Namrata Shrestha in play "Yerma" at Theatre Village (with photos)

Saturday, the only weekend holiday here in Nepal, is all about having fun, be it hiking, movies, live concerts or picnic. This Saturday, it's for a play at Theatre Village, North Gate, Kathmandu. which is my only second visit there. First was Rajesh Hamal Starrer Court Martial.

Yerma is a 80 year old Spanish play written by dramatist Federico Garcia lorca, now translated into Nepali version by Sristi Bhattarai and directed by Bimal Subedi. Yerma (meaning barren) is based on a story of a woman's desire for parenthood and the struggle with her husband/society for her happiness. Will she be able to own a child or her psychology turns her to commit something wrong?? For that, you have to watch the play yourself. Yerna; the lead is played by beautiful Actress Namrata Shrestha, Husband: Juan is played by Rajkumar Pudasaini, Kamal Mani Nepali also has a shorter role as Yerna's friend Victor.

The model turned actor Namrata Shrestha is superb with her emotion filled performances, where you could see every side of her acting skills (besides her gorgeous looks) with laughing, crying and furious moments. She has once again proved her acting skills with this play, her third one. Her first Home production (Highly high entertainment) Movie "Soul Sister" is also scheduled to release for Magh, which seems promising due to the actor herself and the director Prashant Rasaily.

"Antaral" actor Rajkumar Pudasaini, Kamal Mani Nepali and other stage actors are also magnificent in the play. Other things that were worth mentioning are Flamenco dance by Sumnima Sampang, Jason Kunwar's music (including the song Kina Sutchau Eklai). One World Theatre (OWT) is presenting this play at Theatre Village which is almost going to end for this time (Sunday, December 21 being the last show). But I am sure they will be bringing the play in another season.

Here are some photos that I have captured during the play (without flash and being careful not to ruin others entertainment). Obviously, almost all are of Namrata Shrestha as she was in the limelight of the show.

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Earthquake felt in Kathmandu (December 18, 2014)

Nepali authorities are known to have recorded a magnitude of 5.9 at epicenter 27.86 N, 86.55 E at 9:17 pm today which was also felt in Bhutan and some parts of India. 

While Indian Government have reported the magnitude of the earthquake be 5.2 and the epicenter to be at lat 27.6 N Long 86.4 E. 


Earthquake-report.com posts that 4.7 magnitude earthquake rocked the Everest Khumbu area (East of Kathmandu) which is located at around 28 km west of Namche bazar. They called it a dangerous one due to the shallow depth of 10 km and it could have triggered major landslides in such area with snow capped mountains. Still there are no reports of any physical or human loss.

A mild Earthquake was felt in Kathmandu some minutes back today (December 18, 2014/ Poush 3, 2071). The tremor was felt for around twenty seconds at 9:18 pm, and the aftershock is yet to happen as known from the experience. People around my neighborhood are outside their home, with their panic heads. Pahilopost reports that the earthquake was also felt in Jhapa, Morang, Dolakha and Dhankuta.
More details are yet to come for the magnitude of the quake,  the epicenter and any physical destruction.
Kathmandu is one of the city with high earthquake risks due to the unplanned urban city and the little or no preparedness for such natural calamity. 

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New Loadshedding schedule Nepal effective from Poush 2, 2071 (Dec 17, 2014)

NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority)- the government owned sole authority for generating and distributing electricity in the country, has announced fresh schedule of loadshedding in the country. With the new loadshedding schedule effective from December 17, 2013 (Poush 2, 2070), there will be eleven hours power cut for 2 days, 10.5 for one day and 9.5 for four days.

Due to reduction of water level in the river, the country falls short of about 400 Mega watt electricity compelling to cut the power for 63 hours per week, which may be increased more during the dry season. The new loadshedding from poush 2, Wednesday will be having two shifts of power cut ( four to 6 hours in a shift).

Here is the new loadshedding schedule effective from Poush 2 Wednesday (Dec 17, 2014)

Click the picture to enlarge.

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Sunakali and Kimff.

Dec 13, 2014: KIMFF (Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival) is one of a kind film festival happening in Kathmandu, that brings together film makers, film enthusiasts, journalists and international attention with the films that relate to mountains in many ways. The biennial festival started from the year 2000 and kept bringing out various issues like traditional culture, mountaineering,  gender equality, lifestyles, and many more. The film festival also promotes aspiring filmmakers (especially youth) to portray change in the society through audio visual means. The twelfth edition contains 70 films from 20 different countries, with range of films like documentary, fiction, experiment and animation. This years Kimff started with the premiere of much talked documentary Sunakali directed by Journalist Bhojraj Bhat. The documentary film was also screened for Saturday: the show I could attend and write this blog. Though the venue was changed from City hall to QFX Kumari due to the recent holding of SAARC summit there, the turn out was packed with the advantage of high quality screening technically.

Sunakali is a story of girls like Sunakali Buda in Mugu district who wants to play football despite the hardship of rural area (remote part of Karnali zone) and being a girl who elopes very early there. The girls aged around 14-16 ( time there to get married or elope) get selected from a pool of 30 and now goes to play a match against Humla. Mugu team looses the game and gets disheartened due to the loss but does not give up their hope to play more and later wins not only against a team from Kathmandu but the whole tournament that takes place in plain region (Kailali). During their travel, the girls take bus, plane, bike for transportation all for the first time in their life, and that could not have happened without their zeal for football.

Back home, the whole district welcomes the team in a big celebration, like more than winning the world cup tournament. People put tika, Garland, and dance in traditional music. They are even paraded around by riding through horse and boating in Rara lake. The family who felt trouble for girls leaving home for football, shared equal joy for their success afterwards. Whole district was proud of the girls. Traditional Karnali songs and Kutumba instrumental fusion is quite remarkable in the movie.

Bhojraj Bhat, Director answering public queries after the screening of Sunakali

The emotions of parents while girls leave their homes for match, snow filled playground, the joyous moment of winning the game, and the actual message is also captivating. The emotional sequences can make your eyes watery and have long lasting impact on your mind despite the technical glitches (out of focus and blurry images) that the director even nodded due to use of low resolution camera at first.

Luckily I happen to watch the movie with the director Bhojraj Bhat next by my side. He even answered my queries from the location to the technical glitches. I came to know that they started to shoot by a simple handy cam and with the documentary getting good turn, the cameras had been changed along with four cameraman. With more than 3 months of arduous shoot in the area, the team managed to shorten the 138 hours of footage (he shared they had caught all the details) to 45 minutes in 14 sittings within two years span. I would like to congratulate the director (which i even did in person) and the whole team in successfully telling such a story to Kathmandu and beyond.

Crowd for the film festival.

After Sunakali, some shorts (Manish Harayeko Suchana, Pawan, Khyar khar pankha) were also screened in the same slot that made my love for the shorts to grow more for the inspirations they have carried along and so I continued for consecutive slot too. Delhi Dreams, Kranti Jari cha, 1000 dreams, Punte ko pangro, and Butte jama were screened for the later slot that were even more interesting and powerful. My Saturday went nicely with the Kathmandu International film festival and I found shorts are more stronger than documentary or a full feature in giving a concise message and bring inspiration. What a wonderful Saturday it was!!!

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Ncell Purplefest event with Kapil Sharma is ordered to cancel

Update: After getting orders from the Kathmandu District administration, Ncell has decided to cancel the Purplefest event as suggested by CDO office. As per my queries regarding the refund, they have even asked to visit Ncell centres in Kathmandu and Banepa with the pass to get the money back. 

Here is Ncell's Facebook status updated 8 minutes ago. (December 12, Friday 10: 25 pm). 

The worst thing now is Kapil Sharma being not informed of the event cancellation as he was found tweeting like "Tomorrow flying to Nepal,... Beautiful country... Beautiful People... Beautiful Weather... Everything is just beautiful. Excited.. :))". There are several replies to his tweets for his unaware of the whole incident. Kapil got a big "Baba ji Ka Thullu" for this event. 

Kathmandu district office has put an order to cancel Ncell's big Event "Purplefest" that is to happen tomorrow, Saturday at Dasarath Rangshala stadium. The event is known to feature popular Indian television comedian Kapil Sharma along with Indian Singer Sonu Nigam as the main highlight. Nepali singers like Sugam Pokharel, Yama Buddha and Comedians Jitu Nepal and Wilson Bikram Rai were also known to appear for the comic act.

Ncell was fully prepared for the Saturday's show (as I have even seen their Mobile BTS van inside  the stadium) but the administrator has ordered to postpone the event citing the security threat for such huge assemblage. Administration has also asked Ncell to postpone the event till Magh 8, the self declared deadline for the promulgation of New constitution. Ncell is yet to comment and decide on the matter as they have got the orders on verbal only.
My friends had asked me to buy the data packages to get the ticket for the show, but I did not want to be there. It is known that 12 thousands people were to be present for the event, as told by Ncell. Now as the event is almost cancelled for tomorrow, there is a question for what will Ncell do for all those who want to get refund of the data packages.

Earlier Kapil Sharma had apologized for the controversy of "Mount Everest located in India" remarks. 

More update on the news when it reaches me.

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Bipul Chettri performance for a concert in Kathmandu

Bipul chettri is one of the recent popular singer here in Nepal and also among Nepali speaking people of the whole world. The folk rock singer first got fame from his songs in Soundcloud, then joined the Youtube honor and later released an album entitled "Sketches of Darjeeling". I happen to miss his first performance Lai bari lai Event in Kathmandu and was desperately waiting for his next appearance until the news of this event reached me. It was for an UNICEF event at Tudikhel, Kathmandu on Dec 6, 2014 Saturday. Purpose was to raise awareness in people for children rights and make a better world for them. 

Some childrens Bands performed in the event that started from 2 pm, then popular band Kutumba took center stage at 4:20 pm with their instrumental pieces, including fusion songs from Dolpo, Helambu and Janakpur. Then came Bipul Chettri's turn to blow away few hundred audiences, eagerly waiting for him in the cold climate. He performed all of his songs from the album (Dadhelo, Asaar, Ram Sailee, Rail Garee, Deurali Darah and Mountain High), the soundcheck series "Kahama Katyo" and couple of new songs like Siriri, mero maya. Though the number of turn out was quite less, may be due to the dipping temperature in the evening time, the concert gave worthy entertaining time. All credit goes to Bipul and his band members for bringing the fusion folk/rock melody here in Kathmandu. For next concert, let him release some more acoustic songs and then I will be again longing for his solo performance.

Here are some videos that I have taken during the concert. 

1. Asar

2. Syndicate (Timi Jane Silguri, Ma jane Sikkim tira)

3. Kahama Katyo

4. Siriri (new Song)

5. Ramsailee

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