After finishing high school at Budhanilkantha, I moved on to Sanepa in Lalitpur because that is where most of the people from my homevillage were. Most Saturdays there were gatherings where participants would pontificate on "development" work for the village. There were pledges made. Most of that talk amounted to not. In retrospect I see that as homesick people bonding.And that might apply to the Nepali diaspora in the US. But then not. Some of the acts of the diaspora have been a real contribution
to the democratic movement in Nepal.I am headed to the Kunda Dixit event tomorrow in Jackson Heights. I got a call from the Anil Shahi of Sajha fame not long back. He was returning mine. I confirmed.
Why do I mention that? I have taken great pride in moving beyond text here: links, audio, video. Now I get to move offline. That is an extension I greatly welcome. I might write a casual report on the event to post here. Might take photos. The best part of photos is not carrying the camera around though.
And not long after that I discovered Radio Dovaan, also at Sajha. I sent an email asking what do I have to do to call in? Those folks, they might as well get into podcasting. I am planning to after Odeo takes off.
The last of my 22 video clips is being uploaded right now. Even after that there is a Google lag: they, I guess, go through each submitted video manually to make sure there are no copyright infringements. I emailed them requesting a fast track for me, but looks like the email got sent into outer space, the Craig's List way.
And that is when, after listening to the first part of a Radio Dovaan program, and listening to a small snippet of Narayan Gopal had me googling the icon. And that is another extension, an emotional extension. An involvement in the democratic movement can lead to Narayan Gopal. Who could have thought of that? I am a huge fan. He really stands out, and there I am comparing him to all music I ever listened to. He is among the very best.
And that leads to Nabin, the most famous person of my high school batch. And when you mention Nabin, you got to mention Manoj Acharya, Nabin's lyricist. Manoj is in Baltimore. And with King G and his drama, I guess you also got to mention Prince Paras, another of the classmates.
On one hand, there are all these personal bonds. On the other, it was my high school that lead me to the Sadbhavana, a national school that lives to the 5% ceiling for the Madhesis nationwide. There are defininte mixed feelings.
But then people like Narayan Gopal are in a league of their own. Beyond politics.
Text, links, comments, audio, video,
radio, offline event, music.
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