Mona is back again with her unique creation

By Ranjana Pradhan

KATHMANDU, Nov 20 - When Mona was just two years old, her father made her use the paint and brush. This later prompted her to continue using this as a medium to express her feelings. And today, she has become an avid painter, spending most of her time on the canvas.

"Every Sunday my family used to go for a weekly outing when I was two," recalls Mona Ghosh. At the end of the day her father used to make her do homework for a whole week by painting everything that she saw during the outing. "That is how my interest in art grew," says this Bengali painter.

She came here to display her works last year. "My liking and interest in Kathmandu has brought me here again," she says.

Her creativity is clearly seen in her collection of colourful whirlwind paintings. In most of these paintings she has tried to capture the sentiments expressed in calligraphic works, which made her works unique. Both of them have a great fusion of colours and a balance between what can be seen and imagined. She uses mixed media, oil and acrylic for her works.

In her exhibition titled "Colour of my mind," Ghosh has expressed her feelings in bright and colourful shapes, mostly in red.

"Calligraphic Dreams" is the theme she has given to her new collection of 16 paintings. "I have tried to convert expressional letters into visuals through my art," she explains about her recent abstract works.

Mona’s paintings excel in feelings, mostly on the basic of line, texture and colour. She describes her work as the "combination of colours, lines, motion and feeling." It took nearly two years for this Bengali beauty to complete her exquisite collection of 54 paintings.

A Graduate from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, India, Mona has a large number of solo, group exhibitions and workshops to her credit. She was recently awarded India’s National Scholarship Award in 2001 in recognition of her works in this field.

The immensely beautiful temples of Kathmandu and the redness of the town intrigued Mona the most. Ever since her first exhibition, she has been tempted to visit the city so much that her seven months pregnant self could not stop her from missing this opportunity of coming here and displaying her work to the Nepalese people.

Her solo exhibition at the Alliance Francaise in Thapathali kicked off on November 20, which will continue till December 2.

Local plans to be included in national plan

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LALITPUR, Nov 20 – All the periodic plans prepared locally by the District Development Committes (DDCs) would be taken as the basis for the forthcoming Tenth Plan.

It was disclosed Tuesday by the Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Prithvi Raj Ligal while speaking at the tenth DDC council meet of Lalitpur district.

"The DDC plans are expected to be received by coming March , Ligal said. All the plans should come up with an objective of bringing social and economic changes to meet the common goal of poverty alleviation, Ligal stressed.

On the occasion Ligal also gave away prizes to four students from government school of Lalitpur who excelled in last year’s School Leaving Certificate Examination and to farmers and farmers groups for their good performance in agriculture.

Lawmaker and Central Member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist and Leninist) Raghuji Pant, speaking on the occasion, said that lawmakers should not interfere with the development of the local government since the lawmakers are mere policy makers. "Lawmakers are not the ‘porter of development’ but the only policy maker," he said.He also asked the NPC to put the Kanti Rajpath in the priority list of the Tenth Plan.

Another lawmaker from Lalitpur, Sushila Napal underlined the need of development initiatives that would be free from political discrimination.

Madhav Prasad Poudel, Chairman of the District Development Committee, Lalitpur, shedding light on the objectives of the district council meeting, said that the council meeting would basically focus on the passage of the periodic plan of the district.

Artanad depicts torture in society

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KATHMANDU, Nov 20 – The street drama group ‘Sarbanam’ staged a street drama ‘Artanad’ at the local Basantapur Durbar Square Dabali amidst a crowd of local people and other visitors.

The 45 minutes drama organised by Amnesty International, tried to portray the torture subjected to the unprivileged people.

‘Artanad’ called for the elimination of all kinds of tortures for which the police and society are equally responsible.

The drama displayed among hundreds of people showed that the cause of torture is the minimum awareness among the people.

The drama which was directed by Ashesh Malla and written by Krishna Pahari tried to show the tortureful society of twenty-first century. "The aim of staging the drama is to provide awareness," says Malla.

‘Artanad’ is one of the programme among the world movement against torture that Amnesty International started last year. Sarbanam Street Group, first to start the street drama presentation is going to present the drama in 35 districts throughout the country.

Irregularities alleged in Drinking Water Office

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JAJARKOT, Nov 20 - The District Development Committee, Jajarkot has locked the door of the storage building of the District Drinking Water (DDW) Office in Khalanga-2 following irregularities caused by the official while purchasing water pipes.

According to Karbir Shahi, coordinator of the committee formed by DDC to investigate into the financial irregularities, Salikram Poudyal, engineer at DDW office, had presented a fake bill of Rs 700,000 from Nepal Blackgold Plastic on the purchase of pipes, which he claimed he never did so.

The DDC decided to form an investigation commission as evidences of financial irregularities were forwarded to the annual evaluation meeting called by it. The investigation commission comprising of members from political parties had been formed several weeks ago. However, no further investigation could be carried on due to Poudyal’s absence, said Vrishna Bikram Shah, one of the members of the commission.

Chhath festival gaining popularity

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JANAKPUR, Nov 20 - The Chhath festival, celebrated by the people of this ancient capital of the Mithila region, has been a cultural convergence of both the Maithili-speaking people and the people migrated here from hill areas.

Janakpur is believed to be the capital of the legendary king Janak, the foster father of Sita, who was married to Lord Ramchandra from Ayodhya in India.

People of the Mithila region are of the opinion that the Chhath festival, also known as Surya Pooja (worshipping the sun) has been described in the Rig Veda, which is believed to be the oldest text available in the world.

Cultural expert Dr Dhireswor Jha says it emerged as a traditional festival after Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas, began worshipping the sun during their one-year disguise in the palace of king Birat. People believe that worshipping the sun would help cure the disease like leprosy and bring about prosperity and longevity to their family members. Local people say that the festival has become more important after migrants from the hills also adopted it as their own cultural asset.

Women of the Mithila region were busy in purchasing varieties of articles to offer to the sun god.

The Chhath festival is marked for four days. Men and women prepare special dishes made up of special rice and molasses and taste them after an audience of the moon. On Monday morning, they took a dip in Ganga Sagar and Dhanush Sagar, the famous lakes of the area. During the four-day-festival, the devotees worship the rising and setting sun.

Ten women rescued from traffickers

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BIRGUNJ, Nov 20 - Birgunj Transit Home of Maiti Nepal today handed over ten women to District Police Office, Birgunj on suspicion of being sold to Indian brothels by four men. The four men have been arrested and the police are carrying out necessary investigation into the incident.

According to Mina Dhungana, In charge of Maiti Nepal Birgunj, one married and nine unmarried young girls were held on suspicion of being sold to India and necessary investigation is underway.

"We had to arrest these girls because they did not know with whom they were going and they had no recommendation letters from concerned local officials to visit India", Dhungana said.

The government has now made it compulsory to acquire recommendation letters to visit India from concerned guardians and Village Development Committee as the cases of Nepali girls being sold into Indian brothels have escalated in recent years.

However, four of the women arrested carried fake recommendations from Bharatpur VDC of the Dhanusa district which had no signature of concerned officials. The remaining six had no such letters and other leagl papers. The arrested women,however, said that they were going to work in India with the consent of their parents.

After the arrest,however, some of them have decided to return to their villages.

According to Manju Devi, one of the arrested girls, has been working as a housemaid in Delhi and was taking other girls to their relatives in India.

The arrested men are Chitra Prasad Kalwar of Bhartapur VDC, Yub Raj Adhikari, Santosh Adhikari and Min Rakhal, all from Maisthan VDC of Mahottari district.