The New Discoveries

When we entered the Singha Durbar with the permission of the security guards at the gates, we were tired of standing and annoyed by the delaying of the Radio Nepal Staff to receive us. When I looked around I got a glimpse of our Journalism course supervisor Nirmala Mani Adhikary also getting restless waiting at the gates. Finally we were allowed to enter the core government office area and start our educational tour. For many of my colleagues it was the first time entering Singha Durbar and a chance to discover the huge palaces and smooth roads. Inside the Radio Nepal Mr. Gandharva Khadka guided us to various studios and also the huge library Radio Nepal posseses.

But it was interesting for most of us to see our Nepali Literature Lecturer Mr. Ram Chandra Poudel who also accompanied us to the trip, trying his hands on Harmonium. There we found out about the love of our teacher towards music. While all the students were hanging around the piano and waiting for their chance to press the black and white keys of the expensive music instrument, Ram Chandra Sir was mesmerizing the sweet melody of the sound the Harmonium was producing with the help of his fingers.

And when we reached the library section, we met a woman with a very familiar face but we didn’t know that she was the popular folk singer Mira Rana until Nirmala Sir introduced her. I had of course heard her name and listened to her songs but I could not figure out when she was there in front of me. Later in the studio room too, we were encountered by another folk singer Tika Bhandari but we again failed to recognize him. Though they were working in the field of mass media, they are not as popular as foreign celebrities. This describes the content and strength of Nepali media. We could have readily recognized Paris Hilton or Hrithik Roshan but not our native celebrities.

Therefore, I guess we discovered the music interest of our lecturer and the not-so-popular among the young generation celebrities of Nepal on our trip to Radio Nepal.