Singer provides hope to Nepalese
BALTIMORE (AP) - For millions of Nepalese worldwide, Prem Raja Mahat's
rich, mellow voice is an instant portal to an idyllic picture of
life and love beneath the vistas of the highest mountain range in
the world.
The Nepalese music superstar is currently crafting
his 47th album - while working as a restaurant manager in Baltimore,
where he makes about three times what he did as his country's version
of Bruce Springsteen.
"I miss Nepal, because they love me there.
I miss being famous," Mahat said recently, sipping a frothy
yogurt lassi and watching the early dinner crowd stroll past the
Mughal Garden restaurant, where he earns about $3,000 a month.
"But in my country there is fighting and death
and poverty. That is why I left," he said. "Every parent
in the world...wants to do well for their children. I am no different."
There are approximately 50,000 Nepalese in the
United States, according to Krishna Aryal, first secretary at the
Embassy of Nepal in Washington.
Forty percent of Nepal's 23 million people live
in poverty, and tourism to Katmandu, the country's culturally rich
capital, and Mt. Everest, which straddles the Nepal-China border,
has dropped because of violence. The Himalayan kingdom lies between
China and India.
Todd Lewis, a professor of religion at the College
of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., who has lived in Nepal periodically
over the past 23 years, said Nepalese from all parts of society
have left the country in search of better lives.
"Having talent, even recording, doesn't necessarily
get you anywhere financially in Nepal," Lewis said. "Even
a modest, middle-class life here running a restaurant would still
be vastly more lucrative than staying in Nepal and living off of
one of the poorest communities in the world."
|
