 for thrice and publishing around 60 books in Nepali Literature is keep reminding us about our identity and helping us to show our own path which is slowly being erased with rapidly urbanization and with impact of Globalization. And he is 101 years old Satya Mohan Joshi, a Nepali writer and scholar who is known for his research on the history and culture of Nepal.){kind=link}
Embracing Globalized world may make us feel like most forward and updated about the world. But the reality is, unfortunately and slowly we are being dragged towards unsocial path. Sadly, this path is asking us to forget our every past, our social skills, our ancestor treasures, our culture, our folk songs and our pride.
The truth is; this path is asking us to forget ourselves.
A typical Newari boy, born on the rana regime period and who never thought of receiving Madan Puraskar (most prestigious literature award in Nepal) for thrice and publishing around 60 books in Nepali Literature is keep reminding us about our identity and helping us to show our own path which is slowly being erased with rapidly urbanization and with impact of Globalization. And he is 101 years old Satya Mohan Joshi, a Nepali writer and scholar who is known for his research on the history and culture of Nepal.
As a part of his job, when he got chance to travel different remote districts of Nepal, he was amaze with the lifestyle, food, culture, geography etc. of those places. It is not surprising for any person to encounter many new things in a different place far from one’s own hometown. So, Joshi felt the same. In the journey, he was fascinated by most of the things. And then, it was this one folk song that changes his life:
“Gai Palyo Relly Mai, Bann ko Bag lai”
“Choro Palyo Relly Mai, German ko Dhawa lai”
It’s interpretation in English is:
It seems like we are raring cow for the tiger of the forest.
It seems like we are raring our son to the German for the War.
Mr. Joshi was emotionally touched with the folk song and how local women were using these songs to express their pain. It was during the time period of second world war when most of the youngster were being tempted with money shown by representatives from neighboring countries to battle in the war against different opponent countries and hence leaving for Germany.
He gathered all the emotions of the local people together in different papers and build one beautiful book out of it named “Hamro Lok Sanskriti” which means “Our Folk culture”. Indeed! He gathered all different colored flowers together in one place and made a garland of flowers. This garland gave him “Madan Puraskar” and show him a new direction towards Nepali culture.
Satya Mohan Joshi is a living cultural icon and proud of our country. We need more cultural activist like Satya Mohan Joshi to preserve and again revive our own unique identity around the world. Our unique identity is our boon. We need it to stand on our own feet and maintain our dignity. And Hope we will maintain it.
By : Alisha Maharjan