Singing For The Country

Ramesh is honored by people for raising the woes of general people through his melodious voice

By THAKUR AMGAI

“Rokne Ko Ho Durdarshi Bicharka Dhara

Ko Ho Naya Nepalko Bokne Abhibhara”

The theme of this song translates to ‘Who is the one to bar the far sighted vision, who is the one to take the responsibility of the New Nepal!’

As a singer- known for his people-sided songs for decades- when Shrestha sang this song at the Royal Nepal Academy at a program organized recently, the audience were not only held spellbound but could not help pondering about the nation’s present state and its future.

There would be no denying in saying that the present quagmire in the country was trigged due to lack of a visionary leader.

Singer and musician Rameshwor Shrestha, affectionately known as Ramesh, has been collecting and singing similar songs that depict the woes of the people and necessity of the state since more than past four decades.

Popular songs sung in the past include, poet Gopal Prasad Rimal’s “Ek Jugma Ekchoti”,

“Gaun Gaun Bata Utha”, “Garibko Chameli Boldine Koi Chhhaina” and many more with similar themes.

His songs not only speak out the woes faced by the general people but also provide inspiration and encouragement for evasive struggles in life.

“Songs should not only be made the medium of expressing love.” He is firm on his dictum. “They should inspire people fight the struggles through life and encourage them to a meaningful life.”

The Nepalese audience knows and respects him for the songs that stir their awareness and fight atrocities. The vision and ideology coupled with heart touching music and a weighty voice adds to the impact that the songs have on the people.

Shrestha whose ancestral home is in the eastern district of Okhaldhunga was born in Tansen Palpa, where his father was working as a government officer, in 1944. It was the time when the movement against the century old Rana regime was gaining momentum.

His elder brother Megh Bahadur Shrestha was affiliated with the Congress party. The revolutionary attitude and a thirst for change was instilled in him during childhood.

Ramesh, in his early childhood, was very much impressed by his brother’s political inclination.

He listened to revolutionary songs like “Ladda Laddai Marunla Yo Euta Nai Nara Banos” sung by Ranu Devi, who is considered the first female singer to sing her songs from Radio Nepal.

Groomed in such an environment and endowed with an in innate aptitude in singing and music, Ramesh started singing songs of woes of the people from the very childhood. He used to blend the folk melodies with the wordings that spoke out people’s problems.

He and his friend Ryan represented Okhaldhunga district in a folk song contest organized by Radio Nepal when he was eighteen. After three years, Indreni Records, the only private music company in Nepal then, took him along with his friends Arim and Ryan to Calcutta to record a few songs. They sung songs like “Leknai Dhakyo Badalu Chhayanle.”

As he mingled with more like-minded friends and another phase of underground movement began after the introduction of Panchayat, he got together with friends like Manjul and Arim and formed a group called Ralpha.

Underground communist leaders, who were agitating against the erstwhile Panchayat regime, were very much impressed when they heard their songs like “Bhokai Marne Mahakabika Geet” and other people’s songs. They found a potent tool to motivate the people towards their political goal. In fact, Ramesh and his group hold the credit of motivating the political awareness those days.

The group traveled to villages singing songs of awareness and people. Ramesh remembers how hard it was then to travel to villages.

It was this time when they went around the villages collecting and singing songs like ‘Garibko Chameli Boldine Koi Chhaina,’ and ‘Gaun Gaun Bata Utha Basti Basti Bata Utha Yo Deshko Muhar Hernalai Utha’ “These songs became popular throughout Nepal much later when they were included in the celluloid movie ‘Balidan’.

The movement continued for about fifteen years. In 2039 BS, they formed Sankalpa Family as the cultural wing of the then Marxist Leninist party of Nepal , which is now popular as UML. And after a few years they broke from the party and formed ‘Astha Family.’

Ramesh has another facet to his life. He has been running a school for the last twenty-five years. While teaching nursery rhymes in English to the children, he felt the lack of Nepali child songs. So, he has also brought out four volumes of child songs. “I myself have felt the lack of child songs in Nepali during my childhood,” he recalls.

Sexagenarian Ramesh still has the same zeal. He sings same type of songs and composes music to them. But, he is equally concerned and hurt by the fact that this country does not have a visionary leader to drive the country ahead.