The Record, Nepal
This may be an odd thing to say about a newspaper, but I love The Record. I started reading the digital paper since its first publication back in 2015, when—fun fact—a Williams alum was desk editor. I firmly believe the paper was a trailblazer for Nepali journalism because The Record not only produces analytical and accessible writing but also consistently elevates marginalized voices in its stories. Given the narrow scope of history and social studies classes in Nepali schools as well as my recent departure to the United States for college, I regret that there is a lot I do not understand about Nepal. So every time The Record publishes something new, I experience a strange personal indebtedness to this paper for uncovering those histories, stories, and struggles erased out of curriculums and mainstream news by nationalist campaigns and capitalist agendas. Developing a civic consciousness that is inclusive and discerning is a difficult task in the turbulence of Nepal politics. The Record is an essential publication for Nepal because it takes a deep look at our social issues, and problems, and explains the nuances of events and people that are driving our reality.
Two days after I landed in Kathmandu I had a preliminary meeting with The Record’s current desk editor, Supriya Manandhar, to discuss my upcoming internship. I was nervous and excited, because the work was really close to my heart. I do not know what I was expecting The Record’s offices to look like at the time, but I definitely was not expecting a single room, with a corner desktop, a table for four in the middle and two bookshelves. On one wall was a large map of Nepal with its new federal borders, and on another a whiteboard and a chart endlessly listing topics of interest. As Supriya di opened the door, she gestured broadly towards the one room and chuckled, “This is where all the magic happens.”
Until this summer, I had mostly interned in the non-profit sector, where I hoped to make a career. My aspirations drastically transformed last year as yet another organization left me disillusioned. The organization received foreign aid and ran projects for marginalized communities to combat various social issues, but I found that most of the aid was directed towards sustaining the organization’s extensive bureaucracy, and very little trickled down to communities in need. Even then, the money trickled down in the form of trainings and workshops that were poorly designed by officials who were not in touch with the people they hoped to empower. The Record, on the other hand, is an independent newspaper that is public-access, ad-free, and entirely funded by voluntary donations from readers. Its office upkeep is low budget, and all of the remaining donations are used to provide fair compensation to contributors and promote the paper’s accessibility. Realizing The Record’s transparency of accounts, symbolized by its one room office, was incredibly encouraging and affirming. Indeed, my eight weeks with The Record have revealed that the newspaper has a bolder commitment to social justice and more ethical pathways towards it than any non-profit I have worked with.
Working at The Record was incredibly exciting and rewarding. My first day in fact was the paper’s first fundraiser party where I met the most fascinating people in Kathmandu. I sat between our country’s Fulbright director and an education activist who was an international student from Nepal at Grinnell College in the ’90s! At our table were other journalists, scholars, artists as well. In Kathmandu, the damaged roads, pollution, corruption, traffic, injustice, a sense that progress has halted in our nation, makes it easy to fall into despair. But on my way home that night, I felt as if the present moment in Kathmandu was charged with a youthful and determined energy; I felt empowered.
This energy never left me. Often, as an intern at other organizations I have found myself isolated to assistive work, withheld from being a true participant in decision-making. But The Record has a core team of three people who work closely together and when I joined, I became a full member. Everyone was always brimming with ideas and work was always collaborative. I found the freedom to take up projects that interested me, and the support to carry them through. I was an organic part of office meetings, brainstorming sessions as well as fun outings.
The Editor in Chief is Gyanu Adhikari and the most easy going person I know, and yet he has lived an extraordinary life—went to Swarthmore, worked for the UN in New York, traveled through South Africa and Senegal, made friends on a random day with the Moroccan ambassador to the United States, has hiked every trail around Kathmandu, read an unbelievable number of books, and quit from a promising position in the leading national daily to found a newspaper that has grown prominent in less than three years. The man is still in his thirties and listens to Kendrick Lamar with his wife sometimes. True to himself, Gyanu dai keeps The Record creative, relevant, and accessible, especially to an increasingly disinterested youth. And, he is also a brilliant editor: keeping us focused and innovative. For me, he was an incredible mentor, approachable and supportive. He helped me write simply, identify stories that mattered, and just by being a presence at work taught me about books, about Nepal, about life. I am immensely grateful for his guidance this summer.
Through this internship I had anticipated learning about writing and about Nepal, but I have learned so much more. I did debut on the website with an explainer critiquing the current government for discriminating against women, failing to comply with our constitution that demands 33% representation in all offices. I copy-edited pieces, interviewed an organization researching visual archives to build a photographic feminist history of Nepal, researched Nepal’s first feminists, as well as interviewed students and wrote drafts for a piece describing the experiences of Nepali students in the U.S. But I also learned the technicalities of running a digital paper—I worked their publishing software to run articles, wrote and designed their weekly email newsletters, and made daily posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Most importantly, I learned about journalism itself. In Spotlight, the Oscar-winning movie, the editor of The Boston Globe says at one point, “For a paper to best perform its function, it really needs to stand alone.” The Record exemplifies this. Working at The Record I realized that journalism required a great deal of courage, because it demands that people have a right to the truth, and is committed enough to write about it.
This has honestly been the best internship experience I have ever had. It was aligned with my academic path, as an activist and a writer, and placed me in touch with people who have nurtured my abilities, confidence, and knowledge. I am so thankful to the Alumni Sponsored Internship Program and the Class of 1972 for making this possible; I now have a renewed sense of purpose and determination as well as a career path before me that I hadn’t considered before!