Himgiri Prakashan organizes Sahitya Kala Sangam in Assam

SIKKIM LEADS THE WAY IN THE PRESERVATION OF NEPALI LITERATURE
GUWAHATI, 06 Feb: “Sikkim has played a major role in preserving and promoting Indian Nepali literature, language and culture. The initiative to install the full sized statue of first Nepali poet Bhanubhata Acharya was contemplated by Sikkim, whereas the major step in order to include Nepali language in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution was successfully taken by Sikkim. Not only that, Sikkim hosted a mega event of honoring the great talents from Nepali community of national and international repute for the first time” said Lil Bahadur Chhetri, litterateur and author of famous Nepali novel ‘Basai’ while speaking as the chief guest here at Sikkim House, Panjabari in a literary meet called, Sahitya Kala Sangam organized by Himgiri Prakashan, Sikkim.
Mr Chhetri further said that in the field of promotion of Nepali language and literature, the Indian Nepali people always look forward to Sikkim. The present Chief Minister of Sikkim, Pawan Chamling is a poet and a literary person who has taken incomparable initiative in the field of literature. He recalled the mega event of Sikkim Samman Sammelan where he was also honoured and he lauded the effort. He further said that while organizing such a function in the near future, the talents of Assam also have to be genuinely taken into account. He hoped that such a literary function organized by Himgiri Prakashan, Gangtok, would bring litterateurs of the region together to exchange their works and unite in the promotion of literature at the national level.
While addressing the meet, Dr. Khagendra Chamlagai appreciated the event and stressed the need of publication of a bibliography of Indian Nepali litterateurs and hoped that Sikkim can take up such genuine work.
While presiding over the function, litterateur and journalist Bijay Bantawa in his speech expressed that literature has no boundaries and it works towards bringing people together immensely. The main objective behind organizing such a literary meet is to provide a forum to the writers and literary persons of North East from the Nepali or Gorkha community to exchange their creative work and views on literary pursuits. He also stressed the need of translation of Nepali books in different languages including Assamese and English.
The literary meet was also addressed by Dr. Kamal Chhetri, poetess, Laxmi Subedi, Secretary of Panjabari branch of Nepali Sahitya Parishad, Deven Sapkota, Social worker and advocate, Kishore Upadhyaya,Nanda Kirati Dewan and Kamal Pradhan. In the self composed poetry recital session, poet Rohit Gautam, Dr. Kamal Chhetri, poetess Laxmi Subedi, poetess Dr. Induprava Devi, poetess Niru Parajuli presented their poems.
In the musical presentation session, Kamal Pradhan, Rabi Thapa and Uttam Chhetri presented Nepali songs while Suman Rai presented a dance.
In the meet, General Secretary of Nepali Sahitya Parishad, Chintamani Sharma, the Gorkha youth of Manipur, Ramesh Baskota, Deepak Chhetri and a large number of Gorkha youth of Assam were present. The students from Sikkim studying medical science and various other disciplines were also present who interacted and shared their experiences during the meet.
Earlier, Ruth Rai on behalf of the organizers of the meet welcomed the guests. The organizers offered Sikkimese khadas to the guests while welcoming them in the meet. The function was conducted by Guwahati based correspondent of Himgiri and Snowline and promising Gorkha youth leader of Assam, Nanda Kirati Dewan. [from BIJAY BANTAWA]