Way to Go Kathmandu Croozin’ Girl! | Music

There may not be a more opportune time than now to explore our strengths, and to prove that we can, if we try. The civilised West may identify Nepalis with Sagarmatha and the brave Gorkha but they often have to face closer and stricter scrutiny than other people when it comes to travelling abroad. The recent political developments seem to have pricked Western sensibilities in the wrong spot, however, the ill-gotten reputation of flouting visa norms and illegal employment practices has long shadowed the Nepali striving to go abroad for studies or employment.

Students frequently drop out from college to work, entire teams of athletes have disappeared on foreign soil and requests for asylum abroad are not uncommon. There are, however, rare moments and some special people who make Nepalis proud through their achievements abroad. The average Nepali may not enjoy a very high esteem, at home or elsewhere, but there are enough examples of high achieving Nepalis to light up a beacon of hope for the future.

Sujata Tuladhar, the beautiful voice who took you around the city every Sunday morning on Kathmandu Kroozin' on Hits FM 91.2 [2002], seems well on her way to big things and high achievements. Getting offers from many colleges in the U.S., including some Ivy Leagues, she decided on Connecticut College to pursue her Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts. Always a person with a strong drive to achieve, she breezed through her freshman year. After her sophomore year, she was selected by National Public Radio to be part of a five-person team that was trained in various facets of radio journalism by professional journalists. She then went on to intern with the British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC] in Belfast, Northern Ireland while pursuing research for her senior honours thesis on the prospect of reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

A senior now, the latest feather in her illustrious crown is the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for her project Community Radio as a Vehicle for Social Change. The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was started in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of IBM Corporation, and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honour their parents' long-standing interest in education and world affairs. Sujata, the first international student from her college to be awarded the fellowship, has been provided $22,000 for a year of independent exploration and travel in South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, where she will explore the universal applicability of community radio as a way to empower underprivileged communities.

As Beverly Larson, the executive director of the Watson Fellowship Program and a former Watson Fellow says, "The awards are long-term investments in people likely to lead or innovate." Early days to predict the highs Sujata may reach in the future but we have our hopes on her. Way to Go!