported a motor car from Ford Company, Britain. Then he thought, why can’t he manufacture such things? So, he studied in detail about every part of the motor car. Of course, he had to separate and dismantle every part of it. Then again, he assembled the various parts of the motor car. Later, King Prithvi Bir Bikram wishes to have that. So, he offered the motor car to the King. He asked for the maps, charts and catalogue from Japan & Britain. He studied each of them in detail and became successful in designing and manufacturing rifles using his creativity & ability. At that time, there was only a single barrel rifle in the army. He made double barrel rifle and named it “Ge-Rifle” after the first letter of his name. He also made double barrel gun and named it “Bir-Gun” after his father’s name Bir Shumsher. He also made a new model canon and named it “Dhir-Gun” after his grandfather’s name Dhir Shumsher.

Next Inventions

Gehendra set up rice mills in his residence at Seto Durbar. He also made wind motors to draw under-ground water. He established a leather factory to refine leather and produce leather goods like shoes, belts, etc. at Balaju. It was Gehendra Shumsher who generated electricity with the help of his friend, Muse Thapa for the first time in Nepal and also demonstrated how electricity can be used even in water. The Ranas were deeply impressed by his works.

The Support

Dev Shumsher succeeded his brother, Bir Shumsher as the Prime Minister of Nepal. Dev was comparatively a liberal ruler. Gehendra was one of the favorites of Dev. So, Gehendra continued his inventions and creations without any impediments. Dev invited suggestions from the people for better administration of the country. Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh from Bajhang suggested that Nepal should develop technology like that of Japan and administration system like that of Britain. Gehendra fully supported Jaya Prithvi’s suggestions. Dev sent a team with Gehendra to study the Japanese technology to Japan and another team to study English system of administration to Britain. Jaya Prithvi wrote Japanese history in Nepali and Gehendra made new arms and ammunitions on the Japanese model.

The Mysterious Death

In 1963 BS, on the occasion of Dashain festival, while bowing down to salute Chandra Shumsher, a pistol fell down from the pocket of Gehendra. Chandra Shumsher became suspicious of Gehendra. He didn’t react immediately. But after one year, i.e. in 1964, Gehendra died a mysterious death. It is said that Chandra Shumsher was alarmed at the success and popularity of Gehendra and killed him. Thus, Gehendra died at the young age of 35. He would have done much more to develop technology and science in the country had he lived longer.

Thus, all inventions and creations of Gehendra are preserved in the National Museum at Chhauni, Kathmandu. He will be remembering forever.

By Shubham Thapa, the owner of this blogspot