Choreographer Prashant Tamrakar's sporty teen

KATHMANDU, Oct 6: He was shy and preferred to talk less, especially when talking to girls during his teenage days. “I always took backseat when it came to girls,” remembers model cum choreographer Prashant Tamrakar. But Prashant Tamrakar, probably the last standing first-gen fashion choreographer, carried a friendly nature and was a popular figure amongst his guy friends. He participated in dozen of sports, he says. [break]

Standing 6 ‘1’ tall with well-framed body, attractive face and streaks of white hair (now), 35-year old Prashant is a well established figure in Nepal’s entertainment and fashion industry. Because of this tall frame, he was also once slapped from his favorite teacher.

“In grade four, I was placed at the last row of my class because I blocked other student’s view to the blackboard. Due to which, I always felt drowsy during the last period. One day, my favorite teacher took our last class and saw me drowsing off,” elucidates Prashant. “I was punished with two slaps on the face.” This makes it for him one of the most embarrassing moments of his youth.

As a teen, he was concentrated on sports most of his life. “I played basketball, squash, soft tennis, handball, and volleyball,” he recalls. The man throughout his tween and teen age participated in various national tournaments. He was also one of the prominent figures of popular basketball squad in town, the Bhagwan Bahal Sports Team (BBST) in the late 80’s.

His love for sports caused dislocation of his right shoulder bones. But still, he participated in national handball tournament. “I still cannot lift heavy stuffs,” he informs. But his love for sports is still not dead and has shifted to more moderate badminton and soft tennis.

An original of Yatkha Bahal of Indrachowk, Prashant says there is still some teen left in him and that pops out when he meets his playmates and school friends from childhood who he met during his sports glory days.

Like any other normal teen, Prashant went through the love-and-crush era too. On his puppy love sagas, he says, “As I was a shy boy, I didn’t interact much with girls. But I had secret crushes. And I even saw one of them in my dreams but feared approaching the girl in reality. I feared about the results.”

Though he was hot-tempered and threw tantrums at home, he terms himself “a good boy”. “if I wasn’t allowed to go out with my friends I didn’t talk to my parents for days and left my breakfast or dinner in the middle.” Says he, “But I guess it’s the age when negative thoughts spring into one’s mind even if the parents are trying to do something good for you.”

The change, in sometimes-moody Prashant is perhaps because of the birth of his first daughter six years ago. “Then I remembered my parents and their patience and I realized that I as a father have to face and address the same thing that my parents had to with me.”