On Resuming IA Flight

By Jawahar Manandhar

The talks held between Nepal and India to resume the suspended Indian Airlines flights to Kathmandu ended inconclusively but only deciding to meet again in a few weeks time leaving the people involved in the tourism sectors worried. India decided to suspend the IA flights after its IC 814 was hijacked about half an hour after it took off from the Tribhuvan International Airport on December 24 last year.

The five day talks headed by Nepalese and Indian civil aviation joint secretaries held in ‘cordial’ atmosphere agreed, according to the officials involved in the talks, on many issues but few yet to be refined. Though the talks has not been termed as failure the lack of transparency on providing the details of the meeting has given opportunity to different media to analyse in their own ways regarding the security issue thereby creating some sort of confusion among the general people.

It is but natural for all the concerned people to be worried especially keeping in mind the view expressed recently by one Indian state minister who clearly stated that it wants to deploy its own security personnel at the TIA though the Indian team has clarified that India do not wish and have intention to do so. This has also been clarified by the member of the Nepalese delegation who took part in the talks. So it becomes necessary to both Nepal and India to jointly shed light on this sensitive issue so that the age old historic relations between the two countries are not affected. It should be remembered that a high level investigation committee formed by HMG to investigate security lapses at the airport after the hijacking of IC 814 has given a clean-chit saying that there was no security lapses at the Tribhuvan International Airport on the day the hijacking took place.

Belated though it is the clarification from the First Secretary at the Indian Embassy that ÒIndian Airlines has requested Civil Aviation Authority to Nepal (CAAN) to introduce additional security measures, within the parameters of the International Civil Aviation organisation (ICAO) at TIA for resumption of IA flightsÓ would definitely help clear any doubt and suspicion, if any, still remaining. He is also reported to have said that they do not, in any way, impinge on the sovereignty of Nepal, nor do they reflect on security arrangements at TIA.

There is no doubt that the issue will be solved amicably and to the satisfaction of both the countries sooner than later. At the same time it should not be forgotten that the Nepalese tourism sector has been bearing the burnt of the suspension of the IA flights. Due to the negative comments made on the security arrangements at the TIA there has been a drastic drop in the arrival of the tourists, 30 percent of which comprise the Indian tourists, this year and as a result the Nepalese tourism sector has last millions of rupees and the hotel occupancy rates too has been badly affected. On the other hand the Indian Airlines which used to carry about 1000 passengers to and from Kathmandu before the suspension of its flight has also been losing 2.5 million rupees daily. The additional flights Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation has started have not been fully able to cater the demand of increasing number of passengers yet.

It should also be kept in mind that Nepalese tourism entrepreneurs have been repeatedly pressing the government since last three months to take some concrete measures to resume the suspended IA flights so as to avert further losses in the sector. So it would be better and advisable for both the sides not to lengthen it any more for the benefit of all and not to linger it on small technicalities and modalities if these do not affect the sensitivities of both the countries. Going by whatever the reports have come out of the talks it seem that the next round of talks which will be held soon to resume the flights, it may be expected, going by the positive mentality of both sides, that the next meeting will solve the issue altogether adopting the transparent policy of providing the detailed outcome of the would be talks so that general public get the correct and unbiased reports from the media.

Chameli: A Tale Told On Screen

By K.P. Sharma

The future of a human is but a twist in fate and a single stroke of fate is enough to change the course of life.

If you don't believe that a single encounter with evil can make so big a change in one's life, watch Chameli, a newly released Nepali movie. The movie starts from today (Sunday) at the Manakamana Hall of Kathmandu. Chameli is the representative of the thousands of Nepalese women sold every year in the brothels in the Indian cities and forced into flesh trading.

The movie begins with Amar, evil personified, roaming in a village. A perfect gentleman in appearance, nobody suspects he could be so dangerous to the village belle, Chameli. He woos Chameli and skillfully manipulates the situation. Within a week Chameli — played by Anju Bista — and Amar — played by Bhusan Pokharel — become virtually inseparable.

The glitters of richness also plays tricks on her parents, and the 15-year-old highland lass is married to her lover. But the falsity of the lover soon becomes evident. Chameli then comes to Kathmandu with her spouse. She never suspects that she could be sold for money by her husband and would be forced into flesh trading in a brothel in India. She is sold like an animal by her Òso-calledÓ husband in Mumbai’s notorious Kamathipura and her ultimate fate is decided.

Then begins her life of unspeakable pains and fears. With girls of her age having similar fate and destiny she passes years at the brothel until she is thrown out due to HIV. Infected with the fatal disease, she finds no refuge except in her home in Nepal. She returns to her motherland but without anything to share except her woes and agonies of the hellish life she was destined to live.

The story reaches the climax when people banish her from the village with only a dark future awaiting her.

Even today, the scenario is most successfully played out by evil over and over again throughout not only Nepal but in the whole world. This is not the story of a single ill-fated Nepali girl but of hundreds of thousands Nepali girls and similar number of girls from other parts of the world who are forced to become commercial sex-workers.

Experts believe there are more than two hundred thousand Nepali girls who have been sold in the brothels in various cities in India. But the tide has not stopped, despite big hue and cry being made from everybody. Even today, about 8,000 girls are lured with false promises of good life and are sold annually.

Chameli is probably the newest venture against this nefarious business.

This is a Rs.10 million venture with the aim of making people aware of the most notorious business which is still raging in Nepal.

ÒI did it because I was very much touched by what I used to read in newspapers and see the families with their daughters living with a horrible past and utter hopelessness for the future. I thought of this story when I saw that life was not beautiful for them. After all stories are there where lives are less beautiful,Ó producer director Rabi Baral discloses the reason of making the film in financial assistance with his friends and INGOs like The Policy Project and UNIFEM.

ÒThe INGOs financially supported me in doing with the research work of the film and in bringing a harrowing tale to the people.Ó

Baral, a fan of Satyajit Ray, took almost eight years in bringing out the movie. For three years, from 1994 to 1997, he did the research. ÒWe met nearly 1,500 girls who were trafficked and were thrown after they failed to attract clients or got infected with the HIV, to prepare the script. And it took two years to do the filming,Ó he says.

Moreover, the film even has several scenes of the infamous red-light area of Mumbai, where thousands of Nepalese girls are still awaiting their fate.

ÒIt was a risky job, still we managed to get several shots of that place. We did the rest of the filming by establishing an artificial studio at Godabari, Kathmandu."

Baral, a self-taught director, is, however, not satisfied with the atmosphere the Nepalese cine-industry is accustomed to. ÒThere is leg pulling. I have now been targetted by them. The recent example is a misquoting that I had not received any financial assistance from INGOs like Policy Project and UNIFEM. I have already disclosed that I have been assisted by the donor agencies. Still some newspapers are bent on defaming me,Ó thus expressed Baral his frustrations to the Sunday Despatch.

Meanwhile, he is optimistic about the success of the film. ÒI hope people will like the film because it’s their story.

Searching Above and Around

By Our Correspondent

Searching is what continues throughout our lives. We always search. We search for things. We search for love. And we search for peace and so many things in the world.

And in the above verse Pallav Ranjan, an emerging Nepali poet who feels comfortable in composing his feelings in English, sets an another idea that we all search in this vast and deep world.

In a poem entitled Flight under the series of ÒThe StairsÓ of the Fragments, he asks the flying hawk if it was searching for him just like he was searching for him in the sky.

Ranjan’s Fragments, an anthology of 40 poetic pieces composed from his school-days time to the university life, was released last week amidst a special function by Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the main opposition party and the general secretary of the CPN-UML. The CD of the book and the paintings were also released at the same occasion.

Pallav Ranjan likes to call his poems as fragments but still hopes that the picture of life which he has copied in the anthology has something for everyone — children, adolescents and adults — who recite the poems.

The small book of poems is organised into seven sections that contain similar work. The first section of the anthology ÒThe StairsÓ describes his early feelings regarding life, family and the nature which appeared to be beautiful and calm in his days of innocence.

The other sections of the anthology deal more or less with his experiences later in the life. In the later poems the poet seems to have found maturity.

The poems are simple and they speak of no philosophy but day to day experiences which an innocent heart can feel without any metaphors and similes. But still, the poems more than encompassing others’ feelings are the notes of Ranjan’s own.

By and large, the anthology is a fragments — the fragment of feelings, emotions and experiences which one undergoes during the passage of time in life.

Jottings: Idle And Otherwise

BY MRJ

Oscar Night — March 26 in Los Angeles and the morning of March 27 in Kathmandu — has come and gone causing many surprises, heartbreaks and paroxysm of delight around the world, as Oscars were handed out in 23 set Oscar categories, plus three more to previously announced winners.

Your jotter will review below some of what happened — and some of what didn’t — at the 72nd annual Academy Awards ceremony watched, we’re told, by an estimated one billion people.

HOLLYWOOD’S NIGHT: This year there was a bizarre build up to Hollywood’s big night for which stars generally spend weeks rehearsing over and over what they might say if their name is called upon to accept one of the golden statuettes.

Although the Oscars are ostensibly about acting and cinematographic skills, over the past decade and more they have also become Òthe most important fashion event of the year.Ó

No wonder, then, that Òthe atmosphere in the Beverely Hills hotels where out-of-town designers set up shop can become franticÓ and where Òanyone can be called in for advice as the stars make seemingly life-or-death decisions.Ó

Incidentally, one is informed that the Oscar statuettes, manufactured by R.S. Owens Company in Chicago, are only gold-plated and weigh 3.8 kgs each. Fifty-five of them were stolen on 8 March from the shipping company hired to deliver the statues.

An employee of the company was charged with grand theft but all but three were found in a garbage bin by a down-and-out Los Angeles type who scavenges trash for a living.

Before that, the manufacturers were asked to make replacements for 35 as the Academy usually has 20 or so Oscars in storage. Although 55 statues represented enough Oscars to give to all of the winners, the exact number needed isn’t known until the big night because some nominations go to more than one person.

However, the stolen Oscars were not the only bizarre thing that happened prior to this year’s event. For starters, the Academy’s cherished secrecy was threatened, first by a Web site that claimed that it had an advance list of potential nominees, then by a Wall Street Journal story that polled Oscar voters to prophesy how the awards might shake out.

The Web site posted on February 15, or a day before nominations were announced, claimed to be a short list from which the nominations would be drawn — but was proved false.

Then, there was irritation over the Journal’s survey — which predicted that American Beauty would win best picture (correct), Hilary Swank would take best actress (correct) and The Hurricane’s Denzel Washington would win best actor (incorrect).

WEIRD YEAR: Earlier, the Academy had already had to send new ballots to most of its members after 4,000 voting forms got lost in the mail. No wonder, then, that Academy spokesman John Pavlik said: ÒIt’s been a very, very, very weird year.Ó

Coming, now, to the winners and losers, it would appear that unlike the historical, romantic epics that have dominated recent Oscar nights, this year’s contest was Òfull of films of gritty realism, taking a hard look at contemporary culture or moral valuesÓ addressing such themes as Òsocial conformity, the death penalty, abortion, discrimination and the tobacco industry.Ó

The Hurricane — which did not land any Oscar — tackles racism and injustice while Boy’s Don’t Cry, based on a true story, examines sexual intolerance through the story of a young woman who tries to live as a man in rural America, meeting a tragic and violent end when she is discovered. Hilary Swank got the Oscar for best actress for her role in that movie.

Winner American Beauty is a Òdark comedy, a searing social criticism of life in the US suburbsÓ where the hero, a man in his mid-forties, Òdumps social conventions and the trappings of middle class success to rediscover freedom.Ó

Another winner (for best supporting actor — veteran British actor Michael Caine) The Cider House Rules is a Òbittersweet filmÓ which explores the difficult issues of abortion and incest.

In The Sixth Sense — directed by India-born M. Night Shyamalan — a psychiatrist seeks redemption for past wrongs; in The Green Mile a man condemned to die possess supernatural healing powers.

The docudrama, The Insider, tells Òthe story of the battle between big tobacco and a whistle-blower and the role of the press in the face of corporate power.Ó

According to informed Oscar-watchers the big losers were The Insider and The Sixth Sense. Incidentally, the biggest winner was American Beauty which, in addition to best movie, bagged Oscars for best director (Sam Mendes), best actor (Kevin Spacey), best screenplay (Alan Ball) and best cinematographer (Conrad Ball).

Coming, now, to the Oscar for the best foreign film, Nepal’s Caravan (and three other nominees) lost out to Pedro Almodovar’s ÒAll About My MotherÓ a Spanish film which had already bagged a sweep of major international awards.

After winning, Almodovar said: ÒLet me dedicate this to the Spanish people who are watching TV now.Ó Those who watched Oscar night confirm that apart from a few flashes of ÒCaravanÓ a Nepali, cap and all, (Neer Shah?) was also spotted. Let’s not be too disheartened — even to make it to Oscar nomination is great considering the nascent stage of our film industry.