I was wondering why Prashant speaks in Nepali knowing very well that most Nepali speaking people understand hindi. He knows very well too that most people who understand hindi do not understand Nepali.

So why would he speak Nepali in an Indian Idol contest? I think he is a shrewd artist to try to tap into the frail ego and tradition of Nepali misplaced nationalism. Remember Hritik episode? Instead of seeking votes as an artist, he has subtly tapped into the frail ego of Nepalis. This is huge since now it is a matter of ego for the people of Nepali origin and people of Nepal to prove to themselves that they can do it.

It is no longer the race of who's a better singer, but more of if we the people of Nepal or Nepali origin and make this artist who asks for votes in Nepali, can make him win. The reality is he is an Indian by all means. Nepal does not benefit in any way. It's our history of failure in our socio-politics spheres that have created this frail ego for us Nepalis. We have to try to prove that we are good because we know we're a failed state. Let's not be bhedas willing to be led by some shrewd politician or for that matter anyone, who taps into our misplaced nationalistic feelings which is higher than mount everest.

If Prashant wins, will he come to Nepal for a concert? Will he acknowledge the efforts of the people of Nepal and Nepali origin to make him win? Or will be bask in the glory of his win and think that he won because of his talent and not because of his Nepali origin?

That's something to ponder about.

RATO BHALEY
If I answered in the wrong thread, I apologize, but I would like to pursue this sentiment of yours as Prashant is NOT from Nepal and since people living in Nepal WHO HAVE NEVER TRAVELLED/LIVED abroad have no idea of why sentiments regarding Prashant run so deep. No, actually I take that back...people living in NEpal DO KNOW what it is to be a second class citizen in their own country!! Class and Creed being on the top of the list of Nepali haru ko identity. Maybe those Nepalese from Nepal are travelling to Darjeeling, Pashupati and Siliguri and voting. Yes those downtrodden ones who do not have the fortune of coming from Kathmandu and not a very prestigious last name!!

"I was wondering why Prashant speaks in Nepali knowing very well that most Nepali speaking people understand hindi. He knows very well too that most people who understand hindi do not understand Nepali."

Ratobhaley
he better speak in Nepali when he addresses the crowds in Darjeeling or those of Nepali origin be they from Nepal or elsewhere - or else he is doomed. We (those Nepalese of Darjeelingey origin) are miffed that his mother had to speak in Hindi for the most part! Such is the sentiment of those outside of Nepal!!! You should be proud that he made an effort to speak in Nepalese. I know I am!

As for the benefit part..my brother, cousins, aunts, uncles and numerous other relatives will gain NOTHING from voting for him. Desh ko k faida bhanera ta kurai chadum! Abo rayo political kuro..umm I am a lost cause there. I just know that he is a Nepali who has tremendous talent and needs the support of the Nepalese people.
And then..your suggestion that he is a shrewd artist and taps into the ego and tradition of nepali misplaced nationalism, that couldn't be farther from the truth. The people of Darjeeling, Sikkim, and the rest of the world (excluding Nepal) KNOW what it is to be a second class citizen and have put tremendous pressure on this one boy to - YES - prove to others that we are not just darwans, didis and waiters. YES those of you who work for Indian restos know what I am referring to!!!

IF Prashant wins, will he go anywhere for concerts? I guess the answer would be YES....ANYWHERE where he is given the respect he deserves as a Nepali and an artist!! Will he acknowledge our support?? Has he not?? by speaking in Nepali on Indian TV??
Will he bask in the glory of his win because of his talent?? I surely he does!!
Will he think he won because of his talent and not because of his Nepali origin??
Ratobahley jiu...sewa gara..sewa ko phal ko asha k!!
and then comes the downtrodden mentality of us Nepalese - mailey garda ta bhako ni phalana dhiskana ko yo tyo!! UPLIFT yourselves people!!!

JAI GORKHA!!!!!1

Suna that is exactly what my concern is. Is that the reason why Nepal is still so backward? Instead of forward thinking mentality where we vote for the right thing, we want to vote for thing that we have links with. There were couple of postings where photos by Nepali photographers were voted simply because they were by Nepalis. We constantly practice nepotism in offices, government positions and even in some artistic show as the indian idol.

How can we condone such favoritism and nepotism in one place while whining and knowing that nepotism is bad. We have to move away from such blatant nepotisms and encourage survival of the fittest and the most deserving.

If you support this kind of activity then you can't grumble over the koiralas putting the koiralas in high positions in government. You unconscienciously support prachanda putting his relatives in high ranking govt positions. All forms of nepotism has to stop and it has to start from the grassroot level before we can hope to become a democratic crowd.

RATO BHALEY
Tapailey Nepal ko context ko kura garnu huncha mo gardaichu Nepali out of Nepal ko kuro. I think we are talking about two different things.
I think rightly or wrongly, we are vying for Prashant because we want to prove to the rest of India that Nepalese do not work just as menial workers but there are Nepalese from all walks of life and that there are hundreds of thousands of Nepalese living in India as Indians!
The support of other Nepalese from all over the world (including Nepal) is an added Bonus!!

The way I look at it - how about voting for Prashant because he sings well? That's the best reason to vote for him IMO. And that's the reason he might just become the Indian Idol. I doubt if Nepali votes will carry him over at this stage. BTW, isn't Amit Paul also from the Northeast? I heard someone mention he too has Nepali heritage on one of his parent's sides.

Vote your hearts out - may the best man win.

:)

Suna,
While I can totally understand your point of view from the nepali out of nepal point of view or even the frail egoed nepalis pride point of view, in my opinion it is a defeatist mentality. Are you saying that we Nepalis can't do anything positive or anything making any big impacts in the world that we have to gang up according to our racial background to prove something? In this case prove that we Nepalis can gang up to make Prashant win - who by the way is Indian?

Captain yeah vote your heart out for sure but why are we Nepalis so concerned about voting for the Indial Idol besides the fact that we have frail ego and want to prove that an Indian of Nepali origin can win?

Is Nepal part of india that we have to act as if we have anything to do with Indian idol? Why vote for Indian Idol?? I can understand people of northern india all gung ho about this but why does Nepal and Nepalis living in Nepal have to be involved? That's my unstated question. stated now for the record

RB -

I watched a few episodes of the Idol on Sajha and don't really care enough about it to vote. They are both talented singers and I will be happy with whoever wins. But there are many people to whom this means a lot, and I say live and let live. I've never understood baseball frenzy, football frenzy, bollywood star frenzy, rock band frenzy and I see this as just another one of those passions that means a lot to some people and nothing to others.

It's just a few more days and this will all be over (hopefully).

That's all. I don't have much stake in this issue to contribute further to the discussion.

Have a good one.

:)

I am unabashedly vocal supporter of Prashant Tamang. Oh I don't give a rat's ass if he sings better than Amit or not. The fact that he is Nepali is enough for me.

Sure, the opinion expressed above might be valid. But then, I don't care.

Let me elaborate.

I also happen to be a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan. I don't care if Patriot's Tom Brady is a better QB than Tony Romo, he probably is, but I will still be cheering for Romo when they meet. I don't care if Cowboys suck bad this season, I still want to see them win Superbowl come Feb. You get the point, right?

Sure there is a place to be righteous and say "may the best man or woman win." But this is not that place. For the time being, I would shove that kind of righteousness into a place where the sun does not shine, if you catch my drift.

RB
that sentiment of yours was already implied but thankyou for stating it.

And BTW...the majority of the Nepalese who do work as Paleys, didis and waiters here in the US and India (thats where Nepalese are most overseas) are mostly from Nepal and NOT from the Northeast of India but we, as darjeelingeys and Indian Nepalese are offended when Indians refer to us as Gorkheys and Bahadurs as a group. Ummm I don't have the knack of actually getting to the point and I daresay I will change soon but I think most of you understand my points.
I know a whole lot of you have been lumpsummed as Nepalese while working/studying in India/US and the mentality of most Indians towards us and I know that a whole lot of you are vying for Prashant to prove to the Indian world that Nepalese can be united and will be. I think in a larger context, this is a message to India as well about Nepal....ummmmm maybe..just maybe...what say you pundits?

JAI GORKHA!

eheheh ohhhhh my my sgy.........where the sun dun shine huh???
:)

SGY

"I also happen to be a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan. I don't care if Patriot's Tom Brady is a better QB than Tony Romo, he probably is, but I will still be cheering for Romo when they meet. I don't care if Cowboys suck bad this season, I still want to see them win Superbowl come Feb. You get the point, right?"

Fair enough. But ...

"Sure there is a place to be righteous and say "may the best man or woman win." But this is not that place. For the time being, I would shove that kind of righteousness into a place where the sun does not shine, if you catch my drift."

What's the issue with not taking sides simply because you don't care enough about who wins? Aren't people entitled to that position by the same token? Sure as hell they are if you ask me.

I have been following the indian idol competition for the last few weeks. i consider myself as a music maniac and when the competition has one of the most original voices from the pristine mountains of darjeeling, i could not do anything but say: YES to the show.

agreed--Indian Idol may not be the best of the contests in terms of the quality of singers in it. as per my knowledge, there are other shows where singers are classically trained, who sings like PROs. hats off to them. however, one thing i really liked about indian idol is: anyone who has hobbied the art as a bathroom singer can take part in the competition and make it big provided he improves during the competition and wins the heart of hundreds of thousands of his/her listeners. within seven months or so, you can become a hero of the nation--a dream that all the aspiring talent of a country live on/with.

apart from showcasing the singing talent, one thing that this season of II was able to do, at least to me and i believe to many others, which some of you folks here might have been missing:

1) it has helped to bring the nepalese communities across the globe together and resurrect the sense of harmony, brotherhood and kinship which these days, one can expect only in utopia. (literally).

2) if we look at nepal alone, people are fighting for their own community rights. everybody wants their own representations, they want their own language to be used as an official/national languange. they would not speak in nepali - the language that is understood by most, the language that is our common recognition. madhesis, newars, limbus et al. are fighting for their own cause which is fair enough to some extent. it's very imperative that a heterogenous society as ours, do justice to all its contents. but while we're at it, we have forgotten the fact there is something which is common between us, which binds everyone of us together and brings a sense of togetherness among us, which is very important as for "unity among variations" is concerned. we all are nepali first off and 'nepal' as a nation should come first.

3) i was quite overjoyed and to a great extent heartened to see that this sense of togetherness is more prevalent among nepalese residing outside nepali borders. i never thought tamangs/gurungs living in darjeeling would speak nepali as their first language. i don't think it's the same for tamangs inside nepal. as Suna pointed out, when you are in home, you tend to take things for granted, you don't realise the importance of who you are. 'being nepali' has plumetted the importance for us nepali living in nepal. ask those second-class nepali citizens in darjeeling, kalimpong and other territories of north india or other parts of the world--they seem to have more pride and respect for being nepali than for nepalese living in nepal !

4) i think the craze for this show has sky-rocketted for them who have realised this sense of 'nepaliness' among nepali living outside nepal. for those who are still oblivious to this reality, they are still questioning whether prashant tamng is a nepali. they're still asking: how can he be a nepali? isn't he in an indian idol contest, so that means he's an indian?

i've been wanting to speak in this topic for a while. sorry to those who find this post too long and boring.

'Sure there is a place to be righteous and say "may the best man or woman win." But this is not that place. For the time being, I would shove that kind of righteousness into a place where the sun does not shine, if you catch my drift.'

SGY if you are a person of Nepali origin then I have nothing to argue with you, since you will probably want to remain in that place where the sun don't shine. Which is fine and understandable. My point is directly at current Nepalis who have a case of misplaced nationalism over this.

Being a hardcore fan of Mr Romo for his talents is one thing and it's another thing to support someone fanatically because he's of nepali origin. Chances are most people only heard of Prashant because of his nepali origin.

Loote, it's an irony how Nepal and Nepalis languishes in an maoist infested state and likelihood of coming together for anything is very low, yet we can portray a sense of harmony to try to make Prashant win.

redcock,
at least we are together in some avenues of life. that makes me happy enough for now
GO PRASHANT!!!!

Yeahhhhh GO PRASHAAAAAAANTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loote it's hard to give up old habits of being the bheda that follows the rest of the herd. This one's definitely not over the cliff but just to put some medicine over our frail nationalistic ego :)

Now I am totally glutted to read the threads of Prashant Tamang. I have previously mentioned, in another thread, that the attached tag of nationalism, in this issue, is beyond my comprehension. But, why this simple public fervor turned into massive hysteria? There are some issues to dwell upon. Most of the time, I am reading his staunch supporters supporting him on the basis of his origin. Now, here only, one can introspect if it’s right? Lecturing about communal harmony in one thread, and in subsequent thread, asking people to support a person with the reasons like ‘he talks ur language, well he put Dhaka topi” is totally contradiction to itself. All those hullabaloos of the ‘he said this about Nepal, he said that about Nepali’ is right to the certain extend but it has been aggrandized in such a way that a normal Nepali would not be considered normal if he doesn’t support Mr. Tamang. Now, how fair is that? Pseudo-Intellect like me, oh well yeah, would have hard time to discern it. I would request other intellects over here to put some light. But, why we have such public hysteria?
Mr. Suna in this thread and hoards of others on the other thread explained, as one of the reason, the racist and biased mentality of the Indians towards Nepali, especially the expatriates. With my whole hearted affection to those who have been in such kind of deplorable situation, I would like to ask,” what can we expect from a society which itself is divided into so many strata that even those populace don’t know whom they are fighting with?”. Our society is an epitome of that very notion too. Such kind practices have engulfed our whole county, and also the Darjeeling, Mr Tamang’s home town. If anybody asserts that Nepalese don’t do it (or even it is just with indian’s coz they deserve it) then I must say I have to disapprove with you. We are happy to be relating, even 1%, with white skin, or to some extent with fairer skin than us but with other colors…. Oh well!! Every expats’ in this world, who ever he is or wherever he is, has faced some kind of alienation if not total abomination. Then, the question comes, why are we quiet to hear a “FOB” from a conservative Iowans but why do we “just” make case with the Indians (sometime even fake such as “Hrithik Kanda”)?
The ambivalent nature of the Indian and Nepalese is not just the case of our generation; this has been going on from eons. The PR of Indians has been in steep hill, since the cases of “Tanakpur” and “Kalapani”. In our own shame, on both occasions, diplomats of the elected erstwhile government were there. At that time, if the public outrage was half of the support of what Mr. Tamang is getting, possibly, there could have been something. The recent dam incident and all those floods of the past has definitely miffed the Nepalese of all strata, but we haven’t seen a single organization pressing hard on such issues, forget the pro-prashant-hence-raise-Nepali-pride brigade or anti-Indian-racism-hence-pro-prashant brigade. Then comes the question, are we really doing it for the national pride?
We Nepalese, with a grim face I have to accept that, are looking for heroes. We are deprived of national heroes from ages. We did go to the funeral procession of BP and Narayan Gopal in millions but after that we are craving for someone to unite us together. But, saying that we haven’t united or given proper felicitation for the real deserving people like Mahabir Pun, who won the Magsaysay award, the most coveted and prestigious award of Asia. How many threads were there in Sajha? Where were you, my help-nepali-for-his-origin-thus-raise-Nepali-pride brigade friends, at that time? Some fellow bloggers wrote (on another thread I remember Bob Marley’s comment) that this is bringing us closer and keeping us unite. After reading those, I felt so bad for myself and my people, that how frail and dilapidated we must be, that we become hysteric by a contestant in second rated musical show even in India( after Saregamapa) of the second rated TV channel, that’s also from a third world country like India. Then again, why the heck?
Well I would just stop with one question. How many of us and in our surrounding have the I-love-those-desi-babes-but-hate-those-dhotis mentality??? If there are, is it due to issues I mentioned above?? Or, if it’s the well preserved patriotism? Well, gotta’ tell you some thing folks; majority of these brigade-comrades can’t even name all 14 zones of Nepal.

On lighter side, I-love-bolly-hunks-but-hate-those-dhotis are also there.

well red....there's a thin line between ego and pride...
we are a small, geographically challenged country whose fate of prospering depends heavily on india. people may want to argue ont this but we have lost our identity to india for the most part. we may be proud nepali in nepal but outside of it and for most internationals, we are one of the INDIAN subcontinents. our forefathers fought in the historical wars of india and britain but very few know the saga of our bravery. recent political turmoil has let us down in the face of the outsiders ever more.

amidst this idenity crisis, a guy from nepali origin, who's had a normal/simple life in the past comes to this big stage and tries to make it big for himself and nepali. while the potential of prashant when pitted against some of the best in the competition can be argued, the format of the show is such that you have to be POPULAR as well along with the singing talent to come to the top. if he being popular among the nepalese all across the globe is WE being bheda in your eyes then i have nothing more to say on that.

mav,
showcasing singing talent--especially in the format of american/indian idol is a show business. glamor draws more hysteria than anything else, else john nash would be more popular than tom cruise