Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, January 28

Bichar Shibir organised a poetry reading and discussion programme at Nepal Tourism Board on Wednesday, January 28. The programme presented India-born Tibetan writer Tenzin Tsundue and Nepali poet DB Gurung.

Tsundue won the best non-fiction award for his essay ‘My Kind of Exile’ in the all-India essay competition organised by Picador-Outlook in 2001. “A Free Tibet activist”, as he describes himself, “because of which” he became a poet. Tsundue’s poems are intense and stimulating. “There is no role of writers as such but generally how they see things,” said Tsundue. “A poet is a society’s psychology. A poet needs a good atmosphere to write. By atmosphere I don’t mean rivers, mountains. Writing is a serious business, you write so other people can read and relate to it.”

To Tsundue, art comes and begins from control. “There are two things juxtaposed in poetry — expression and control.”

When he was in his early twenties, Tsundue found that he had something to say. This led him to publish his first book of poetry. The best way to improve yourself is to share your writing with others, to listen to criticism and add what you learn to your writing. “A critic acts like the opposition party to the ruling party,” he said.

DB Gurung, poet and novelist spoke of his own search for identity as a Bhutanese refugee in Nepal 20 years ago and how he overcame it. Gurung also read some of his own poetry and those of Tsundue’s, explaining at times, what poetry meant to him and how as an English writer in Nepal, he saw the growing consciousness of the English language amongst the Nepali youth. “No matter which language you express in, it should explicate your own social milieu. Donning a daura suruwal won’t make you a Nepali. It is a season of globalisation and you need to reach out to a bigger audience. The best way to reach the global community is through a language that they can understand.”