I mean, who hasn’t?
Stories of Nepal is a non-profit firm initiated to tell tales and stories of ordinary citizens of rural areas of Nepal. It covers the stories of people who have gone through challenging and crucial phases throughout their life. It believes that “Everyone has a story. If you need to know them, all you need is to be a good listener.”
Stories of Nepal was initiated by Jay Poudel of Kathmandu, a prolific storyteller and photographer. He commenced this project to let the modern world and the unknowing ones know about life outside the reach of technology, the challenges/hardships one has to face in villages/rural areas and the untold tales of past and history.
Jay Poudel professes that the inspiration behind this project was a US-based online platform that featured the stories of ordinary people. That platform and its works motivated him to initiate Stories of Nepal, a storytelling platform that covers the stories of rural people of Nepal. As a matter of fact, Jay got the chance to lead an engaging and happy life exploring his long-lost passion for photography and listening to people’s stories through Stories of Nepal.
Talking about this initiative and the founder, Jay wasn’t the type of guy he is now back in his younger days. It’s hard to believe that a prominent influencer like Jay was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I’m pretty sure, no one would have ever imagined that he would be able to reach great feats in the near future.
Though Jay is 41 as of now, he states that he had started drinking when he was just in his schooling days. He had been in addiction for a decade after that and life was getting really hard for him. So, in a desire of wanting to change his lifestyle, he approached to stay in a rehabilitation center for detoxification of his addictive lifestyle.
After returning from the center, he became sober and wanted to start a new way of life, different from what it used to be. And that’s certainly how “Stories of Nepal’ was born and a new life journey for Jay began.
Stories of Nepal is different from other storyteller platforms like The StoryYellers, TedTalks, VMAG, etc. Unlike these platforms, Stories of Nepal doesn’t cover the stories and experiences of well-known people and celebrities. Instead, it covers the chronicles of the ones who aren’t given much significance and stories which have never been brought to light. The majority of the stories that it unfolds are found to be really astonishing and breathtaking by the readers.
The platform believes that the mainstream media mainly focus on stories about politics and entertainment but are failing to bring the stories of locals. They miss out or rarely feature the stories of common people, their dreams, lifestyles, and their struggle. Thus, the platform aims to fill up that gap, covering the country’s socio-economic aspects as well as the local culture and legacy in the process.
On the official site of Stories of Nepal, there’s a page entitled ‘The Photographer’ where the founder, Jay Paudel has stated the following regarding him and his journey of ‘Stories of Nepal’: “Namaste. My name is Jay Poudyal and I am on a journey to discover and share stories of the everyday Nepali. Over the past couple of years, I have roamed the streets of Kathmandu and traveled my country to talk to people, hear what they have to say and listen to their tales of sorrow and happiness.
I started off as a photographer, capturing moments and people, but inspired by Humans of New York I started sharing these pictures along with the conversations I had with individuals. After all, a picture may say a thousand words, but a few words can change the story. That was how Stories of Nepal the Facebook page was born, and its community has come a long way.”
In the initial days, Jay used to cover the stories of his neighbors and relatives. At that time, the initiative was in its foundational stage and didn’t have much reach and followers. So, he used to ask his friends to follow Stories of Nepal on Facebook (its main social media platform). His friends were surprised by the content he was sharing and appreciated his works.
Before that, none had appreciated his works and those unanticipated appreciations further inspired Poudyal to travel to the rural parts of the country to hunt for more soulful stories. So far, Poudyal has traveled to 65 districts for the same purpose. While looking for stories to cover, he picks up the characters on a random basis along his journey. Starting from a small chit-chat, Jay begins to listen to their stories, engraving them on his mind.
Because of the hardships and struggles that Jay has gone through in his initial days, he is able to relate to the speakers’ sorrowful stories – being a good listener. Being a passionate photographer, Jay often clicks the photographs of the characters/speakers and places to put along with the stories he covers and posts them on the platform.
Writing, noting down and making the stories easy to read and convenient for readers without losing the emotions conveyed through stories before publishing takes him a couple of days after interaction with speakers. Before publishing the stories of the speakers, Jay always asks for their approval and permission to do so. Apparently, the majority of the speakers feel happy to share their stories and appreciate Jay for his works.
Unlike some, Jay doesn’t end the bond and contact with the featured characters/speakers once he’s done with the stories. He tries his best to maintain the connection/contact with them despite the busy schedule and distance. A number of needy characters even get financial aid through the platform. The followers read their stories on the platform and reach out to Stories of Nepal to provide funds for such characters.
It is without a doubt that Stories of Nepal has been a bridge between those who need financial aid and those who are willing to help them. Through it, Jay was to collect approximately USD $14,000 for the victims during the 2015 earthquake and USD $100,000 during the Covid pandemic.
As of now, Stories of Nepal has over half a million followers on its main social media platform i.e. Facebook and around 30k followers on Instagram. Perhaps, it’s just the beginning and the numbers are still increasing day by day as more people are recognizing the platform and its works.
Stories of Nepal has launched its official website accessible through storiesofnepal.com where you can read the stories that it covers. There are thousands of stories from various people of different places in Nepal that you can read through the site. It has also categorized the stories in the form of series so you can pick the series that interests you the most and read them.
One of Nepal’s Top Newspapers, The Kathamandu Post appreciated the works of Stories of Nepal snd have featured it in their news as well. “Jay Poudyal’s ‘Stories of Nepal’ has a way of picking extraordinary elements out of a seemingly regular human life—leaving behind a lasting impression in the minds of his audience.” – The Kathmandu Post, Nepal
Stories of Nepal is completely self-funded and doesn’t;t rely on others for carrying out its works. To ensure that its work remains authentic to the stories and the people who share their lives, Stories of Nepal stirs away from brand deals and paid collaborations that require it to promote an organization’s agenda. However, he does collaborate with organizations but the ones working on mental health and parenting issues.
However, sustaining such a huge initiative is quite difficult as requires remarkable expenditure to travel and cover stories all across the nation. The lack of funds to support the project has limited and restricted its work in reaching more places and people and bringing out their stories to share with the world.
Therefore, to cope with this issue, Stories of Nepal has been taking help from its followers/supporters through the use of Patreon. In exchange for the support, the helping hands receive certain perks from the initiative through the Patreon platform itself.
Lately, Jay hasn’t been able to travel much because, with the span of time, his priorities are also changing. Kike everyone, he needs to look after his family as well. However, to overcome this issue, Jay is planning to expand the team of Stories of Nepal. Likewise, he also wants to put more effort into multimedia content in the coming days.
If you are interested in being a part of their initiative then you can reach out to them at their social media handles for further discussion.
“I have forgotten my stories. You will too when you live beyond your age. I am not sure what you see in me that interests you. Take all the pictures you want. But be careful, there might not be so many people that will enjoy watching my wrinkles.” – Chhering Sherpa, Kimathanka, Sankhuwasabha
This is one of my favorite posts from Stories of Nepal.
I took references from the following sources so a big thanks to them. If you want, you can learn more from these sources:
- Stories of Nepal’s Official Site
- Stories of Nepal’s Facebook Page
- Stories of Nepal’s Instagram Handle
- The story behind Stories of Nepal that tells extraordinary tales of ordinary Nepalis
I hope that this article was helpful to you at least in some ways. See you in the next article!!
Best Regards!!
