Frenzy with Nepathya

People listened to Nepathya and liked them but to make them realise that seeing live would be totally a different fare.Nepali music has a long way to go and at this juncture when the Nepali music industry is improving in all aspects, artistes need to be supported.

By Utpal Raj MisraI

It was one of those chilly nights in Daman, a few weeks back when Kiran Shrestha, of event nepa-laya, while sipping his glass of beer had a few words in praise for Amrit Gurung and his band Nepathya. I cannot say how the other three of our friends inside that warm and cosy restaurant of the hill resort, took his words but I felt it was very likely for a man promoting and managing the shows of any band to boast about it."You have to see the band play," Shrestha was saying. "It is awesome.

You’ve heard them in your radio, in cassettes and CDs but believe me nothing is like seeing them play live. The spirit Amrit has it does not come out in any other form…I was surprised myself when I first saw them playing. You’ve got to see them play live then only you will know the difference."

As a promoter and the event manager Shrestha had done a good job, as it was his words that pulled me out of my warm bed in chilly day of Jan 29th and dragged me to the Royal Nepal Academy Hall, Kamaladi where Nepathya was playing live.

I could see the small number of hard core fans of the band gathered outside the hall anxious to get in as I bought a ticket and waited for the main gate to open. Standing there in the sun I overheard a few youths talk. "Don’t you have office today?" one asked. "I ran away, buda (old man) would never allow me to take a leave for this purpose, and I can’t miss it," was what the other replied.It was some time before the show started with only around 40 per cent of the seats occupied and the scene did not look that promising although every face present in the hall was full of expectations.

The curtain opened, the show started with Gurung singing Gopal Prasad Rimal’s rato ra chandra surya in original melody with Nepathya’s own arrangement of music. The song was meant to be a tribute to the martyrs, and the young crowd I doubt ever listened to the original version with such attentiveness. I could feel the nationalistic emotions running through the young hearts as Gurung standing straight and in a school-boyishly-high pitch sang the national song.

Then it was Resham and the crowd went in a frenzy. The hall was filled with applause whistles and all the noise that the crowd of around 500 people could make. Kiran Shrestha was right, the real spirit of the band could never be replayed from cassette and CDs.

One song after another and the crowd was totally enthralled, applauding after every song. I am sure many did not even realise that the band had already performed 12 songs in a row before the short interval. The man was Amrit, at the end of the show he had individually sung 27 songs in a row and his voice was great all the time, there was no sign of stress in his face, the energy and the spirit was as when he sang the first song of the afternoon.

Songs ranging from modern day sentimental pop to folk music straight lifted from the hills of Gandaki Zone beautifully synchronised in tune of modern day instruments, national songs to amalgam of performing music with installation art, mourning the royal family massacre. The diversity was there, the taste was there and above all the Nepathya spirit was there.

"This is the best concert I have ever seen in my life," a young man said as he was leaving the hall. I could not but agree with him. This was the best performance I ever had seen of an all-Nepali band in Nepal.

Seeing the low turnover to such an outstanding performance, as I left the hall, I felt the weakness was in the promotion part. People listened to Nepathya and liked them but to make them realise that seeing them perform live would be totally a different fare, a real job. Every artist is hungry of applause and admiration and it does not come in a more gratifying way to a performer than a house full of roaring admirers. Nepali music has a long way to go and at this juncture when the Nepali music industry is improving in all aspects artistes need to be backed up and supported.

On my way home I got this idea that if I had been an old rich businessman I would certainly sponsor such shows. But I am not and see no prospect of becoming one. So leaving the hypothetical ideas behind, as a journalist I am now doing whatever I can for promotion of good music in the country- letting you people know by writing about it.

Embroidering the night

The mega show produced nostalgia of childhood to the audience, mostly teenagers, when King of folk song Kumar Basnet was asked to give the Best New Artiste award of this year to Jagdish Samal.

By Perina Pathak

With the theme – embroidering the night with old and evergreen tune – Close Up Hits FM Music Award 2058 held on Saturday, February 2, at Birendra International Convention Centre.

The evening enthralled all Nepali music lovers with the combination of latest and old hits. The cheering crowd were jumping and shouting as their old and new favourite artistes came and sang their favourite songs.

When the new artists sang popular songs like – tara matra hoina timilai, mero aakha ma hardin badal chhahi rahyo - of their parents time ruled the evening. The artistes also ruled by the ever-favourite patriotic song – ma bhakta hoo yo desh ko.

The mega show produced nostalgia of childhood to the audience mostly the teenager, when King of folk singer Kumar Basnet, was asked to give the Best New Artiste award of this year to Jagdish Samal. He sang his most popular song Diunla yo joban timilai diunla.

Along with the Kumar Basnet’s traditional Jhhyaure dance almost all present in the hall danced and sang throughout his performance.

Whenever veteran singers and musicians were asked to come on stage to announce the winners, the audience was seen shouting on top of their voice in favour of their best songs and singers. Along with nominees, audience was also holding their breath and crossing their fingers for their favourite nominees to win.

Though many new artists succeeded to bag the awards, the stars of the evening were brother and sister, Sunil and Sharmila Bardewa. Sharmila Bardewa won the title of Best Female Pop (for Anna Jokhne) and Best Vocal Performance (for Phul ko Jawaf Patthar) even though she was also nominated for Album of the Year, which was awarded to Nima Rumba for Huribataash.

Where as Sunil Bardewa succeeded to bag the award of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. These two new upcoming artistes from Bardewa family has become a subject of inspiration to those entering this field.

Sharmila Bardewa, who entered into singing profession from her school days as a hobby has now been part of her life. "Now after achieving full support and encouragement from my audience, I have accepted it as a profession. In short it has been a part of my life," says Bardewa, after getting the coveted awards.

Professionally a staff nurse and recently working at Helping Society Nepal a Non Government Organisation, Sharmila started her career as a singer in 1988 by recording a song.

"In the first recording, I found many difficulties because I had entered the studio without getting any proper knowledge about music. Then I took music classes from Nara Raj Dhakal (classical musician) and Guru Dev Kamat (at Do Re Mi music school)," says she.

For Sharmila to enter in this field and to learn the abc of music was not very hard as her grandfather Shyam Kumar Shahisamuv and uncle Rupak Kumar Shahisamuv were musician and violent player respectively.

Not only for Sharmila, Sunil (her cousin brother) also has similar craze for music. While talking to Sunil, one can feel that music is not only a part of his life but is his own life.

His craze towards music was from his school days when he used to run away from his school and play guitar in his cosy room for hours. "Because of my interest towards music and less interest towards study, my parents thought that I have become rowdy. So they forced me to join the army," says Sunil, recalling his past life. "As an army, I worked for five years and now I am back in music field."

In this fifth annual Close Up Hits FM award, there were 12 categories that honoured eleven new artistes including an influencing veteran, who is a renowned and exemplary figure in the field of Nepali Music. This admirable Lifetime Achievement award was given to Ambar Gurung, favourite to all Nepali music lovers of all time for his decades long contribution in the field of Nepali music.

Other 11 categories were best new artist, best male and female vocal performance, best male and female pop vocal performance, best performance by a group or duo with vocal, best song originally recorded for motion picture soundtrack, song of the year, album of the year, record of the year and best vocal collaboration. From each category, the judges panel selected one from five nominees.

Close Up has been organising this event from last three years. "The Close Up mainly organises youth related programme like this music event," says Joydeb Chakravarty, Managing Director of Thompson Nepal, an advertising and communication agency of Nepal Lever, a Close Up manufacturing company.

"The event was mainly to promote and encourage local talents and Nepali musicians and every year we are planning to increase the event by adding more categories for award."

Heritage tour Bungamati 
hometown of Red Machhindranath

By Razen Manandhar

After a ride along the road with old sporadic settlements and new bungalows for about 12 kilometres from the capital’s centre, the 1400 years old village of Bungamati becomes distinct from a height that gives you a fair picture of the clustered settlement with Bagmati river and the hill that goes to Dakshinkali in the background.

After you discover the rows of old houses, you come to know that you are in an ancient Newar settlement that has barely been influenced by the modern lifestyle. One can easily penetrate the settlement with narrow streets that lead you to the main shrine courtyard, where lies the temple of Red Machhindranath.

The houses are traditional and uniform — three floors and with a tilted tiled roof. Small doors and windows keep the mud-and-brick houses warm also in the chilly winter. They generally stand on stone steps, where the locals can sit and go for never-ending gossips in tedious afternoons. And several water ponds are there to let locally bred geese swim.

An inscription of Licchivi king Anshubarma (605-621 AD) proves that the settlement is at least 1,400 years old. In those days it was called "Bugayumi". In different times it was earned names like, Bugayugrama, Amarapur and so on.

The ancient settlement with around 3,000 population there is self-preserved and stick to the earth because it is the holy home of Rato Machhindranath, often considered as the god of compassion and rainfall. The relation between the locals and the deity is retrospective — either the locals nurtured the deity or the settlement is bestowed by the grace of the god.

The white-washed Shikhar temple of Machhindranath lies almost at the middle of the settlement. It is supported by wooden column that is common only in pagoda temples. A temple-house of Hayagriva Bhairav also lies in a corner of the courtyard. The Panjus and Shakyas are the priest and they take care of the temple.

The settlement is directly related with the local deity, whom the locals remember everyday and over every hard times they face. The red, fully-covered idol has obtained around a dozen names in last two millenniums. But the most popular among the locals is "Karunamaya", the compassionate one. Other Newars in the valley address the same deity as Bungadyo, the god from Bunga. Besides, Bungamati Lokeshwor, Avalokiteshowr, Aryavalokiteshwor, Lokanath are other names attributed to him. Specially among non-Buddhists, he is Rato Machhindranath, the Red god of fishes. They worship the deity as a supreme Hindu saint, the guru of Gorakhnath.

Regardless of being Buddhists or Hindus, the Karunamaya is the god of all and Bungamati is proud to house him for six months every year (the idol is taken to the core of Patan city during the other half of the year). People from Buddhist, Shaiv, Shakti and Vaishnav sects worship the holy idol in different forms.

No matter how important place he obtains in both Buddhist and Hindu religion, the history of Machhindranath is not clear. According to a legend, the early 7th century king Narendradev and his companion Bandhudatta brought the god Karunamaya form Assam to let Saint Gorakhnath stand up, who was sitting on nine serpents, causing a long drought. The king thought that Machhindranath being the guru, Gorakhnath would stand up to greet him. There oldest inscription so far found there is dated 1675 AD in the temple.

However, the settlement can no more be untouched from the clutches of modernization — concrete houses, snooker parlours, beauty parlours, VCD rentals etc. are found easily. Adding more storeys and rolling shutters in old houses have become a fashion among the locals. This new whim of desire to call themselves "modern" is a new threat to the village environment. Besides, this old vulnerable settlement has been a bull’s eye of art thieves, the negligence by the security department is to be blamed.

In times, the hard-working locals have made good names as a village of farmers, carpenters and carpet-weavers. Now, it is getting famous as a wood carving centre. There are over 60 wood carving studios, some of which even export the quality handicraft to European countries.

Though a favourate tourist destination, there is little facilities for the visitors. Tourist services like quality souvenir shops, coffee houses and toilets are need to be added to see tourists spending more hours in the quiet old village.

UNESCO has recently launched a programme to initiate Community Learning Centre with cooperation with the local village development committee. Hopes are high that the villagers would realize the significance of the ancient settlement and learn to be proud of being residents of Bungamati. That would inspire them to conserve cultural heritage of the area and develop it as a tourist destination in the near future.

Chinese New Year at Radisson

By Yesjay

It may sound wierd, but it is true. Except for a very few number of people who can keep track of when the Chinese New Year should be, the majority of the people today have to rely on a typical Chinese calendar to tell it. Therefore, you cannot talk of the Chinese New Year without mentioning the Chinese calendar at first.

The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Beginning of spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coordination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.

The celebration of the New Year at the Waterfall Garden at the Radisson Hotel is in a typical street environment. The festival will be lasting till the twelfth of this month. Radisson this time has included a vegetable vendor from organic farm of Bhaktapur, Dadhikot. The profit got from the selling of the vegetables is solely the vendors’.

As soon as you enter the Waterfall Garden, you are truly taken aback by the richness of ethnic decorations that you feel as if you are in one of the hotels of China. In the menu for just rupees 678, including a starter and a desert, one can enjoy Momos, spring rolls, preparation of Duck, fish or chicken along with all kinds of green vegetables, fried rice, noodles, fresh fruits and deserts of your kind. One who does not prefer the fixed menu can opt for individual meals as well. Another interesting is the tea stall. This stall has delicious tea packets all for reasonable prices either from Ilam or Darjeeling. The festival will be opened from twelve to two thirty in the afternoon.

The Eve of the New Year is very carefully observed. Supper is a feast, with all members coming together. One of the most popular courses is jiaozi, dumplings boiled in water. After dinner, it is time for the whole family to sit up for the night while having fun playing cards or board games or watching TV programs dedicated to the occasion. Every light is supposed to be kept on the whole night. At midnight, the whole sky will be lit up by fireworks and firecrackers make everywhere seem like a war zone. People’s excitements reach its zenith.

Very early the next morning, children greet their parents and receive their presents in terms of cash wrapped up in red paper packages from them. Then, the family starts out to say greetings from door to door, first their relatives and then their neighbors. It is a great time for reconciliation. Old grudges are very easily cast away during the greetings. The air is permeated with warmth and friendliness. During and several days following the New Year’s day, people are visiting each other, with a great deal of exchange of gifts. The New Year atmosphere is brought to an anti-climax fifteen days away where the Festival of Lanterns sets in. It is an occasion of lantern shows and folk dance everywhere. One typical food is the Tang Yuan, another kind of dumplings made of sweet rice rolled into balls and stuffed with either sweet or spicy fillings.

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the New Year season and afterwards life becomes daily routines once again.

Symbolism  underlying   these deities

By Dhurba K Deep

LORD SHIVA is seen here in a completely relaxed mood. He is in the stance of Lord of the Universe. He, together with his consort, Parvati, and his mount, Nandi the bull, is seated on a thousand petalled lotus, which symbolizes the awakened, attainment has been reached.

All his attributes and ornaments are tantrum symbols including the serpent that he wears as a necklace to show how the most dangerous and terrifying aspects of creation are under his control. In one hand Shiva holds the drum, which produces the sound NADA, which creates and sustains, and the trident, which symbolizes his fierce, destructive aspects. In another hand he holds a rosary, which shows that Shiva is a perfect yogi who is in a constant state of deepest meditation or samadhi. With another hand he holds his consort and with another he is giving the blessing of liberation. Thus are expressed the four final objects of life. The trident and drum, showing the power held over this earth and the endless process of creation and destruction; Dharma, with the rosary; Desire, reflected in his delight at being with his consort. Attainment of these three leads to the fourth, moksha or liberation.

Shiva is to be revered, respected and understood, rather than worshipped and usually his shrines are closed to all but priests. Whatever is offered to Shiva is never expected pack in a tangible form.

Kumar was the first born of Shiva and Parvati. His was a very difficult birth as Shiva was in a great meditative state when he was lured by the gods to Parvati. Before the union, the god of desire, Kamadev, had to be burnt down. Kumar, therefore, came from an exceedingly concentrated source. His conception and birth were beyond desire. According to tantrum doctrines, when worldly desire is negated, the path leads on to a powerful state of desirelessness and strength.

By virtue of his remarkable birth, Kumar became the commander of all the gods and their forces. His constant companion is the peacock, which is not only a bird of rare beauty, but also a destroyer of serpents. Serpents, in this case, may be regarded as symbols of negative forces.

In one hand he holds a conch shell which, when sounded, calls the gods to action. In another, hand he holds beads which represent his meditative state. His third hand is held in an abhaya gesture, which says, ‘Have no fear.’ His fourth hand holds an arrow to destroy demons whose power is both a positive and a negative manifestation of suppressed divinity. His halo shows his divine origin and his various ornaments are signs of his power. His birth is one of the great tantric symbols: a birth beyond desire.

Durga. Once there was a crisis amongst the gods, a time came when the demons had become stronger than they. As defeat was about to come, the gods, in their hopelessness, came together and surrendered their powers to the unknown. From this surrendered arose Durga, her beauty awe-inspiring, an embodiment of all the combined godly powers.

She then proceeded to use her powers against the demons. First, she killed the great buffalo headed demon Mahisasoor. Then two brother demons fell in love with her and started to fight over her among themselves. Seizing this opportunity, she took them by surprise and killed them both. At another time assuming the terrifying form of Kali she succeeded in killing a many headed demon, Raktabeeja. As she cut off each head, she caught the demon’s blood in a cup and drank it, since from one drop of that blood a thousand demons would have sprung. After defeating the demons, she returned the gods their kingdom.

Demons are obstructive powers on the path. It must be remembered here that gods are the manifestations of divine power. The fight between the two can therefore be regarded as the powers of destruction versus the powers of creation.

Durga is one of the most popular of the eight mother goddesses. In her hands she holds the attributes of other gods and goddesses. The Mother is one of the most important objects of tantric worship. Durga is a virgin goddess, a virgin mother, whose potentiality of motherhood is more important than the actual function. The tantric teachings place great emphasis on this. Whenever Shiva creates, it is through the Mother in one of her eight forms.

So, on the tantric path, Ganesh is the initiator, Shiva, the model or example and Kumar the guardian and guide by one’s side. Through devotion to and worship of the Mother liberation is attained.

HEADLINE | RECOLLECTIONS