| Under My Hat Reader |
Posted
on 11-Jun-02 04:23 PM
From Nepalitimes' Letters section (http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/issue97/letters.htm)
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BLUBBER
Kunda Dixit must be a hell of a character to be writing the popular and nonpareil column Under My Hat. Ironic though, I don’t understand one bit of what he says. There are, therefore, two possibilities—either he is a genius and I am a jenny ass, or vice versa. Having lived in the US for several years, I have, to this date, never had the privilege of reading such incoherent blubber. This year when I visit my home for Tihar, I would be honoured if Kunda could spare some time and explain some of his columns to me.
Dr Govinda Luitel, Washington DC, USA
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First, I don't understand why this self-proclaimed Doctor finds Dixit's articles so hard to understand. Sense of humor anyone?
Second, just because he feels like a jenny ass does not mean Under My Hat columns are incoherent blubber. Perhaps Daktar-syap needs to stay in the US little longer to learn about the nuances of English languagee.
Third, why should Kunda explain his columns to Luitel? Either you get it or you don't. Or just by the virtue of being a vacationing "doctor" from Amrika, does he think Kunda should even consider him special and spend time with him?
Hassaucha
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| ashu |
Posted
on 11-Jun-02 11:29 PM
Hi there,
I too am fascinated with the way pieces of humor gets understood and misunderstood in Nepal and among educated Nepalis.
In 1994, I published, in Spotlight magazine, "Rational fools", a satire wriiten
in a mock-interview-style -- making fun of the National Planning Commission.
Anand Shrestha, a professor of English at TU, did NOT get the joke, and, instead used sentences from that very satire to give public gaali to Ram Saran Mahat (then NPC Vice Chairman) in a serious article in The Kathmandu Post. Mahat,
being protested to Shrestha, again through a letter to editor, but Shrestha was adamant that Mahat had indeed given such an interview to Ashutosh Tiwari.
The interview, needless to say and apparent to all, was a figment of my imagination.
Now that's a joke: A TU English professor NOT getting a joke published in a magazine.
*********************
What follows is a light-heartedly short 'meditation' on the state of humor
and humor-writing in Nepal :-)
(This piece was originally published in a slightly shorter form in the
Kathmandu Post's "Post Platform" section, August 10, 1996, and it's a
copy-and-paste here.)
A sense of humor
by ashu
"You have no sense of humor." That's one of the worst insults you
can hurl at an Englishman. By humor, the English mean wry, understated wit
and irony, a la George Bernard Shaw, that gets delivered with a dollop of
slapstick, a la John Kleese.
In America, where humor is more easily shared, if not widely understood, late-night comedians such as Jay Leno, Bart Simpson and the Republican Party
remain the national icons of jokes. But we have our brands of humor in Nepal.
A sampling:
MARISH HUMOR: Marish refers to Madan, Hari and Santosh. In the
dark days of the Panchayat, Madan and Hari were first-rate political
satirists. Since the Jan Andolan, however, they have been busy being better
actors, being higher-earning professionals and being lousier satirists. Santosh is
talented, but suffers from Kathmandu-centric ethno-supremacy of sorts.
By now, one would think that Santosh's routinely making
fun of the Marwaris, the "tarai ko madhisays", and others would have made
people protest against a 'high ethnic-insensitivity quotient' in his weekly
TV shows. But no. In our sundar, shanta Nepal, such mindlessly repetitive
and often demeaning ethnic caricatures continue to pass as humor, especially
every week on the state-run television.
LITERARY HUMOR: Bhairab Aryal, who committed suicide, and Basudev
Luintel, who hasn't, remain the best Nepali literary-humorists. Theirpieces,
written many years ago, are still sparklingly pure delight to read and re-read.
Keshab Pindali is another first-rate humor-giant, still churning out enviably well-written and entertaining pieces in Bimarsha.
With multi-volume humor-corpus, Ram Kumar Panday is funny too.
But he and many other, especially younger, humorists tend to over-use
onomatopoeic Nepali words to such an extent that their Nepali writings,
instead of being fresh and amusing, eventually begin to jar.
RADIO HUMOR: Humor has been on the radio for almost two decades.
Programs such as Rasrang, "Budhi aama ra JTA" and others used to entertain
listeners around Nepal.
Alas, no more.
These days, snatches of humor are also aired on Kathmandu's
super-funky FM-radio programs. But mostly for the worse. While Goodnight
FM's Manoj occasionally delivers funny verbal slapstick, Kantipur FM's
Dinesh, with canned Hindi jokes, remains an absolute disgrace. You just have
to listen to Dinesh's program to scream at his producers that "Fun Time" is
just a waste of time.
FILMI HUMOR: This is an oxymoron. Most Nepali film-directors'
sense of humor typically starts and ends like this. Have a genetically dwarf
guy (some Rakchyas Karmachandal of sorts, assuming you have watched a few
Nepali movies) make faces and do unnecessary somersaults on the side, while
the almighty 'hero' kicks the villain's butt. That's usually it, and you
are supposed to howl with laughter!
ANGRAZI HUMOR: This genre probably started in Nepal with Kunda
Dixit's regularly publishing "Funny side up" columns in the Rising Nepal in
the late '70s and early '80s. And ten years ago, HIMAL magazine, with its
always-quick-to-smile editor, elevated the art of wit and word-play through
its "Abominably Yours" column, which is remarkably high on American
references.
But by and large, most Nepal-published humor pieces in English are
khattam, primarily because the writers' command of flowing, idiomatic
English is so hopeless, and also because their sense of the absurd is
usually not that sophisticated.
Fortunately, talented Angrazi humor-writers do exist in Nepal, and they include: (1) Manjushree Thapa -- just read what she used to write for Spotlight newsmagazine -- ; (2) NAMA -- real name: Narayan Manandhar, an economist -- and (3) Mani Dixit -- real name: Hemang Dixit, a medical doctor -- NAMA and Mani write/wrote humor for the Kathmandu Post, while (4) C K Lal, another talented humorist, writes for the Independent weekly in Kathmandu.
THE END.
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