New York Nepali Poetry Festival: Grandeur Event

On its fifth anniversary, the N & J Entertainment Inc. USA organized the grandeur event, the New York Nepali Poetry Festival at the Himalayan Yak Restaurant in Roosevelt Avenue , Jackson Heights amidst the intellectuals of Nepalese community and American scholars from Staten Island , Connecticut , Florida , Pennsylvaniaand many other parts of the States. Besides thanking the participants, the President of the N & J Entertainment Inc. USA,

Ms Kamala Prasai highlighted the activities the N & J Entertainment Inc. USA has been carrying since its establishment on 2005. The primary activities of the annual events of the N & J Entertainment Inc. USA, which was existed to help promote the Nepali language, literature, arts and culture among others are to honor the talents in their respective fields and holding the poetry competition, said the President of the organization.

The online radio ‘Himali Sworharu’ host Mr. Sahadev Poudel anchored New York Nepali Poetry Festival formally opened with the national anthem of Nepal followed by the welcome speech of Ms. Shruti Amatya and thanking notes of Mr. Bishnu Pradhan. The event was chaired by the career diplomat Mr. Shanker Bairagi, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations. Senior Diplomat Mr. Bairagi handed over the ‘award of honor’ to the prominent figures Ms. Jyoti Poudel for the contributions she made in Nepali language and literature, Renowned Singer Mr. Yam Baral for his excellent singing performance and Mr. Arjun Prasad Mainali for his outstanding social service and the blood donation drive. The award of honor has also been extended to the ‘Everest Times’ as the best newsmagazines. Another prominent figure who received the award of honor was Artiste and the writer Mr. Alex Gargilis, the Chief Guest of the New York Nepali Poetry Festival for his outstanding contributions towards the preservation of Nepali arts and culture.

One of the attractions of the N & J Entertainment Inc. USA organized event was the poetry competition wherein many poets and poetesses competed. Judges of the competition Dr. Kamal Pande, Academician Hari Bahadur Thapa and litterateur Jyoti Poudel scored poet Birendra Limbu (first), poet Ang Jangbu Sherpa (second), poet Ramchandra Thapa (third), and the young poetess Ms. Bidushi Ghimire received the consolation prize.  Poetesses Poonam Kafle, Parita Rajbhandari and Shanta Ghimire recited their poems on non competitive category. Other poets and poetesses who recited their poems are Devendra Limbu, Buddha Chemjong, Bikash Bista, Rupa Thapa and Ranju Bohara. Anchor Sahadev Poudel and the organizer Kamala Prasai recited the poems of popular lyricist Mr. Bimal Giri and the International Nepali Literary Society (INLS) Secretary Mr. Hari Manandhar who sent their poems from Belgium and Israel , respectively.

The event sponsored by the Prabhu Money Transfer, Travel House Nepal, Z-skill Interchange (Employment Agency), Nepal House and the Helambu Communications was also mesmerized by the songs of well known singers Ms. Sapana Shree, Mr. Yam Baral, Mr. Nara Bahadur Dahal, Mr. Jagadish Samal and Mr. Tilak Shrestha. Renowned Singers Sapana Shree, Jagadish Samal and Yam Baral entertained the audience by singing the songs written by Kamala Prasai, a decade ago.

The Fifth New York Nepali Poetry Festival of N & J Entertainment Inc. USA’s main attraction was the book launch of the Artiste Mr. Alex Gargilis. “The World is My Nation” with about 750 pages large volume book of the author Mr. Gargilis is the compilation of experience of his extensive voyage of the world. The author reveals through his book that every nation in the world has to offer some positive and good things that the human beings need to respect and preserve. In this respect, the author establishes himself as the ‘citizen of the world’ for whom all the nations are alike, the beautiful and precious. For him, the nations of the world are rich with their own treasures of culture, landscape, compositions of populace and the god created natural beauties like mountains, forests, seas, animals and birds.

Following the launching of the book by the Senior Diplomat of Nepal, Mr. Shanker Bairagi, the author Mr. Gargilis read a portion of Nepal section of his book, “The World is My Nation”.  Including the author of this book, Mr. Gargilis, the Senior Diplomat of Nepal and the Chairman of the Fifth New York Nepali Poetry Festival, Mr. Bairagi reminded the very success of the event and requested the organizer Ms. Kamala Prasai to have such an important event very often. The group of journalists including from Kantipur Television, USNepalonline.com, Press Chautari, Vishwa Sandesh, Everest Times, US.NepaliNews.com, Photo Hera.com, moktandigital.com and the guests among others UN Official Mr. Kiran Kafle, Dr. Tara Niraula, Mr. Krishna Raj Pandey, Mr. Aditya Maharjan, Mr. Dawa Sherpa, Mr. Sunil Singh, Senior Artists Mr. Bimal Budathoki, Mr. Ram Raja Chhetri, Mrs. Subarna Chhetri, Mr. Raj Kapoor, Mr. Bijaya Nakarmi, Ms. Krishna Gautam, Mr. Buddha Chemjong, Mr. Rishi Adhikari, Mr. Damodar Ghimire, Mr. Pundari Aryal, Mr. Laxmi Sainju, Mr. Ram Khadka, Mr. Raju Tuladhar and Ms. Pushpa Lama commended the grandeur event, the Fifth New York Nepali Poetry Festival organized by the N & J Entertainment Inc. USA.