Nomad at the desk!

Shilpa Shetty has won the reality television show Big Brother. The show created huge hue and cry over so called racist comment made by one of the participants Jane Goody on her fellow participant Shilpa Shetty. This controversy once again united world against any form of racism. Even British PM Tony Blair, British Finance Minister Gordon Brown , key Indian Ministers/officials had to speak on this. British FM’s < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />India visit was over showed by this controversy where he had to condemn the racism repeatedly. Oxfam, the British televisions regulator received more than 35,000 complaints and the host channel “Channel 4 ” alone received more than 4000 comments directly.

Whole media across the globe, be it Nepal television or BBC, covered the news with great news value. In this whole affair how Indian media could be left behind. They not only condemned the racism but compared this affair with pride of India. They denounce every form of racism by whites in various forms. In hush, they forgot they also are racist and follow another form of racism.

If you see Indian films or soaps or ads, they present Nepali people as idiot, illiterate watchman “Bahadur”. I am not pointing bahadur as low class job, every job has their own wonderful status, but pointing out this how Indian media are full of mediocre mind. Either it’s Yes Boss, Krishh, Sleep Well’s ad or Gharwali Baharwali, they all have shown Nepali as stupid guard who is just able to be watchman. Gharwali baharwali even crossed the limit and showed that Nepali always like khaki color because they are bound to be watchman. Agreed many Nepalis are forced to go to India and work as menial labor because of low economic status or lack of opportunities.

Isn’t portraying Nepali people like this a form of racism? Ask some Indians who are Nepali people, they will answer Bahadur or Gurkha are. May be it’s not in terms of color or race, but is a form of racism in terms of work and economy/talent. How fair is it to show whole Nepali as illiterate who cannot speak well and only serve others. And irony is Nepali people also find such roles funny and so called Gurkha or Bahadur enjoys watching such movies or ads or soaps. Big question for you all Nepali accross, “Will you still love watching movies like Krissh or Bhagam Bhag or Gharwali baharwali and laugh on yourself?”

Six love stories, Twelve characters and 3.30 hrs of length, this is the Salaam-E-Ishq. Directed by talented Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Na Ho) and produced by MAD pictures and Orion, this movie beautifully tells the story of six different couples in very interesting way.

Story 1:

Tehzeeb [Vidya Balan] her romantic husband Ashu [John Abraham] are happily married for two years. Things take a nasty turn when her train derails and meets with accident. She loses memory!

Story 2:

Raju [Govinda], a cabbie, dreams about his dream girl and one day he meets his dream girl Stephanie [Shanon Esra], who's come looking for Rohit [Kushal Punjabi], her boyfriend, in India. He doesn't understand English much, so in confusion he drives her to Taj Mahal instead of Hotel Taj. Now it becomes hard for Stephaine to find Rohit and Raju helps her. Slowly she falls in love with him.

Story 3:

Vinay [Anil Kapoor] leads a perfect life with perfect job. He has a happy family life with Seema [Juhi Chawla] and two kids. But things change when he bumps into Anjali [Anjana Sukhani]. Anjali comes from a world that Vinay only dreams of. Vinay's life undergoes a tumultuous change.

Story 4:

Kamini [Priyanka Chopra], an item girl in Bollywood, aspires for the coveted heroine's role in a Karan Johar film. She devises a plot to change her image by announcing that she's into a serious relationship with a fictitious character Rahul. Suddenly, Rahul [Salman Khan] enters the scene from nowhere and her whole world turns upside down.

Story 5:

Shiven [Akshaye Khanna] is engaged to get married in the next 10 days with his fiancé Gia (Ayesha Takia). But he develops cold feet and wants to break off the engagement. And he does so by hurting his fiance Gia in the bargain. Gradually, he begins to realize that he is incomplete without Gia.

Story 6:

Ramdayal [Sohail Khan] is a middle class Haryanvi, married to Phoolwati [Isha Koppikar]. On their wedding night, in excitement they set ablaze the whole house and their desire remains unfulfilled. No matter how and where Ramdayal tries to fulfill that burning desire, something goes wrong.

These are the six stories and five of them get inter-connected. Among them, story of John and Vidya Balan is superb so is of Govinda and Shanon Esra. John and Vidya together look so wonderful and their chemistry is too close to heart that we might have to think about John and Bipasha. Sohail Khan and isha Koppikar's story has no relation with the rest story though it tried to make film light. Priyanka and Salman's story is full of confusions and they both look so fake. Juhi and Anil shares another good story and they both looks very realistic. Akshya and Ayesha's story also leave some marks.

In acting wise, Akshya is superb and Govinda also suits the role. Juhi and Anil shares quality acting but Priyanka and Salman, a Big No to their overacting or under-acting??? Vidya has shown why she's left mark in her previous films, a wonderful performance. john is good and Shanon (may be her first performace in bollywwod, I dunno) has done good job too.

Music is pleasant and some tracks are quiet good. Director Nikhil Advani has handles some scenes so wonderfully but may be movie was too long, so he has slipped many times. Some background scores remind us of Kal Ho Na Ho, may be because director and music directors are same so. People find it hard to remain stick to their chairs for 3.3 hrs and movie is unnecessarily lengthy at last moments. Overall huge star cast may help Salaam-E-Eshq to gain profit but long length and confusing six stories might be drawbacks.

It was the day for music lovers/ artistes to celebrate their success, glory, achievement and passion. It was the day of 10^th Annual Hits FM Music Awards 2063. Singers, musicians, creative artistes, all were there to celebrate the mega event of the Nepali Music Industry.

The rock band Sayaas stole the show walking away with 3 quick awards in Best New Artist, Best Rock Composition and Best Performance by a Group or Duo. Sabin Rai also snatched 2 awards for Best Pop Composition and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance though he had got 4 nominations. Sugam Pokhrel also didn’t let go the chance to kiss glory. He won Record of the Year while Album of the Year went ro Shishir Yogi’s Suskera. Ratna Shamsher Thapa proved to be the best lyricist with Katinjel as Song of the Year.

Reema Gurung was declared the Best Female Vocal Performance from Kasko Maya Lagyo while Jagadish Samal got the Best Male Vocal performance Award for his single Tapoban.

Lyricist Kiran Kharel was awarded with Life Time Achievement Award for his contribution in Nepali Music Industry.

Rest Awardees are:
Best Song in the Foreign Language – Albaratross for Scared
Bets Music Video – Asim Chirtrakar for Birsun Bhanchu
Best composition – Suresh Chitrakar for Purano Hundaina Maya
Best Song Originally Recorded for a Motion Picture Soundtrack – Suresh Adhikari for Saathi of ye Pandit Baje
Best Vocal Collaboration – Various Artist for Chyangba
Folk Record of the Year – Sarara Pani Ghattai Ma
Folk Album of the Year – Timi Gayau Arkai ko Dolima
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance – Shubani Moktan for Pharkena Maya

Though the event was star-studded and entertaining guests were from different genre of music, it was a bit boring one. Many audiences left the event before it was over. Sunil Bardewa, Looza, Kutumba etc did try their best to keep audiences stick to their chairs but was not enough. Short interviews of Music Company owners, artistes and others were too many and MCs were also going on and on.

Besides few draw backs, the event was great. Hits FM Music Awards 2063 has certainly brought few reasons to smile for winners and their record companies and overall Nepali Music Industry. Past experiences have shown the increases in sales of albums and songs after such award were announced. So all the best for everyone.

Photo source: hitsfm.com.np

This year’s much awaited CAN Info-tech commenced from Jan 9^th 2007. The country’s only IT show which is held annually at the BICC is aimed at showcasing some of the latest technological development as well as promoting Nepal’s IT sector internationally. The Computer Association of Nepal(CAN) has been organizing the event since 1995 and has seen significant growth since then, the number of people visiting this event has been increasing every year.

This year there were 120 national as well as international companies participating at the Can Info-tech in about 170 stalls. Many IT institutes, colleges and companies showcasing their latest products took part in this event. There was also an ICT conference being held with the purpose of mapping and describing the significance of Information and Communication Technology in Nepal.

But in recent years the event seems to be heading in the wrong direction. Instead of being an event to showcase new technologies to the people it is becoming a place for computer shops to sell their products and do business, and this year was no different. It was as if the computer shops of new road had moved to BICC. I was disappointed to see the same old stuff which was also there the year before. But on the positive side there were certain new innovative products and technologies which were quite interesting. The $100 laptop which is a part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project (for more information see our article OLPC ,is it a distant dream?) was unveiled. There were big announcements by Nepal Telecom which is one of the Gold sponsors of the event. The big announcement was the starting of the new 3G service in the valley from falgun of this nepali calendar. The new 3G service provides services like Video calling, video streaming and high speed internet access. It is being introduced for the first time in South Asia. Another was the introduction of the CDMA PAMCIA card which allows laptop users to access the internet from any place.

The Can Info tech is an important event for the development of the IT sector in Nepal,
But it needs much improvement for it to succeed. I think the organizers of the event need to be aware of this fact. What do you think the CAN should do to improve the quality of the CAN Info Tech event? Pleases Comment.