Kumudini is passionate about the arts and education.

A founding member of Shikshya Foundation Nepal, Kumudini’s experience as an educationist and her conviction in the regenerative ability of the arts have been integral to the Foundation’s extensive contribution towards the inclusion and expansion of the arts in public education programs.

As a child, Kumudini often sought and found solace in fictional characters. In later decades, she rediscovered her love for stories as she spent her time obsessively reading to and with children in varied classrooms, including her own two children.

Her long standing relationship with children’s literature endures as the foundation for much of Kumudini’s work today, and her personal experiences have fostered a particular interest in mentoring and facilitating voices that have often been relegated to the margins.

Kumudini has played a pivotal role in the creation of over 70 children’s picture books with an emphasis on celebrating diverse cultural narratives. Her work brings her closer to stories and storytellers of many indigenous Nepali languages and experiences.

Kumudini leads the Hamro Ramailo Katha Project at Open Learning Exchange Nepal: a social benefit organization dedicated to enhancing education quality and access through the integration of technology in public schools. Through her work with OLE Nepal, she served as Editor for 50 children’s picture books, several of which she co-authored.

As a Managing Editor for a joint project by The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read Nepal and Srijanalaya, Kumudini led a diverse team to produce 20 Tamang stories for children centered on local cultural perspectives.

Kumudini also serves as the Director for Education at Bright Horizon Children’s Home Foundation and is a board member at Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre Nepal.

Alongside her ongoing work with Shikshya Foundation Nepal, she has driven critical policy reforms at Bright Horizon’s Children’s Home – a school dedicated to disadvantaged children – significantly improving mental health interventions and disability access.

Kumudini tries her best to practise the kind of care that is required to sensitively hold space for other people’s stories, including varied and difficult voices: especially of artists, writers, filmmakers of different genres.

It comes as no surprise that Kumudini chose to support Elephants in the Fog, a film placing Nepal’s transgender Kinnar community at the centre of its narrative. Witnessing the film make history at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, as the first Nepali feature to win the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, and standing behind it as the first Nepali woman producer has been truly momentous.

Kumudini has been a steadfast supporter of emerging artists for decades, consistently facilitating discourse across the art community. When a member of a prominent art collective recently told her, ‘Didi, you believed in us way before we did in ourselves,’ it captured the heart of her work. Kumudini wears that acknowledgement as a badge of honour, recognizing in them the years of behind-the-scenes efforts she has quietly sustained. She brings the same commitment to Kalā Kulo, an initiative she co-founded to nurture the flows and frictions of creative labour.