KATHMANDU, March 11: Women traveling on a Buddha Air flight on Wednesday were surprised when the airline staff handed them a bag along with their boarding passes. Inside each such bag were books authored by female writers. The books included story collections, novels, autobiographies. The text written on that bag read ‘Nepali woman: They read and they fly.
Not only in Kathmandu, such scenes were seen at the airports in Biratnagar, Janakpur, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Surkhet since morning, making not only the tourists but also the employees of other airlines and those coming to pick up and drop off their relatives curious.
“Yes, we have started gifting books to women passengers on March 8 since last year to strengthen the relationship between women authors and readers,” Buddha Air Managing Director Birendra Bahadur Basnet said, “This year we have continued the same.”
Gyawali's ‘Sangharsha’ among books by female authors gifted to...
An employee of Buddha Air said that books such as Kamlari Dekhi Sabhasad Samma, Yogmaya, Taap, Draupadi, Dhartimathi ko Daabi, Adhikar ko Ladai, and Eklai Eklai were distributed to female passengers, while some men who showed interest in reading also got the gift. “We gave priority to women, but we did not disappoint men who were interested," he said.
Managing Director Basnet also said that the best book distributed in this way was the story collection 'Sangharsha' written by Shova Gyawali. He said that this collection of stories, which was launched only on February 14 and the second edition was released before the third week of publication, was given priority because it seemed very effective.
Basnet said, “We have chosen other books for gifts as well, but all the 26 stories in this collection of stories - Sangharsha - have inspired women to move forward in the face of adversity, so they have managed to capture my heart.”
On the one hand, the stories collected in it are based on true events; on the other hand, all of them are practical. These are stories that give women the courage to do something. Basnet said that this collection was given priority because the main purpose of these stories is not to end tragically and to provide motivation to women in pain.
According to Basnet, the work of distributing books is based on the three-pronged concept of increasing the reading culture which is declining in the country, increasing morale by honoring female authors and applying new ways of thinking. "Because I myself am interested in reading, I may have come up with such a creative idea to celebrate Women's Day," he added.
