Struggle for Freedom
B.P. Koirala’s Ek Raat highlights the importance of freedom in human life
By A CORRESPONDENT
After a long time, Birendra International Convention Center had seen an interesting display of drama Ek Raat (One Night). Although B.P. Koirala has written a number of stories and fictions, Ek Raat was written during the period when many Nepali leaders were in prison.
Performed by Sarvanam, the leading theater group and pioneer of street drama in Nepal , Ek Raat is a thrilling drama which shows a struggle of a man for the cause of freedom. The drama reflects the sentiments of the nation today in the current political turmoil.
The play depicted a story of a person and his struggle for the cause of freedom. Although Koirala wrote many stories in prison, this was the only political play written by him. Directed by Ashesh Malla, the characters chosen for the play demonstrated best of talents.
Thanks to the efforts of director Malla, all actors were able to show their inner convictions and emotions in the play. “Unlike other plays, this was a very difficult play to perform,” said Malla.
Organized by Embassy of India and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation, the decoration of stage, dress and acting of all actors were quite matching. The audience felt as if they themselves were in prison. The artists had shown all kinds of human nature from highly aggressive to a subdued one. The play was flawless.
Focused on youth who in their yearning for democracy and freedom sacrifice their lives for nation.
The protagonist is a character of that time that revolted against the system, along with other young students. In this case, he is caught and put into jail. His brave act results into death penalty for him. Sarvanam also presented enactment of this story in January 2007 in Benaras.
From beginning till the end, the crowd gathered at the BICC found themselves thrilled and swept by emotions that touched their inner heart. The sacrifice made by youth for the cause of freedom reminded the dark days of Panchayat when many leaders spent their life in prison.
WORLD HINDI DAY
All Nepali languages have some sort of relations with Hindi language
By A CORRESPONDENT
In the last few decades, Hindi language has expanded its influence throughout the world.
Like most other South Asian languages including Nepali, Sanskrit is the mother of Hindi language. Written in Devanagari script, Nepali and Hindi share many commonalities. From grammar to words, these two languages have very close relations.
Spoken by more than 500 million population world wide, Hindi is gradually gaining reputation of international language. Among more than four dozen languages used in Nepal , Hindi language has great influence on them.
Along with Nepali, Hindi has major influence in Abadhi and Bhojpuri. Even Maithali language borrows many words from Hindi. Organized by Indian Embassy under the support from World Hindi Council, participants at a program held in Kathmandu recently highlighted the importance of Hindi language to bring all the communities of South Asia together.
Inaugurating the seminar, Indian ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shanker Mukharjee said that Hindi language is one of the important components to bring India and Nepal closer as both languages use Devanagari as a script.
Delivering welcome speech, president of Council Dr. Damber Narayan Yadav said not only Nepali language, Hindi has had influence even on Newari and other languages spoken in different parts of Nepal
Former prime minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand was the special guest of the program. Addressing the seminar, Chand said Nepali and Hindi are like twins.
The program was divided into four sessions. The first session was chaired by former speaker of House of Representative Daman Nath Dhungana when R.N Mishra presented a paper on role of Hindi in World Media and former foreign minister Shailendra Kumar Upadhayaya discussed Hindi in world context. Dhuswan Sayami also spoke on Hindi’s influence on other languages. Dr. Suryanath Gop, Dr. Ramdayal Rakesh and Dr. Mirdula Sharma chaired other three sessions.
