Celebrating Ten Years of the Nepal Literature Festival
DEC 22, POKHARA – The tenth edition of the Nepal Literature Festival began today, 22 December, at Barahighat in Pokhara’s Lakeside.
The inaugural program began with a welcome speech by Niraj Bhari, executive director of the Festival. Bhari expressed his gratitude towards the city of Pokhara and to the guests, both past and present. He recalled the late Rabindra Adhikari as the one who had encouraged the Festival to move to Pokhara from Kathmandu.
Following Bhari’s speech, Surya Khadka Bikharchi, chair of the Gandaki Academy, stressed the importance of language and culture and reminded all present that Pokhara had always been a city of culture. Gandaki Academy is the co-organiser of this year’s Nepal Literature Festival.
Dhanraj Acharya, mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, then took to the stage to express pride that the Festival was taking place in Pokhara and promised that the city would continue to support such literary efforts. He lamented the loss of the late Pradip Giri, who was often a very popular fixture at the Festival. Pokhara Metropolitan City is the Festival promoter.
In the inaugural session of the Festival, economist Dr. Achyut Wagle, who is also the Kathmandu University registrar, gave a keynote speech entitled, ‘Nepal 2090’. Dr. Wagle spoke about the kind of development path that Nepal needs to adopt and the kind of political and social leadership that is necessary.
“The future of Nepal is hopeful. It is certainly going to wealthier. In a decade’s time, Nepal’s population is going to reach 30 million and the country is going to be poised to reap that demographic dividend. In that time, the leadership of the country will fall into the hands of the capable and the far-sighted,” said Dr. Wagle.
However, Wagle cautioned that even if Nepal achieves all of this, it will still not be on par with the developed world.
“Compared to the pace at which the world is moving, we are moving much slower. No country will wait for Nepal to catch up; we should be able to run at double the speed to reach them ourselves,” he said.
The first day of the Festival also saw the first discussion session take place. Dinkar Nepal, executive director of Fishtail Academy, spoke to child development expert Dr. Meenakshi Dahal about schools and education. Despite attending the same class, students are often at different levels, requiring different approaches to education, said Dr. Dahal. She cautioned that if proper standards and regulations were not drafted soon, schools themselves could give rise to different classes of students.
“There are gaps in learning in school itself,” said Dr. Dahal. “Even public schools have started copying private schools to teach in English and administer entrance exams.”
The inaugural day ended with a musical performance in tribute of the late great music maestro Gopal Yonjan. Poets Nawaraj Parajuli and Viplob Pratik recited Yonjan’s poetry while his wife, Renchin Yonjan, gave a heartfelt speech. Singers Ujjwal Saagar, Banika Pradhan and others performed their renditions of Yonjan’s music.
A collection of Yonjan’s poetry named Gopalaya, published by Fine Print, was also released to the public at the event.
