Oct. has been a busy month for all. The celestial mural changes shade from the deepest blue at 5 AM to several shades of pink by 5 PM. The mountains come out in their finest all day long. And everyone looks forward to a few minutes in the sun. WAVE headed out to Pokhara on 1 Oct [pg.32-33]. Seven days later, the WAVE Music Utsav started only to finish on 15 Oct. as Nepal's biggest music festival ever [pg 45+]. WAVE has also gained weight over Dasain, from 36 pages in Aug. to 52 pages in Oct., we are now 60 pages in all. Everyone has been truly busy, some to live, some to kill, many just dying. Dasain came and went, as did the 9- day- long ceasefire declared by the Maoists. A day after the ceasefire, 12 Nepalis were reported killed in this armed conflict and the numbers inscrease everyday. The nation waits for a new day when we find heroes within ourselves.
Every generation is a new beginning for many things, guitar culture included. The tones Prism added to Nepal cannot be forgotten. Budding guitarists here can now look upto the growing army of guitarists Nepal has produced since Prism took center stage in 1978. The Axe Men [pg.25- 27] is a series that will span over several issues of WAVE, our tribute to Nepal's guitar heroes. WAVE Hot Licks Vol. 2, the only solo guitar contest in Nepal is being held for the 2nd time on 6 and 7 Nov. This will surely be a glimpse of some of the finest guitarists iin the years to come.
WAVE has hit the stands a few days into Nov., but the briskness of business has not slowed down. Hot Licks during the month's first weekend, hitting the road on the 7th to bring you snapshots of the Darjeeling Carnival [pg. 34] next month, organising the 3rd annual website designing contest, WAVE Web Winner [pg. 51], and of course looking forward to all the lights of Tihar, which starts on the 10th.
20th Century Fox looms heavy over this era of the 21st century; the only heroes we are now attuned to are best viewed on wide screens with surround sound. Have heroes become only a part of our imagination, on coloured pages of DC and MARVEL or those who fly around cityscapes on wings created by digital fx? This month WAVE finds heroes here in the city; their super powers? The human spirit! Our heroes barely make it through the day, everyday. To them, the rising sun is not just another break of dawn. It is another shot at life, another flash of hope, a repeat of yesterday's hardships. But there is something there that gives them A Reason To Believe [pg. 18-21]. Our cover story this month takes you into a world that so many of us are alienated from.
The human spirit is fantastic, capable of doing and withstanding things beyond our expectations or imagination. But everyone's days are numbered. What do you and I have to offer to the man in the mirror, to life and the world after this break of dawn? Here comes the sun.
