Nepali Charisma
Dhan Shrestha “Peacemaker”
January 9, 2006
Charisma! It is not a Nepali individual’s name; it is about the charisma that was presented in the Lhochhar festivity on the occasion of the New Year 2006 by its committee members and those committed artists who, every minute, stirred aesthetic enjoyment in our minds. Thanks Good Time for being our Chautari.
The Lhochhar festival 2006 has been one of the most successful Nepali festive events I ever had seen in Boston since 2000, the year of my arrival in this land. In the contrary to what most foreign Nepalese assumed about these types of festive occasions in the past, it was a great experience to smile with open heart, to have a few hours to consume alcoholic beverages, enjoy with typical food, music and mix dance, and to welcome new faces in the Nepali community from and around Boston.
Appreciatively, the Lhochhar party, this year has become an icon, in fact, as a Nepali Chautari or Rodhighar for those of us thirstily waiting to get together. We, imagine for now, had all day been ascending almost an entire mountain in the process of reaching the destination, and just beneath the hill-top at the Chautari, we stop our steps, sit down, begin Chautari talks with known-unknown folks, drink some fresh and cold water and forget the tiredness for a while. American suffocating lifestyle was completely forgotten with delight provided by the “Lhochhar Parwa” in this alien land.
Nepali people often smile, but Lhochhar provided us, as Nepalese, an opportunity like this, to fully smile with many resources. From this occasional experience, I have erudite that when we smile, we smile openly, completely, and best of all, forgetting all the past miseries of our lives. Smiling by open heart is healthy for all. This is what we need in fact to be happy, and most importantly, every one of us needs happiness regardless what situation we deal with and what ethnicity we belong to.
This festive occasion was a great Chautari not only from the view of the large number of Nepali people’s participation, but also great with the amalgamation of beautiful pure Nepali cultural music along with varieties of dance events. We, in this factual sky, still enjoy and love our homeland cultural values, and take pride of ourselves as Nepali even being afar from our Himalayas.
This year, unlike Nepali stereotypical dances, a new dance-event was added out of the blue, which is known little as SANDWICH DANCE, in which a slice of imported cheese is placed in between two slices of Nepali bread (men) and makes repetitive moves. It came to be a great deal of ideal dancing where every eyeball was attracted to, like magnet.
In the end, we sensed some types of bias activities during the festivity. In this modern era, we must be more open like our smile, and must be apt and open to diversity than we were in the past. In fact, we are in the foreign land, thus, we should not be known just as Magar, Gurung, Newar, Brahman, but as Nepali. And, what we must do in-between is to create network-environment, and bring all Nepali in one circle. Everyone should be encouraged to adjust their minds to establish relationship within Nepali community and make their hands help each-other. These are imperatives for our lives in order to remain connected, harmonious, and passionate, to attain happiness, peacefulness in mind, and also feel homely even if lonely.
