27th MAY, midnight

Roi raheko mero desh lai, ma fakau kasari ?

MASKS AND MY COUNTRY....HOW LONG? (acrylic on paper)

Gaine' (acrylic on canvas)

I AM GREEDY

I am greedy. I am greedy for the golden sunsets in the never ending Terai horizons. I am greedy for the mountains that blush to crimson every evening. I cannot choose. I love the way the Buddhist prayer flags rumble the prayers for everyone. I love the ancient Hindu incantations. Tihar lights make me want to cry with joy. And Lhosar is so wonderfully joyous! Christmas makes me look forward to winter! I am greedy for all religions. I am greedy for the rivers that make the mountains reach out to the plains. I love daura suruwal, bakkhu , the clothes from the hills and the richly coloured costumes from the Terai. How can I choose when I want them all? Why should I choose when I can have them all? I am greedy. I am greedy for everything in Nepal.

FOOD SPY

(also published in The Himalayan Times) Chirag Bangdel is an artist and a writer. He has written regular columns for magazines and has authored four collections of poetry. His book of short stories and haiku, “Mist Around the Stupa”, published by Chautara Publications, The Netherlands was first published in 2009 and has enjoyed a reprint of second edition. As an artist, Chirag exhibits regularly in Nepal and abroad. His last exhibition, launched in 3rd April, 2012, “In Bloom” was organized and hosted by The World Bank, Nepal. Chirag also produces and hosts radio shows.

There was this series of chain reactions when I checked my email that day. Miracles do happen in otherwise mundane life….and there was this email from The Himalayan Times assigning me to be a food spy. I have always wanted to be 007, in fact when I was a kid, I derived so much joy out of “My name is Bond, James Bond” (or The name is Bangdel, Chirag Bangdel). But now I was not just an ordinary spy but a food spy. Among the many passions I have, food is certainly one. So when I received this email from THT, my stomach growled and images of all sorts of food , right from our everyday momos to delicate French cuisines floated in my head. Talk about inspiration. Okay, so I was assigned to spy on Manny’s Eatery and Tapas Bar in Jawlakhel. I chose to be there this beautiful spring Saturday night. And I took my entire family with me. I love playing the family man, you see. Manny’s Eatery and Tapas Bar is located in Shaligram Complex in Jawlakhel. If you want to get out of your crazy schedule and all the noise of the city , looks like Manny’s Eatery is the place. We were greeted by these beautiful lighting all over the place, especially the blue lighting that goes like a creeper all over the trees at the entrance. The huge parking space is certainly an asset to the restaurant. The space is so big, we could almost have a small kids’ football match here. As we entered the restaurant complex, we had just too many choices. Our options were – do we sit inside “The Tapas Bar”, which offers real well cushioned sitting arrangements with walls adorned with real art works, and classic rock and blues playing in the background, or do we sit in this beautiful central room that looks like a magical glass house, which is so brilliantly lit up and had these exquisite chairs and tables ? But we finally decided to sit outside. And outside there is this lush green lawn, surrounded by flowers, also a tiny pool with carps in it and a few funky earthern frogs in real chilled out postures (you have to see them to believe me!) The furniture outside is total wrought iron. There was this huge screen with a movie on. Life couldn’t get better but I back faced the screen. I wanted to focus on the food…..baby…..food ! The waiters came to greet us and I noticed they had real clean uniforms on. The one thing that really turns me off in restaurants is bad hygiene of the waiters. They were smart and polite. When I opened the menu, I realized how difficult my mission had just got. Now how can you choose when you like everything there? Eventually we decided to kick it off with corn fritters and fried calamari. They arrived soon. The corn fritters were delightfully light and soft and served with basil mayonnaise. Magically crunchy. And fried calamari were little pieces of squid deep fried to perfection. You pop one in the mouth to a delightful little crunch and then it melts away to heaven. After that we ordered “Spicy Buffalo Wings”. Now there is no buffalo involved in this. It’s chicken all the way (buffaloes don’t fly, stupid me!), cooked in this real nice tangy sour flavour. When it was dinner time, we ordered Grilled Pork Chops, Pra Kra Jien and Pepper Steak. The Pra Kra Jien is the fish of the day marinated and frilled in a foil pouch and today it was trout! It was served with fries and noodles. One word to critically analyze this food…. “ Yummy!” Soon what remained of it was just the fish bones. Quickest metamorphosis ever! And when the pork chops arrived, I didn’t know whether I wanted to look at it all night long or frame it and hang it on my bedroom wall (you know that I am an artist, right?) or dive straight into it. My salivary glands took over and with my steak knife I played the sculptor, dipping the pieces into this sauce and relishing the entire thing. The mashed potatoes and the vegetables at the side made a perfect combo. My uncle enjoyed the steak, as I don’t eat beef. It was tender fillet coated with fresh peppercorms and pan seared to perfection and served with roasted potatoes and vegetables. He told me it tasted as good as it looked. We didn’t order any dessert , full as we were. Now my final test, I went to check on the restrooms. There are many times when good restaurants overlook the restrooms, and a trip to the toilet can be so bad that you want to throw up what you paid for inside. But this time, the toilet was very clean, ample paper towels and liquid soap. Eric Clapton played some spacy guitar guitar lick in some corner. Manny’s Eatery and Tapas Bar is an excellent restaurant and I am so glad I spent we spent the evening there. Over and out. Mission accomplished.

The Wonder of Meeting Sakti Burman

(also published in The Himalayan Times, 29th April 2001 Some time ago, we had invited the Indian Ambassador, Mr. Jayant Prasad to our group exhibition. He was very kind to come and over tea he talked about his fond memories he shared with the legendary Indian artist Mr. Sakti Burman. I had been following Mr. Burman’s work for a long time and when I realized Mr. Prasad was such good friends with the artist I had asked him if we could invite him to Nepal. I did this with hardly any hope because Mr.Burman is a colossal figure in the Indian art world and he spends most of his time in Paris. So it was big shocking wonderful surprise (if there is such a term) when I got a call from The Indian Embassy on 23rd April morning when I was informed that Mr. Sakti Burman had arrived in Nepal on invitation of The Indian Embassy and B.P. Koirala India Nepal Foundation and that he would be giving a talk at Yak and Yeti the same evening. He had been traveling in major cities in India along with his retrospective exhibition “ The Wonder of it All”. The Embassy also asked me if I would MC the event and introduce the artist . I agreed instantly. Mr. Burman arrived punctually along with the Indian Ambassador Mr. Prasad at 6:30 pm. The venue was The Dynasty hall at Hotel Yak and Yeti, a beautiful room, a work of art in itself. You just knew it when you saw him that the artist was kind and very down to earth . As he shook hands with everybody, he made sure he had something to say to each. Born in 1935 in Kolkata, Burman was brought up in what now is Bangladesh. Today he is one of the most prominent Indian painters . Though he has been living in France for the last five decades, he has shared with the world the richness of the South Asian traditions, cultures, myths, stories and characters of our religious epics. And he does that in his own joyous ways. When you look at his paintings, you are drawn straight into his world where the conscious meets the sub-conscious and reality fuses with surreal motifs. Over all these years, Sakti Burman has realized that a painting at the end of the day is a genre in the visual arts, so each of his paintings is a visual delight. At the risk of sounding cheesy, if his paintings could be described in a word- they are “beautiful” . Beautiful in colours, the richness of textures, and poetic interpretations of humans , deities, animals and birds. This catalyzes the visual senses but this is just the beginning . You are sucked into the painting to share with the artist, his narratives, his nostalgic recollections and messages. Art is always created out of situations, which could be political situations, social situations or personal situations . Burman living in Paris has painted people of the western land along with deities and people of his country, animals, birds and mythical creatures- and all of them live together in harmony in his canvases. Every painting by Burman has so many things happening in it, and yet all of them come to a focal point and that is – tranquility. One moment the elements in his art work are buzzing with emotions and then you look at them again and they have this blissful silence. Among the many things I admire about the artist, perhaps the one quality I love about him is his hard work. Despite his huge success in the art world, and with his authority ( he could get away with anything today ,when creating an art piece), he still spends a lot of time on his paintings- painstakingly creating his magical texture and his poetic figurative forms. A total labour of love. At the talk , Mr. Burman spoke about his early days when he was a student and when being an artist was not recommended by most. He narrated a story when as a young student, he along with some friends had gone out to the slums for some outdoor painting. They had begun painting and a little later , nearby, a mother scolded and punished her child for some misdeed and pointing at the young Burman and friends she said, “ If you don’t study you will be like them!” Mr. Sakti Burman also talked about his youth and days in Paris. He also mentioned how he accidently discovered the way to create textures . It happened one day after dinner when he was helping his wife to do the dishes. Trying to get the grease off the plates, he saw that oil and water didn’t mix. He used this to later invent the texture he uses all the time in his works and is celebrated for. The artist shared with the audience -slides of his paintings in water colours and oils and his candid and fluent drawings. After his talk and presentation, Mr. Sakti Burman spent a long time talking to his fans. This beautiful evening with the legendary artist at the Yak and Yeti hotel will be cherished for a long time by the artists and art lovers who were present there.