Aadikabi Bhanubhakta's home remains in ruins

By Amar Raj Naharki,Tanahun, July 6: It has been 20 years since Aadikabi Bhanubhakta Acharya's house in Chundiramgha, Bhanu Municipality–4, burned down. Yet, the local level that takes its name from the pioneer poet of Nepal has paid no attention to rebuilding it, locals complain.

"It is heartbreaking to see pioneer poet Acharya's house in ruins and covered by bushes," Bharat Pokharel, a resident of Vyas Municipality–2 who originally hails from Sepabagaincha, Bhanu–5, expressed. "The present state of the Ramayan House brings tears to the eyes."

Pokharel felt that the lack of reconstruction amounted to an insult against Acharya and requested all authorities to restore the historically significant home, that was destroyed in a fire in 2003, to its former glory before next year's Bhanu Jayanti.

Bhyange Sunar, 85, who lives near the remains of Acharya's residence, was more direct with his words. "How can the leaders who cannot even rebuild  our Aadikabi’s Acharya's home build the nation?" He said that we had not valued the great poet and his contributions.

Actor Dilip Rayamajhi, who began his silver screen career by playing the role of pioneer poet Acharya in the eponymously titled movie 'Aadikabi Bhanubhakta', said that seeing the condition of the literary icon's house made him feel that Acharya was not respected. "Bhanubhakta is greatly revered in Darjeeling and Sikkim. Yet, it seems that he has not been properly honoured in his birthplace Nepal," he shared.

Acharya's house, which stood in the middle of the forest and had a thatch roof, was last renovated in the 1990s for the shooting of the aforementioned film 'Aadikabi Bhanubhakta'. At the time, the building was under the management of the Bhanu Birthplace Development Committee, which these days is known as the Aadikabi Bhanubhakta Birthplace Development Committee. 

The Committee was formed in 1996 to protect and promote the home where the distinguished author, recognised as a national hero of Nepal, came into this world. Yet, it appears to be letting this very home, the main thing it was brought into existence to look after, disappear. 

When questioned, the Committee's head and former chair of the erstwhile Bhanu Village Development Committee Rishi Ram Pant said that their demands for preservation had not been heard.

Hopes were high when the then Chief Secretary Dr. Som Lal Subedi, former Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal and Chairman of the Western Region Development Forum Ram Kaji Kone broke ground to reconstruct Bhanu's house in 2016. It was advertised that the building would be reconstructed at a cost of Rs. 6.8 million. "But work could not begin because necessary budget was not allocated," said Shankar Ranabhat, executive director of the Aadikabi Bhanubhakta Birthplace Development Committee. 

Yadunath Neupane, a local of Ambote, Bhanu–2, and a member of the Birke Cap Ghansi (Grasscutter) Campaign, asked the concerned bodies to look at how well the British government has maintained the home belonging to Willian Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon and turned it into a tourist hotspot. "It has been over 400 years since Shakespeare died. Still, people can visit his home."

He also said that holding programmes and wearing the famed 'Bhanu Cap' on Asar 29, the day Acharya was born, held no meaning if his house remained neglected.