Kathmandu, July 1 (Inditop.com) They have been under continuous fire from the Maoists as well as royalists and nationalists for allegedly overstepping their roles and intervening in the internal matters of Nepal. Now the two beleaguered diplomats – Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood and his American counterpart Nancy J. Powell – have decided to reveal that they were truly more than ambassadors and shoot back.
With their cameras.
The two envoys, who have been the most favourite diplomatic targets of the Maoists, communists and the media in Nepal, have teamed up to show the true picture Friday when the photographs taken by them in Nepal and other places will be unveiled at an exhibition called ‘More than Ambassadors’.
Sood, who began his Nepal assignment last year, says till he came to Kathmandu, Afghanistan had been his most challenging – and also most rewarding – assignment.
“The landscape is amazing,” the envoy said. “From high barren mountains to fruit orchards by babbling streams to burning deserts. The faces of the people reflect the turbulent history of this land.”
Sood, who began dabbling in photography 40 years ago while “playing around” with his father’s camera, is hoping the photographs taken in Afghanistan will convey “a small part of this amazing land and its brave people”.
Powell, who will be leaving Nepal soon, having been appointed director-general of foreign services by the Obama administration, calls the Himalayan republic a “photographer’s paradise with its beautiful and incredibly tolerant people, its fascinating cultural artifacts and architecture, and its amazing landscapes from Chitwan to Mustang”.
“My photos will bring back many pleasant memories of my time in Nepal,” she says.
The ambassador’s Mustang visit whipped up a storm among the Maoists. They accused her and the Indian authorities of working in tandem to foment anti-China sentiments in Mustang, once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom and now Nepal’s frontier with Tibet.
In the turbulent 1950s and 60s, Mustang had been used as a base by Tibetan guerrillas loyal to their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, to keep up armed opposition to the Chinese. They received training and support from the CIA.
The two envoys, who have continued to be in the limelight, have been joined in the photographic exhibition by a third diplomat, who, unlike them, is among the most non-controversial. Finn Thilstead, the Danish envoy to Nepal, will be displaying the photographs he took during an earlier stint in Kenya. Thilstead compares Nepal, bubbling with unrest since 1950, favourably with Kenya, at least from the perspective of a photographer.
“It is much easier to take photos of people here than in Kenya, where many people do not want to be photographed, and at times can be very aggressive,” he says.
The exhibition at the Indigo Gallery in Kathmandu will be on till July 19 with the money raised from the sale of the photographs to be donated to an organisation working with children.
