Making the words sing and soar

Nawaraj Parajuli is really a magician, who “loves playing with words and making my emo­tions come to life”. Famous for his emotive ‘kavita con­certs’ that he performs around the world, Parajuli’s book of poems ‘Sagarmathako Gahi­rai’ was in awarded one of the most prestigious awards in Nepali Literature, the Pad­mashree in 2017. The winner of All Nepali Slam Poetry 2014 was also nominated for Madan Puraskar for the aforemen­tioned book. Parajuli initially came to Kathmandu to establish him­self as an English professor, but his career took a differ­ent turn when he discov­ered his passion for poetry and his ability to play with words. Thus, after getting his Masters in English in 2014, he emerged himself in literature and poetry.

 

Even though he is a Nepali poet, Parajuli has a fascinating English accent.

 

“The poems that I write describe me but mostly my poetry is about empathy,” he says. Quoting his favorite book, Big Magic, Parajuli says that ideas are living souls who come to you: “I do not go to poetry, poetry comes to me.” He takes a deep breath and smiles. “I know it sounds stu­pid but when I get an idea for my writing I get this tick­lish feeling like a huge black ant has walked past my feet. I record whatever comes to my mind at that time.”

 

Recalling his past, Parajuli talks about how poetry helped him realize his dream of paying back the one rupee that his father had given him when he was a kid. “The amount I had earned never seemed enough to repay my father. I always thought I will make more. But when I even­tually handed him one lakh [rupees] in return for that one rupee, his eyes welled up. I thought at the time, all my struggles had been worth it,” he says.

 

It was Parajuli who started the culture of ‘kavita con­certs’ whereby poems are performed to live music. The blend of his verses with the sound of the flute playing in the background is “like sal­vation”. He has toured the world performing poems in Europe, Australia, Middle East and South Asia. In this way he has taken Nepali literature to the international community.

 

Parajuli is also a theater artist associated with The­ater Village and has already performed a rendition of ‘Hamlet’ at the International Theater Festival in Pakistan in 2017 and Tagore’s ‘Malini’ in Germany and Belgium. “Unfortunately I’ve not been able to perform here in Nepal but I really look forward to it,” says Parajuli.

 

Often you cannot explain poetry and Parajuli is a master at playing with the minds of the audience. “Once a guest left when I was performing. Generally, I would have taken it as an insult, but I found out he had left because my poetry had him in tears and he could not handle it anymore.” According to Parajuli, there is no better feeling than seeing his audience lose themselves in his poems.

 

Celebrated in and out of the country, Parajuli is a symbol of hope for the youth who want to pursue art. As of now, there are only a few people who take up literature as a career, and even among them, poets are rare. “I just wish that there were more people in this field, those our upcoming generation of poets and writers could look up to,” says Parajuli. 

Pictures by Pritam Chhetri