Embassy of India in Kathmandu and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation organized the 12th edition of Poemandu, a B.P. Koirala India Nepal Foundation initiative on Friday, March 21, 2014 at Nepal Bharat Library in New Road. This was organised on the occasion of World Poetry Day.

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Government of Nepal Bhim Prasad Acharya shared, “I applaud the effort made by Indian Embassy and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation in bringing various programmes to promote the cultural exchanges between Nepal and India. As a close neighbor, Nepal and India are inseparable and we have been learning so much from each other over centuries.”

Ambassador of India to Nepal Ranjit Rae extended his gratitude to the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation for taking his time out to commemorate the occasion and added on the occasion, “While we are celebrating World Poetry Day through Poemandu today, it is also being celebrated with much fanfare in New Delhi today through a World Poetry Festival. I am glad to share this that eminent poet of Nepal Professor Tulasi Diwasa is representing Nepal in the World Poetry Festival in Delhi, where there are participants from fifty different countries across the world. Nepal and India share age-old cultural ties. Nepal’s adi-kavi Bhanubhakta Acharya deepened the literary bonds between our two countries by translating Ramayana into Nepali. From Tagore to Devkota, from Dinkar to Siddhicharan Shrestha, we have shared our literature over centuries and we will continue doing so.” 

Before the recitation of poems from eminent and promising poets of Nepal, three books – Gopal Ask’s Ghazal collection Apni Bhoolon Ke Saath Ab Rahne Do, Dr. Ramdayal Rakesh’s Antaraatmaa Ko Dhwani and Dr. Ganga Prasad Akela’s Paisaa respectively were jointly released by Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Indian Ambassador and Professor Dr Abhi Subedi at the event.

According to a press release of Indian Embassy, prominent poets such as Abhi Subedi, Kokothet, Rajendra Bimal, Gopal Ask, Gopal Thakur, Navin Chitrakar, Mobin Khan, Dhan Bahadur Oli, Kailash Singh Thakuri, Saraswati, Shyam Shekha Jha, Utpal Jha, Saguna Shah, Ananda Gurung, Saurav Bashyal, Uday Chandra Das, Tirtha Shrestha, Hare Krishna Jha, Alok Tiwari, Anand Gupta, Asim Ali, Lalita Doshi, Pratisara Sayami and Saroj Neupane recited their poems in various languages such as Nepali, English, Hindi, Newari, Urdu, Maithili, Awadi and Bhojpuri.

Poemandu is one of the popular events organized by the Embassy of India in Kathmandu and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation every month at Nepal Bharat Library. This is in addition to its other popular monthly events such as Cinemandu, Surmandu, Conversations and Voices.