Beauty more than skin deep

By Somesh Verma 

‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’, said Keats, adding one more line to the much written issue of one of the best facets of human being.

And the modern day beauty, especially since the 90s, has to conform to the standards set by the line. The line is now a maxim. The ‘move-over-material-girl-women-of-substance-have-arrived’ revolution caught on, throughout the world. And Nepal, the tiny sleepy nation in the lap of Himalayas, had to catch up with the tune, slowly but surely.

The beauty pageants came, catching everyone’s fancy (even the opposing factions of the society!), looking for the women who were ready to do more than just cooking for their family. Giving them a new front to show the world their worth. And we had women trying to voice their thoughts and ideas.

The latest addition to the gang; the SAFI Queens. Nira Gautam, Shradha Mukhiya and Akriti Sharma – SAFI Queen, the first runner-up and the second runner-up respectively – the ladies in their late teens (don’t ask age of a lady!) are definitely the newest exponents of the quality called beauty. Conforming to the standards set by Keats, they are beautiful, which includes another quality called confidence. And it is their confidence which makes them speak their mind. Ask them their thoughts on beauty and they answer back, without a hitch in their voice.

"Anything that touches your heart is beautiful," says Nira, looking right at the interviewer while for Shradha the answer is different, albeit the level of confidence is the same, "Beauty is simplicity." No make-ups for the girl of today.

Akriti, the third of the lot has one more thing to add. "Positive frame of mind added to simplicity is beauty." Any doubts on their capabilities?

What is life like for the girls who became famous overnight (after a long grooming and hard work though)? While Nira goes to her A-level classes everyday, Akriti has to complete her +2 classes. For Shradha, it is language classes that take her time (finished +2 already, she has quit her job as an anchor in Channel Nepal). And life after the pageant? Not much different though. Except for a few photo sessions here and there. "Uff… it’s hard to have that smile for so long…" sighs Shradha as they get a break for 10 minutes.

And the person they are? Much like any other 17-18-year-old girl next door. Shradha, a St Mary’s alumnus, reads a lot. "A Stephen King fan," she admits. Another voracious reader, Nira, a cat lover, says she ‘reads anything from Sidney Sheldon to John Grisham to Tom Clancy’. And Akriti, a Galaxy student, loves traveling and music which make her ‘know about different cultures’.

The future? Do they know what they want out of life? Nira says that in ten years time she’d do a lot of traveling and have a job which involves a lot of it. For Akriti, life would be in the cyber space. She wants to become a computer professional. And Shradha says she’ll be married in ten years time, with kids (adopted ones as well) with a ‘decent Nepali guy’ (any takers?)

Young, and moving in a fast track (for they already know what they want to become later), do they know what most of the women of Nepal, a clan to which they are a part of, go through everyday?

Ask them that and they get silent, seriousness growing on the face (not removing the smile though). And what they tell you is not many of their age think of. For one of them thinks the constitution of Nepal is discriminatory, there is one who says she’d love to improve girl child education of the country.

Meet them and you wonder, if the women are as smart, why do men always discriminate them?

Pilgrims progress? 
Book Exhibition cum Sale

Venue : Thamel, Pilgrims book house. Friday. Time : 3:30 pm.

You get a sense of déjà vu as soon as you see first table to your right hand side holding quotation books on various themes. Then comes the box of popular glossy magazines with cover pictures of ladies and gents showing off their great bodies. Your feeling of familiarity increases after you move to another stand carrying ‘Oliver Sacks’ and Erma Bombeck’s book ‘I want to grow hair….’ Which were there last year as well. But this is not all the book exhibition has. It certainly has those rare and expensive antiquarian books on various topics with prices to match.

Two, three pieces of Tintin comics, a book of Indian fairy tales, a colouring book for kids all put together on a table reminds one of leftovers from clothing sale when all good items have disappeared from the stand. You are entitled to some choice of books even if you are visiting a ‘book sale’. If there is no choice then you at least expect its compensation with cheaper books. But none of the books in the sale are attractively cheap. You don’t feel like relieving your wallet for those ‘leftover books’. Last year’s sale was more tempting.

A bevy of young girls in uniform were gathered around one particular table and having fun. It was easy to guess what kind of books the table held. It had some paper back romances, books by Lewis Carroll, leather-bound volumes of Nathaniel Hawthrone, and Sinclair Lewis and the "world’s renowned series on blah, blah, blah,"( just like one of the young ladies was uttering). The group didn’t pick any book and made its way to the boxes containing magazines. They contained old issues of magazines costing not less than Rs. 100. It was no surprise that none picked any issues of ‘New Woman’, ‘Good housekeeping’, ‘Fixing your PC’ and moved to the table (the first table when you enter and the last one when you exit) which held books on quotations.

With the amount spent on publicity and the reality (display of books seen), one just wonders where the Pilgrim has made progress.

When music mingles with momo

Momo: Undoubtedly the most popular single food item in the valley. Music: something every heart (well, almost) enjoys, be it good times or rough one. Naturally when a festival of Momos is held, you expect it to be popular. And if it’s coupled with music, that too along with the most popular crooners in town, what more would one ask for.

So was it, the bakery cafe’s ‘Momo mania’, their 4th annual momo festival. Popular, crowded, bustling with people. And why not, if you’re given 19 varieties of your favourite food, would you mind?

The event, organised by the most popular restaurant chain of Nepal, had more than just momo. For the event had live bands playing their popular numbers all along while the food buffs munched on different types of momo.

While the usual varieties like, chicken, mutton, buff were on the platter, there were unheard ones like monton, khuwa ko momo, tofu momo, sabji ko momo, gundpak momo, mushroom momo just to name a few.

With the likes of Harish Mathema, Nalina Chitrakar, Deepak Bajracharya and the bands like The Strings, The Angels and Heartbreakers playing just in front of you, whose appetite will not get excited. The appetite for food and the music.

To top it all, the event also had momo making and momo eating competition. All the contestants had to do was either eat or make as many momos as possible in two minutes. While R Tuladhar won momo eating contest, Reena Tuladhar went away with the prize for momo making.

A peek at ‘dreamtime’
Exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal Australian paintings

A great piece of art is like nature. Majestic yet very approachable. Every human being can understand and relate to nature. He can feel her presence in the warmth of sunlight, drops of rain in monsoon and chill of blizzard in winter. Her vagaries of her mood evoke feelings of awe and wonder in a human being. Just like in nature, in great art, simplicity and complexity coexist.

You feel like comparing the collection of 13 contemporary indigenous Australian paintings to nature after you see them on the walls of Siddhartha Art Gallery. This exhibition is like an album with nature’s seasonal pictures in sequence. But these artworks are no ordinary pictures. The artists have captured the fleeting and the timeless elements of nature in the paintings and incorporated their Aboriginal experiences and histories in them. This is the reason why the paintings are like nature, multifaceted and ambiguous, yet very simple. They can be enjoyed and studied at several levels. To understand the paintings better, the exhibition also displays photographs of different seasons of Northern Australia.

In the paintings the artists have given continuity to their 23000 year old tradition of expressing themselves through artwork. Their ancestors expressed their creativity in rock arts and the present Aboriginal people tell the world the stories of nature and their clan in water-colour paper(Arches Aquarelle). The medium they work on have changed but the painters have retained their ancestral stylistic techniques. Like their ancestors they have drawn pictures of animals and fish in x-ray style clearly depicting the internal organs.

Each painting has a story to tell. The stories dwell in Dreamtime, the time, according to the Aboriginal people when their "ancestral beings journeyed across the land creating the people, animals, birds, reptiles, tress, rivers, floodplains and the escarpment". The huge paintings are impressive in size and style. With the help of just four ochre colours (white, yellow, red and black) the artists have expressed varying moods of nature and her subjects.

The paintings are smooth and almost geometric in patterns. While drawing animals and birds the artists have paid attention to minute details. For example in the painting of magpie geese feeding on berries, the gullets of birds are bulging which shows that they have eaten plenty. The x-ray style of drawings of human figurines, animals, and fishes are amazing. They show how closely the artists have studied the anatomy of their art subjects. They are not at all gross like the real pictures of human and animal anatomy. Drawn in smooth lines they have a kind of austere beauty.

These paintings remotely remind one of our own indigenous Mithila art. Mithila art is a more colourful and less ancient expression of indigenous art. There is no doubt that the exhibition of this form of art will delight the international audience if taken to various cities like the Kunwinjku art which has toured across continents.

This free exhibition which started on 27th Sept. will remain open to general public for five days. Art enthusiasts, art lovers and art students shouldn’t miss this one of a kind exhibition which has made its way to our city.