Show the safety of the earthquake in Nepal with a popular song

She grew up in Galfala, a remote village in western Nepal, and Shaiba Soubdi was a bright student and had a passion for extracurricular activities. Distinguished in discussions, articles and poetry competitions, but one interest stood above the rest: a deep magic with popular melodies in Nepal.

After finishing high school, subedi has a two -year degree on the Prithevi Narayan campus in Bukhara, a noisy city in West Nepal. In addition to academic growth, it was attracted to the vibrant world of popular music in local bars.

However, his father believed that pursuing music would destroy Suledi’s chances of obtaining a serious profession. He was determined to change his son’s mind, traveled by bus for five hours to Buchara. “He stayed for four days, in an attempt to persuade me to give up music,” Subdi recalls. “But I was firm.”

He rejected his father’s fears, subedi continued his musical journey alongside his studies. In 2009, he wrote the songs that brought him national recognition and commercial success, and got nearly 200,000 Nepalese rupees-an amount, at that time, equivalent to about 2700 USD and was more than average annual middle class in Nepal. “My father never wondered your music endeavor after that,” he added.

However, after 2015, when a catastrophic earthquake hit Nepal, the double subedi professions will become intertwined. At that time, he was following a master’s degree in physics at the University of Trebhovan in Kathmandu, but after the disaster his focus and the rest of his studies on geophysics. Now a geophysic scientist at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology in Lalitpur, Subedi combines his passion for writing songs with experience in observing and analyzing earthquakes. He visits schools, educates students and teachers about preparing for the earthquake, and uses its tunes to reach wider masses.

For his efforts, Subedi was honored last November with praise judges in the John Madox Prize to defend sound science and evidence. The award is a joint initiative of charitable meaning in London about science and nature.

An earthquake jumping a profession

In April 2015, when the huge Gorkha earthquake, which was 7.8 Nepal, was on the campus of the University of Triphovan and saw someone dying when the university gate collapsed on their car. “It was a devastating scene,” he says.

Nearly 9,000 people were killed. I heard Soubledi about tragic but prevented deaths, such as Melamchi deaths: Maybe after bad advice, a teenage girl was standing in a garden who returned to her home during the earthquake to cover under a table instead of staying outside in an open place. Subedi has started looking for ways to better prepare Nepalese society for the future earthquake.

This prompted him to obtain a second master’s degree, this time in exploratory geophysics at the Paris Physics Institute in 2016. The master’s supervisor in Subedi linked him with György Hetényi, a geophysical scientist at Lausanne University in Switzerland, to discuss the PHD group in Hetini. However, Hetényi was hesitant. Thinking at that time remembers: “If he gets a doctorate in a classic research field and returns to Nepal, he will not have enough tools or resources.” Instead, Hetényi Subedi called to work in his group while pursuing a PhD in educational earthquake, focusing on communicating with students and teachers to raise awareness about earthquakes.

When Swissi joined his PhD in 2018, primary and secondary schools in Nepal had rare resources to teach earthquake science. Hetényi and Subedi participated in establishing Seismology at school in Nepal Campaign, show teachers and students how to use earthquake sensors, teach the basics of earthquakes, energy levels and seismic activity. “If students can measure earthquakes on a small scale, they may arouse their interest and inspire scientists in the future,” he explains.

There were some advantages for the Subedi side profession in popular popular music. First, social media links helped him quickly identify schools to participate in the campaign. Second, “People love celebrities”, and he adds. “When I give people the songs that I wrote and then explained my academic interests, they are more acceptable to my message.”

Sherdhar Dakal, a science teacher at the Shifa Shiva Secondary School in Kawasoti in southern Nepal, participated in awareness workshops for teachers. He remembers when he started teaching students for the first time about earthquake safety exercises – classic maneuvers such as “dropping, covering and supplementing”, this means to fall to the floor, find a cover under a table or cover your head with your arms and keep your center until the shake stops – the parents complain. “They thought it was unnecessary,” says Dachal. But with the passage of time, he says, they came to estimate these efforts.

Make an awareness song

Even school work, Suwdi never revealed his musical career to Hetényi. “I thought it was important to maintain separate academy and musical endeavors,” he says. “Otherwise, people may think that I am concerned about everything, and I wonder about my credibility.”

But during one of the teachers’ workshops, which Hetényi attended, subedi invited a friend of the singer to present some entertainment, and another present mentioned by Subedi musician to Hetényi.

“I was very surprised,” Hetini recalls. But he immediately continued, “Why don’t you make a song about awareness of the earthquake?”

Subdi was initially and refused. Hetényi recalls him, saying: “No. earthquakes are not the subject of a song. Duration.”

Hetényi says it is not usually considered to pay, but after the presence of many teachers’ workshops in Nepal, he noticed the extent to which the participants deepened with popular music artists. I have realized that the songs, briefly and their sick melodies, could resonate more strongly with some people than they could be in scientific papers or lectures. After some gentle stability, subedi agreed to his experience.

However, translating complex academic terms into attractive phrases can coincide with rhythmic and repeated musical rhythms was not an easy task. “For example, how do you explain the painting of the painting for people who do not have an official education?” Sobedi asks. There are no direct translations of such terms in the daily Nepalese language. “If the terms are used, a person like the grandmother will not communicate with it,” he added.

Instead of using technical terms, subedi describes how the movement of rocks below the earth provokes earthquakes. It embraces simplicity and formulating words that are easy to understand and sing on – an approach that has eventually caught attention. For example, one of the verse states the following: “To this day, the science has not been determined when or the size of the large earthquake, or where it will strike exactly.” The attractive abstinence of the song enhances the message: “Just as you learn ABC, everyone can learn how to prepare to survive the earthquake.”

The subedi team wanted to shoot a music video of the song, using a school preparation to involve students and create an impact of ripples: the idea was that children and adolescents would watch the video and discuss the message with their parents and grandparents, and spread awareness throughout their societies. The music video clip highlights simple but decisive themes, including how to create earthquakes, build earthquake -resistant houses, how to prepare for an earthquake and how to behave in one.