this is an account (a pretty long one, actually probably my most elaborate blog so far) of the happenings of the two day celebration of the birth centenary of kashi bahadur shrestha of kashi organised in banaras on 14-15 october by new delhi's sahitya akademi. for me, accompanying dada to the literary gathering was a huge blessing. i was like a 'rasbari' (rasgulla) that soaked in enormous amount of literary ras in those two days as i mingled with the bigwigs of nepali literature from nepal as well as the indian states of meghalaya to uttaranchal. 25 people had been invited from nepal and northern india. the 5 people from nepal included dada, bairagi kainla, and drs. taranath sharma, abhi subedi and kumar koirala. there were three journalists from nepal present too-- devendra bhattarai, girish giri and ujwal prasai.
i learnt so much about the great kashi bahadur of kashi, (1911 - 1989), the man, the editor, the poet, the novelist, the social worker, the political activist, the media person, the father....
kashi bahadur was born kanhaiya lal, but referred to by his family with the name of the city he was born in. his parents were from bhaktapur, who had fled the country to be away from the rana regime. his mother died when he was still a child, and was brought up by his father, who did not remarry for his son's sake. the family traded in musk, amber, saffron and pearls. he married a girl from janakpur. it was there some time later that he met anand bahadur shrestha who encouraged him to dabble in nepali literature and urged him to publish a nepali literary magazine. thus was born 'udaya' (dawn). started in 1937, and then hibernating for some 3 decades in between, udaya is now being edited by kashi bahadur's son, durga prasad shrestha, and is the longest running nepali monthly magazine, which has proved to be a literal dawn for many aspiring nepali writers... (the pictures below are from the formal ceremony, the other informal pictures of the meet will be included in my next blog posting)
the 2-day seminar was held in a garde auditorium in paradkar bhawan, golghar in banaras
dada told me that the front row of the hall, as the guests were trickling in, reflected some of the cream of the nepali literary diaspora of south asia. those over a dozen hastis included mr. nara bahadur dahal from darjeeling, mr. nara bahadur rai of shillong, dr. pratap chandra pradhan from banaras hindu university
dr. jeevan namdung, convenor of the sahitya akademi's nepali advisory board, dada (kamal mani dixit) and dr.bhupendra adhikary from dehra dun.
mr. k.b. nepali from shillong, dr. shankar dev dhakal from sikkim, and mr. gopi narayan pradhan from shillong
dr. jeevan rana from siliguri, mr. yogbir shakya and mr. shankar pradhan from kalimpong (kalebung), and til bikram nembang alias bairagi kainla of the nepal academy (pragya pratisthan) in kathmandu.
along the wall were blown up xeroxes of handwritten greetings from noted nepali hastis dated1961. this one from kaiser shumshere
this from the multi-faceted balkrishna sama
from national poet madhav prasad ghimire
from artist lain singh bangdel
noted historian surya bikram gyawali
from sagar mani
from poet laureate lekhnath
and poet siddhicharan shrestha
while waiting for the programme to commence, in walked tikaram upadhaya 'nirvik' and chhabilal upadhaya from assam, who jointly shared the 'madan smarak samman' (the mini madan puraskar) of this year, and which was going to be handed over to them on day two.
devendra bhattarai busy capturing digital images of all the literary gemstones
dr. abhi subedi with the younger media bunch in the hall...
the inaugural session finally begins with the chief and other guests seated on the dias...
all of them light a wick each of the panas placed in front of kashi bahadur shrestha's portrait
and then the malyarpan
tana sharma pays homage to the man who also printed the young sharma's essays in 'udaya'
then it was turn for kashi bahadur's family members to pay homage.. his sons and daughters.
daughter breaks down remembering her dear father...
grandson and great granddaughter also present on the occasion
dada with bairagi kainla and ms. anjusharan upadhyaya, nepal chair at the banaras hindu university
mr. j ponnudarai, officer on special duty with the sahitya akademi, opened the session with words of welcome. he said that the akademi not only celebrates centenaries of literary luminaries in the regional languages (including nepali) of india, but also translates and publishes works of theses masters in other languages. looking into the portrait of kashi bahadur he said the was writer, a social worker, a publisher, an editor, a man who practiced the art of living, who lobbied against slavery, reflected the anguish of the common man , and the yearning for peace in his writings...
constituent assembly member mr. pradeep giri, who happened to be in kashi at the time, dropped in at the seminar
dr. jivan namdung, convenor of the nepali advisory board of the sahitya akademi talked about how nepali was of the about three dozen regional languages that promoted publishing the works of the 'makers of indian literature', and that it has so far published over a 100 books in nepali
next speaker was bairagi kainla jyu, while talking about udaya he said , "उदयको प्रत्येक किरण नेपालीहरूको ढुकढुकी भएको छ " and has also helped to mainstream the nepali diaspora. he went on to remember how thrilled he had been when kashi bahadruji had published an article of his in udaya when he was just a फुच्चे ! "कत्ति दिनसम्म त निन्द्रै लागेन ! " (couldn't sleep for so many days). bairagu jyu also announced that the nepal academy was holding a special ceremony to celebrate kashi bahadurji's centenary on 27 kartik 2068 (13th november 2011). kashi bahadur, he said, was an 'undeclared ambassador of both nepal and india'
prof. anjusharan upadhyaya, who will be coming to nepal as a visiting professor for two years very soon, referred to kashi bahadurji as the 'son' of kashi. she said that all those who came to india from nepal ' did not leave behind nepal, they brought nepal along with them.'
it was pradeep giriji's turn to go down memory lane next as he recounted the two issue strong 'rahar' magazine (copies to be found in madan purskar pustakalaya!), which proved that it had been started as a rahar only!. arguing that 'rahar' pays off in the long run, he urged all present not to ever tire of writing literature.
dada waits of his turn, as he is being introduced by mr. ponnudurai. he called dada a visionary who started his collection of books with the lunch money given by his parents.. which grew into a library, and then a repository of nepali books and manuscripts.. into a training centre... leading on to the invention of scripts and into the field of i.t. with the popularsing of nepali unicode...
dada said that although he had been sired by kedar mani, his literary father was kashi bahadur
he went on to recite the first two lines of his poetry 'putali' (butterfly) which he had written as a 14-year -old, and which kashi bahadurji had published in udaya without changes...
at the end of the inaugural session then it was durga prasadji's turn to thank all. he especially thanked those who had to make hasty travel plans and take 18-hour-long train rides to get to banaras
the first session of the seminar on kashi bahadur was chaired by dr. taranath sharma. speaking first was mr. gopi narayan pradhan from shillong, who talked about kashi bahadur's contribution to society from kashi, and how 'simple' a man he was...
next up was mr. nara bahadur dahal who spoke about kashi bahadur's literary contribution in darjeeling and sikkim. he reminded the audience about how a क्लिष्ट a speaker of nepali he was and how kashi bahadur, often termed himself as a जनै बिनाको ब्राह्मण ( an unannointed brahmin)
dr. shankar dev dhakal of sikkim next spoke about kashi bahadur as the inspiration for aspiring writers. he referred to kashi bahadur as the godfather for the young writers. he also referred to dada's contribution in the promotion of nepali unicode as the biggest पिंड that anyone could make in the memory of the departed soul of kashi bahadur
speaking as the chair of the session, dr. taranath sharma remembered the time he spent in kashi as a student at the banaras hindu university in '56-'57 when he and other spirited youth initiated the झर्रोबाद campaign. he said kashi bahadur poured a lot of love towards him too, and printed many of his articles and essays.
together with gopi narayanji at lunchtime.. he truly has a very young soul inside an elderly body!!!
getting ready for the post lunch session..dada with gopi narayan pradhanji
dr. diwaker pradhan announces the beginning of the proceedings chaired by dr. mohan prasad dahal
prof. pratap chandra pradhan discussed the two novels of kashi bahadur-- उषा and बचन (although it seems he had written two other novel, one a bit unfinished) which followed the contemporary trend of those days, with life-like characters, with the main characters reflecting kashi bahadur's own characteristics.
.. the setting of the people on the dias...
all gathered to discuss about this man...
mr. yogbir shakya from kalimpong went on to extol the virtues of kashi bahadur...
speaking next dr. bhupendra adhikary (seen here in bhadgaunley topi) who stressed on kashi bahadur's contribution in पश्चिमाञ्चल said that he helped to lift the darkness created by the dearth of nepali publications in india...
dr. sanjaya rai bantawa went on to call kashi bahadur काशीका धरोहर
leaving his task as master of ceremony for sometime, dr. diwaker pradhan shed light on the poetry that kashi bahadur wrote in the last two decades of his life..
speaking as the chair of the session, mr. mohan pd. dahal talked about how kashi bahadur and udaya magazine had become synonyms and wondered where indo-nepali literature would be without the inspirational man...
day two began a bit late. when the guests arrived at paradkar bhavan the gates were still locked.. so the foursome of dada, taranathji. mohanji and pratapchandraji staged a mock धर्ना in front of the gate!!
session three of the seminar was chaired by dr. abhi subedi, here flanked by mr. k.b. nepali of shillong and dr. kumar koirala of kathmandu.
dr. koirala while expressing his delight as being able to speak in a महा तीर्थ of sorts, expounded on the characterisation in kashi bahadur's novels,
mr. k.b. nepali 'अभागा' went down memory lane to the time he first met kashi bahadurji in his chaukhamba house and also spoke about the close ties he had with b.p. koirala
chair of the session dr. abhi subedi talked about the need to do more research about kashi bahadur to bring to light even more and different facets and angles of his life and his works. he said that udaya had broken the trend of publications being named after the goddess saraswati's various names.
next was a sidebar in the seminar, which was the release of mr. shakar pradhan's book - मनस्थिति. dada and shankarji were duly decorated with marigold garlands...
.. and although dada struggled a bit with the tight wrapping...
managed to unveil the new publication...
and also put the chief guest's signature and best wishes message for shankar pradhanji's copy
then commenced the fourth session of the seminar chaired by professor pratap chandra pradhan. since everybody wanted to speed up the proceeding a bit, everyone was urged to shorten their presentations. the first speaker was nar bahadur raiji of shillong. raiji compared kashi bahadur's contribution in kashi as the 'epicentre' of a literary earthquake, and how at a time when communication was so poor in the north east, as a child he always used to see udaya hanging in front of magazine stores. 
next up was dr. jiwan rana from siliguri who besides other things also touched upon kashi bahadur the essayist. he also marvelled at the uniqueness of kashi area where there are 9 universities within a 125km radius
the great man again almost seems to be nodding his head is assertion!
the next speaker was tika ram sharma upadhyaya 'nirvik'. he attributed his achievement speaking and writing in nepali, as someone who grew up speaking and learning assami, solely to kashi bahadur
chair of the session prof. pradhan spoke about how he was introduced to kashi bahadur while pursuing his doctorate, but that he never knew he was such an institution in himself. he took the opportunity of the presence of officials from new delhi and kathmandu, to talk about how he felt his position of the nepal chair in banaras hindu university, was just like the predicament of a bull tethered by a strong chain. "kashi is known everywhere for its ferocious bulls. help me become one too!"
at the beginning of the closing session , chaired by dr. hari prasad adhikari, dr. jivan namdung thanked everyone or their participation and mentioned that it was kashi bahadur's personality that helped to build strong networks amongst the literati
me ponnudurai and bijayaji (kashi bahadur's younger son) share notes
... meanwhile his older son durga prasadji, known for his reticence, admitted that he learnt so many new things about his father in the two days. he asked for blessings from all that he could carry on in his father's footsteps and also keep udaya shining into the future...
dr. shankar pd dahal picked up the issue raised by prof. pratap chandra pradhan and said that while he would do what he could through political channels from gantok to alert new delhi about the problem, he urged the nepali delegation to also follow up with the foreign ministry in nepal to pursue the matter...
mr. ponnudurai termed the seminar as a very fruitful one managed to unearth many facets of kashi bahadur shrestha. he said that even though the hall was not packed with audience, it was more than compensated by the quality of the participation of those who were present. he also announced that the sahitya akademi would publish the collection of papers presented at the seminar, allowing time for the authors to polish their work a bit, if needed.
dr. hari prasad adhikari of the sampurnanda mahavidyalaya said that success of the centenary celebrations was evident from the increasing, and not depleting, participation of audience in the two days.
speaking at the tail end to give thanks to all, bijaya shesthaji talked aboutthe multi dimensional personality of his father.. a photographer, with a good sense of dress code, with his gold rimmed glasses, a branded coat, and caspian cigarettes. he went on to explain about how his father inculcated the value of money in all his children and youngsters he knew. the children who used to paste mailing addresses on the magazines were all paid for their labour. "he tried to tell us earn respect, and earn through your own prowess, don't be dependent on others."
taranath sharmaji after the conclusion of the seminar. he had come back to kashi after more than four decades
some members of the kashi bahadur fan club
after the centenary celebrations the stage was set for the award ceremony of the 'mini madan puraskar'
dada explained the history of the bal chandra trust named after the parents of general madan shumshere, its affiliation with the jagadamba dharmashala, the proposed madan smarak lectures and its evolution to madan smarak samman being organised by the vidya dharma pracharini nepali samiti. this years samman was being shared jointly by mr. tikaram upadyaya 'nirvik' and mr. chhabilal upadhyaya from assam. dada, as per the custom of madan puraskar, referred to the duo as बेउला
the audience, like dr. adhikary had mentioned, had thickened during the course of the two days.
when it was was discovered that the बेउलाs had also brought their बेउलीs along, mrs. tulasi devi (nirvik's wife) and mrs. bishnu devi, they too were invited to share the limelight
speaking first mr. nirvik said that he was thrilled at receiving the honour, for it seems at least he had been dabbling in something worthwhile all these years...
chhabilalji also echoed his sentiments saying that the dedication with which he had written his book, made it all worthwhile...
bairagi kainlajyu awarded the certificate to chhabilalji...
... while taranthji did the same to tikaram nirvik ji...
chhabilalji gives bairagi kainlaji a big hug after after given him a special woven assami scarf
dada handed over the award purse to both the बेउलाs ...
... he too received a scarf from chhabilalji...
... and a nepali topi from tikaram nirvikji...
... and the final word from the chancellor of nepal academy...
.. and group picture of the बेउला बेउलीs and the guests... which brought down the curtain on the two days of literary fare which started with kaski bahadur shatabarshiki and ended with madan smarak samman....
and below newspaper clippings of the event sent by dr. diwaker pradhan from kashi.. the kashi of kashi bahadur shrestha...
