Puran defines human soul in his works

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KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Abstract art is one of the most popular forms of painting in the contemporary art scene in the country. And more and more youngsters are following the footstep of their seniors to adopt this art form.

One of the artists to follow this trend is Puran Khadka, a 45 -year-old painter from Achham district in west Nepal.

Graduate of G.D. Art College (PTG), Bombay, Puran has been using canvas as the medium of his expressions for quite some time now.

Abstract art is based on subjects that cannot be explained or are not physical in nature. "Aatma (Soul) has to be linked with Paramatma (God) which is Ajaramar - the Uncreate," says Puran.

He has expressed his feelings through this abstract form of art in his solo painting exhibition, which opened here today.

It took Puran two and a half years to complete his collection of 41 paintings. "I started with Emergence (the title for four of his first paintings) and gradually the Guru inside me started directing me and showing me the way," says Puran. He later worked on six other paintings when they started going from the form to the formless.

"All my paintings define the soul of a human being. Soul is hidden and will always stay hidden," Puran said. "And life is an opportunity to search and find it."

His collection of abstract paintings defines his self-realisation and growth. He started his work with different colours but since he finds black a very mysterious colour he now uses only black in his paintings. According to him, "God and soul are all colourless. It is entirely upon the person how he depicts its structure and the colour."

Puran uses oil on Canvas as a medium for his work. Some of his paintings have mix-media as well. We can see from his paintings that even though they hold similar outlook one can see that they differ immensely in spiritual and philosophical aspects.

He sometimes goes to the colleges to teach the students what has taken him years to learn. His creative works are on display at the NAFA gallery at Naxal till October 10.

Media urged to focus on heritage preservation

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KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Mass media today provide a minimal space for the preservation of cultural heritage, though it is considered the emblem of the country, experts said.

"Out of the total 5,242 news items published in six broadsheets last week, only 2.78 percent of the news reports concerned culture whereas politics alone covered 24.4 percent," said Yubraj Pandey, the former director general of Information Department and the present joint secretary of the Ministry of Education and Sports.

He was presenting a working paper at a symposium organised to discuss the role of mass media in creating cultural awareness for tourism.

Not neglecting the awareness that media has generated in the concerned field, he said, "the media has not been able to preserve the value of elderly people, parents and other Eastern standard."

"Similarly, Nepali media has not been successful to check the increasing cultural invasion as a result of the impact of international media. Rather it is felt that the (Nepali) media has been accelerating such foreign culture and civilisation," he claimed.

Dr Hari Sharma said newspapers and other periodicals should provide some space to focus destinations, people, culture, monuments and other tourism-related aspects on a regular basis.

Dr Saphalya Amatya, the former director general of Department of Archaeology, said Nepal should hold international exhibitions of ancient cultural objects in Europe to draw the world’s attention to the fathomless treasure of art in the Kathmandu Valley.

He said many of the news reports provide insufficient information or just twist the truth.

"Even reputed news channels like National Geographic Channels often misinterpret Nepal’s culture due to lack of proper interpreter," he said.

Former ambassador to France and UNESCO, Keshav Raj Jha said people’s mentality have become so poor that they expect foreign donations even for minor renovation works.

Culture expert Satya Mohan Joshi,however, said that at times lots of information should be kept out of the reach of media personnel because exposure of certain values sometimes could be harmful for the monuments from security viewpoints.

Minister for Information and Communication Jaya Prakash Gupta inaugurated the symposium that was organised by Editor’s Guild of Nepal in co-operation with Nepal National Commission for UNESCO.

Bhaktapur sets new entry fee

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KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Bhaktapur Municipality (BM) today declared that it would levy the same amount of entry fee from both Indian and Chinese tourists, visiting the cultural city, 16 kilometres east of the Capital.

According to a press release, the municipality decided that way to show "equal behaviour to both the neighbouring countries".

China has included Nepal as one of the tourism destinations. The Bhaktapur Municipality collects Rs 50 from tourists of the SAARC countries,which includes the Indians too, and US $ 10 from other tourists.

Film - South Asia kicks off today

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KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Film - South Asia 2001, the third edition of the festival of South Asian Documentaries (SAD), begins tomorrow in the Capital with the screening of The Killing Terraces on the Maoist insurgency in Nepal made by Dhruba Basnet. Director Shyam Benegal of Bombay will declare the opening of the festival on Thursday.

The festival, which will run from 4-7 October, exhibits the best documentaries made on South Asian subjects over the past two years. Films will be screened in two halls at the Russian Culture Centre in Kamalpokhari.

Altogether 50 documentaries from Bangladesh, India , Nepal and Pakistan will be screened with subjects ranging from man’s sexual fantasies to the Pakistani women’s thoughts on man, from the plight caused by the Kosi embankments in Bihar to literary introspection in Assam and from alternative schooling in Kerala to the theatre in Kashmir.

Three films adjudged as highest quality by three-member-jury will be awarded cash prizes of US$ 2000, 1000 and 500, respectively. The best film will also receive the bronze sculpture known as the Ram Bahadur Trophy.

Independent press institute extolled

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KATHMANDU, Oct 3 - Chairman Gokul Pokharel and other media members of Nepal Press Institute (NPI) yesterday met Minister for Information and Communications Jay Prakash Prasad Gupta to discuss the issues related to the field of media, said a press release issued by the Nepal Press Institute here.

The release stated that the trainings organised by the Institute would help to minimise the weaknesses that prevail in the field of journalism in Nepal.

"The print media and the electronic media have gained popularity these days," stated the release adding "the government should now play its role to promote institutes which help in media promotion."

The minister held a positive approach towards the institute and commented that the government would prefer that independent training institutes exist.

Present at the meeting were NPI programme co-ordinator, Krishna Murari Timalsina, Chief Editor of Nepal Samachar Patra, Pushkar Lal Shrestha, among others.

Indian fertilisers being smuggled into Nepal

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INARUWA (Sunsari), Oct 3 - Indian chemical fertilisers are being smuggled into Nepal through the frontier villages of this district after the government stopped providing subsidy on the import of fertilisers, concerned officials said.

Locals said that price of the smuggled Indian fertilisers is comparatively cheaper than that of the fertilisers imported by Nepali traders. Farmers said that the Indian fertilisers, which are smuggled into Nepal through Laukahi and Haripur villages, are being sold in various villages openly. Concerned Nepali officials said that the smuggled fertilisers from Indian border were of sub-standard. Ram Milan Yadav, a fertiliser expert of Regional Agriculture Laboratory at Jhumka, said that 10 out of the total 48 specimen of the Indian fertilisers sent at the laboratory for quality experiment from Customs Office and Agriculture Development Office were found to be sub-standard. Yadav said nitrogen content in Indian Urea was only 29.06 per cent whereas it should be around 46 per cent.

Chief of the Regional Soil Test Laboratory, Nunulal Uraw, said farmers use chemical fertilisers rampantly without getting their soil tested.

"The farmers exactly do not know how much fertilisers they should use on their farm on the one hand and, they are unaware that use of sub-standard fertilisers will further deteriorate the fertility of their land on the other," Uraw said.

In reply to a query, Chief of Agriculture Development Office in Sunsari, Hem Sagar Gautam, said unless Nepali farmers could purchase standard fertilisers at a parallel price as they are sold in India, it was difficult to prevent such sub-standard fertilisers from entering into Nepal via open border. Farmers said a bag of smuggled Indian fertiliser is cheaper by Rs. 200 to 400 than that of the same amount of fertiliser imported by Nepali dealers.

Released captives have their say

By J.Pandey and Moti Poudel

RAKAM (Surkhet) , Oct 3 - The police who were released by the Maoists after about three months said they were very happy at their freedom but equally sad about the neglect from the press.

They said they were captured by the Maoists at a time when they had not received their salary for ten months still they were performing their duty.

"We had hoped that journalists would come to meet us after we were detained. Every day we discussed about this. Why did you also neglect us?" asked Constable Prabhat Kumar Shrestha of the police striking base at Holeri.

The police personnel were captured on the 28th of Asar at 5 a.m. immediately after they entered the base.

The Maoists were following them and captured them the moment they entered the base..

One police was killed and 71 others were taken to their shelter at Hang via Nuwagaon by two platoons of their Bheri battalion. The police were taken there on the second day by tying their hands.

"We had seen the army helicopter. We were afraid that we might die. There was no hope of our life", ASI Puna Ram Chaudhari said recalling the dreadful hour.

"We are not happy although we have survived after becoming the target of thousands of bullets" they said."We had to leave our children and wife in a rented house. We had no contact with our family. There was no medium to inform our family about our condition. Journalists could have given the information to them if they had come to see us,"

ASI Chaudhari , one of the 17 police personnel released by Maoists,said Japanese journalists came to meet us from overseas but there was no trace of Nepalese journalists".

In all 71 police have been released from Bheri and Karnali.

When all the 17 policemen, who were brought to Jamune rural bazaar, a remote area between Salyan and Surkhet, complained to journalists with one voice, some journalists kept quiet while others asked for forgiveness.

They narrated their ordeals during their captivity to a large number of journalists who had thronged there to meet the police released by the Maoists after three months.

They were kept sometimes in houses and sometimes in sheds. They had no inkling of where they were being taken. Initially, they had to walk overnight.

They used to remember their children as they were eating food in groups.

"At the outset, I thought I would be killed. I was worried thinking that I should die without having contact with my family, Durga Basnet, a policeman said. He said he had no idea of whether or not his wife received a letter sent by him from captivity.

Fourteen police personnel had not received their salary for 10 months before they were captured, they said.

Six people had received salary when they were captured . The Maoists took away all their salary and other goods.

They have promised to return the money, but there is no hope, they said.

Australian Assistance for forest conservation

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CHAUTARA, Oct 3 - The Australian Government’s Community Forest Conservation and Management assistance will be user-oriented and it will focus on poverty alleviation activities in accordance with the objectives of the Ninth Five Year Plan.

Australia has been providing assistance for Community Forest Conservation and Management in Sindhupalchok and Kavre districts over the past two and a half decades.

A team consisting of Australian and Nepalese Forestry experts headed by Fortech Consultant Company of Australia is currently studying community forests found in different climatic zones as well as village localities since Monday to determine the poverty alleviation programme in conformity with the government’s objectives and the donor agency’s new perspective.

The last five-year agreement signed with Australia for forest development will be terminated in the coming December. Australia had agreed to provide an assistance to the tune of Rs 450 million for the community forest development in Nepal under the agreement signed five years ago.

Accordingly, the community forest development programmes are being implemented through Anutech Consultant Company in Sindhupalchok and Kavre districts.

Australia has appointed Fortech Consultant Company to collect suggestions and recommendations necessary for determining the poverty alleviation programmes under the new perspective.

Tanahun private campuses likely to open this week

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DAMAULI, Oct 3 - Private campuses of Tanahun district which were closed by the revolutionary students’ organisation are likely to open from this week.

As the news to the effect that the revolutionary students have deserted their policy of attacking the education sector was published, the meeting of the private schools Monday decided to operate the schools.

After the closure of the private schools, the public schools which were unable to cope with additional 18 thousand students of the private schools have heaved a sigh of relief.

In all 52 recognised schools and 30 schools which were yet to receive approval were shut down simultaneously.

After the closure of the private schools, the public schools also stopped teaching and started an agitation demanding more budget to increase the number of rooms and teachers to cope with the unexpected flow of students from the private schools.

The teachers started an agitation after their repeated demands for more teachers and arrangement for more physical facilities were neglected.

"We have decided to open the school in view of the existing complicated situation," Suraj Subba, Principal of Byas Divya Jyoti boarding shool told The Kathmandu Post.

.But they have no plan to turn the schools into cooperatives as told by the revolutionary students. He said four schools of the district headquarters and all the schools along the highways will open since Sunday after slightly reducing the monthly fees.

There was a chaos in the education sector in this district after the private schools were closed.

There are no sufficient rooms and teachers to teach the vast number of students in the public schools. Some schools are teaching students in meadows and some others under the trees.

The problem would be greatly eased if only private schools in the district headquarters and along the highways start functioning. But guardians need guarantee of security, Subba said.