On November 8, the Nepalese Student Association (NSA) held its first event of the academic year, RamJham. Over 50 attendees and NSA executives from all three campuses gathered at Hart House’s East Common Room to celebrate Tihar, or the Festival of Lights — one of the most significant Hindu festivals in Nepal.

Established in 2024, the event kick-started the NSA’s second year as an association. With the September student-led anti-corruption protests in Nepal that overthrew the country’s prime minister and resulted in the deaths of over 60 protesters, some NSA executives stressed the importance of the event and the club’s presence at U of T.

Start of the event and the year

RamJham is a word without an official definition, but commonly used by Nepalese people in conversation. The word is a combination of ‘ram’ from the word ‘ramailo’ –– meaning fun and enjoyment — and the onomatopoeic ‘jham,’ describing sparkling lights and used in contexts of dancing as ‘jham jham.’ 

The word “refers to a particular rhythm and gives a sense of sensory to a sentence,” according to NSA President and third-year political science student Ajaswi Regmi. 

The event began at 7:00 pm with land acknowledgements, followed by a slideshow presentation on quick facts about Nepal’s history and politics. Although brief, the segment aligned with Regmi’s vision for the club to focus on education in the upcoming year. 

The rest of the event included students’ cultural dance performances, speeches from NSA Presidents from all three campuses, and bingo. The night concluded with a trivia game based on the slideshow presentation. Students who purchased food tickets were also treated to a buffet dinner, sponsored by local Nepali joints, Kathmandu Restaurant and The Chulo. 

Connecting with home at U of T 

To Regmi, born in Nepal and raised in Canada, the NSA and its events are important parts of her identity. “I’ve never had a student association like this to be part of ever in my life,” she says. 

NSA UTSG events coordinator Abhipsa Lamsal was raised in a community with many Nepalese friends, and said finding a sense of Nepali community was difficult at U of T. In an interview with The Varsity, she said, “Especially in my first year at U of T, because we didn’t have the NSA then, I did not meet a single Nepali person outside of the Nepali friends I already had.” 

Given the small size of the Nepali community in Canada, Lamsal says that at first, getting the club’s voice heard and recognized was hard. But both Lamsal and Regmi say that since the September student protests, many people have begun asking them about Nepal. 

The Nepali youth-led protest was initially peaceful, calling for an end to corruption, severe wealth and opportunity disparity, and the government’s sudden social media ban. The mass protests quickly turned deadly as state security forces shot dead at least 19 protesters, some of them in school uniforms. The death toll soon tripled with more than 2,100 injured, Parliament and politicians’ homes burned, and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli stepped down.

In the 17 years since Nepal became a republic, the country has seen 14 governments and no single leader completing a full five-year term. Three leaders, including Oli, returned to power multiple times. Nepal’s decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006, killed more than 17,000 people prior to the country’s democratization. Regmi says almost every Nepali generation has a sense of injustice and revolution.

At RamJham, there was a noticeable absence of any mention of the student protests, which Regmi says was intentional. The NSA did not want the discussion to be flippant or performative through a brief mention because it is a vulnerable topic for many — “especially [to] students who just came from Nepal and would not to be reminded of something so tragic while celebrating the Festival of Lights,” she added. 

Regmi stressed that while she sees the protest helped the public recognize “the powerful people of Nepal,” it is tragic that so many lives had to be lost to reach that point. 

Though they didn’t discuss the protests at RamJham, Lamsal says she internalized her pride in Nepal’s youth when organizing the event. “You want to represent people that have done so much good already and contribute in any helpful way you can,” she says. “I just want to make my Nepali community proud.”

At times like this, Lamsal understands the importance of a community like the NSA. “Having this community of other Nepali people… a positive space to discuss the nuances of what’s going on… having a respectful safe space was very helpful for me,” she says. 

Regmi echoed her sentiment and added that, in the academic year, she wants to make sure “we aspire for the NSA not to just be a hub for culture, but for aspirations for the future and truly seeing Nepalese excellence.”