Nepali Indie

I’m trying to remember happier times. It’s natural for most to pine for simpler more wondrous times when the going gets tough, but I’m particularly prone to nostalgia. For the last couple of days I’ve been particularly nostalgic about a visit to Nepal over a year ago. At a time when migrant workers across India are suffering unimaginable pain, but domestic air travel has resumed for those who can afford it, it’s hard to justify anything north of a respectful nostalgia for one’s own past international travels (basically anything more / other than I’m happy and lucky to have experienced that is more than I’m comfortable expressing). 

This particular bout of nostalgia was I was roaming the lanes of the internet, when I discovered the works of Jerusha Rai. Since then, I’ve ended up on a wild trip making a collection of indie songs in Nepali (mostly from Nepal, and a few from India) that mirror my feelings of nostalgia towards the five days we spent in Nepal. Those were simpler times. Those were more wondrous times.

Along with the above-mentioned Jerusha Rai, I’d like to single out Bipul Chhetri, an Indian musician from Kalimpong, whose albums — Sketches of Darjeeling and Maya — are among my favourite recent discoveries, and Bartika Eam Rai, a Nepalese musician based in New York.

As I was curating this mixtape, I also discovered that the same could be said about relations between the two countries. God help us.