Mongolian Heart Puts Raju Lama In Trouble [Update : 30 Jan 2007] As we had reported to you sometime back that a group of Nepali artists had gone to the US for a two month tour on November 24, 2006. Those going were Nima Rumba, Sindu Malla, Mingma Sherpa, Anup Das and Mongolian Heart on the invitation of the organizers of two concerts, Himalayan Buddhist Community, New York. Since they were scheduled to stay in the US for about two months and only two shows were scheduled for New York, they, on their own initiative and contacts planned seven other performances at various other venues. Well, all other artists have returned back after an overwhelming response there (they landed at the Tribhuvan International airport on the night of 25th Jan. 2007) except for Mongolian Heart…none of them returned! They are Raju Lama, drummer Dev Gurung, Lead guitarist Raj Kumar Thapa, Bass guitarist Dhiraj Gurung. Since this counts for a serious issue of Nepali artists going abroad for performances and ‘vanishing’, we at pulled all stops to get right into the dept of the matter. This is what we have investigated so far. Himalayan Buddhist Community had invited the artists for two performances in New York and Raju Lama had then insisted that they include the other members of Mongolian Heart as well for this particular tour. The organizers were apprehensive in the beginning but had agreed to Raju’s demand but with the condition that Raju be responsible and liable for the actions and activities of the other members of his band. But alas, after their performances, the other three members namely, Dev Gurung, Raj Kumar Thapa and Dhiraj Gurung simply ‘vanished into thin air’. In spite of trying to contact them, nobody seems to know where they are. Their reputation and a whole lot of other things at stake, Himalayan Buddhist Community has ‘detained’ Raju and made sure that he did not board the plane along with Nima Rumba and company. Information has it that unless and until Raju contacts or makes their whereabouts known to Himalayan Buddhist Community, he “shall be not allowed to leave the shores of the US”. Nima confirms the above and says that it was indeed very unfortunate that Raju was not allowed to return back with them and that the other three had in fact not contacted Raju or the organizers till the date of their departure. Raju is now in deep soup. He has been pulling all stops to get hold of or contact his band members and convince them of the unpleasant situation that he is at the moment, not to mention further repercussions back home. Till the filing of this news, we have been informed that he has not been successful in finding their whereabouts. We, here at fursad com shall continue to investigate this matter and will try and update you soon with further developments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------