It started some months back when I was invited to an orkut community called Nepathya started by Rinchen didi. A blog had been in my mind for quiet long time and when I saw the orkut community, I decided to use the username that I had saved for Nepathya for soooo ling. (I had already booked the username in wordpress.com much before I started writing here). And it just started with a small talk with Rinchen didi.

I was Rupak, now in Pondicherry India. And with me was Rinchen didi from Sikim. We both being busy with our lives we couldn’t post enough articles which could justify Nepathya. And more than 50 days have gone (though I haven’t calculated exactly!!) with out a new post. I do keep on getting comments which still keeps me with it. But I feel bad for not being able to update it.

Don’t worry folks I aint closing this blog account. But this is to tell you that I wont be able to update this blog till January 2^nd week (courtesy university exams are right next door and I gotta study a lot).

All the readers along with Nepathya themselves have been very very supportive and contributed a lot in the blog. Thanks to all people. Thanks to Rinchen didi for she made me believe I can write a blog about Nepathya. And sorry folks.Nepathya deserved much more.

BUT I WILL BE BACK….

Ps: If anyone is genuinely interested to fill this blog about Nepathya, do let me know. Email me 2rupak@gmail.com is my address.

But one requirement is you gotta have VLC Media Player. (Get a VLC player)

From Youtube

1. Get the URL of the video.
2. Go to http://video.qooqle.jp/dl/
3. Paste the URL in the above link.
4. Click Get Download URL.
5. A download URL will appear in the screen.
6. Click it and save the file named get_video.
7. Open the file with VLC player.

To download from Murchunga.com

VLC player is required. I dont have Real player..maybe u should not have Real player too. I am not sure of that. So if somebody is having real player u may chuck it coz anyway Vlc is much better than Real.

1. Go to murcunga.com and select ur song.
2.Select ur song and click play.
3. A file named play.php will come, save it.
4.Open with VLC player.
5. Go to Wizard (Ctrl+W) or from file menu.
6.Click “Transcode/Save to file”
7.Click “Next” and click “Existing play list item. “
8.Click “Transcode audio” and “Next”
9.And again “Next”.
10. Chose a file to save. Click Chose and give a name to the file (the song) u want to save and specify the location also.
11. Click finish and wait till VLC downloads ur file.

USE VLC TO PLAY THE SONG.

Till date 7 albums havebeen released starting from the self titled album Nepathya to real incident titled album Maina Pokhari’ko Ghatana

The seven albums are Self titled Nepathya in 1991, Himal Chuchure in 1993, Min Pachas Ma in 1995, Shringar in 1997, Resham in 2001, Bheda ko oon Jasto in 2003 and Ghatana – Incidents of Nepal in 2005.

What genre they sing?

Nepathya started with a relatively different brand of music, folk pop. They expertly fused the common Nepali folk tunes with pop flavour to produce some of the most exhilarating melodies ever. This became a new trend. Also it became the basis for rise of Pokhreli bands in contemporary Nepali music. (read more about it here).

But in this time when pure folk song are created inside a closed room, Nepathya goes deep into the villages and hills of Nepal in search of tunes and songs only to make them more
lovelier than ever.Read about it here and here and here also.

Though folk pop is the term used, listen to the songs Sa karnali an Bheda Ko Oon jasto…and you may say it folk rock tooo…

Besides, Nepathya sings for people. Their recent album sang the songs only about the people and their sufferings due to Maoist insurgency. Previous album had half of its songs were concerned about people and their perspective in the Insurgency.

During the heydays of Maoist rebellion, which claimed more than 15,000 lives, they constantly concerted for peace and rights of children. They traveled across Nepal with message of peace and donated money collected during the concerts to the local schools and organizations working for children. Thus with every album since Resham (that makes 3 albums), they have donated 9-10 lakhs to school and various organizations through such concerts.

Some songs from Nepathya

If I am asked to name some nice songs of Nepathya, I will end up listing all songs
for none of the songs I have found under par. Many were very good while some were better and remaining are good. But this may not please everyone. So what I will do here is to list some of the well received songs. Even if you go through the some not so well received song (for reasons best known to Him), you won’t stop wondering, “Why the hell this song couldn’t make big?”

Anyway some well received
songs of Nepathya are

From album Nepathya

· Chekyo chekyo

· Himal chuchure

From album Min Pachas’ma

· Jomsom’ai Bazzar’ma

· Udaayo rail’lai’le

· Birsi na’deu

From album Resham

· Resham

· Lampate surati

· Mai nache chhamchham’ti

From album Bheda Ko Oon jasto

· Sa karnali

· Bheda ko oon jasto

· Taal ko pani

From album Maina Pokhari’ko Ghatana

· Ghatana

· Aama huna

(PS:If you can, please Listen to songs from Album Sringaar like “Saruma rani ko aanshu ko kasam” “Boli chaina kuna boli’le geet gaunu” and tell me why didn’t get much
popularity)

Who exactly are Nepathya??

“Since Deepak J. Rana, Bhim Poon and Amrit Gurung founded this band in 1990, it has seen many musicians join and leave the band. Amrit Gurung is the only remaining founding member of the band.” is written in the introductory leaflet of album Bheda Ko Oon jasto.

Quoting Amrit Gurung, Wikipedia writes “Says he Nepathya is like a passenger train that everybody can get in and get out.”

If that is the standard description then you can take Amrit as the pilot. And Amrit casts the main figure of Nepathya (not only for his voice but also for his exotically long hair!!!)

Can somebody give a full list of Different people differently involved I Nepathya during different period of time?? We will appreciate that…

Where to listen them?

Buying the album is thebest way you an to help yourself with Nepathya music. They can be purchased in any Music Nepal outlet. But as a matter of fact this may not be accessible to all.

Here are some online links to listen, watch Nepathya songs.

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~lokesh/mp3/Nepathya/

http://www.realnepal.net/partiallist.htm (Only online listening possible)

http://www.kfm961.com/gallery/music/Ghatana.mp3

http://www.kfm961.com/gallery/music/Taal_Ko_Pani.mp3

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nepathya&search=

http://www.murchunga.com/search.php?do=search&col=ar.name&val=nepathya (only online listening possible)

http://www.visi.com/~shah/cgi-bin/nepalisongs/scripts/nepalisongs_page_loader.cgi?page=search&screen_info=1024_768_32&java_enabled=true&keywords=nepathya&search_type=music+archives

Next thing I remember is reading about Nepathya in Kantipur daily. That Saturdays special paper, along with general introduction to the band, also had given me a bad news that the band will dismantle later, for personal careers of the members.

Next thing I remember is reading Kantipur(again but after almost 3-4 years). But this time it was “Nepathya back”. With ‘Resham’ Nepathya was back, back with a bang rather. Only later I came to realize what Nepathya went through in between ‘Sringaar’ and ‘Resham’ (To know read this). But anyway they were back. How much didn’t I try to get their album?

But living 10 km away from the nearest music shop didn’t help either.. then I Saturdays special, comes another article “the new Rersham virus” (if I aint mistaken ,either Abhi Subedi or SaruBhakta had written that). This told me how much the people liked them. And also did it told I wasn’t among them.

Myself going to buy the album wasn’t practical as it was far from home and tight schedules at school meant I left home at 8 in the morning to come back by 5 in the dusk. So I just kept yearning for it.

Next thing I remember is Ganesh Parajuli dai (now Dr. Ganesh Parajuli) giving me the audio cassette. And I remember many things; playing it all the times possible to singing the songs at odd hours and odd instants, making people dance in “मै नाचे छमछम्ती” to spending hours trying to discern the meaning of song ‘Ghatana’ in relation to The Royal massacre.

After this Nepathya has become am important part of my music and will definitely remain for the rest of my time in this planet.

And the most important thing I remember is Meeting Amrit Gurung and I remember it vividly. Post-concert in BICC Kathamndu, I and one of my friend wen t him and talked to him. We thanked him, congratulated him and requested him to keep it up. For about 10 minutes we talked of his collecting songs and our experiences listening to them. Unfortunately by then I had no camera to physically capture that moment (mentally its still clear and bright). That night I was so happy that I just kept on playing his songs in my old cassette player. I played all the night repeating the sides.

The next thing I remember is In the morning next day, smoke was coming from my old cassetteplayer.

~~Jhalkai deu, jhalkai deu, galai ko company mala jhalkai deu~~

Then about four years back, a few good friends of mine introduced me to 1974 AD. I’ve been a big fan of theirs and have watched them perform LIVE here in gangtok twice. Around the same time, I heard a superb band play Nepathya’s song ‘Resham’ at Glenary’s, Darjeeling. There’s been no looking back since.

The last time I came across their previous album, ‘Bhera Ko Oon Jasto’ at a friend’s place, I borrowed the tape and listened to it for a month. The obsession continues as I hunt around for more of their music till date.

Only problem is that I havent found Nepathya’s albums – either old or new – in Gangtok. It could also be that I’m not searching carefully enough but I’m really disappointed not finding their music here…

Another problem is Nepathya not performing in a long time here in Sikkim. I dont know if they’ve performed here before but I havent caught their show even once and thats a real let-down. I wish they would perform here which will indeed be a dream come true.

I would love to read more about how the band started and the journey they have made till date. If anyone has some kind of info regarding this, please do write in. It’ll be great to read more about them!

I first liked Nepathya because their songs reflected a balanced harmony between today’s music and some really authentic Nepali folk music; the combination of both was intoxicating enough for me to be hooked on to the band. The more I listened to their songs, the more I was drawn to the magic of their melodious music accompanied by some really soulful lyrics.

Lyrics that make you think – imagine the emotion raging behind the conception of that particular song, wonder about the situation that made them pen its lyrics. When you listen to their music closely enough, you realize that each song contains a meaningful message, something to ponder upon.

Some songs are so poignant that never fails to tug one’s heart strings. Listen to ‘Yanni Maya’ when Amrit Gurung sings Jalda pani mardina, yanni maya. Absolutely bittersweet. Or another song that says, Sirh mathi ko chaya, kun daiva lay chutayo, juni bhar ko maya. The loss of a lifetime, of the person you love. Amazing stuff.

Their songs have these rustic folk beats included to produce some really off-beat music that connect with people. The more I listen to their music, the less lonely and more comforted I find myself to be. This is truly an amazing band and I look forward to hearing more of them!

This is a page dedicated to the great band Nepathya and their fans.

There are a lot to be told, heard, shared and admired about Nepathya rather than just their folk pop tunes and the lovely melodies they create..If any of u folks, by a great chance happen to be a Nepathya fan like me and want to share something about them…please do write to me. You can write as a comment here with your name. And if I feel it was good enough, I will publish it with your name acknowledged as the writer.

Till next time ciao..