October 1 is marked as the International Day for the Elderly. We met some beloved personalities whose contribution to the country and society is immense.

Kathmandu:

They have seen everything, straddled a world that was without comfort and luxury of modern technical comforts, and have witnessed an age where the rest of the world is just a click away. It is understandable they feel lost in this era of the net and g-mails, and no surprise their eyes light up when they think back on their childhood and recall favourite memories.

A crowd had turned up to celebrate Rastrakavi Madhav Ghimire’s 87th birthday recently. According to him, the beautiful part of old age is the calm, the peace, the knowledge and experience, and patience. “When people get old, they start complaining about many things. This is not good. The elderly should generate courage, enthusiasm in youngsters.”

Over the years, he has seen a number of changes in the way people think. However, he believes this change is something from the outside and not from within. Therefore, he says, transformation in practice has not yet taken place as desired. “The physical advancement has taken place to a large extent, but traditions are the same.”

He is saddened by the disintegration of joint families. He observes this could also be because of the economic condition where a single earner cannot provide for a large family.

According to Ghimire, joint family is the best form of organisation where human values like love and respect thrives. In the present situation, family as an organisation has become inactive and people want to associate with other social, political organisations, he feels.

He also says as the youngsters do not want to listen to elders, the trend is to call this a “generation gap”. “An old person may not be educated or a philosopher or a poet, yet s/he is educated in experiences of life, and can always give directions to the educated people of the next generation,” says Ghimire.

Another versatile personality — Hari Prasad Rimal — recalls, “I was eleven when I acted in my first play at Darbar High School.” Having come from a privileged family, he recalls performing “either at the Ranas’ palaces or at Indra Jatra and Gai Jatra”.

He followed his heart and his passion has earned him accolades galore.

His wife Kalyani, who was an RJ at Radio Nepal, has always been there to share in his happiness and sorrow. Two of their sons are abroad, but their daughter is there to take care of them. At 81, he still acts and works like he used to do when young. “You must always keep your soul young, or else you are no more,” he says.

He says he longed to be famous and “I wanted to please the audience to the best of my ability. You must internalise the character’s role that you are performing, and only then you infuse it with reality.” Rimal says that experience has been his best teacher.

He is not really happy with the current development of art. “We have not seen a significant achievement so far,” he says. He opines enhancement of technology is just a short-cut, but hard work yields fruit. “Had we had not endured all that hardship, we would never have achieved what we have,” he says.

With sparkling eyes 82-year-old Janakavi Kesari Dharma Raj Thapa recalls the orange orchard at his home in Pokhara and the mountains of oranges piled in courtyards at harvest time.

He remembers women from far off villages coming to his house for the oranges and as travel was not so easy then, they would usually stay the night. Thapa remembers these night times fondly. He says that during such nights they used to sing all types of folk songs and as he had a sweet voice he almost always accompanied the women in their singing.

This, he says, is how his fascination for singing began, and he not only began collecting the lyrics but also the rhythm of the folk tunes.

Coming to Kathmandu gave him the opportunity to associate with literary figures and carried a study on his own on Nepali, Hindi and English literatures. And for his poetic and singing talents, he has earned everyone’s respect.

“Literature has undergone a lot of changes. Poem nowadays are written also in prose. I do not say this is wrong as it helps our literature to be on parallel with world literature. Yet the ornaments of folk literature are originality and simplicity,” says Thapa. Though physically weak, it does not stop him from pursuing writing. Pioneer actress of the Nepali film industry, Shanti Maskey, recalls singing with Dharma Raj Thapa. “It was live singing at Nepal Radio for a function to welcome king Mahendra in Biratnagar,” she recalls.

Maskey has worked throughout her life for the promotion and preservation of Nepali art and culture. In a career spanning almost six-decades, she was the most-happening actress of her time. But it was shock to realise that residents of Thasikhel (her residential area) did not know who Maskey was or if she was their neighbour. “Who is she?” a teenager asked.

Maskey started her career as a play actor with Balkrishna ‘Sama’ in the fifties. She ventured into the movie industry in the early sixties and has been actively involved till date. However, she says, “I witnessed time taking a giant leap in my hey days, but I have not seen a significant advancement in the industry in terms of aesthetic and thematic aspects of films in our country.”

Being one of the first ladies to step into the movie world, hers was never an easy journey. And life has become lonelier for her. “I am living on my own,” says the 80-year-old Maskey.

She had to have a pacemaker placed inside her after an accident while shooting for the film Santan. With her only daughter abroad, her fear is she “might die with no one around”.