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King Gyanendra Shah appears concerned about the status of monarchy in the country, as he summoned the second tier leaders of the three parties that the Ras­triya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has split into for a discussion on the topic. The discussion took place at the Himalaya Tea Gar­den in the southeastern town of Damak. (All the three RPPs have as their majority the leaders who were backers of the monarch’s direct rule before the 1990 democratic change.) Taking part in the discussion on March 18 were Buddhiman Tamang, Bhaskar Bhadra and Prahlad Shah from the Kamal Thapa-led RPP; Rajaram Shrestha, Sagun Lawati and Suresh Acharya from the Pashupa­ti Shumsher Rana-led RPP (Democratic); and Taranath Luitel, Dr Sharada Acharya and Keshab Shrestha from the Prakash Chandra Lohani-led United RPP (Nationalist).

A participant informed that the ex-king expressed concern about how the par­ty’s split had undermined the issue of monarchy and repeatedly stressed unifica­tion. According to the partici­pant, the former king argued that the split not only under­mined the issues of monarchy and Hindu nation but also jeopardized the very exis­tence of RPP.

The discussion began with the former king inquiring about contemporary politics and election results. He asked why the party, which had performed relatively well in the second Constituent Assembly elections, had fared badly in last year’s polls. All the participants attributed the party’s poor performance to the split. They also blamed lack of resources and deviation among top leaders from core party principles—and they unanimously argued for party unification.

“Don’t delay unification,” the source quoted Shah as say­ing. “I will help find resources.” The former king remarked that citizens were disillusioned with the current state of politics in the country and that addressing the disillusion­ment would require leaders to go to the public with the twin agenda of monarchy and Hindu nation.

KATHMANDU: For the very first time in its cricket history, Nepal has won the one-day international (ODI) status for the next four years. 

Nepal has been assured of the ODI status after it beat Papua New Guinea by six wickets and the Netherlands defeated Hong Kong by 44 runs in the ICC World Cup Qualifier held in Zimbabwe last Thursday. 

With this, Nepal would get to participate in different tournaments organized by ICC while ICC's support to Nepal's cricket would be further increased. 

RSS

A Bangladeshi plane with 67 passengers on board crashed near Kathmandu airport Monday as it was coming in to land, officials said, as firefighters battled to extinguish the burning wreckage and rescue passengers.

Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from the football pitch where the plane crashed, to the east of the runway at Nepal's only international airport, in the capital Kathmandu.

"There were 67 passengers and 4 crew members" aboard the plane, said airport spokesman Prem Nath Thakur.

"So far 20 injured have been taken to the hospital. Police and army are trying to cut apart the plane to rescue others," he added.

AFP

Update: 

There were 33 Nepalis on board the aircraft, according to TIA officials. Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has visited the airport following the crash and took stock of the situation.

The real reason for the crash is yet to be ascertained. Eyewitness accounts suggest the crash may have been caused in the course of an aborted landing. The airport has been indefinitely closed.

Update: 

46 people are now confirmed dead. Of them, at least 13 are Nepali nationals.

The TIA that had been shut down earlier has been opened, according to Rastriya Samachar Samiti.  

For the names of all those on board the aircraft go to:

http://annapurnapost.com/news-details/93119

Or ‘chada lok’ if you like. Call it what you may—it is dirty, it is sleazy, it is vulgar and from the looks of it, it is here to stay. Nepali lok-dohori is probably the most popular ethnic Nepali music, from the east to west, and religiously heard by those living abroad. With ethnic instruments like the maadal, dhime, panche baaja and sarangi in the background, couplets about love, village life, its struggle and even politics formed the lyrics of the Nepali lok music. Men singing about leaving their wife and children to find work in a foreign country, women singing about how they miss their husbands gone in search of work, the socially oppressed expressing their woes through their songs and daughters-in-law lamenting about the hardships at their husbands’ were woven into stories which formed the base of the Nepali lok music genre.

It was basically our version of ‘the blues’. In a country with deep-rooted cultural biasness and basically indoctrinated by religious mistranslations, ‘lok-dohori’ for our previous generations was also a medium of entertainment and courtship as mild flirtations and teasing from both gender was considered normal.
Things change, always, and they have changed drastically for the lok music industry. Well, with the digitization of music production, the ethnic instruments are losing their value to computer generated samples, drum and bass loops and heavily synthesized background (un)blended with high-pitched, auto-tuned vocals mouthing distorted and double-meaning lyrics.

All this accompanied by badly choreographed music videos with models and dancers wearing gaudy and skimpy clothes, and keener on exposing their body parts than on actual dance moves, give an idea of what a typical lok-dohori song of today is like. From a pure form of music, a voice for expression and opinion, the paradigm has shifted to Nepali lok-dohori music becoming a ubiquitous display of vulgarism and social perversions.

The meaningful and elegantly poetic compositions of Master Mitrasen Thapa, Jhalak Man Gandarbha, Janakavi Keshari Dharmaraj Thapa, Hira Devi Waiba, Daizee Barailee and the likes of that era have been replaced by cheap, commercial excuses for songs that basically circle around lust, sex, physical attraction and the many perversions of the ‘modern’ Nepali society.

Video has literally killed the radio star here as music listeners on Radio Nepal, the original promoter of Nepali folk music, have become obscure with YouTube replacing most radio stations and television channels. The need to make a music video for popularity has given the lok-dohori scene an ugly identity because of the misguided effort of some notorious names in the industry. Search “New Nepali Lok Dohori’’ on YouTube and out of the top 20 results, most will have a skimpily clad woman on the display photo with double meaning song titles. Keep skimming through the searches and you will most probably be led to a point where all the results you see are categorized as “Hot Nepali Lok Dohori” or “Sexy Nepali Lok Dohori”. And to add to this farce is the fact that these songs have hundreds of thousand views on YouTube.
So who is watching them? Surely not someone who loves Nepali music or any other type of music. These music videos are ‘click baits’ created by pretentious
marketers selling women’s body images in guise of music. The business now is completely based on exploiting the sexuality of women (our feminist friends should pay special attention to this) while fulfilling the obstinate desires of men and in due process, creating an uncouth image of the whole Nepali folk music industry.

The whole idea of sexualizing a traditional genre of Nepali in the name of modernization is infuriating. But then again, we have democracy so there’s probably no stopping the assaulters in this case. The best we can do now is separate their genre from our Nepali lok-dohori and segregate them as “cringe folk’’ or “chadaa lok.’’