The man who penned national anthem

Pradeep Kumar Rai, aka Byakul Maila, is the lyricist of our national anthem, ‘Sayaun Thunga Phool Ka.’ His writing was selected out of 1272 submissions. The new national anthem represents Nepal’s march to new era, after the abolition of monarchy in 2006.
In conversation with Republica’s Prasansha Rimal he reveals five things that many may not know about him.

Law Student
Byakul Maila has a degree in law and graduated from Nepal Law Campus. He was involved in village development process, social service and politics before he left his village after completion of SLC. He, along with his friends, used to organize assembly twice every month to discuss on development of their village.

Story behind national anthem
After the abolition of monarchy and formulation of the interim parliament in 2007, the government of Nepal announced to change the existing national anthem. The government formed a team to select a new anthem under the chairmanship of renowned culture expert Satyamohan Joshi. Byakul Maila had copied the requirements in his diary but was not successful to create lyrics within the given deadline. But when he found out that the team had extended the deadline for 15 more days, he tried again and came up with the first verse.

Mystery behind the pen name
When he came to Kathmandu after completion of SLC, he was home sick. He wanted to do something for his village and missed his friends, family and the environment of village.

He couldn’t share his feelings with anyone so he started writing poems. He used to cry while writing poems, and this continued for a year. He used to submit his poems to his paternal uncle and who asked him to send it to publications. He wanted to be known from a different name in the field of literature so he reflected upon himself and came up with Byakul Maila.

Interested in sports and social service
Byakul Maila is not only interested in literature; he also shares interest in sports. He was trained for six years in Karate. He, along with his community members, established a school and other infrastructures in his hometown. ‘Bakul Maila Gold Cup’ is an annual event in his hometown; he says the main objective of this event is to motivate young people towards development work through sports. 

Trained as vocalist
Apart from writing lyrics, Bkayul Maila also wanted to learn to sing his own lyrics. He even trained himself to be vocalist from Prakash Gurung at Sadhana Kala Kendra. He even edited anthology of Nepali songs ( Nepali Geet Sangraha ), which was published  14 years ago.

 
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