The book published by FinePrint was officially launched on Sunday, May 15 at Gyana Mandala at Moksh Restaurant and Bar, Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur.[break]
The program started off with Poet Mani Lohani in conversation with Poet Narayan Shrestha where Shrestha recited few poems like Bharosa, Shakshi, and Rastra Geet from his collection.
Poet Tulsi Ghimire inaugurated the book launch and spoke about Shrestha’s poetry and Nepali poems in general.
“Poems cannot be looked upon from one perspective only and we should not compare poets of yesteryears to the poets of today.
The poets of today have been able to break the stereotypical style of writing poems which is the achievement of this era,” he said.
Ghimire further added, “In some poems the things that have not been mentioned, the space between the poems are more meaningful and in Shrestha’s poems I found the poetic space to be more meaningful and that he has expressed himself with full honesty.”
Narayan Shrestha’s second collection of poems was published after a long gap.
“I had approached several publishers who were reluctant to publish my poems saying that it would not sell in the market so I was passive for a while but that didn’t stop me from following my passion,” Shrestha opined.
He mentioned that due to professional obligations he was unable to publish his second book earlier.
Talking about the difference between his first and second collection, Shrestha said, “The first collection had spontaneous poems which the general readers may not have understood and so in the second collection, though the subject matter and the theme is the same, I have tried to simplify it.”
Originally from Gorkha, Shrestha also recalled his days as an introvert child and how listening to Radio Nepal inspired him to write songs and poems.
“Back in school I just used to discard everything written by me because the poet in me was reluctant and scared to express myself but later I came to realize that writing poems is not a sin but a gift and a medium to express oneself,” he said.
The book he added has been written as a witness to the events that occurred in the 1990’s.
“Like general people that were witness to political upheavals, economic ups and downs and the other changes that took place at that time, I too was a part of it as a witness, hence my poems are an expression of those incidents,” he said.
Shrestha also mentioned that after the protests and the revolution of 2006, everyone had imagined and hoped for betterment and progress in the country, hence Shakshi also incorporates that.
Every poem in Shakshi he said has been written in and depicts different situations and is about his own experiences.
While some poems deal with light aspects, others deal with heavy subjects as well.
The book he mentioned has been divided into four parts. The first part is about the society, the second about loneliness that people feel, third about the experience of love and the last about general subjects.
Narayan Shrestha mentioned that he chose poetic genre because through poems one can express long deep feelings in a short, aesthetic way.
“The events that occur in society, the scarcity and pain prevalent around us which I can feel and relate to and being a part of it is what has inspired me to write my second collection of poems,” expressed Shrestha.
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