Monthly Archives: November 2005

Meeting the Other (Sarah) Giri

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(pic will be reposted.)
Sarah Giri, the wife of Dr. Tulsi Giri, is in a mission. Pic by D Wagle.

In the beginning, I though I was talking to a diplomat. That was the impression I gathered while talking in telephone. Sarah Giri has all traits that a diplomat needs to have. When you talk with her you feel like you are in front of a highly religious personality. Okay, that’s another aspect. I had heard quite a few ’stories’ about Mrs. Giri before actually meeting her a few days ago in her residence in Baluwataar. Yes, the same ‘famous’ residence of Dr. Tulsi Giri, Sarah’s husband and the Cabinet vice chair.

As a reporter you meet many people and some of them are people in the news. Yes, Sarah is not in the news but her husband is for all good and bad reasons and that makes a lot of difference. You tend to feel like “Oh..Tulsi Giri ki srimati” {Tulsi Giri’s wife!). Kasti holi Tulsi Giri ki srimati? (How would Tulsi Giri’s wife seem like?) How does she feel being the wife of one of the most ‘famous’/’infamous’ man in Nepal? I wanted to know the answers of all those questions though that was not part of my reporting. I was tempted to ask that question because of well various things. Most of the time I try not to deviate from the core topic of reporting but in this case I couldn’t stop myself from asking questions related to her personal life. But asking personal/family questions to women is not new to me because when I was working for Tarun Weekly, I ran a column (Adha Sansaar) interviewing wives of political leaders and other prominent personalities. That was a long time ago, almost 7 years ago.

Sarah is beautiful and appealing. But she wouldn’t reveal her age but here is my guess. This woman married three years before I was born (I am 27) to a man who is 50 years older than I am. When you see Sarah, your guesses turn wrong. She deceptively appears younger than she actually is. Dr. Giri had briefly talked about Sarah in our meeting in the same building a few months ago.

Sarah Giri is in a mission. For those who have sound and functioning ear, her mission might sound like a difficult one because that is related to making deaf communicate and, yes, dance! I was amazed how those beautiful deaf boys and girls danced in the tunes unheard to the rest of the world. They were all practicing for a ballet project and Sarah was directing them. I will post another blog in UWB about this in the next few days but let me write here more about our meeting.

I regret for not being able to eat those fish and cookies that were given to me on behalf of Sarah at the time of interview. I was too busy to note down her verbatim. In our journalism classroom they always teach us to put your eyes on the face of your subject while interviewing. When you do that, your interviewee feels that you are giving attention to his/her talks. I genuinely try to follow that idea because that also helps you better understand the facial expression and body language of the interviewee while not missing the exact wordings s/he utters. While keeping both eyes on the interviews face and part of your mind in the notepad, you find no time for coffee and fish. Still, after she repeatedly reminded me of the coffee, I finished that in less than 10 sips. I couldn’t eat fish that according to Sarah was “prepared in the house.” I miss that.

I think I did a mistake by presenting her with two tickets of a charity screening of two documentaries in Jay Nepal Theater on Friday (Nov. 25). Well, let me not use the word ‘present’. That was rather selling of the tickets that I know a reporter shouldn’t have done. The Kantipur branch of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) had organized a charity show screening two non-fiction films ‘Bheda ko oon jasto’ and ‘Team Nepal’. One of our colleagues needed money for his sister’s serious and expensive treatment and Kantipur journalists wanted to help him. They were selling tickets to people and one of my colleagues gave me two tickets worth Rs. 500 each hoping that I might be able to ’sell’ them to Sarah.

I know Sarah was in difficult situation. A reporter whom she welcomed so warmly half an hour ago was ‘offering’ her with the tickets that too sabotaging the moment when she started talking about a documentary on deaf people that she made sometime ago in India. Screening for a charity. Pay the money. She just couldn’t ignore that. I would have done the same. But I think what I did was wrong. Worst, Sarah couldn’t make it to the charity show meaning she only ‘donated’ the money. I am thinking of returning the money to Sarah. [In my latter meeting with Sarah, I told her what I felt about that ticket thing. “Let me return the money to you, Sarah ji,” I said. “I gather that you didn’t make it to the theater.” She refused to take money back. She told me that she donated the money for charity.]

The story of my interview with Sarah appeared in the Wednesday (Nov. 30) issue of Kantipur.

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Those Busy Days

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I woke up at 1:30 PM today. I am surprised. Not because I raised from the bed so late but because I got so early. I had planned to sleep for straight 24 hours. I was that much tired because of the workload in the past two days. I am not complaining about the workload. I am proud to do what I did in the past two days. I always wanted to work like that. I wanted to work to the end where I am unable to move myself. And that nearly happened yesterday night. I was barely moving when my brother Email opened the gate for me at 1:30 AM yesterday and asked jokingly: “Well, are there any raids in other FMs?” He was referring to my late coming the night before when I was busy covering the police raid in Sagarmatha FM. I arrived home 2 AM that day and went to bed at 3:15.

That meant I should have slept until at least 12 AM. No, I could not because of my commitments made a week ago. I had to go to Maharajgung to see a woman in action with her beautiful and command obeying dogs. That was part of my reporting to be published in Kantipur in the next few days. I arrived in office at 1 PM. Stories and other duties were waiting for me. There was a rally organized by the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and how could I miss that? I hade to do a follow up story on the Radio Sagarmatha raid. Along with Deepak Raj Pandey, the man who was arrested on the Sunday raid along with four others, was there in Maitighar. I went to Radio Sagarmatha’s office along with Deepak Raj Pandey and my colleague at Nepal Magazine Deepak Adhikari. We talked with RS guys including Acting Station Manager Ghamaraj Luitel till 6 PM. Walking up to Thapathali from Bakhundole was Deepak’s choice and that was strongly supported by the unavailability of three-wheelers.

“This driver must be a great listeners of songs,” commented Deepak after the driver played some beautiful numbers in the bus. That was a good trip from Thapathali to Tinkune. But the stressful routine started once we arrived in Kantipur complex. I had to write the RS story, hunt down sources, and collect info for the other one: The BBC story in Kathmandu. Thank god, Devendra helped me to find the appropriate Radio Nepal guy (Rabin Sharma, the acting executive director of Radio Nepal) to have quote for the story. Khagendra Nepali, the head of BBC Nepali Service, responded my call to London favorably. When sources give quotable quotes, you can make a good story. I think same applied with my story here. As I was writing the story, Post Bahadur Basnet (Vishnu) translated the BBC story for the Kathmandu Post. After finishing my reporting commitments/assignments, I give some time to UWB. That is my passion.

One thing that I have been repeatedly saying in these pages about my profession: Journalism. It demands time at odd hours and yes you don’t necessarily have to be in your office all the time but you have to be with your sources at their time. In addition to that, in some cases you have to be at work even if you don’t really like. I fell into such compulsion this week.

I was planning to write a story about Saraha Giri’s interview but my plan was altered as I as assigned to interview Krishna Pahadi. I did that. No problem. I can do two (or three) works simultaneously. Like, for instance, chatting and writing stories and browsing Internet and talking to persons on phone. And that’s what I did.

As I was about to leave the office finishing the Pahadi story, the news of raid in Radio Sagarmatha came into our newsroom. I have already written more about this incident in a UWB post.

The Talk of Wine & GF

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Let me criticize myself first. I spent one of the most fruitless day today. Pillion riding with Devendra Bhattaria proved to be largely fruitless. Spending in front of computer proved to be fruitless. Watching a British cinema in the evening proved to be fruitless. I am now regretting why I spent more than an hour carrying a glass full of wine and pretending that I was drinking that. What an hypocrisy on my part. Sorry. I owe an apology to myself. I am sorry. I will never do that again. I know I am not a drinker and I cannot be one. That is fine. No problem. I do not regret for that. I do not care at all. But I know I should not pretend that I drink. I will never do that again. I know many people pretend on so many aspects in such gatherings but I think I should not have pretended.

The wine party (let me say the social gathering) started in time, at 5:30 PM, an hour ahead of the scheduled screening of “28 Days Later” in Gopi Krishna Cinema hall this evening. (I did not like the movie and that added extra pressure to think that I really wasted my time there.) I went there pillion riding with Girish Giri, my colleague at Kantipur, and took a glass of wine upon his kind ’suggestion’. With the glass of wine in my hand, I tried to see as much faces as possible in that small crowd and a foreigner girl caught my attention. But I did not go near her (and she did not come to me.)

Anyway, let me come to the drink talk.

“So you don’t drink?” asked Prem Khanal, the business bureau chief at the Kathmandu Post, the other day.

“No.” I replied.

“Not at all?” he frowned at me.

“Okay, beer. A glass at a time in the interval of a month.” I tried to prove myself. “I think last time I drank was a month ago.”

He dismissed beer as a serious drink and wanted to now if I drank hard drinks.

“No,” I replied. “No. no. I mean I cannot drink that even if I want. That does not mean I want but I simply cannot. So let me put it this way. Hard drinks are simply not compatible to me. I am not compatible to hard drinks.” And I told him how I unknowingly drank gin in an embassy party thinking that as water and how I threw that out of my mouth within seconds.

Okay, Prem daju seemed to be convinced by my arguments and points. But he was ready for the next big question.

“Do you have girlfriend?” he asked.

My answer was as honest as possible because I didn’t feel like lying to Prem Khanal. “No,” I said.

“So,” Prem thought for a few seconds before giving me a suggestion. “So, why don’t you go there and do dhyaan. You should replace that man.” He was referring to a controversial young yogi in southern Nepal who is attracting a lot of media attention these days because many people think he is the next Buddha. LOL.

You don’t drink, you don’t have a girlfriend. You should be a yogi instead of a reporter. I know he wasn’t serious but let me say that the question of girlfriend has become a matter of “prestige” (I hate using that term here.) The peer pressure is tremendous. Probably a friend of mine in Kantipur Complex (I don’t want to name him here because I am sure he doesn’t like that) knows it better. He is a failed lover and is trying to find a suitable woman for marriage. He likes not to talk about this but I can understand his eagerness.

Anyway, I am still with my old argument that to be without girlfriend means you enjoy a kind of freedom. I am enjoying that right now. No tension of being late in the date. No tension of finding suitable dating spot. No tension of making your girlfriend happy all the time. I think I told Prem Dhakal these benefits of being single.

Okay, back to that glass of wine. I know I was pretending. I pretended of shipping the wine several time. But I knew I was not drinking. So after holding the glass for about half an hour, I quietly went to a nearby table and left the glass there. I think I drank about 20 ml.

Passport Story and the Sydney Radio

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Making rounds of Foreign Ministry with fellow reporter Devendra Bhattarai on Tuesday was quite an experience. As a reporter covering diplomacy for Kantipur, Devendra knows every nook and cranny of the ministry that is housed in one of the famous Rana durbars- Shital Niwas. Man, staffs are terrified because of their leader- Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey. I don’t want to go in details but my impression was that minister Pandey controls almost everything in the ministry- even a small decision needed his approval.

The ministry has banned, on the verbal orders from the minister, issuing travel documents to any Bhutanese willing to go out side Nepal. “Don’t issue travel documents to any Bhutanese without my knowledge and order,” Minister Pandey told officials at the ministry according to a ‘terrified’ official. Ministry was issuing travel documents to Bhutanese refugees for the last 15 years.

By the way, why I was in Foreign Ministry? To make a passport and I have one now. (Yes, minister Pandey doesn’t know that!) Now that I have a passport I can go anywhere in the world given that they grant me me visas. I mean just for short trips because I am in no mood to leave the country for long period in these interesting times. When you are experiencing the history in the making, why do you go abroad to feel non-actor in the developments?

Okay, let me talk some monitory thing related to the Passport. Spending Rs. five thousands for the passport that will be valid for the next 10 years means I will be paying more than a rupee a day to the foreign ministry. BTW, I got the passport yesterday from the foreign ministry thus avoiding my visit to Ramechhap (or Bhaktpur) district.

When I was in the consular section of the ministry on Wednesday waiting to collect the passport, an unexpected person came in the room. Binod Bhattarai, my journalism teacher in the RR College and former news chief at Kantipur TV, was there to renew his passport. We talked on various issues, mostly related to journalism because that was the common forum between us, while a helpful official worked out for our passports.

Mr. Krishu Kshetri introduced us with Mr. Sharad Poudel, considered as having best handwriting in the Foreign Ministry. He was more than ready to fill up details in our passports. “I think I know you,” said Sharad suddenly looking at Binod. “Don’t you recognize me?” My teacher tried hard to gather memories but it was apparently difficult for him to recognize the man. “We studied together in the college in I. Sc.,” Sharad said. “I recognized you from this photo (he was holding Binod Bhattarai’s photo in the old passport.) You were a talent student. I know you.” Now, Mr. Bhattarai seemed to be remembering those good old days. As they became nostalgic and started talking about how they spent time in Patan Multiple Campus, I moved my chair a few inches back so that they could see each other. That was interesting to hear two old pals talking about past.

Okay, I wake up at 7 this morning. I had to select some photos for a photo essay. More importantly, I had to be near by the phone because Rajish Aryal from SBS Radio, Australia’s Nepali Service was to call me from Sydney at 9 am. While talking with him for about 25 minutes, I spoke about Nepali blogging movement and its importance in Nepali media industry. He said that the interview would be aired in the radio sometime next week. That an Australian radio airs program in Nepali was news for me.

Week Review: Animal Nepal & Judith Miller

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I am wondering how my week passed away. I didn’t actually realize it. Only two things I remember is that I worked a lot and I wasn’t feeling very well throughout the week. Did that sound contradictory? Okay, then that’s what is the truth. It’s an old tradition for me that I suffer from cold on a regular basis. Winter has arrived in Kathmandu with a big bang. So, it is not unusual for me to get caught up by the Hurricane Winter. I am trying to defy this. Yes, because I feel I should defy. And I am feeling like being successful in this crusade.

I always wanted to be damn busy- busy with my works. That’s what I am having now- busy days. Sometime I feel too tired but then I feel I wanted this. Sometime I want more hours to work but that is beyond my control.

While doing a story about pet keeping in Kathmandu I met a couple of interesting people this week. They are people associated with AnimalNepal.org, an NGO that has made its mission of creating awareness in Nepal about respectable pet keeping. We have too many problems in our society. Political problem is the biggest. Some people might question the work of AnimalNepal saying that we have much bigger problem than that. But I think we should not bear such cynical attitude while commenting on such people. What I think is that at least they are doing something in a country where very few positive works are being done.

Resignation of Judith Miller from New York Times came as big news for me. Going through Washington Post and the Times about her ’scandal’ was quite an experience. The Post’s analysis about Miller was superb. I tried to translate parts of that report and news published in the Times for my paper. I also recommended the Post article to some of my colleagues. That is a must read because that gives the inside knowledge about how American journalism works. By the way, I liked Judy’s web site as well. I knew about that from her letter to the Times.