mediaharsha

By Harsha Man Maharjan Whenever I have time I like to rummage in huge chunks of books in second hand bookshops. Many of these bookshops sell textbooks. And these books are in demand. But I am always in search of rare books or reports on Nepal. Who knows what is perching in a dark corner of the shop. You may find a gem. This searching is adventurous. Second hand book stalls at pavement on the wall of RNAC building were my sources. Now they have shifted to the back of this building. It is not easy for shop owners. They have to care about rain, wind, and sun. That’s why they hangs long plastics over their stall and put books on plastic so that they can wrap them in time. Yet rain damages their books. And they have to supply damaged pieces to Kawadi. For some book owners this condition has changed. Especially three brothers of Nawaraj and Bharat have opted for rooms to open shops. It is not easy for them. Now they have to pay rent from Rs. 3000 to 5000 per month. But they don’t have to bo...

By Harsha Man Mahrajan Decoding a text is always a subjective matter. So what I am going to write about Deepak Rauniyar’s debut film, Chaukaith (Threshold) might not be what you think about the film. This film won third prize in 6th Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival. It has a simple story. Trisna, an enumerator of Census visits a woman living in a Tarai village. Her name is Saraswati Gupta but people know her by her village’s name. Not her own name. Trishna’s visit enlarges Saraswati’s understanding of world. Trishna throws a stone in Saraswati’s calm and serene pound. And Saraswati’s life no more remains same as before. In the beginning Saraswati feels uneasy with Trisna. She has no habit of speaking with strangers. But her hesitation gradually vanishes and they become good friends. And gradually Rauniyar unveils his characters. We come to know more about their lives. Saraswati, a mother of two daughters has grudges: her early marriage discontinued her study. She was stud...

By Harsha Man Maharjan In Ellul’s book Propaganda, he thinks that more we consume media; more we become vulnerable to propaganda. Have I also become a victim of propaganda? Only readers can tell. Today I am writing my feelings on Brian Gilbert’s film Not Without My Daughter . As its regular film show and discussion series Martin Chautari screened it on 4 December 2008. It is based on a true story about the struggle an American woman did to escape from Iran to America with her daughter leaving her brutal and abusive Iranian husband. This is film is only an American perspective. Wanting to now more about the film, I googled. Then I came to know about its controversy and, reaction from Iranian people and the h usband himself. According to IranMania.com, documentary Without My Daughter directed by Alexis Kouros and Kari Tervo , contains the husband, Bozorg Mahmoody’s views. This documentary is not available in Nepali market. To IranMania.com, Alexis Kouros had said: the documentary "...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Many Nepalese people outside of Kathmandu are voicing their views in national issues through talk programs like Nepal Chautari and Hamro Nepal Ramro Nepal of Ujjyalo 90 Network and Aab ko Nepal of Nepal FM Network. It is unprecedented in Nepali history. And Nepal’s transitional phase needs more interaction and dialogue on many important issues. These FM programs are helping in this dialogue. Main reason behind this is the caller has to pay nothing for the call. These networks pay for calls. They use toll free phone lines. Even the content of FM radio stations outside kathmandu is reaching these networks’ offices at Kathmandu through these toll free lines. These networks also use these lines to get suggestions and opinions of listners about other programs of networks too. For me toll free line is new concept. I came to know about this kind of phone line from Nepal Chautari. Antenna Foundation Nepal publishes advertisement of Nepal Chautari highlighting this pho...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Everybody says networking is good for FM radios. It produces synergy. Two station mangers of community radios accepted this too. But they are not happy with what Ujjyalo 90 Network and Nepal FM Network are doing these days. Both of them, Ghamaraj Luintel, Radio Sagarmatha and Gunakar Aryal, Radio Madanpokhara are for two way communication in these networks They were presenting a talk on the topic: Why Networking for Community Radio? On 20 November 2008 at Martin Chautari. Yes there is a huge gap between what goes through the capital and what comes from local radios outside Kathmandu. These two networks must increase the volume of content from outside. There is issue of editorial rights too. Luintel thinks these networks kill editorial rights of local radios. And this happens till there is same boardcasting of packaged news. Many people think these networks are futher concentrating resources in Kathmandu. And local radios outside Kathmandu are not getting adequate...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Kathmandu There are two networks of FM Radios in Nepal: Nepal FM Network and Ujyaalo 90 Network (UNN). Their content is available in satellite and internet. And any radio can hook their content after contracts. This has made this network powerful. They boast that they are heard all over Nepal. But there is negative aspect of network radio too. Here is an experience of Hem Bahadur Bista, Chair of Nepal FM Network and host of talk program Samaya Sandarbha. There was a long traffic jam inside Kathmandu on Monday, 29 September 2008. Kantipur , a Nepali daily published a news on it. Bista desired to do the talk program on the jam on Tuesday. But he could not do that. Reason was national quality of his network. He has to think about unknown listeners in Humla too. So he quit the idea of the program. It shows that though Nepal FM is situated in Kathmandu, it is difficult for this FM to raise local issue being in the network. links http://www.unn.com.np/unn.php http://ww...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Kathmandu Translation is a difficult task. Once I tried to translate George Orwell’s essay English Language and Politics for Mulyankan magazine. I had even informed this to the then editor of the magazine. I translated few paragraphs but it was not satisfactory. At last I quit that job. So I am aware of difficulties of translators. On 21 September 2008 I participated in a meeting organized by Translator’s Society. Translation is alluring job. Who wants not to be a translator, when the rate of translation is Rs. 500 per page? And there is demand of translation. International Non Government Organizations, the UN bodies need translators. Federal set-up will demand more translation. That means it has future too. At Yala Maya Kendra, there were people known for translation like Basanta Thapa, Manjushree Thapa and other. Many issues came during the meeting. I have noted some of them: Translator’s Society should be legal entity. This society should update list of transl...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Kathmandu Big Brother is Watching You George Orwell, 1984 Orwell wrote the novel 1984 in 1948. He was writing about future. It is a negative utopia. The big brother of the novel watches every activity of its people. And everyone has this knowledge. There is no hope for dissidence. I think Nepali government is also trying to resurrect this big brother. It wants to monitor cyber café and is searching ways to stop access with pornography in internet. Adult has right to access pornography. Yes, government must bring out the measure to curb access to pornography by children. It might corrupt children’s mind. Nepali government strongly believes that pornography abets violence on women. But there is no concrete study to prove this. Oh yes, Himal Khabarpatrika reported that many actors have unknowingly act on Nepali blue films. And some of them were only for private purpose. So government must work out on the policy related to x-rated film and material. The Government is...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Documentaries are thriving in Nepal. Moviegoers in festivals prove this. Yet documentaries get lest priority in Nepali television channels. What is the problem? It has to do with imagery we have about documentaries. They were boring and lifeless. It used to be on a festival or a place or a person. Nepali Television created this imagery. Before NTV, Film division under Department of Information produced newsreels, documentaries and film. These newsreels and documentaries are about Panchayat politics, royal personalities or development. These were publicity materials. In 1971 Royal Nepal Motion Picture Corporation came into existence and did same job including others. Kantipur Television added creativity -different camera angles and presentation through Vikalpa, a collection of documentaries. Our imagery of documentary is changing due to film festivals and other international television channels. Film festivals provided exposure and access to different kinds of doc...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Irani films Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry, The Wind will Carry Us Majid Majidi’s Color of Paradise, Children of Heaven Boman Ghobadi’s A Time of Drunken Horse, Turtles can Fly Nepali Ama(Mother) Janayudha(People’s War) Balidan(Sacrifice) Sano Sansar(Small World) Basudev Taxi Driver These are some names of Irani and Nepali films. What we see during comparison is that Irani film’s names are fresh and poetic. Their cinematography is poetic too. They are full of color. Among six Irani films I have named here, I have seen all, except Ghobadi’s A Time of Drunken Horse. So what I am writing here is applicable to five films. How miniscule is the plot of Taste of Cherry? It is story of a man, Mr. Bardi who is searching for a man who can bury him after he commits suicide. The director gives no importance to reasons of suicide. At last a taxidermist agrees to do what Mr. Badi ordered to do but we have inkling that Mr. Badi will regret to commit suicide. Actually the...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Can Turtles fly ? If we ask this question to others. There answer will be no. Never. But Iranian film maker, Boman Ghobadi thinks opposite to what others think. For him, turles can fly. I have read a story of friendship between a turtle and two cranes. Here too the turtle travels in air. Two cranes help it. During a drought, the turtle makes a plan to move to another pond. According to the plan it will clutch a stick with its teeth and two cranes will carry the stick by their beaks. Everything was going well when, I think…a crow…gives credit to cranes for making this plan. The stupid turtle could not listen to praises and opens its mouth to tell truth. It falls and dies. But Ghobadi shows how turtles can fly without others help in his film, Turtles can Fly. Turtles are only symbol here. This film is more about children then turtles. It is not about children if we say childhood is the happiest moment of life. We think children have no burden, no responsibility. T...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Nepal television is showing a telefilm about state-led oppression of dalit community, Dalan. Jagan Media Centre made this telefilm which is directed by Nabin Subbha. I don’t remember seeing any Nepali telefilm which gives real picture of history. It relates how higher caste people utilized state policies to oppress dalit community. In other words how state assisted in oppressing this community. In telefilm sector, many people are praising the telefilm. We have high hope about the teleserial. The telefilm team did research of Nepal’s history to make it and donor community did huge investment for it. Number of its fan club is rising day by day. Lately, its language has come under criticism. In its previous edition (Year 8. No. 52), Nepal magazine has criticized its vulgar language. The magazine thinks the language has astounded general people and it is worth censoring. In today’s edition (Year 8. No. 53), Purna Singh Baraili, producer of the telefilm disagrees with...

In media there is role of promotion and advertisement. We hear about tie-up between film producers and products like cars, watches etc. I have no knowledge on this kind of deal in Nepali media sector. But what I have seen on two issues of Nepali comedy serial Tito Satya. Earlier Deepa Shree Niraula hums a part of a song film, Sundar Mero Naam. Yesterday we see Deepak Raj Giri tolerates pasting the poster of the film on his car for the protagonist is similar with him. Deepak Raj Giri is main actor of the film. I don’t know why he used his telefilm to publicize the film. Link about the film http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/detail.php?article_id=4642&cat_id=10

By Harsha Man Maharjan Issues of media rarely become news. That’s why many Nepalese could not believe what they heard and read on 7 August 2008. The news was about break-up between Sirohiya and Gywali family, owners of Kantipur Publications and Kantipur FM. It also informed that Gywali has left Kantipur Publications and Kantipur FM. I came to know about this issue on 7 July 2008 from Sanghu with byline of Deepak Adhikari and and it has being doing following-up from that day without bylines. My friend from Kantipur informed that Sambodhan too did coverage on the issue. Few Nepali blogs also covered on the issue. At last the news came in host media on 7 August 2008. On 7 August, both Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post published news on change in ownership of Kantipur Publications and Kantipur FM. Now Gywali family is out from these publications and FM. Capatain Rameshwar Thapa has entered the team. Many people believe that many journalists will leave Kantipur and TKP to join new publication...

By Harsha Man Maharjan I was happy to watch July 24 2008 episode of Tito Satya(Better Sweet). It is a popular tv comedy serial in Nepal. Long ads during this program, proves this. I used to blame these kinds of comedy teleserials for portraying stereotypical images of disables, women, non-Nepali speaking people. Usually it laugh at Newari, Hindhi accents. Is it a big think when a BBC newscaster pronounces Sher Bahadur Deuba in different way as we do? It is obvious to do mistakes when a person lacks certain sounds in her/his native language. But Tito Satya always derides Newars for non announcing Nepali words properly. However this trend got u-turn on July 24. It presents a Madheshi as citizen of Nepal, who has equal rights as other Nepali. It links power of Madheshi with the first President and Vice-president of Madheshi community. In the episode a Madheshi threatens to inform President and Vice-president about the discrimination.

By Harsha Man Maharjan What is a breaking news ? Usually it is to disclose important incident by any media institutions. That means generally breaking news is about politics like death of Man Mohan Adhikari. But in present context its definition is not static. We no more limit breaking news with only politics. Even human interest news of so-called soft issues is also breaking news. Yet many people still believe that breaking news must contain correct facts. Here I am referring to breaking news of Sagarmatha TV and Image Channel on 19 July 2008 about the result of election for the President of Nepal in Constituent Assembly. The Assembly had not officially announced the result. Yet till 7 pm, Image was breaking news as ‘Flash News’that Nepali congress candidate Ram Baran Yadav got 294 and Maoist nominee Ramraja Prasad Singh, 282. At the same time, news channel Sagarmatha TV was breaking news that Yadav got 294 and Singh 284. Both of these channels were wrong. Later it was found that Yada...

By Harsha Man Maharjan I have a routine of listening to news aired by Nepal Fm at 6 am everyday. But these days I could not get clear signal of the fm. Actually signals of none of the radio is clear. There are more than 30 radios on air at Kathmandu. There is no plan from government side before awarding radio licenses. It only created chaos. And we are suffering today. When will government stop working on ad hoc style? What is the way out of it ? When will I get chance to listen FM radios clearly ? I don’t have answer. There might be some way out.

Nepal was to become republic on 28 May 2008. Declaration of republic was scheduled at 11 am. CITIZEN were surrounding parliament building at Naya Baneshwor to celebrate the declaration . As parliamentarians only declared it republic at 11 pm. These are some activities of media persons I captured.

By Harsha Man Maharjan What was the role of Pamphlets in different social and political movements of Nepal? There is no concrete study on the issue. Usually pamphlets are written material. They are prepared to persuade people on different issues. They might contain one-side issue. People use them to social transformation or to maintain status quo. They are portable, easy to hide. So pamphlet is effective medium for social movements. Some people might think they are useless where about a half population are illiterate. But it is word of mouth that gives publicity to the content of pamphlets. I don't know how pamphlets were used by political activists in Panchayat period (1960-1990) and before. Scholars might have mentioned about them in books. There is no doubt that pamphlet was important medium in these autocratic political systems when state media were in the hands of rulers and private media were few. I can tell how Civil Movement for Peace and Democracy used pamphlets during the...

By Harsha Man Maharjan There is a hope in Nepali people for 28th May 2008. Parliament will declare Nepal a republic on that day. So we are evaluating the role played by Shah Dynasty in Nepal. In this context, Martin Chautari screened a Chinese film by Chen Kaige, The Emperor and the Assassin (161 mins, 1999, China) at its premises, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal on 22 May 2008. Kaige is a member of Fifth generation Chinese directors. These directors use new film language and different plot than their elders. They revisited Chinese history and brought facets of history not presented by the establishment. The Emperor and the Assassin is about Ying Zheng, king of the kingdom of Qin; his lover Zhao and his assassin Jink Ke. Zheng unified seven kingdoms of China in 221 BC. In this way we can compare Zheng with kings and queens of Shah dynasty who unified small principalities and kingdoms geographically. As in the case of Zheng, Shah rulers could not unified Nepali culturally. So this film tel...