Major highlights of the program: 1. Inagural speech by the Ambassador, Kedar Bhakta Shrestha. Told he is pleasantly surprised to have attended more than half a dozen programs of Nepalese in the area in mere two months of his arrival. Also told that the Embassy will do whatever it can to help activities of Nepalese here. (My comment: This was a diplomatic way of saying he does not have any particular ideas with him and the embassy does not have any resource to talk about ! Nothing surprising, though.) 2. Introduction by Certain Dwibedi ji and his sister Shashi (working at NIH) of the project 'Ekal Vidyalaya' (One-teacher School) running in India and Nepal. (My comment: Dwibedi was the best speaker among all who spoke on the occasion. Our fellow Nepalese speakers should learn from his speech, that is, do your homework (research etc), know what type of audience you are speaking to, make your speech short, interesting and organized. Regarding the project I had and still have skepticism (the religious undertone among others). However, it was a relief to learn their curriculum includes arithmatics, hygiene etc.) 3. Dubasu Chhetri, an established poet and a ghazalkar himself. This was my first meeting with him. Very energetic person. But he sounded more like a Neta than a Sahityakar in his speech. It was natural, he was there in the capacity of the president of INLS afterall. 4. Sound system did not work. It was a nightmare. But our kids managed to present 'sanskritik karyakram'. Enjoyed a Katthak beautifully presented by a small girl. Guru, a white woman, did wonderful job by singinging Ta Thai Tat Thai without a mike. Not much accent, interesting. 5. Dr. Hari Bhattarai, a former professor of literature and a rebel to the pro-monarchy establishment back home, was given a job ridiculous for the occasion- to present a samalochana of a certain novel not many from the audience, including myself, seems to have read. A short introduction instead of a lengthy formal criticism would have been better, if desired at all. 6. Poetic Samasyapoorti competition. Local poets, some pratiyogi, some apratiyogi recited their poems. Although the non-functioning mike system destroyed some majja, it was the major highlight of the program. My entry did not win any award, but I enjoyed reciting it two times (!) and listening to fellow poets' nice works. The line given for the samasyapoorti was terribly challanging. "Aakhira Chharchha Hawa le pheri ek mutthi kharani"- a line taken from Muna Madan, obviously to pay tribute to Devkota, however too 'Bairagyabadi' to me. A apratiyogi fellow poet shared the same sentiment and presented an 'opposite' poem. 7. I have had a quick view of the documentary on Devkota (bought the DVD). It is a good sovenir. Has valuable materials about Devkota. However, from technical point of view, it is a terribly poor production. Felt tremendous lack of imagination in otherwise very respected director, Yadav Kharel. His visualization of 'Yatri' of Devkota was ridiculously childish. 'Paagal' was better than that, but still was far from capturing the prowess and profoundness of one of Devkota's best works. Nevertheless, the movie is a good reference material on Devkota. It was a joy to see several pictures of Devkota, which I had never seen before.