About the film

Gejmehac Gipan (original title: गेम्येहाक़ गिपन) is a 2024 short film by Subhashish Panigrahi. The film, part of the OpenSpeaks Archives, uses archival footage from Panigrahi’s 2019 documentary Gyani Maiya production. The film has four chapters—all conversations between the late Gyani Maiya Sen-Kusunda (1937–2020) and Uday Raj Aaley. Sen-Kusunda was a community elder known for keeping the Kusunda language alive. She was one of the two fluent speakers, the other being her younger sister, Kamala Sen. Aaley, who worked closely with Gyani Maiya and Kamala to teach the language to young children and revive it. Panigrahi recorded interviews at Sen-Kusunda’s house in Kulmor in Nepal’s Dang district.

Chapters

a. Body Parts (गिजाङ गिजि, शरीरका अङ्गहरू)
In this conversation with Aaley, Sen-Kusunda says the names of body parts in the Kusunda language.

b. Life in Forest (गिलाङ डा अइगि, वनमा जीवन)
Sen-Kusunda shares her and her community’s past nomadic life in the forest. The Kusunda community left its nomadic life and settled in villages around the district.

c. Kusunda Language Endangerment (ख़ाइया डा गेम्येहाक़ गिपन, कुसुन्डा भाषालाई खतरा)
Sen-Kusunda and Aaley discuss the endangerment of the Kusunda language.

d. Cooking in Old Days (प्याआइ हुलन, पुरानो समयमा खाना पकाउनु)
Sen-Kusunda shares how the Kusunda people used to cook during their semi-nomadic days in forests.