The Bottom Line (Spotlight Weekly)

Empty Canvas

Ishwor Manandhar, who has contributed to popularize Nepal in the United Kingdom, pens down his feelings in a collection of poems

By A CORRESSPONDENT

Although he remains busy, Manandhar spares time to involve in creative works. Staying in a far away land where he has to work hard to retain his reputation, Manandhar has amazingly managed to allocate some time out of his busy schedule to write poems.

In a collection of his poems, Manandhar expresses his inner feelings about life, nature, culture and his own surroundings. Born in Rajbiraj in Saptari district, Manadhar went to the United Kingdom many years ago and has settled there. Being a man of dedication and commitment, Manandhar became popular with his restaurant called Natraj in London. With his hard work and perseverance, he has managed to make his restaurant famous in London especially among the South Asians there. Along with his business and other social works, he has completed a series of writings.

In his recent book called Empty Canvas, Manandhar has collected some of his noble poems. In his quest to express his inner feelings, Manadhar has already published some other books of different nature. From London to Badrinath (A travelogue, 1995), Aparitushiti, Dissatisfaction (A Noella, 2000) and The Letter from A Captive (Anthology of short stories, 2002) were his previous works in literature.

"The obvious difference between social condition of Nepal and his settlement in Britain are also sources of his poetic mind, which are manifested in the creation of literary works," writes Ghataraj Bhattarai, member of Royal Nepal Academy." There are many heart-touching feelings in the poems of Manandhar. A poetic heart, which has been obliged to spend his fertile period of life far away from the motherland in the course of occupation, has expressed honestly in the poetic creation."

Poetic critic Bhattarai has rightly read Manandhar's mind. Manandhar's poems are effective in feeling as well as artistry. His feelings are dedicated to the nation and the importance of motherland. When a man lives far away from the country, he realizes the importance of his nation. In his poems, Manandhar has expressed this, quite successfully.

"Through the poems collected in this anthology, the Empty Canvas, Mr. Manandhar has expressed his thoughts in a very simple and straight forward way but still standing on the ground reality," said Yadav Kharel, a prominent film director and poet. The poet has always been thoughtful for the progress and welfare of Nepal and Nepalese people even while living in a foreign land far away from motherland.

Manandhar, who even spent some time in Journalism through BBC Nepali service, observes the flaws, absurdities, corruption and decreasing human values and sensibilities, tragic situation resulting form the terror and so on.

"An artist gives life to his feelings, imaginations and natural beauty by portraying them on canvas with the help of the combination of different colors. I've also tried to give life to my feelings and imaginations by decorating them on the pages with words and languages," writes Manandhar. "The invisible power confined within my soul, feelings, imaginations, impulse and sentiments in my heart are the sources of my inspiration to write poems."

Manandhar's poems, among others, are full of love with nature, nationalism, romanticism, sensitivity and social awareness. In his poems one can find poetic pleasure and not detached from the reality of situation.

Altogether 54 poems are compiled in his book and the poems are varied in nature and content. Some of them explain the mind of poet Manandhar and other express his inner feelings about agony in life.