It’s been 16 years, she’s been reading news in Radio Nepal and she’s still doing it. “I learnt news reading my mimicking news readers of those days, mainly Krishna Tamrakar,” she says. And she thinks that singing was in her by birth. “I used to sing in my early days in school and in social functions as well,” she says.
Talking about her school days, she says she was a back bencher. “I had a good leadership quality, was a monitor of the class, teacher’s favorite but was never good at studies,” Oli says who studied in Mahendra Secondary School, Dang.
She admits forming a gang and boycotting people who tried to mess up with them. “I felt like everything around me was mine and there was nothing I couldn’t do but now I think every teenager thinks that way,” she says. She recalls not allowing her classmates who were not in good term with her to visit rest room as she was the monitor of the class.
Oli says she was very active in extra curricular activities. She was an athlete, a volleyball player, Rapti zone football player, best in debate and also a best essay writer. “We used to get dishes for prizes in those days which I had collected in plenty,” she says.
“I went for SAF games to Bangladesh, Pakistan and India for running track back in 2042 B.S. but there was no media coverage then so nobody knew about it,” she says who was also a Rapti zone footballer player.
Talking about her mischief, she says “I did everything form cheating to running away from school.” She recalls cheating directly by looking in a book in Geography exams when she was studying in grade eight. “Geography was taught by our principal who favored me and he himself caught me cheating,” she says laughing and explaining how her principal had the shock of his life seeing her cheat.
“I loved to see Rekha and Sri Devi in screen so I bunked classes and went to see document shows (films screened in a closed room on a rental basis", she says. “Once while bunking classes and going out, my brother and I decided to bury our books in the riverside sand and go. When we came back, we didn’t find where our books were,” she says recalling how her mother had beaten her with bamboo sticks.
She used to sing in Radio Nepal since she was 16. She took out an album in 2044 B.S., the year she appeared for SLC examinations and also bagged the second prize at the national level folk songs competition. “After that I didn’t even have to appear for the voice test while applying for a news reader,” she says proudly.
Oli is bringing out her next album in November and is busy with the recordings. “I bet people will be shocked to listen to my upcoming songs,” she says laughing.
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