The Nepalese expatriate community in Qatar is full of dreamers, hoping to build a bright future for themselves and their near and dear ones. Unable to support their families back home, even some of the brightest Nepalese minds have found themselves heading to greener pastures such as Qatar.
Mangal BK is one such person. Passionate for music, this talented singer struggled for 16 years in Nepal before moving here in 2014 to work for Qatar Airways. A singer, composer, lyricist, recorder and instrumentalist, Mangal was a prominent feature of the Nepalese folk-modern musical scene before he decided to come here. He has composed more than 150 songs and performed over 20 of them himself.
Some of the talented and popular singers he has performed with include Pramod Kharel, Shiva Pariyar, Anju Panta and Deepak Limbu — they have all performed in Qatar.
Even though he now works a full time job in Qatar, Mangal has not given up on his passion and continues to take on projects back home. He recently composed a background score for an NTV telefilm. His next project is the background score of a soon-to-be-released feature film, titled Janti.
In his two years in Qatar, Mangal has managed to find time to compose 15 songs and has recorded two of them in his own voice. Gradually, he has expanded the instruments that he owns and has transformed his apartment into a sort of mini studio.
Remembering his 16 years of career as a full-time musician in Nepal, Mangal says his career as a musician was not enough to support his single mother, his wife and a son. Though his fellow musicians back home urge him to return, he believes his future lies in Qatar.
BK completed an intermediate course in music from Nepal’s only government college dedicated to fine arts — Lalit Kala Campus in Kathmandu. He went on to do his undergraduate studies in vocal and rhythm in Allahabad, India. “I was the first Nepali who did bachelors from Allahabad.”
Mangal says he is from a working class family and could not afford to study music. He took a loan from his neighbours and was lucky enough to find a job at a restaurant with the help of renowned folk singer Bima Kumari Dura. In those days, Mangal recalls, he would attend college in the mornings and sing at the establishment in the evenings.
“My mother disliked me singing at a restaurant at nights,” he recalls, adding that his other relatives were not happy with his job either. But he kept at it and eventually got a job as a recorder at a studio. There he stayed for three years, sending the little money he could save back home.
After his stint at the studio, he got a job in Kathmandu, teaching at different music institutes there. He worked as a music teacher for about four years. “My mother was not happy [with what I was doing]. She didn’t like me singing, composing and writing; she wanted me to pursue a diploma in medicine.”
He had “become popular outside his home, and disliked within.” It was then when he spotted an advertisement for a Qatar Airways job in a local newspaper. After getting the nod from his family, he applied for and got the job.
But he wasn’t done with his dream. Two months after coming to Qatar, he was invited to perform at a musical programme in Qatar. “And now, everyone here, in community and the office, loves my voice and work.”
He is now able to afford decent living conditions for his family members. He puts equal emphasis on work, music and his family.
Starting in March, he will also teach music at the Nepalese Cultural Centre in Doha. He is also the judge of Nonresident Nepalese Singing Idol 2015-16, a mega singing contest targeted at Nepali expatriates in Qatar. He has performed thrice in India and twice in Dubai, and has been awarded and honoured by multiple Nepalese organisations.
Having lost his father at an early age, he wants to become a role model for his son. Mangal wants to give his son everything that he never had, and Qatar has helped him with his dream. “My savings of two years here is more than what I made in my sixteen years of struggle in Nepal.”
He says he is happy to be in Qatar.