Sarangi – the Nepali Musical Instrument

Sarangi is a stringed instrument played by traditional ‘Gaine’ or ‘Gandarbha’ community of Nepal. The  Indo-Aryan ethnic group mainly from central hilly region of Nepal makes a living by singing a type of folk song and narrative tales commonly known as ‘Gaine Geet’ or ‘Gandarva Geet’.

It is believed that Sarangi originated from Nepal. The simplistic design of the instrument made it easy to be manufactured and maintained locally. It is sad that search of sarangi in the internet lands us to Indian musical instrument which is quite different from the Nepali version. Encyclopedias and dictionaries like Britannica, Wikipedia (there is a page for Nepali sarangi however), Farlex, and Oxford Dictionary don’t mention Nepali Sarangi at all.

Unlike Classical Indian Sarangi, it has four strings and all of them are played. The neck and body of the instrument are made from a single piece of light wood, locally known as Khirro. The body is carved into a hollow frame with two openings. The lower opening is then covered up with dried sheep-skin. Traditionally the fine nerves from sheep’s intestine were woven to get the strings. Horse-tail hair was originally used for the bow string of the Sarangi. These days nylon strings are preferred to the sheep nerves and horse-tail hair. The instrument is placed vertically on the left knee, suspended in front of the body by means of a cord around the left shoulder, and is played with a bow.

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MaHa – Chiranjivi

Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bamsha Achary’s most entertaining comedy tele serial.
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93 new species found in Nepal

I was talking about one more addition to the 863 species of birds found in Nepal in my previous post. Recently  WWF released a news about 350 more species of living things found in the Eastern Himalayas in the past decade in which 93 of them were found in Nepal. Among the 93 species 40 were plants, 36 mammals, 6 fishes, 2 frogs, 9 reptiles. Not all, but 10 were given a Nepali name ‘nepalenses’.

In Nepal we don’t do much research (don’t have resources) on these things so I suspect it is only a part of a bigger story. Much of the higher Himalaya is highly inaccessible and they should hold much of the unidentified species. As an example, never finding a giant Yeti can suffice on our ability to find all the unspotted species.

Well, that was the discovery of a group formed by WWF.

The group found that almost three-quarters of the discoveries between 1998 and 2008 were plants, including 21 new orchid species. But it also listed 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, two mammals and at least 60 new invertebrates. Most of the discoveries have already been reported in peer-reviewed, scientific journals.

If you are interested in reading the full document it can be downloaded in pdf format from panda.org website.

Nepalese models – what are they modeling for ?

What is a model ?

My understanding is that modeling is done to advertise product or service. There can be male or female model but in this article I will refer female models as they are the most sought after (even shaving cream ads feature female models). Wikipedia defines a model as:

A model (from Middle French modèle), sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed for the purpose of displaying and promoting fashion clothing or other products and for advertising or promotional purposes or who poses for works of art.

Again from Wikipedia

The British Association of Model Agents (AMA) says that female models should be around 34-24-34 in (86-61-86 cm) and at least 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall.

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Pushkar Shah – the world, eleven years, and Mt. Everest

I have heard about Pushkar Shah in bits and pieces. He was travelling countries on bicycle and now it has summed up to be the World. Yes, he has finished his journey of eleven years to introduce Nepal … in bits and pieces.

November 29, 1998 was the big day Puskar set out on an 11 year journey on a bicycle with NRs 100 (about $1.50) in his pocket. After travelling 150 countries in Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Middle East, and Europe now he has announced that he has completed his journey.

Now he has his ultimate dream :

I would like to climb Mount Everest in 2010 bringing the national flags of all the countries I will have visited by then to the summit.

Let’s wish him luck and we know he would do what he says he will.

40 years research – 9 Predictors of long life

Get degree, get married, get a grip, and eat healthy if you want to live longer.

The November issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association published the result of a research that started back in 1965. In the article nine factors were identified as good predictors of which 50-plus men would live healthily into their 80s and beyond. The research included nearly 6,000 Japanese-American men living in Hawaii.

Well, getting married and having a degrees might be a bit odd in the list but all other seven indicators are well predictable for living longer.

Men who meet the following criteria are more likely to live longer, according to the study:

- Are married
- Are not overweight
- Have low blood pressure
- Possess a strong grip (indicating overall strength and fitness)
- Have attained a high level of education
- Have low blood sugar
- Avoid heavy drinking
- Do not smoke
- Have a low level of bad cholesterol.

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