I was so intrigued by the Key note speech delivered by Nepal's finest intellectuals of our time Dr. Pitambar Sharma during the Inaugural session of Nepal Literature Festival in Pokhara on January 29, 2016 that I took pains to translate over 5,000 word speech. This was published by Setopati too.
When Member of Parliament Rabindra Adhikari requested me to put my views on the release of his book at this Literature Festival, I could not say no as I had also written a preface to his book. But I was really clueless about what I should say, I still am.
I have to begin by saying two things. First, this is not an intellectual address. I'm not going to present the findings from a serious research conducted on a particular subject. Second, what I'm going to say will not follow a sequential order; rather, it will be just like the time we live, like the unexpected - many times down and lesser times up - bends our development and politics has taken, like the gap between our speech and our acts, like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. It might, however, be a sequence of contradictions.
What is a contradiction? It is simply a bundle of questions fighting to get out of the narrow opening of feelings and experiences. The boon of contradiction is that questions are, or could themselves be answers. And it's not necessary for me to be saying what its curse entails - we all live it every day.
Another reason that I'm present before you with all my weaknesses is Pokhara. If this festival was not organized in Pokhara, I would not have come here or participated. For me, Pokhara is a city of excitement and longing.
