Manu, you'd nearly frightened me when you didn't utter a single
word in Nepali for whole three months in the office. I thought of you to be
different species as this was unusual, even though ours was English medium
environment. You spoke English as fluent as the native speakers do and so, I
thought you to be a different breed of human being. But there was something in
you; you had so many things that others didn’t have. You could see beyond
horizon; you could see the unseen and you reached those heights of imagination
which others only dreamt to fathom.
You could create beauty, you could create hope and you could
create art. Manu! You babbled with us and told us things that were, sometimes,
impossible to believe. We too acted as if we believed you and enjoyed every bit
of your words. But within this babbling, you had something that all of us
lacked. You had creative genius inside you. You meditated in the long hours of
night and you wrote poems.
We thought you are nothing more than a babbler.
We thought you are nothing more than a babbler.
We listened to your talks with interest. The interest never faltered. The attention never diverted. And that was it. Thank you
Manu for those great many things you told.
Manu, I thank you for igniting the love of literature in the
people around you. I remember the day when I showed to you the very first story I
translated from Bengali. You were elated to read it. Later, the story entitled
‘Ek muthi aakash' was published in our publication 'The Kosedhunga.' I didn’t tell you that I too wrote things in the wee hours. Many a times
my writings didn’t make sense. They were just a jumble of words. But still I
loved to write and still do. I thought nobody would like to read what I wrote.
So, stories which I wrote were hidden in the pages of my notebooks. Then I
decided to translate beautiful stories from other languages before showcasing
my own. I believed I would be able to create a little space in literature one day by translating
stories. Thank you Manu, for those first
words of praise.
Some years later I came up with a compilation of translated
stories from Hindi : “Jindagi Ek Photo Frame.” Many thumbed down to my effort
saying it was nothing more than idiocy to translate somebody else’s stories and publish them at my own cost. But I knew I was right. I lost nothing. Instead it
gave me a stage to perform- as translator,a story writer and an editor.
My work of translation got very wide recognition. Specially
in the Hindi speaking world. A London- based Hindi writer Tejendra Sharma approached
me for translating his stories into Nepali. I readily accepted, translated and
showed the manuscript to you. You were again elated, and at my request wrote a
beautiful prefatory note for the book. You wrote about my style of translation, my
style of using language and the type of stories I wrote. You wanted to see me
shine in the world of stories. You crafted every sentence with care, and
lifted me to the arena of contemporary literature. Thank you Manu. Thank you
very much.
Slowly and steadily I started churning out stories. You loved
them as you loved my translated stories. Your comments added poetic beauty to
my writings. And then, years later, I again wanted your pen in my book. You took
time, but came up with such a balanced and beautiful preface for my collection of
short stories 'Tyo Pahenlo Phool' for that I can say nothing except "Thank
You Dear Friend" from the very core of my heart.
You told sometimes that by writing poetry you've added
beautiful things to the existence. It is indeed true that a beautiful poem is something that makes this world more beautiful.
Thank You for writing poetry and Thank You for being my
friend.
