To Let You Know

To Let You Know- A song recorded by my friend Saujan Man Pradhan aka Ballu in his mobile. He send me the song while we were chatting. I loved the song and in jest I told him that I would made a simple video for it. He agreed... Oh My God, he agreed. Now, I had to make video for it. Anyways no worries.... I thought it would be a good practice for me.

Amisha Lama- A shy girl from Media Studies (batch 2008) was chatting with me or let's say I was chatting with her (hehehe). And.....while just kidding I told her that I wanted to take some of her pictures for a video. She agreed... Oh My God, she agreed. I had given words to a girl..... now, I've to do it. We planned for the very next day to shoot in TaluDanda. I clearly remember it was Saturday. I proposed Shekhar KC if he wanted to model for the video. He is our boy. How could he say No?

Now, our shooting unit had four members- Shekhar and Amisha (actors) and Prem Tshering Sherpa and me (for photography, videography and direction). We had done ZERO homework for the video. I even hadn't given proper care to the words of the song. We didn't know the theme of the song. I just loved the song and its simple and fine music. Even though, we were heading for a video-shoot with our heads held high- BINDASS!!

We reached TaluDanda. The time of struggle began as we had not planned what to shoot, how to shoot and with what theme to shoot. We just clicked photos and took videos randomly. We- everyone did a lot of NATAK. We took shots of Shekhar playing guitar in the hostel after returning from TaluDanda. The song was in Plugging and Shekhar was playing rhythm. I noticed it after I sat for video editing few weeks later. Anyway, Saujan was waiting with great passion for his video to be released (hehe) so I edited about 95% of video and left rest for another day. It was our bad luck. Prem formatted his computer and the editing version saved in C Drive just flew like burnt cigarette. He was formatting his computer and I was in front of him showing my teeth. The Format completed and my antennae became conscious. It was too late. Saujan replied- “Fine! No problem! I can wait till you complete your Undergraduate.” He was sad.

Again after few weeks, I took some shots of Shekhar playing Plugging in the guitar. Then I stored the video for about one and a half month. Today Shekhar came with an idea to edit the video and I permitted him do whatever he wanted. I just directed him to cut some clips and to increase time-length of some. Now the video has been released to the whole world. Please, watch it for free…... hehehe.

I know the video is just OK. Everything got messed-up. Still it was our work left handicapped in some folder in F Drive … untouched for months. It taught us that a proper homework is important, in fact compulsory, before beginning anything. And it’s proving successful now.

The Book Fair and Bhrikuti

(It's only for educational purpose)
As a part of our educational visit, we second year students of Media Studies visited 13th Nepal Education and Book Fair 2009 which was held at Bhrikuti Mandap, Pradarshani Marg from May 15-23. As the name of the event suggests, it is both the Education and Book fair. As I read very few books, I didn’t know that the book fair was going on. It was our project coordinator Nirmala Mani Adhikary who suggested us to visit the event and collect some information about it. We all students from our class had to compulsorily make it to the even but still some of my friends damned it.

One section of the fair contained course of studies of most of the levels, educational materials including posters, globes and various equipments while other contained the books- literature, biography, fiction and various genres. We could see people, ranging from children to old, attending this fair as educational trip, family visit and pals hangout. Some teenagers, including stall keepers, were even dating at this spot. The temples and the nearby forests had gone less to these people. (May be they wanted to prove themselves in public- I’m really sorry for mocking other’s feeling.)

Some were buying loads and loads of books and some were collecting just the advertisements and free books. I didn’t wish to but I compelled myself to buy two books- Akalpaniya for my friend and Ek Asafal Aakhyaan ko Prarambha for myself. One 8th Grade fellow surprised us by saying that he completes a Novel in just a couple of days. I didn’t pay much attention to education stalls that were luring our stupid teenagers and youths for abroad education.

The most interesting of the event was that in one book-stall I got to see a book “Our Childhood” published by one of my classmate, Bhrikuti Rai, while she was in Grade 10. I remembered that she had told about the book while we were in first semester but I had already forgotten it. Only after encountering it I realized her words. She used to collect childhood biographies of some national personalities and translate them into English. So, it was her mother’s idea to compile those collections and publish as a book. It was a matter of glory for me as a friend and jealousy as a classmate. Three cheers for Bhrikuti!

There are always jokes and mocks while we are with friends. We cracked jokes of some stalls, visitors and even our friends. The most disgusting was the toilet, which remained me of my Nation.

Let's take a short look..............

(We made this video for our educational purpose/project, so one may not find it interesting.) I felt like being forced to eat the whole packet of ghee because I always asked time and again for a spoonful. I believe everyone in my class felt like this while doing the photo and video stories. But I am really thankful to our project coordinator Sten Brand for greatly supporting and appreciating our work. Also, I am most thankful to my new friend Amita Thapa Magar for inviting us (me and Shail) to click photos in that great event.

It is another 11th hour product. I sat for 3 nights till 1 am editing and cutting down 1 hr video to 3 minutes. I hate narrating but it was my turn as Gaurav did last time and Shail was narrating other "Feature Video" (....... and this one was a news-video). I didn't want to miss some of the great moments of the event so I've tried squeezing everything by cutting into pieces, overlapping etc. I clicked a lot of photos but I couldn't add them to the video because the video already exceeded 2 minutes time limit. We have tried to make a traditional type news-story video (hehehe).

C dis Video- u'll miss it otherwise!!

यो भिडियो हेर्नुस्, हाँस्नुस्, जिब्रो टोक्नुस्, मुख बाउनुस्, रमाउनुस्, आफ्नो क्षमताले जे भ्याउँछ त्यही गर्नुस्, अरु के नै भन्न सक्छु र !! All the Best!!

रेडियो नेपाल : एउटा छुट्टै अनुभव

"टुँट् टुँट् टुँट् टुँट् टुँ........ यो रेडियो नेपाल हो ।" कखरा पनि सुरु नगर्दै यो धुन र शब्दसँग म राम्रैसित परीचित भैसकेको थिएँ । म दिनहुँ हजुरबुवाको रेडियोमा सुन्थेँ -यो रेडियो नेपाल हो । मैले रेडियो नेपाललाई छोडेको धेरै वर्ष भैसक्यो । अब त्यो धुन, त्यो आवाज सुन्दा मलाई मेरो बाल्यकालको याद आउला । हजुरबुवासँग भैँसी र भेडा हेर्न गएका ति पुराना दिनका याद आउलान् । थाहा छैन यो धुन अहिले बज्छ कि बज्दैन । दिनहुँ फैलिँदो र बढ्दो नयाँ-नयाँ प्रविधिको युगमा यो धेरै पछाडि परिसकेको छ ।

सिँह दरबारको गेट हुँदै रेडियो नेपाल परिसर छिर्न पाउनु चानचुने कुरा हैन रहेछ । याँ छिर्न माथि/भित्र बाट अनुमति चाहिँदो रहेछ । काठमाडौं विश्वविद्यालयमा मिडिया स्टडीज अध्ययनरत हामी पहिलो र दोस्रो बर्षका विद्यार्थीहरु स्थलगत अध्ययनका लागि केही दिनअघि रेडियो नेपालको कार्यालय पुगेका थियौँ । रेडियो नेपाल परिसर नपुग्दै म दिमागमा कुरा खेलाइरहेको थिएँ । म कल्पना गर्न थालेँ - "सिँह दरबारभित्र बिचै बाटोमा पान चपाएर थुक्दै गरेको एक पुरुष, भुइँमा थ्याच्च बसेर नाक कोट्याइरहेकी एक महिला, नजिकैको चउरमा गलैँचामाथि तास खेलिरहेका एक हुल मानिस, नजिकै एक अर्काको कठालो समातेर लुछालुछ गर्न लागेका युवाहरु ----- सबै सँग परिचय माग्दा 'सभासद' उत्तर .......।" कस्तो फन्टुश बिचार खेलाइरहेको रहेछु म । त्यही भएर कहिले काहीँ एक्लै हिँड्दा पनि हाँस्ने गर्छु । थाहा छैन अहिले सम्म कति जनाले पागल भने मलाई ।

फोटोहरु लिँदै हिँडेपनि दिमागमा कुरा खेल्न छोडेनन् । रेडियो नेपाल परिसर जति नजिक आउन थाल्यो उतिनै बिचारका भेलहरु उर्लिन थाले साथीहरुले भन्ने गरेको यो फोहोरी दिमागमा । "प्रेमध्वोज, नारायण गोपालहरुले स्वोर परिक्षा दिदाँ प्रयोग गरेका पुराना माइकहरु, अब धुलियाले खाई नै सकेका हार्मोनियमहरु इत्यादी, इत्यादी" को म कल्पना गरिरहेको थिएँ । किन किन "रेडियो नेपाल"- यो सुन्ने बित्तिकै पुरानो युग, पुरानो जमाना, पुरानो सामान यस्तै यस्तै थोत्रा थात्री कुरा आउँछन् दिमागमा । तर ठ्याक्कै उल्टो सोचेछु । एस्का कक्षहरु युगानुसार नै अपडेट भइरहेका रहेछन् । सरकारी भनेर अपहेलना गर्ने समय भइहालेको चाहीँ रहेनछ (हा हा हा ) ।

अहिले सार्है नमीठोसित खिचडिएको साङ्गीतिक युगमा हुर्केको मलाई रेडियो नेपाल छिर्ने बित्तिकै तिनै नेपाली सङ्गित भनेर गर्व गर्न मिल्ने कालजयी सङ्गितको आभास हुन थाल्यो । नारायणगोपाल, नातिकाजी, तारादेवीका फोटाहरुले मलाई स्वागत गरेर त्यही माहोलको बातावरणमा भिजाइदिये केही बेर । एक कक्षमा एकजना शारिरिक रुपमा अपाङ्ग मानिस हार्मोनिउम बजाएर तिनै अमर नेपाली सङ्गितको आभास महसुस गरिरहेका थिए र गराइरहेका थिए । शारिरिक रुपमा अशक्त मानिसलाई कम्जोर भन्न नमिल्ने रहेछ । रेडियो नेपाल त्यही थलो हो, त्यही प्लेटफर्म हो जस्ले सङ्गित, सुर र रागका असली खानीहरुलाई स्थापित गरायो । अहिले पनि नेपाली सङ्गितको मोल निर्धारण गर्ने अधिकार रेडियो नेपालमा नै भइराखेको भए हामीले कारुणिक र हृदयस्पर्शी आवाजहरुको खोजी गर्ने क्रममा वैदेशिक सँस्कृतिलाई अँगाल्नु पर्दैनथ्यो होला ।

रेडियो नेपालभित्र केही घण्टाको स्थलगत अध्ययनपछि बाहिर निक्लिन सुरसार गर्ने क्रममा एउटा सुमधुर सङ्गित, शब्द र स्वोरले मलाई तान्न खोजिरह्यो, निशब्द तुल्याउन प्रयास गरिरह्यो । रविन शर्माले गाएको देवकोटाको "यात्री- कुन मन्दिरमा जान्छौ यात्री" गुन्जिरहेको थियो कतै नजिकै- तर त्यही परिसर भित्र । र म तिनै मानिसबिचबाट आफ्नो बाटो तताउन थालेँ जो २३ घण्टा मन्दिर कुल्चेर १ घण्टा मन्दिर ढोग्न जान्छन् ।

Ma Aaudaichhu Priye- म आउँदैछु प्रिये

About the making:
I'm physically present in the classes, but I'm usually lost mentally (so I suffer a lot during the exams). Sometimes funny and interesting ideas go through my mind at these moments. So the concept of making an Ad of _________ (you'll have to watch the video to know this...) went through my mind. I first shared this concept with Ratan and he was very happy to work for this though I have never heard him of saying NO!! (e.g. Me/anyone: "रतन, ठिमी मा छ्याङ् खान जाउँ है आज क्लास लाई बाल दिएर ।" रतन: "भै हाल्छ नि साथी!!") This is Ratan.

Then I shared this idea with one of friends Shail Shrestha(....he is always showing his stupid teeth). This concept-man also loved my concept. One friend (not from our class) even mocked this concept. After few days, we started making video for the Ad with Chahana Sigdel and Shail in the roles but without proper plannings. I don't know about Shail (for he is mainly interested in creating concepts and direction) but Chahana was very much willing to do the video. When me and Ratan approached her with proposal, she was so happy. She went among her friends screaming "I'm in!"

We started with photo shoot (from KU to Talu Danda). Chahana really gave nice poses (I don't mean Shail didn't gave good poses, he is also equally nice in this matter.). Our inexperience and lack of understanding between friends came in the way to obstruct everything and it was over after few days. It was pack-up for about 2 semesters. Although the theme is same, the story line and scene sequences are all new. I wish you'll not dislike the video.

About the Video:
A very short, both romantic and funny video(1 min. 25 secs.), made by KU students (2009) with Parbat Thapa (Electrical Engineering 4th/last year) in the scene....Poem narration by Ratan Aanad Karna, background score by Diwas Manandhar and Parbat Thapa, editing by Shekhar KC and me, camera by Prem Tshering Sherpa and, scene selection, photography direction, script, concept and direction by me.(hahahaha.. I am crediting myself for so many works... but it doesn't matter...). It was a good homework before making the video, so we completed shooting within 1-2 hours.

सहयात्री !

तिमीलाई लिएर यात्रा गरिरहेको म
यो जन्जाल देखी थाकेको तिम्रो शिरलाई
मेरो काँधमा अडाएर म यो गाडीसँगै
अघी बढीरहन्छु ।।

यो साँघुरोपन देखि बाफिएको तिम्रो शरीर
र, तिम्रो निदारमा फुटेका ति पसिनाका ढिकाहरुलाई
शितल सासले फुकिदिँदै,
पुछिदिँदै
अनि साहारा नपाएर लत्रिएका
तिम्रा ति कोरिएका हातलाई
मेरो हातले थामेर
एकै गतिमा गुड्न नजान्ने यो गाडीसँगै
अघी बढीरहन्छु ।।

तिम्रै शिरदेखी झरेर
तिम्रै कोमल गाला घोचिरहेका
ति कपालहरुलाई
तिम्रो कान पछाडि सिउरिदिएर
घरीघरी पल्टिन खोजिरहने यो गाडीसँगै
अघी बढीरहन्छु ।।

तिमी बिउँझदा
तिमीले आफ्नो हिँजो बिर्सिसकेकी हुनेछौ,
तिम्रा शरीरका घाउहरु
टालिँदै गरेका हुनेछन् ,
त्यो झ्यालबाट शितल हावा छिर्दा
तिमी मन्द हावामा खेलिरहेको
सुन्दर फूलजस्तै देखिनेछ्यौ ,
फेरी तिमी हाँस्न थाल्नेछ्यौ,
नाच्न थाल्नेछ्यौ,
र त्यो शितल हावा मै हुनेछु,
अनि तिमी -मेरी प्रेमिका,
-मेरो प्रिय साथी,
-मेरी आमा,
-मेरो देश ।।

Walk in Kathmandu

After attending one of Koshish Abhiyan Programs at Martin Chautari, I took a bus to Kantipur Publication wherefrom I collected money of my two published articles (at Post Platform). (Please don't think that I am advertising myself. I just want to maintain flow in the story) Again it was time to take a vehicle to Sukedhara. Instantly I came with an idea to make a walk though it is not healthy to make in the city of Kathmandu. I am very much vulnerable to water-borne and air-borne diseases. But I decided to fight this idea.

I covered my face (it would be proper to say nose and mouth) with scarf though it does not filter the air, turned the cap back and took out the camera from my (medium trekking like) bag. I usually carry this bag so that I shouldn’t have to carry those non-degradable plastic bags. It’s always nice, useful and worthy to start from home than talking nonsense (like our politicians). Covering my face would benefit me in other ways also. It would lessen away my hesitation midst of my stupid countrymen. I thought the photos could be useful later also. And it proved much worthy recently.

Our department guest teacher/ lecturer Sten Brand, a Norwegian young man, who is helping us with some multimedia tools, gave us group assignments of making photo-narration video. Me and my Popas(Project Partners) Gaurav Devkota and Shail Shrestha had a kind of compulsion to give a topic to the teacher without making plan. I had those photos stored in a DVD and planned to use them in this small 1-2 minutes project. We got about two weeks time for a two minute video. At this length of time Clint Eastwood would have completed half of the shooting of his movie. (I am not sure but I think I had read somewhere that he had made his Oscar Winner movie “Million Doller Baby” within just 35 days.)

For about 11 days we remained completely out of touch with the project. It was another rush hour after that. I stay at hostel and my Popas daily travel from Kathmandu. We selected photos and Popas took the responsibility of making music + narration Audio for it. Gaurav gave a sweet narration but with bit rush to maintain flow with the music (Kathamandu by Bob Segel). Due to load-shedding problem, it was difficult for them to make the video. So they made a sample video and handed everything over to me for the final editing and output.

Yesterday I stayed till 1 am and completed the video using my dear Movie Maker. We were not permitted to use other editing software. I always use/used ULead for video editing purposes and I am/was not used to with it. Yesterday it was so dearest to me. It was making my computer hang time and again still I was using it with care and love and request.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1pm. Shekhar the front-man boy of our class, both in work and study, first agreed to show his group’s video. (watch his video). It was the best video amongst all- and it was the beginning. So we decided to show our at last (ha ha ha ha ha ha). But it was not that bad at all after- all…. though it was an eleventh hour product. Lets cheer Popas!!!

बज्र- सिरिश

(-मेरो काइ स्वोरमा)
B E F# E
सुकेको पातको एक सर्कोले...
खोये बिर्केको एक घुट्कोले....
E F#
आकाशमा उड्दै छु म,
बादलमा डुल्दैछु म,
B E F# E
हान्यो हान्यो मलाई बज्र हान्यो ....

हातको कालो मैलो डल्लोले
आगोमाथिको त्यो धुलोले
आकाशमा उड्दै छु म,
बादलमा डुल्दैछु म,
हान्यो हान्यो मलाई बज्र हान्यो ....
(Enjoy)

साईबर संसारसँग गुनासो

अल्छि लागेको बेला
एसैको साथ हुन्छु म
कहिले यो सँग हाँस्दै
कहिले शान्त,
कहिले अशान्त,
मेरो हरपल को साथी
साईबर सन्सार ।।

यो कसैको भेदभाव गर्दैन
च्यान्टी, मोटी, हिस्सी, सुन्दरी, कुरुप
सबैलाई समेटेको छ एस्ले,
समाजमा छुट्टै भाउ दिएको छ तिनलाई,
जोसुकै एस्को अवसर प्रयोग गर्न सक्छन्
छोटा छोटा लुगा लाउने बानी छ भने ।।

समाजमा नारीवाद जति नै चर्क्योस्,
भेदभावका कुरा जति नै उठुन्,
नेपाली नारी कल्पिँदा
एउटा भद्र नारी,
एउटा सुशिल नारी
ओहोरदोहोर गर्छिन
मेरो मानसपटलमा,
जो रातको ठमेलसँग अपरीचित छिन्,
र, जसमा प्रशस्तै छन्
कता कता लाजहरु,
आमामा हुनेपर्ने गुनहरु,
किनभने पेट भोको हुँदा कहिले काहीँ
मन भर्न आमा चाहिन्छ ।

फेरी विषय वस्तुमा प्रवेश गर्दा
त्यही साईबर सन्सार ,
मोडलिङ् कला मान्छ एसले
तर कतै देख्दिन म
कलाको व्यापार भईरहेको ।।