P Kharel

Good travel writing is not confined to scribbling casually and not bothering to rewrite. Its quality involves piecing together observations and information arranged and presented in a substantive sequence for an absorbing read. An ardent student of this genre of writing, the late Pushkar Lal Shrestha’s travel theme threads through an array of people and places, events and landmarks. His published articles have been compiled into an informative and pleasant read, “Yatra bideshko, chinta swadeshko” (Travels Abroad, Concerns of Home).
The noted journalist, who pioneered Nepali entertainment journalism as a professional and commercially viable undertaking, powered by the Kamana magazine, narrates in the new publication various facets of life and environs. The narrative is a breezy style, recalling and reliving his impressions about encounters with people and places, their habits and outlook. Cities in South Asia, China, Europe and the United States are among the places covered.
Released by Kamana News Publications, the near-350-page book presents a collection of 27 travel write-ups through the editor’s eyes, containing the detail of what the author saw, noted and penned for print in a lucid, straightforward narrative befitting someone whose entire career was devoted to journalism, and with remarkable distinction. An avid note-keeper, his personal diary recorded incidents and observations he considered interesting and insightful for future reference.
Shrestha launched and edited two largest circulating magazines in specialised genres and also the best afternoon daily, Mahanagar, which appeared with flying colours before getting grounded as did all its competitors. Afternoon newspaper readers have shifted their attention to the broadcast media — several hundred radio stations, dozens of TV channels, the omnipresent internet — as well as more than a dozen broadsheet dailies, including the Kamana group’s Samacharpatra, with nationwide distribution networks. In addition, there are 100-plus other daily papers and numerous periodicals to navigate.

Distinction
The pioneer par excellence with an editor’s eyes for detail and ticklish issues revels in writing his travel notes with relish. The flow of the fare is simple, smooth and delightfully wholesome. Eyes and ears to the ground open, Shrestha, during his more than 35-year journalism career, was always alert for any bit of information or clue of potential interest that deserved comments, reports and follow-ups. This habit accompanied him in his travel trips.
Wings of words should be able to bring to life events, conditions and emotions to the powerfully imaginative best for readers to be engrossed or immersed in the cast and character, environs and clime portrayed in a write-up. Travel narratives should walk the readers through events and present the characters and sites vividly. Shrestha converses with his readers rather than himself. The smooth-paced narratives are strewn with nuanced satire and candid commendation.
Painfully pedestrian travel writing marks the few write-ups that see the formal light of print in Nepal. Shrestha elevates meaningful travel writing in Nepali to a new height. Sights and sounds stir his sense of newness and information angling in the collection of articles. The subtopics are as diverse as his many trips and encounters. He introduces Nepalis abroad, establishing a link with the Nepali readership. His are the observations of a keen reporter and the desire of a mass communicator producing a narrative easy to feel, understand and appreciate.
The impressions narrated by two of Shrestha’s sons, Derek Lal and Anuj Lal, add to the understanding of the family man, social worker and workaholic journalist in their father. In the process, readers get a bird’s eye view of his devotion to scribing and journalism.
It was only passion for the profession that kept Shrestha going. As the publisher of several publications with a large number of staff members, he had to look after the organisation’s management and financial affairs that kept him constantly busy. His refusal to oblige demands by Maoist hordes invited threats to his life and limb, and triggered a shutdown that forced the publication to stop printing for about a week. But he pulled on, also amply supported by his son Derek, who now holds the Kamana house fort.
To recall, in my weekly column “Potpourri”, in The Rising Nepal in 1985, I had briefly critiqued the Kamana entertainment magazine. Some months later, Shrestha thanked me at a programme for the “very encouraging” comments on the publication’s contents. He later showed me the newspaper clipping that marked the first press appreciation of Kamana which circulated with a roaring success among stage and screen artistes as well as readers in general. Shrestha’s and my professional views in quite a few issues were similar, though I contributed to his paper not more than a dozen times with news and views. He was not averse to seeking my opinion on in-house issues, as did a number of other big media houses.

Worthwhile ventures
Today’s entertainment pages in broadsheet news dailies and broadcast services owe him much for successfully catering to entertainment readership. In 1984, the distinguished chief editor-publisher-to-be identified and believed in the prospect of that genre of journalism’s market value and readership. With a feel for the public pulse, he possessed a sense of taste, timing and market space. The health magazine, Sadhana, is the other Kamana house publication that leads the country’s publications carrying the banner of this genre. Both the magazines have survived the slump in the general copy sales and revenue flow suffered by virtually all publications, aggravated by the arrival of the digital media and numerous outlets competing for the advertising cake whose size has not grown proportionately.
Pushkar Lal Shrestha is no more with us since 20 months, but his admirable legacy and write-ups endure. Both as a social worker and a journalist, the former national football and badminton player was the most accessible editor-publisher in big media groups. His publications continue circulating while his write-ups and books offer comprehensive perspectives, acquainting especially the younger generation with who he was as well as what the journalist-analyst in him observed, thought and put to pen and paper. His memoir, Kalam, was a runaway success, the most successful of its type penned by any Nepali journalist.
Pain and anguish, celebrities and celebrations, sports, people, places, personalities and many more mark the Kamana organisation’s latest book. A keen observer for interesting facts, Shrestha’s relentless preoccupation is with anything of relevance to his readership. As was the trait of his comments on current issues written for Nepal Samacharpatra, Shrestha's travel pieces are strewn with notable quotes. Allow me to lift one of them, perhaps carrying a warning to other countries fraught with conflicts of various shades: “Haiti is an example of how incompetent and irresponsible leaders decimate a country.”

(Professor Kharel specialises in political communication.)