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Shashi Ram Bhandari came from Kathmandu’s notable high-caste Bahun clan whose males carried the middle name of “Ram” and represented the wealth, riches and fame of this particular family line. Yet he went out of the system by marrying outside his caste and culture and opted for the life of a troubadour and minstrel. He married a Newar girl and duly joined the musical ensemble called The Lekali. It was my association with the Lekali group at Radio Nepal’s recording studio, where I was a musician (1966-1976), which established our relationship. Hence, to write about the Lekali is in itself to throw much light on the late Shashi as well.
The Lekali had only two members from the “lek.” Hiranya Bhojpure (Shrestha) and Ganesh “Rasik” (Rai) hailed from the hills of Bhojpur while the rest – sisters Urmila and Nirmala Shrestha, Indra Narayan Manandhar, and Shashi Ram Bhandari – were all born and reared in Kathmandu. This six-member group of singers, composers, lyrists, musicians, folklorists and collectors was already a large ensemble in those days in Kathmandu, yet they accommodated other singers as well, such as Navin Kishore Rai, Kamala Shrestha and many others, on many occasions.
The Lekalis can be compared to the trio of Peter, Paul and Mary, but in double strength, or The Seekers/New Seekers of Australia, or even the Fifth Dimension of the USA. The Lekalis were the first Nepali music group to launch their own brand of modern folksongs, and recorded their own original light modern songs, as well as “pop-patriotic” pieces. They collected and compiled folksongs from the hinterlands and also wrote their own lyrics and set them to melody and sang them. Their output were the forerunners to what later became known in Kathmandu as “pop lok git,” as obtained at the rural source, “adhunik lok” as manufactured in the city, and “sugam sangit” of easygoing modernity.
The songs of various genres as produced, recorded and archived by The Lekali number into many hundreds, a corpus unmatched by any other group in Nepal before and since then. They ruled the airwaves of Radio Nepal for more than two decades, from 1966 to 1986, and not a single Radio Nepal’s Saturday afternoon hour of “Listeners’ Choice” went without broadcasting at least one hit created by them. Their fan following was so great that sometimes the radio announcer’s reading their fans’ names took more than half the time of the entire song.
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The only “rival” group during the initial period was one called The Ralfa, with Manjul, Raamesh, Raayan and others. Heavily weighted down by the proletariat philosophy of such Marxist mentors as Parijat, Bhupi Sherchan, and Konstantin Glinka, the Ralfalis themselves were also more avowedly attuned to political polemics and “protest” songs against the Partyless Panchayat Polity whose propagandizing and proselytizing pundits thought otherwise and proclaimed the system to be pluperfect. Hence, Ralfa’s songs of dissent were always pre-censored and proscribed by the subversive political system and its arbitrary administration. Even then, Manjul and friends toured the remote villages and sang to and of the rural folks, albeit being tailed by the CID’s sleuthhounds.
On the other hand, the innocuous and apolitical Lekalis stayed put in Kathmandu and performed in the capital and recorded at Radio Nepal, satisfied with their brands of popular and middle-of-the-road musical genres which very soon became a mainstream medium in its own right.
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Here, I may add that we did our own little bit in polishing, burnishing and fine-tuning the composite musicianship of the Lekalis. “We” means Ranjit Gazmer, Phurba Tshering Bhutia and myself who, as studio musicians at Radio Nepal, were asked to “arrange” the music of the Lekali’s songs. In this, Ranjit was the main architect while I stood at the back, only to lend my hands when his musical arrangement was finalized. This deficiency in overall musical sense – with references to chordal progression, vocal harmony, sonic scales, instrumental pitches, octaves and voice range, incidental music, interlude, counterpoints and other essentials – persists to this day with Nepal’s homegrown composers and musicians; so the primitive days of the 1960s is easily understandable where musical gaps in song structures were apparent. Fortunately, for the Lekalis, however, the immediate latter forms of their songs became individual signatures, and the credits must mainly go to Ranjit Gazmer’s fine sensibilities as a musician and composer in his own rights.
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Where is Shashi Ram Bhandari in all this? Well, Shashi was the least and lost Lekali. Of the hundreds of songs recorded by the group, barely ten percent of the output may have the participation of Shashi, in voice, music and lyrics. This is so because, as I happened to observe, Shashi wanted to be seen and not heard; or he did not want to be seen but rather liked to lurk in the background. He was the logistics mover and shaker for his fellow members, their tea boy, caterer, caregiver and caretaker. He was the group’s gopher. For a long time, I saw Shashi’s Citroen as the Lekali’s transporter, ferrying his comrades in chansons, and their goods and equipment. His Lekali identity, to me, was one of selflessness, bountiful charity and a humble handyman behind the scenes so that his other musical mates would rise and shine. He was the Man Friday of the group whose welfare and fame were always top on his mind. Thus, he was rarely seen upfront, seldom heard even when physically present, and mostly maintaining the engine in the workshop.
Personally, Shashi was frank and outspoken in his circle; he did not mince his words. This nature created no misunderstanding to show where and how he stood. Professionally, he was instrumental in strategizing the Lekali’s next musical modus operandi, but never took credits for this in the open. He was the unsung member who operated incognito and without any fuss whatsoever, always doing the best for the group in his own silent, quiet and unobtrusive ways. Only his Lekali peers and supporters know the details of Shashi’s backroom maneuvers in the power-driven places of Kathmandu. Much of the grand success and continuing fame of the Lekali, thus, hinged on the love and labor of Shashi for his associates. He sacrificed his own personal ambition for fame for the greater glory of the Lekali who were of far greater importance than his own interests. He was something of a George Martin to the Beatles, managing their affairs but also banging the piano in “Rock and Roll Music.” Shashi did much of the same things for his fellow Lekalis.
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How have been the individual journeys of the Lekali members? Highly educated and experienced, each Lekali has charted his and her own course in life. A singing group of six voices – two female and four male – no one in the Lekali shouted or belted or went maudlin. Each had a mellow and melodious voice and style which blended in the group’s overall sound.
The most notable Lekali member to me could well be Urmila Shrestha, the older sister of Nirmala. Starting her bureaucratic career as a junior officer at a government department, Urmila ultimately reached the position of Secretary in His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. She almost became the Singing Secretary. Upon retirement, she was appointed member of the Public Service Commission. No mean feats for a most unassuming Newar woman of her times!
Nirmala herself worked at the Royal Nepal Academy for many years. She has been lost in the vast expanses of the USA for many years now.
Hiranya Bhojpure, himself a senior government bureaucrat, is married to Urmila. Now retired, he is busy with his own creative pursuits.
Ganesh Rasik was, among other appointments, the General Manager of the Rashtriya Nach Ghar at the Joint Secretary level. He is presently managing his own tea estate in Ilam in east Nepal, and also promotes his FM radio station in the region.
Indra Narayan Manandhar also worked as an administrator at the Nach Ghar with Rasik as his superior even though he had his own family trucking business to look after. It may interest readers to know that Manandhar was once known as Bachchu Kailash Junior for the ditto voice and singing style he had.
Shashi Ram Bhandari had his Shashi’s Holidays International Tours & Travel in a building next to the Nach Ghar, and it was convenient for him to be with his fellow Lekali Rasik and Manandhar in the neighborhood.
All Lekali members proved themselves as professional bureaucrats and successful entrepreneurs while also nurturing their love for music through writing, collecting, composing, singing and performing, all so memorably. That they eventually faded away from the scene was a natural and spontaneous phenomenon to have happened, as are the nature of things, and only the fondest memories of their epochal undertaking remain today in Nepal’s modern music history. Needless to say, the corpus of Lekali’s recorded and archived music is readily available for the broadcasters of Nepal’s many scores of FM radio stations which dot the airwave map of the country.
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In the same high spirits, one can happily retain the fondest memories of Shashi Ram Bhandari as well, though his departure has been rather untimely and therefore sadder. But he has left more than enough of his own devotion and dedication to Lekali, by which Nepali music has been able to arrive at where it is at this point at present.
pjkarthak@gmail.com
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