26 January 2008

Prashant Tamang--A Profile



Prashant Tamang (Nepali: प्रशान्त तामाङ) is a Kolkata-based singer and winner of Indian Idol season 3. He is the first contestant of Indian Nepalese origin to make it to the final rounds of Indian Idol and finally win. He is also the first person from the Indian police force to enter the final rounds. After the death of his father, Prashant, who was still in school, had to leave school and join Kolkata Police to support his family. He was a favorite to win the competition due to strong backing from the people of Nepalese origin and the Indian police force. Even as the results were yet to be announced on television, several news sources had reported Prashant's winning the competition.


Early years

Prashant Tamang was born in Tungsung, Darjeeling, West Bengal to Rupa Tamang and Late Madan Tamang. He spent most of his early life there and studied in St. Roberts school. After the demise of his father, Madan Tamang, in an accident, he joined the Kolkata Police Force, succeeding his father. In Kolkata Police, he sang for the police orchestra. His family includes his grandmother, mother and his sister.

According to the program commentary, Prashant tried out for Indian Idol because his friends and his seniors especially Mr. Zulfiqar Hasan, Special Additional Commissioner of Police(who incidentally also got Prashant's leave sanctioned for the competition) told him that his voice was very good. He auditioned in Kolkata He received mixed comments from judges after his performances. He is the only contestant to have never been in the bottom 3 or 4 of the galas. He made it to the top 2 of Indian Idol 3 along with Amit Paul, before eventually winning the title.


Media

Prashant Tamang has become a celebrity in West Bengal, Sikkim and Nepal. Prayers for his success are expressed even in website of Tamang Society. Nepalese and non-Nepalese newspapers, websites, forums, blogs etc are filled with stories related to him and support for him.

The mayor of Mirik, T.B. Rai, vowed to spend Rs.10,000 in SMS for voting Prashant and his staff have also vowed to spend a month's salary on SMS for voting Prashant. Police staff of India also vowed to spend a month's salary on SMS for voting Prashant. Nepalese people working in Brunei, UK, Hong Kong, UAE are reported to have been sent money to SMS for him.

Rallies were organized in Darjeeling and Kharsang in his support, some of which were attended by his sister, mother and grandmother. Pokhara, Nepal located Radio Annapurna 93.4 MHz campaigned for collecting donation and the collected sum of NRs.70000 was sent to Darjeeling through its representative to vote for Prashant. A signature campaign for his support was organized by Himalayan Darpan Newspaper of Darjeeling. Schools, clubs and police of West Bengal are found asking people to support Prashant who have named him 'पहाडको गौरभ Pahar ko Gaurav ' (Pride of the Hills). Sikkim Cabinet Minister G M Gurung and S B Subedi planted tree saplings at Singtam to pledge the Sikkimese support to Prashant and to show the unity between Nepalese community in Sikkim and Darjeeling." Lage Raho Prashant Bhai"


Support from Kolkata Police

Prashant a sepoy in the Kolkata Police was supported by the officials in Kolkata Police. Mr. Zulfiqar Hasan , visibly ecstatic with Prahsant's triumph, in his interview after the announcement of the result told the news agency that he was confident that Prashant would win and he and his team supported Prashant at every stage of the competition and in every possible way. According to reports, a couple of policemen even stayed awake through the nights to vote for Prashant. Mr.Hasan said, “Given the hard worker he is, Prashant deserved this title. He has no formal training in music, but he has been chosen the new Indian Idol. This proves how dedicated he is towards whatever he does.” Hasan further added, “We are really proud of the boy. He faced a lot of difficulties in life, but he never let the adversities deter him. Even after winning the contest, he has his head firmly placed on his shoulders.” All the officials of Kolkata Police congratulated Prashant after his victory, and they are now awaiting his arrival in Kolkata to give him a grand reception. “Our boys are ecstatic at Prashant's victory. There has been an atmosphere of great jubilation since the moment Prashant was chosen, and now we are looking forward to his homecoming”, said Hasan.


Live Performances

After winning the title of Indian Idol 3, Prashant Tamang performed in Pokhara, Nepal, on 30 September, 2007. More than 13000 people attended.
Prashant has also performed in four U.S. cities in December, 2007: Washington DC, Boston, New York and Atlanta.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prashant_Tamang

24 January 2008

Prashant video


VideoGully

Prashant Tamang to rock Korea

Hello fans of Prashant,

Did you know Prashant’s next World Tour Concert:

Here are the details:

Date: 07 February, 2008

Time : 13h00

Place: KBS 88 Gymnasium Stadium, Subway Line No.5, Balsan Station Exit No 5,
SEOUL, South Korea

Organiser: Far Western Society of Nepal, KOREA

Details: http://nepaljapan.com/adds/live_seoul/

CNN-IBN Indian of the year…….for Prashant and Amit

The votes are in and the results are awaited in a couple of days for what is one of the most unique award shows. Recognizing Indians from various fields and bringing together big names on the same platform. Ladeej and Juntalmen it’s time for the CNN-IBN Indian of the year 2007. Below are the nominees and my picks!

Politician of the year:

  • Prakash Karat: For being India’s most powerful politician of the year and ensuring the UPA coalition and his Left allies, literally danced to his tune.
  • Kumari Mayawati: For becoming the tallest Dalit leader after Ambedkar and conquering UP by forging a unique upper caste-lower caste combine.
  • Narendra Modi: For securing the most audacious political victory of the year, defeating not just rivals and rebels but also anti-incumbency.
  • B. C. Khanduri: For being one of India’s most unsung performing politicians and the real force behind the highway construction project and change in Uttarakhand.
  • P. Chidambaram: For engineering a spectacular growth rate and being an astute economic manager despite coalition pressures.
  • Pranab Mukherjee: For being the real behind-the-scenes crisis manager and political negotiator in a squabbling UPA alliance.

It would have to be a Toss between our finance minister and the new face of the BJP. At one end is a man who has been responsible for some spectacular economic growth, and at the other end is a man who has sent shivers down the spine of every politician with his charisma. My choice is the man who despite having to bow to the pressures of a coalition has brought some very good reforms, P.Chidambaram.. I wonder how they even nominated Prakash Karat and Pranab Mukherjee, one held the govt to ransom and the other was distributing portfolios like a christmas party!

Businessman of the year:

  • Mukesh D. Ambani: For revolutionizing retail, taking petroleum and other businesses to dizzying heights and in the process becoming one of the richest men in the world.
  • Anil D. Ambani: For piloting an affordable info-com revolution and managing unprecedented financial muscle by heavy investments in infrastructure, power and capital.
  • Sunil Bharti Mittal: For building Airtel into India’s largest mobile service operator and then successfully cornering a chunk of the fixed line telephony business as well.
  • Vijay Mallya: For acquiring liquor conglomerates to airlines to even a Formula 1 team and proving the King of Good Times was truly an audacious dealmaker.
  • O. P. Bhatt: For showing how a public sector behemoth could flex enough muscle in the ferociously competitive banking sector.
  • Kumar Mangalam Birla: For making the Aditya Birla Group into a world player and successfully ensuring that Idea emerges as a major player in the cellular telephony market.

Reliance being sponsors, both the Ambanis are out of contention I guess. My choices were between O.P.Bhatt for bringing SBI to be as competitive as its counterparts in the private sector, and Vijay Mallya for taking the airline industry by storm. But the F1 deal just tipped the scales and with hopes of attending the F1 Delhi GP next year, I vote for Vijay Mallya…

Entertainer of the year:

  • Shah Rukh Khan: For delivering Chak De and Om Shanti Om, two of the biggest hits of the year, and ensuring he remains the undisputed King Khan.
  • Rajnikanth: For reviving Rajini-mania with the release of Sivaji amidst unprecedented hype, one of his biggest worldwide successes ever.
  • Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni: For delivering the year’s Best Idea film, Chak De India, and demonstrating how a simple idea can be made a runaway commercial success.
  • Prashant Tamang and Amit Paul: For helping northeast integrate and establish itself firmly on the national entertainment map by their exploits in Indian Idol.
  • Akshay Kumar: For being the most reliable and bankable Bollywood star of the year by delivering a string of successful films.
  • Shilpa Shetty: For winning UK’s most watched reality show Big Brother and becoming India’s most famous anti-racism ambassador.

This was pretty easy as barring SRK, Akshay Kumar and Rajni, the rest didn’t even deserve to be named in the same breath. But then the superstar takes it all with the biggest release of the year! SRK had to sell himself to every news channel and TV show to promote OSO, Sivaji on the other hand ran without any interviews or promotion. Steering clear of all releases and making it to the charts in international markets buoyed by the aura of one man, the superstar Rajnikanth!

Sports person of the year:

  • Yuvaraj Singh: For simply being the most outstanding Indian cricketer of the year, be it one-dayers, the T20 or even Test matches and ensuring 2007 was his best year ever.
  • M.S. Dhoni: For displaying rare guts, courage and freshness in leading his team so admirably and making India the T20 World Cup champions, much against expectations.
  • Vishwanathan Anand: For being one of the rare Indians to become the undisputed world champion in a sport and making chess a popular sport in India.
  • Sania Mirza: For achieving a record high ranking in world tennis and becoming one of the most feared players on the circuit.
  • Jyoti Randhawa: For becoming only the second man in the world to win the Indian open thrice and being the most consistent Indian golf player of 2007.
  • Saurav Ganguly: For scripting the ultimate comeback tale in Indian cricket and silencing every single critic he had post his ouster from the Indian team

Cricket has again eclipsed other sports with three nominations but I would prefer to look at our unsung heroes. For being the face of chess in India for years and finally getting his due by becoming the world champion my vote without an iota of doubt goes to Vishwanathan Anand.

Public service person of the year:

  • Dr Sharan Patil: For giving India it’s most inspiring medical achievement of the year, with the successful surgery of the eight-limbed two-year-old Lakshmi from Bangalore.
  • Anand Kumar and Abhayanand: For providing free coaching, boarding and lodging to 30 poor students for the IIT JEE Exams every year. For achieving successful scores for 28 out of the 30 students this year.
  • Sushma Iyengar, Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan: For single-handedly reconstructing the earthquake ravaged Kutch region of Gujarat and setting new trends in disaster management and rehabilitation of natural disaster victims.
  • E Sreedharan, Chairman DMRC: For setting a rare work ethic and transforming the face of transportation by effective time-bound execution of the Metro Rail project.
  • Kousalya, Network of Positive Women: For being the first HIV positive truck driver’s wife who set up a successful NGO that helps women learn how to fight the virus.
  • Dr Oscar Rebello, Goa Bachao Abhiyan: For leading the relentless fight to save the natural habitat of India’s most idyllic state, Goa.

This was a toughie with almost everybody having done some spectacular work. But when it comes to public service then its a three way tie between Sushma Iyengar, Kousalya, and Dr.Oscar Rebello. But for being a victim herself and taking the initiative to fight rather being depressed, my vote goes to Kousalya!

NRI of the year:

  • Vikram Pandit: For being yet another Indian to head one of the world’s biggest corporate groups, tasked with getting Citigroup out of an unprecedented crisis.
  • Kiran Desai: For becoming one of the most influential Indian writers, who has earned rare respect in the western literary circuit.
  • Sunita Williams: For breaking the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman, and in the process inspiring thousands of Indian children to dream of being an astronaut.
  • Indra Nooyi: For securing the ultimate position of chairperson and CEO in PepsiCo, a feat achieved in the world’s most hard nosed corporate environment.
  • Arun Sarin: For piloting more than 11 Billion U.S dollars foreign direct investment in India, one of the largest ever.
  • Fareed Zakaria: For his outstanding achievement in the world of international journalism and being known as one of the most respected columnists, commentators and authors.

This was probably the easiest choice to make. With all the others only having personal achievements, Arun Sarin’s achievements benefit the country as a whole and not just bringing fame. The FDIs will go a long way and bring cash and employment to many. My vote for Arun Sarin!

There you have my picks and we shall know the winners on the 21st as they are declared. Meanwhile, I would love to know what you feel and who your choices would be.

13 January 2008

Gorkhas in India: Are they being given their due?



Pinky Pradhan , 11 January 2008, Friday

THE ONCE silent hills of Darjeeling, has grabbed the attention of the central government and Indian Nepali diaspora. From being a sleepy tourist town, the towering hills are being ravaged by demands from two dissentious groups: the implementation of sixth schedule status versus a separate statehood - ‘Gorkhaland’. The angst however, is not limited within Darjeeling itself. Sizeable Indian Nepali populations from states like Delhi, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim and others are closely taking part in it. Questions like –‘can the tag of being honest feed us? Can tourism be an year-long industry for feeding the people? And can the sixth schedule remove all barriers?’ mirror their anguish.
“I was born in Assam and have my roots there, but this doesn’t stop me from supporting the demand for a long overdue ‘Gorkhaland’”, says Dhiren Thapa, a college student presently studying in Delhi.
Let us take a minute and question ourselves as to why the peace-loving ethnic Nepalis / Gorkhas are all of a sudden demanding a separate statehood? Is it just a passing fashion or an attempt by ambitious politicians to raise their profile and votes? Is it really about ‘statehood’?
I think the issue is much deeper; the angst beyond what is obvious. Whether we like to hear about it or not, but the truth is, Nepalis have been the subject of racist jokes and ridicule. Be it in movies or TV serials, Nepalis are always shown as characters playing the part of a ‘chowkidaar’ with a very funny ‘shaab jee’ accent. As if they are not capable of anything else.
This stereotyping was clearly visible, when recently an RJ of a popular radio passed unsavoury comments on the newly crowned Indian Idol, Prashant Tamang from Darjeeling.
This abuse is not limited to the periphery of media alone. Even reputed schools and colleges are said to discriminate students with regard to their ethnicity. “I clearly remember how my teacher used to single me out and call me names based on my Nepali ethnicity. My classmates and the local guys used to tease me calling me names such as ‘kanchee’, it was a very humiliating experience”, recounts Padma Pradhan from Guwahati, Assam. It is also unfortunate that the gorkhas or ‘doaars’ have been abused as aliens in their own country by some of the so-called anti-social elements of North Bengal.
Therefore, for the common Nepali the status of Darjeeling as Gorkhaland is a symbol of hope and resurgence. But the irony is - nobody cares for the hopes, aspiration and conflicting identity of millions of Indian Nepalis.
Let us now re-focus ourselves on Darjeeling. Statements like, ‘Darjeeling, is it in Meghalaya?’ ‘I like Darjeeling tea’, ‘what a great place for budget tourists’ are very common statements made by the ignorant country fellowmen. Can people look at Darjeeling beyond a tourist destination and a tea-vending hill? Why can’t people acknowledge that it is also the land, which sings songs of valour and has a position of pride in the Indian Defence forces? Even a minority community like ‘gujjars’ from north India captures the main national headlines and imagination of all than the decade-long agitation of the gorkhas.
Let us admit that Darjeeling is in a state of shambles. Unemployment is rampant in the absence of avenues apart from the tea and tourism industry (even the tea industry is facing the problem of lockouts). The only resort left for many is to migrate to bigger cities and metros and join the BPOs (business process outsourcing) - the back-office destination. May be we ourselves are to be blamed for this deprived state or is it the stereotyping by our country fellowmen. There may be many arguments but one thing is for sure, if we let things remain just as they are then surely we are ought to dig our own graves.
During the recent GJM (Gorkha Jana Mukti) meeting, the delegates quoted that statehood is the only solution to the ongoing problems and that it would fulfil the age-old demand of the Indian gorkhas. Whether Darjeeling is granted statehood or the sixth schedule is implemented, that only time will tell us. Meanwhile, my fingers are crossed.

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=129247&catID=2&category=India

10 January 2008

Prashant and Deepali performing in in Golden palm resort in Bangalore
















We had our annual fest in Golden palm resort in Bangalore couple of weeks back, and Deepali Kishore and Prashant Tamang were roped in for the event. I never followed Indian Idol closely but its its a pity that Deepali din't even make it to the final rounds. She has got awesome singing talent and is an excellent performer on stage, and on most importantly, she is HOT!On the other hand Prashant was trying sing the melodious number in spite of requests from the audience for some rocking hip hop numbers. Here are some of the pics that I took during the event.













1 January 2008

watch this out


Just giving you somthing to imagine, I think they will all look pretty cool together. And yes, ppl, it is a morphed poster to please dont waste your talents proving it fake

Nepali Nationalism and Prashant Tamang

(Courtesy: Roop Joshi)

The latest display of nationalism, or at least a variation of it, which I saw recently came about in rather an ironic fashion. An Indian Policeman from Darjeeling won the “Indian Idol” song competition and Nepalis went wild with pride and joy. This is not to take anything away from Prashant. A clean cut young man, who probably looks more “Nepali” than you or me, he has a beautiful voice and sings Nepali songs from the heart. The irony, obviously, is that the latest show of Nepali nationalism can be attributed to the musical talents of an Indian policeman. Where then are our Nepali icons and idols?

Nationalism is defined as “Patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts; policy of national independence” by the Oxford English Dictionary. In today’s Nepal, nationalism means different things to different people. It is a concept either mutated for political convenience or, more often, ignored altogether. What makes us proud to be a Nepali and how do we express this pride? Certainly it is foolish to be proud of our current development status, economic or political. So we need to look elsewhere to fan the sparks that can ignite the flames of our patriotism. History is an obvious area, but there are other not so obvious areas which can provide us with these sparks too.

While it has become recent fashion to debase our history for political reasons, we cannot ignore our glorious history. During the last truly national war, Balbhadra Kunwar displayed his bravery at Kalapani earning the respect of his British adversaries; the names of Kazi Amar Singh Thapa and Bhakti Thapa also shine on from that war. Bahadur Shah’s consolidation of his brother’s work in forming Nepal is a lasting legacy. The great poet laureate Bhanubhakta Acharya; the literary giants Lekh Nath Poudyal and Laxmi Prasad Devkota; more recently, Kazi Sherpa, mountaineer supreme who has climbed Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) more times than any other human – these names and many others adorn our history. And the name that reigns above all is one Pritihivi Narayan Shah, who founded Nepal by means of his leadership and military genius and with the gallant support of his army, composed, it might be noted, not only of chhetris but numerous other hill tribes. This is the same Pritihivi Narayan Shah whose remembrance day, a national holiday, was ignored last year so fickly by an unelected interim government. The same individual without whose deeds, none of us would be Nepalis today. Alas, nationalism is but a pawn these days of power grabbing politicians.

Besides history, we must be proud of our country’s natural beauty. Agreed hungry stomachs cannot appreciate nature’s bounty; but that’s another issue, already mentioned above. We live in the shadow of the great Sagarmatha. Our rivers rush down from the Himalayas in torrents of silver streaks. The beauty of Nepal draws tourists from all over the world making it one of the prime trekking and mountaineering destinations. The artistry of our temples awe all. Not least, the gentle hospitality of the Nepali people is appreciated by the world. Given the events of the past 11 years, all of this may sound maudlin and laughable. But if we are to recover from these gory 11 years, these items of pride are the very instruments which will aid the recovery.

We do seem to have very little to be proud of today, in these times of lack of law and order, rabid corruption and the hawking of our sovereignty to foreigners. But the trick is to rise above our condition and to act with vision and courage for a better future, one that we can be truly proud of. This effort, in itself, is Nationalism. We must not forget that we are a proud people never subjugated to colonialism, That we are Nepalis first, seconding our ethnicity for the greater good. This is not a dreamer’s wish. If we are to survive as a nation, we must all be Nepalis first. We can safeguard our ethnic heritage, but never forget that we are first and foremost Nepalis. We need to inculcate in ourselves discipline and fairness. For example, Switzerland has 10 times the number of vehicles as compared to Nepal, in an area less than 30% of Nepal’s. Yet the chaotic traffic that we see here is unheard of there. The simple reason being that all drivers know traffic rules and follow them strictly. Obviously we need to raise ourselves from the mire of poverty. Hopefully, a stable legitimate government will soon be in place which will concentrate on development as opposed to staying in power. Well, we can always hope!

Sports is one area in which Nepalis are doing well while much more still needs to be done. The haul of tae-kwon-do medals garnered by our athletes in international competitions is something to be truly proud of. A gold medal Olympian would coalesce the nation in a show of real nationalism. Beijing beckons. Our film industry has not risen to the challenge of nationalism. A recent Indian film “Chak De India” (we seem to be looking south for all our examples, but that, in itself, is no sin) made Indians proud of their nationality. Why not have a film that inspires Nepali nationalism, which could also be commercially successful at the same time? The theater arts and music also bend well to inspiring nationalism. I remember vividly Ganesh Rasik’s song of the 1960’s with lyrics dripping with nationalistic fervour - “Hati hoena dati ladne Nepali ko bani huncha/Kahiley najhukne seer utheko swavimani Nepali huncha….” We must use lines like these to motivate us, to work harder, to be proud of being Nepali.

Prashant Tamang is a gifted singer who sings also in Nepali with brilliance. Our nationalism however must be stirred by stronger stuff - true pride, made in Nepal. We have much to be proud of if we can only shake off the lack of confidence our economic condition bestows on us. We are indeed a poor country. We must strive for progress. Meanwhile, let each of us do his or her part in making us proud of being a Nepali. Let us never lose our self-respect. Thank you, Prashant, for giving us a glimmer of nationalism. But now we want to do it our own way – the Nepali way!