वंगु अक्टोबर या २८ तारिक, हलिं नेवा: दबू (WNO) पाखेँ वाङमय शताब्दी पुरुष सत्य मोहन जोशी मदुगु १३न्हुया पुण्यतिथि लाका: लुमन्ति ज्याझ्व: न्ह्याकुगु दु। WNO प्रमुख संरक्षक नापं जुयाच्वम्ह अतिकं हनेब:म्ह भाजु जोशी पाखें WNO, व नेवा: तजिलजि, नेपालभाषा, साहित्य, इतिहास, कला व मेगु आपालं ख्यलय् दुगु अतुलानीय योगदान यु लुमन्ति नितिं थ्व ज्याझ्व: न्ह्याकुगु ख:। ज्याझ्वलय् WNO या संरक्षक दया रत्न शाक्य, संस्थापक नायो डा. बाल गोपाल श्रेष्ठ, निवर्तमान नायो सिसन श्रेष्ठ, सल्लाहाकार प्र. प्रेम शान्ति तुलाधर व नायो संयुक्त पाखें थ:थ:गु नुग:खँ तयादीया सत्य मोहन जोशी यु गुणस्मरण यानादीगु ख:। अथेहे, ज्याझ्व: WNO या युवा सल्लाहकार नीतू डंगोलं न्ह्याकुगु ख: धा:सा, औपचारिक ज्याझ्व: मूछ्यान्जे शोभित शाक्य जु पाखें सुभाय् देछाना क्वचाय्कादीगु ख:। विस्तार रिपोर्ट अंग्रेजीं क्वे स्वयादिसँ।
——
On the 28th of October, Friday World Newah Organization (WNO) held a virtual remembrance event for Nepal’s “Person of the Century” Satya Mohan Joshi via Zoom on the occasion of the 13th day of his passing. Joshi who passed away on the 16th of October had been the Chief Patron of the organization since its establishment in 2011 and was an important figure to guide the organization. Joshi was a formidable personality in the culture and literature field within Nepal and an important historian as well, highly regarded as an expert in the study of Nepali culture inside and outside Nepal. He was especially revered by the Newah community, belonging to which, Joshi was also a community leader and a father figure.
The event started with a short remembrance speech by Daya Ratna Shakya, patron of WNO. Shakya noted his encounters with the centennial Joshi as well as events and occasions in which Joshi has actively made his presence for WNO fulfilling his role as the Chief Patron. He also expressed his immense sadness at the passing away of a father figure and mentioned the symbolic gesture of not wearing a hat for the 13-day mourning period. In the event, Shakya then wore a hat with everyone as a witness ending his time of mourning.
Followed by the speech from Daya Ratna Shakya, the founding President of WNO, Dr Bal Gopal Shrestha spoke in memory of Satya Mohan Joshi and reminisced reading the play Siddhidas written by Joshi. Pointing to his role as a leader for the Newah community Shrestha pointed out that he even contributed to political movements despite not being a political figure. Shrestha rebuked the criticism that Joshi did not do much for the Newah community. He emphasized that even though he was employed by the government, which at times did not allow him to openly represent the Newah political cause of cultural autonomy, for most of his life, centennial Joshi did put his effort into writing and putting his voice for the benefit of Newah community. He concluded by saying that even though there are talks about an award being established in his name, the best tribute to centennial Joshi would be to give continuity to his life’s work through the establishment of scholarships and academic programs in his memory.
Season Shrestha immediate past president of WNO was the third speaker at the event and he recollected the various occasions on which he was able to meet and work with Joshi including the first time when he met Joshi during the first general meeting of WNO in London. Shrestha noted the charismatic character of Joshi and called him a motivator, an inspiration and an uniter for not just the Newah community but even Nepal as a whole, who helped bring people together for the country and society.
Prof. Prem Shanti Tuladhar, advisor to WNO made a presentation next on the topic “Satya Mohan Joshi’s contribution to Nepalbhasa and Newah Folklore” noting several of the key important literary works of Joshi which made him a household name in most parts of Nepal. Noting that Joshi did not show partiality to any of the National languages in Nepal, Tuladhar quoted Joshi as saying, “if anyone accuses a writer of being sampradayik (communal) then such a person who makes such accusation is rather the one who is sampradayik.” Tuladhar noted that Joshi considered writing in their mother tongue as the responsibility of all people and emphasized that Joshi wrote more in Nepalbhasa even though his literary work in Nepali (Khas-parbatiya) language was extensive as well. Tuladhar also noted that his literary works were divided into both creative writing and constructive writing categories. Joshi contributed to a wide array of genres of writing including anything from children’s literature, poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, historical work, folk tales and even dictionaries. Tuladhar noted that like how a provider of a family fulfils the necessities of a family, Satya Mohan Joshi identified the voids in different genres of Nepalbhasa literature and did his best to fill those voids. Reminiscing Joshi’s long active contribution to literature, Tuladhar mentioned that it was the ambition and motivated nature of Joshi that gave longevity to Joshi’s active life as a writer and a cultural leader.
As the final listed speaker on occasion, the President of WNO, Sanyukta Shrestha covered the contribution of Satya Mohan Joshi in the field of arts through his speech on the topic “Contribution of Satya Mohan Joshi to Nepalese Art”. Shrestha who himself is an artist and animator was highly influenced by Satya Mohan Joshi for his works in the field of Newah neo-traditional art and computer-generated animations as well. Shrestha recalled the scholarly attributes of Joshi summarizing them under five categories – 1. Attention to detail (निरीक्षण सूक्ष्मता), 2. Intellectual resourcefulness (बौधिक साधन संपन्नता), 3. Analytical argumentation (विश्लषणया तार्किकता), 4. Remarkable memory (विलक्षण स्मरणशक्ति), and 5. Creative expression (अभिव्यक्तिया रचनात्मकता). Reminiscing moments from his encounters with centennial Joshi, Shrestha gave examples of each of these five scholarly attributes of Joshi. Shrestha also spoke of the seminal work of Joshi on the historical-biographical work of the identity of Arniko, which has been an inspiration to several other historians. Shrestha also spoke shortly about another invaluable work of Joshi in the field of art history, namely नेपाली कलाको रुपरेखा (form and feature of Nepali art).
To conclude the formal program, the General Secretary of WNO, Dr Shobhit Shakya recollected the key points from all speeches in his vote of thanks and expressed the need to take the work of Satya Mohan Joshi to newer generations and to preserve all his life works.
In addition to the listed program, there were also short statements by Keshar Man Tamrakar, Senior Vice-president of the WNO USA Chapter and Deepak Dangol, Treasurer of WNO, who emphasized the important contributions of Satya Mohan Joshi and recalled their memories with him. The one and half hour online event moderated by Nitu Dangol, WNO youth ambassador started at 9 PM (Nepal) and was live-streamed on Facebook. The recording of the event can be watched here https://www.facebook.com/worldnewah/videos/783785946061336. The event followed several interviews on remembrance of Satya Mohan Joshi live streamed through WNO Daily Broadcast, WNO’s daily live stream broadcast medium. A separate event was organized by WNO Netherlands Chapter, on the 23rd of October.
