From HIMAL, Volume 3, Issue 4 (NOV/DEC 1990)
At Himal, we feel that our magazine has achieved a threshold. We are confident about its editorial voice as well as its survivavility in the market-place. Though small in readership, Himal is emerging as an additional voice in the Himalayan-Gangetic region. We hope that with the help of our ever-critical readers, this magazine will grow as an effective medium for deepening and expanding discourse on regional social, political, cultural and environmental issues.
Looking forward to a vigorous future, it is also appropriate to look back at those who made it possible for Himal to get this far. Many have volunteered time and effort since when this magazine was just an idea. Whatever is “good in Himal’s look, tone, and focus is mostly due to them, Himal was begun in New York City (though its prototype issue was printed in May 1987 in Colombo for reasons too complicated to get iinto here). As a result, those who helped shape the magazine with moral support, conceptual suggestions, desktop assistance, and eagle-eyed proofreading were New Yorker friends, the very best in the world of English journalism.
If this magazine retains any professionalism, it is due to association with persons like Miriam Poser, Douglas Hand, Robert Cohen and David Sassoon. Himal was also adopted in its early days by a whole clan of Dixits (then living in New York), including Kunda, Milan and Shanta, The Kathmandu end was propped up by Rupa Joshi, without whom Himal would have been still-born.
Among Himal’s other early supporters were George McBean, who did our white-triangled logo under duress over a lunch break; Rajiv Tiwari, who for long was Himal’s lone voice from New Delhi; and Claus Euler, who discovered Himal in a Zurich apartment and became our ambassador to Europe. He put us in touch with other volunteers, including Adolf Odermatt, whose Swiss-German work ethic made us South Asians toil harder than we otherwise might have. Others who have helped expand Himal’s reach in (he United States, Europe and Japan are Manoj Basnet, Kiran Tewari, Akio Horiuchi, Ludwig Debuck, Zahia Hafs and Helene Dingg.
The magazine developed from an individual project to a group effort due to the patience and assistance of persons like Khagendra Gharti-Chhetry, P. Sudhakaran, Shamsuz Zaman, Anitha Pandey, Sudhirender Sharma, Keiko Itoh, Beth Chia-Rubin, Anjali Peck {who suggested the title to this personal column), Bill Eddy, Rajiv Khanna, Robin Dilks, Kalpana Parajuli, Chetan Singh, Parminder and Bever-ley Brar, Sriram Sharma, Shanker Mani Paudel, Sanomaiya Maharjan, Sujeev Shakya, Uttara Crees, Linda Sachs, Hiroko Kimura, Pradyumna KumaT Kotta and Louise LaHeurte.
Those who do not find mention in Himal’s. masthead (both in the editorial and advisory panel) but have provided high quality copy since the magazine’s infancy, include Anil ChitTakar, Prakash Khanal, Rosha BaJTacharya, Biiiod Bhattarai, Dipak Gyawali, Bharat Dogra and Sharad RanjiL Himal’s Sean administration has been run under trying circumstances by Balaram Shaima with help from Anak Thapa and Ved Pant.
The members of the not-for-profit Himal Association have remained the backbone of Himal as its publishers. They include Bharat Koirala, the President, and Shanta B. Dixit, Bikas Pandey, Padam Singh Ghaley, Kabindra Pradhan, Ratna Kumar Sharma, Sita Maiya Thapa and Bharat Upreti.
Himal also appreciates the support extended by agencies such as NORAD, the Norwegian development ministry, the World Wildlife Fund (USA), the Panos Institute, the Ford Foundation, UNICEF and the Swiss Development Corporation. It was to our benefit that none of them set any editorial precondition to assistance provided. Within these organisations, Himal was fortunate for friends such as Halle’ Torn Hans sen, Ane Haaland, Emilie Mead, Donatus De Silva, Karen McGuinness, Rina Gill and Werner Wirz.
To have made so many friends over a short period of three years convinces us that Himal must be doing something right. We thank them all.