IN sEaRCH Of an anthem.....

Considering the urban influence on the hip-hop music genre, it is surprising to hear Nirnaya Shrestha, whose hip-hop nom de guerre is Nirnaya Da'NSK, say most of his songs are inspired by a patriotic love for his country.

When reminded of the numerous odes to bling, babes and dollar bills, Nirnaya is quick to point out that hip-hop is less about glamour and more about story telling, whatever that context might be. And such are the times that, the state of the country being what it is, hip-hop songs are now about the unity and preservation of the nation and the national sense of being.
It is not just Nirnaya. Robin and the New Revolution put out a rock number '13,000' in memory of those who had died in the war and called for everyone to remember their sacrifice. 1974 AD's 'Yo Man Ta Mero Nepali Ho' is probably their most well known song after 'Sambodhan'.
Perhaps it is an indication that more than ever before we need an anthem to remind us of who we are, and where we want to be. How close are we to finding one in the modern age?
If you are young enough to remember the school playground, the songs that made the list of every cultural program or parent's day at school were the oldies that went back many decades to the seventies. You either danced to 'Maitighar, Maitighar', crooned Gopal Yonzan's 'Desh le ragat mage malai bali chadhau' if you were lucky enough to have the voice for it, or marched to 'Rato ra Chandra Surya' with a flag fluttering up front.
There wasn't one particular song that tugged the heartstrings of Nepalis, there were many. The potential power of each these songs to unify was diluted by the sheer number of them. Compare this with A R Rahman's rousing 'Vande Mataram' or Neil Diamond's powerful 'America'.
"There was almost a void in the genre," says Nirnaya, "because while they made you nostalgic and even cry, there was not anything contemporary that spoke to the young people, that made them stand up with their hands on their hearts pledging allegiance to the nation."
"I wrote 'Ma Nepali' when most of my friends were leaving the country," he says. "Almost everyone seemed to want to go away. There was no pride in being a Nepali. I wanted people to be proud of their heritage, and I wanted this song to do that."
'Ma Nepali' sold more than 25,000 copies the year it was released and Nirnaya even won the award for Best Vocal Performance with National Feeling at the Image Awards. But 'Ma Nepali' did not become the song you remember when you think of Nirnaya as he had hoped it would. That' still 'Din Pani Bityo'. "Most of my songs are patriotic," says Nirnaya. "I wrote 'Mechi dekhi Mahakali Samma' after that, and that didn't exactly fly off the shelves."
In the straight-up mainstream pop genre, Raju Lama played around with his folksy ballad style to produce 'Mero Nepal', literally a love song to the nation. Probably the most heartbreaking of all is Nepathya's Amrit Gurung's entire album Mero Desh written during the conflict, as a "longing for peace".
Up in the mountain
There was once a resting place
Where our sweat was offered to its    grace
There was once a tree shed
Where our tired mind could rest in    place
Those who exchanged their joy and    grief
At that time in these places of relief
Now gaze at each other with blank eyes
As if there is no more life
My country…My Land…My country…