Unabashedly Nepali

Credit: nepalitypo.blogspot.com

The week between Game of Thrones episode for me is always the time for incessant theory-searching. I read hundreds of articles, watch hundreds of videos every week not just to gain an unpopular intel on the plot but honestly, just to stay sane through the wait. So last night when I was satiating my inquisitiveness via Youtube, I stumbled onto a video regarding some scenes from the show which didn't make the final cut. The video mentioned an actress named something "Acharya" whose character had died a horrible death in Season 2. "Hmmm....That sounds vaguely like a Nepali name" I thought to myself and immediately googled her.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the actress who played one of Danaerys' helper is a Nepali girl named Amrita Acharia. I was beyond excited. A Nepali person was not only present on the sets of Game of Thrones but also played a moderately important character. There were two things running through my mind at that moment- Why on earth didn't I already know of this? and that I had to know everything about her.

Remember her?

"Man, if a Nepali girl could play a part on Game of Thrones- I could totally be a billionaire" - naive Anusha circa August 2017

I was feeling super pumped and everything was great, for exactly two minutes. Until I stumbled onto some information about her that said that even though she was half-Nepali and born and brought up in Nepal until her pre-teens, she identified as a Norwegian as she had lived there most of her life so it felt more like home to her than anywhere in the world. To be fair, I don't think there's anything wrong with her calling herself Norwegian. A place doesn't have to be home just because you were born there. But honestly, the fact that she didn't call herself a Nepali broke my heart a little.

A place doesn't have to be home just because you were born there

As someone who was born and raised in Nepal, I'd go on so much as to say that we are desperate to have our name put on the map. No wonder, Nepali people have almost always won the awards arbitrated through online votes. Case in point, CNN heroes awards won by Anuradha Koirala in 2010, Pushpa Basnet in 2012 and Nepal-based social worker Maggie Doyne in 2015,and Mira Rai winning the 2017 Adventurer of the year by National Geography among others. This is also why a Nepali person who pays no heed to beauty pageants watches Miss World pageant each year religiously. We just want to watch our name on TV, no kidding.

Couple years back, an Indian guy won Indian Idol only because he was brought up in a Nepali-speaking community and Nepali people took it upon themselves to make him win. Ignore the fact that, the guy was born in Darjeeling, India and isn't Nepali, even technically!
We beam with pride each time Prabal Gurung's couture is worn by so and so Hollywood actress but we do not care that Prabal Gurung is primarily an "American Fashion designer".

Nepali people, I've noticed, just want to be acknowledged. Our country is stricken with all sorts of issues and problems so it's understandable that we seek validation from the rest of the world. We will share any mention of Nepal on International media relentlessly until it's the only thing that comes up in everyone's social media feed. We don't care if it's through a movie with a 3 minute scene actually shot in Nepal ( Dr. strange), on a web article for Best Spring Trips 2017 on the Natgeo website( Pokhara made it, you guys!) or via people who are somehow connected to Nepal like Ms. Acharia.

Let's just hope we are soon blessed with someone new to be proud of who not only stands as a role model for millions of Nepali kids but also is unabashedly Nepali to the world. Now that would be something, don't you think?

Comments

PrakritiAugust 3, 2020 at 6:12 AM
Yes let's hope that. Let's hope we become that someone. Let's hope we'll be the ones to say " i am a nepali, 100%, born and raised and a proud one at that", not 5% italian 40% american and 55% Nepali. Nope. Let's be unabashedly Nepali
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