National 9 (Spotlight Weekly)

In Parallel Lines

Three decades of persistence has established Ram Thapa as a popular folk singer and a noted musician

By THAKUR AMGAI

Probably Ram Thapa never thought that he would come this far, when he entered the Nepali folk music arena in early 1970s. But after three decades of complete devotion to Nepali music, he finds himself as a number one folk singer of the country. He has given numerous folk songs to the audience that will never die out as long as Nepalese creed exists. Thapa is known for his typical character of picking up the folklores and singing them in rustic style reflecting the culture and the lifestyle of typical Nepali villagers.

Thapa is a stage program : Exhillarated

Born in Kathmandu in 1958, Thapa's childhood was spent in Sindhupalchowk, his maternal home. Thapa caught on the folk music then and there. A typical village east of Kathmandu, Sindhupalchowk is rich in its cultural and natural heritage like all other villages of Nepal. The folk songs sung during the festivals and other occasions became his inspirations. He was gifted by the talent of remembering the words and tune of the songs that he heard once. Subconsciously he used to repeat the songs that he heard. He remembers how he was named 'gitange' (musician) because of his avid inclination towards music.

When he came back to Kathmandu to formally start his education he also had an opportunity to join dance classes at 'Bhairav Nritya Dal'. Bhairav Bahadur Thapa, the curator of the group, impressed by Thapa called him to teach him dance. "Even at the age of 6/7 years I was a very good dancer," said Thapa. However, his natural inclination towards music gradually led him to leave the dance classes and learn to play musical instruments including guitar and harmonium.

After his school days, he had more time for complete devotion to music. He got time to hone his natural talent and take it to the public. He formally entered the world of music in 1974 after he passed the voice test of Radio Nepal with the song 'Hai hai bankali mai'.

Thapa, used the days that followed to develop his skills to be a good musician and singer. He learned guitar and practiced music on his own with some guidance from senior singers and musicians. From 1976 he started playing guitar in Radio Nepal for which he was paid Rs 5 per song. In addition to singing folk songs he also started giving music to modern songs in the following years.

Seven years after he entered into music he brought out his first disc record named 'Folk Songs of Ram Thapa' with four songs from Ratna Recording. The same year he got a job as a folk singer in Radio Nepal. Two years later he was promoted to the 'A' grade singer.

Thapa brought out his first cassette album in 1984, the year Music Nepal was established. There was no facility of bringing out albums in Nepal before this. Ratna Recording was the only private studio, which too brought out only disc records. By this time he had already sung and given music to about 50 songs of which he collected 17 in his album.

By now he has already sung more than 300 folk songs and given music to the same number of modern songs. 'Juntarale' his 44th album is in the market.

His contribution to the Nepalese music industry cannot be exaggerated. Both his folk songs as well as the songs in which he has given music are popular among Nepalese. Thapa is probably the only artiste who has been able to excel in both the genres of folk and modern songs in parallel, yet give the best quality in both of them. The song 'Rituharuma timi' sung by late singer Arun Thapa and composed by him was also selected in the seventh place in the 10 best songs selected by the listeners of BBC world service.

Known for the use of words in his songs as they are used in the villages, he has not been free from criticisms. Women activists often accuse Thapa for choosing words that humiliate women in some of his songs. Thapa rationalizes it as 'putting it as the situation is'.