A lifelong affair with folk songs

KATHMANDU, Oct 9: Eight decades ago, a boy was growing up at Batulechwor, Kaski district and lapping up songs sung by Gandharva minstrels who lived there, and by Magar people who arrived with their wicker baskets for the oranges that grew abundantly at a farm set up by the 18th century king of Kaski, Kulmandan Shah.

By the time the boy was a teenager, he had fallen irrevocably in love with the folk song genre. Would he be able to sing as melodiously and would he be able to pen songs as beautifully, were questions that haunted him. [break]

At 86, Janakavi Keshari (lord of folk lyrics) Dharma Raj Thapa believes he has lived his childhood dream. The dream was a simple one: to collect folk songs, to write some folk songs, and to sing some.

Today, with over 50 recorded songs to his credit, apart from 32 books, one of which won the Madan Puraskar in 1968, Thapa, who was born on July 15, 1924, has perhaps achieved more than he ever dreamt.

But had his father not had a sorry experience of the armed forces, Thapa would perhaps have joined the military, instead of pursuing his dream.

"My father was with the British Gurkha regiments in India for 13 years and he fought in the First World War. When he returned, he had little money and no pension," said the poet-folk singer.

Travails in Kathmandu

After getting married at 15 to an 11-year-old bride, Thapa told his father that he already knew enough about life and was ready to pursue his own calling in Kathmandu. In 1940, a group of Magar people carrying oranges in wicker baskets left the village to visit Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu. Thapa tagged along.

For five years that followed, Thapa survived on cash and food sent from home. In 1944, he was employed at a court of law at Dillibazaar. His job was to make copies of court verdicts. The pay was low but enough for a living. However, the work soon became unbearable, and in 1946 he tried his luck at what was then the surest way to success: chakari or sycophancy.

One morning, Thapa joined some senior army officers standing by the roadside at Lainchaur for an audience with Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher.

Mohan Shumsher duly arrived on horseback and after brief exchanges with the army officers, turned his attention to Thapa, who told the prime minister that he desperately needed a decent job. Charmed by Thapa, Mohan Shumsher offered to employ him as a personal athpahariya, or royal guard.

But the boy declined, "Sarkar! My father served in the army for 13 years and yet had no pension. He watched buddies die on the battlefield. He doesn’t want me to join the army. Please let me work as a civil servant!”

Thapa was eventually employed at the Guthi Bandobasta office at Tripureshwar. His monthly pay was 11 rupees a month. Less than a year later, he found a job at the Gorkhapatra Sansthan, with a monthly salary of 12 rupees.

“At the Gorkhapatra, my job was to make readable pieces out of news reports about accidents, deaths, damaged suspension bridges and natural disasters mailed in by correspondents all over the country,” Thapa said.

His stint at the Gorkhapatra lasted three years. In 1951, he was sacked and detained for 30 days at Hanumandhoka for demanding a pay hike and instigating other employees to demand the same.

He was released following a direct order from the palace. But the job at Gorkhapatra Sansthan was his last.

Folk singer

Thapa’s reputation as a folk singer had spread even while he was holding down a steady job. At a folk song convention in Kathmandu in 1946 organized by the likes of Satya Mohan Joshi, he sang out against the oppressive Rana regime:

Hami Bijuli Tarbar (We are lightening, we are sword)
Hami Deshka Sarkar (We are the rulers of the land)

And just three days before the fall of the Rana regime in 1951, he entertained a Nepali Congress gathering at Sano Tudikhel, the site of today´s Dasarath Stadium:

Dhuru Dhuru Narau Ama (Don’t weep mother such copious tears)
Timro Ansu Puchera Chadaula (We will surely wipe your tears away)

And during a condolence function for the martyrs of 1940 held at Kharibot, Mahankal in 1952 in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru and King Tribhuvan, he sang:

Shukraraj Shastri Pakrauma Pare (Shukraraj Shastri has been arrested)
Khabar Payo Duniyale Jhundyaune Are (The news is out that he´s to be hanged)

That night, he was granted an audience by the king who, pleased by his songs that afternoon, asked him what he wanted. “I said I wanted to get a song of mine recorded,” Thapa said.

The wish was granted and he headed for Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. In 1956 “Dhuru Dhuru” became his first recorded song to be aired by Radio Nepal.

Some of his other memorable songs are “Hamro Tenzing Sherpalay Chadyo Himal Chuchuro”, “Jham Jham Pareli” and “Ho Ho Male”.

Thapa traveled extensively in rural Nepal as well as in Indian states with sizeable Nepali-speaking populations to collect folk songs. He accompanied Dor Bahadur Bista, the pioneer of Nepalese anthropology, to the Namche region. Later he was approached by Bista to accompany him to Jumla in 1995, but he declined the invitation at the eleventh hour. Bista has never returned from Jumla.

Thapa now lives with his 85-year-old wife and the youngest of his three sons, at Swayambhu. Arthritis and high blood pressure have limited his mobility considerably. But he still has abundant energy, and wants to live for exactly three more years.

“I have a collection of folk songs that I must get published before I die,” he said, demonstrating a passion that teenagers could envy.