Seto Dharti; A Novel of Tears

I heard about you time and again. Media spoke a lot; paper as well as an electronic. Several people on my way asked me whether I had seduced you. You were with me. I kept you in my room untouched. You were virgin to me. Several times, I wanted to consume you. But I used several others as my daily food.    “Unheard melodies are sweeter than heard one.”  You remained in me as unheard melody for long. Today I couldn’t control my impulses. Finally, I savored you. Now, there is no mystery. You are seduced.

Seto  Dharti is a beautiful creation by Amar Neupane. This creation has unfolded the veils of evil practices of child marriage and the predicament of child widow in the Nepali society. The major characters of this novel are child widows such as Tara, Pabitra etc. Yemuna and Gobinda also have their own stories.

The main story is circled in the life of Tara. When she was seven years old, she got married by deception. At that time, she didn’t know about marriage. Her own parents lied her telling that there was worshipping of god at home and made her stay in the Jaggya. Then she was taken to her home telling that she had to go to the temple. Only the next day of her marriage she came to know that she was married with a person whom she hadn’t seen yet. When she had to perform the marriage rites, she was asleep. It was just like a dream. She cried a lot remembering her mother. Her small mother told her dos and don’ts of a daughter in law in a new house. She had to stay one year in her house. It was so difficult for her to spend the whole year. After a year she went her own home. When she was nine years old, she became widow. She was called at home without informing about the death of her husband. As soon as she reached home, she came to know that her husbands had died. Although, he was an unknown character in her life, she was asked to perform all the rites. It was the first time she had seen the face of her husband in his death bed.

Then she was taken to the burning ghat. Some women broke her bangles. They removed all her ornaments and her clothes. They shaved her hair and made her stay thirteen days of mourning. After the rite was over, she was given a white cloth to wear. After a year she came to her own home. Her parents organized marriage of both the sisters at the same day. After coming to her mother, she had forgotten the past days. Her mother also told her that she could live like a son. She started playing with her friends. Govinda taught her some alphabets. Mother also gave birth of a son. They were all happy. One day her mother died untimely. Tara cried a lot for the first time. Nine months brother was taken by his maternal uncle. Later when they found that he was not being taken care properly, they took the child back. Once, Tara saw her brother sucking the breasts of a dog. She was scared. When the baby used to cry for mother’s breast, she would pretend her breast feeding. Time passed. Her friend Pabitra ,who was also the child widow, went to Banaras. Govinda, too, went to Banaras for his study. Yemuna became her best friend. When her youth bloomed, yemuna was there to share her days with Tara. Tara used to ask about Yemuna’s love with her husband, she would reply romantically. One day her father got married another wife who was very young. As the time passed she also gave birth of son but it was the son of Tara’ first brother who was in the same age of her.  Slowly and gradually, step mother started misbehaving her. Father was in the grip of her wife.  He didn’t hear the pain of her daughter. Brother also got married and started living alone. Then she decided to leave home forever.

Her life was like a voyage without rudder. She headed towards Devghat. At the night of her escape from home she stayed at Yemuna’s home. The wished as if her brother would come to stop her whom she brought up like her son. But no one came. She joined a group of people who were migrating to Chitwan. After a week she reached to Devghat.  She devoted her life to God. There she saw the image of Goving in the Swamiji. Several time she kept relation with young men in her dream. So, she also confessed that she was  like Drupadi. One day, she met Yemuna, at Devghat. She had also been there after the death of her husband. She told her story to Tara. Later on, she became Sanyasi. Time passed in its own speed.

Once a female named Gangeswari came at Devghat Ahram. She became popular due to her knowledge and the money she brought with her. One night Gangeswari came to Tara’s hut and revealed her true identity. She was no other than Pabitra. She was Tara’s best friend who had gone to  Banaras with a young priest who came in their village. Then, Pabitra told her story how she passed different stages of life and finally became Gangeswari. She also told that she became a prostitute and earned a lot of wealth while she was at Banaras. Then she left this profession and gave birth of a daughter who was a professor at the moment. Finally she came to Nepal changing her name to devote her rest of the life in God. When Tara first heard this story, she hated her too much. But she could not tell the Swamiji. Later she forgot everything.  At last she also met Govinda whom she secretly kept in her heart throughout her life.

While reading this novel, my throat gagged several times. I couldn’t control my emotion. Though the story is fabricated with writer’s primary imagination, it depicts a picture of social evil and its adverse effects on the lives of many Taras and Pavitras of Nepali society. The narration of the story is tradition. However, the writer has given the space to the characters that have been lost in many writings. It speaks the voice of voiceless. Despite some incongruities, this is one of the best creations in the contemporary Nepali literature.

Little Princes; Grennan's Greatness

 In the midst of a civil war, poverty and despair Grenan comes to Nepal for three months volunteer at the Nepalese orphanage, Little Princes Children’s Home, located at Godhabari. While working with them he discovers the story of many children who have been trafficked during insurgency from the remotest part of Nepal, Humla. The children of the Little Priences Home melted his heart; as a result he made the decision to work for the homeless children of Kathmandu who were brought there by traffickers like Golkka.

He then works with Dhaulagiri House where many children shelters. He coordinates with other men who have been working in this field and collects the helpless children rescuing them from the dark rooms of kathamandu valley. Then one day he knows that the children who are supposed to be orphan do have parents. Thinking that he can reunite them with their parents, he moves to Humla where he has to walk on foot for many days. Besides, the Maoist rebels are the threat for any westerners moving in these places. Despite several hurdles, Grenan becomes able to find out the families of the children who are living at Little Princess House. He becomes so happy looking at the faces of the parents with their shining faces and images of their sons and daughters. He forgets hunger, pain and threat of the Maoists. Then he returns with the photographs of the children’s parents to Kathmandu. He shares the moment of joy with the Farid and the children. Then he decides to raise a fund to open a Next Generation Nepal, an organization to reunite the children with their parents, families.

Moreover, it also depicts the struggle of Grennan in the streets and hospitals of Kathmandu over day and nights. The only oasis in the life of Grennan is an Amerian girl Lizzie with whom he shares everything and gets strong support and encouragement. She also visits Nepal and stays a few days working with the  children of Little Princess. Their heart gets closer seeking a soft spot at each other’s heart. As a result,  they get married and live in the USA  with their son. Although, they live in the USA, Connor raises the fund to run the NGN founded by him in Nepal. Now, NGN is located in Humla where the children read and live with the office staff. 

Conor came to Nepal in 2004 to travel the world and volunteer in Nepal. He would eventually return to Nepal and found Next Generation Nepal, an organization dedicated to reconnecting trafficked children with their families and combating the root causes of child trafficking in rural villages in Nepal. He was based in the capital of Kathmandu until September 2007 where he was the Executive Director of Next Generation Nepal.

Sakas: Pain of Soul

Sakas is a geneological histroy of nepali politics from the reign of Prithive Narayan Shah to Baburam Bhattrai written in a crafty literary language. In particular, this is the story of a women named Kumari and her husband Sharad and their small daughter Shanti. Jiba is another character of the novel who tells the history of Royal Dynasty in microscopic details.
Sharad is a worker in NGO stationed in Ramechhap, Manthali. He becomes the victim of the  Maoist as well as the Royal Army. Due to the extreme torture of the royal army, he gets mentally and physically withered. He writes, "They made me naked. They chiseled and cut the skin of my arms, thighs. They shocked me in the naked organs, they pushed slender of stick through my nostrils and pressed iron pins into my nails." For many days the armies torture him physically as well as mentally. They make him walk with four feet like monkey to the toilet. They make him drink urine instead of water. he has been living under perpetual fear of death at any moment. After a long trail, he gets released and goes to home. Then the  Maoist suspect him in his mysterious release and start asking him unnecessary questions. He has already been traumatized by the brutal torture of the past.
When it the situation becomes worse, they make a plan to migrate Janakpur. For them to stay in Manthali any longer could have become dangerous. Kumari got a small job in a hospital with the help of her friend. They make a small house and also blessed with a baby girl.One day a group of masked gang kidnap Sharad. Later he gets released in ransom. Then Sharad come into contact with Aghori Baba and practised imposed yoga and became able to communicate with Jiba. Kumari thinks that he might have gone mad. She takes him to kathmandu for treatment. Finally, they make a plan to move kathamandu permanently. But leaving a diary and a letter Sharad disappears. With the hope of sharad's return Kumari stays in Janakpur. One day the person who helped to rescue Sharad from the kidnappers by paying ransom attempts rape at night. Kumari comes to know that he also attempted rape to her four years daughter a few days before. She gets enraged and kills him with a trick. Next morning she moves to kathamandu and hands over her daughter to Devi, a woman who has run an organization for women.
Besides, there are numerous events from Ranabahadur Shah's cruel and inhuman activities to Baburam Bhattrai's reign which caused severe problems (SAKAS) to the common citizens of Nepal.

2069 and ME

2069 and Me

2069 is sliding in a few hours. I am wondering with the bits and fragments of those days of pains and happiness. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”, a great saying that I read long before and always stick in my mind. How to live our life isn’t only the private matter as we often say. There are various factors that frame our life such as family, friends, profession, society, culture, religion, goal, politics, and technology and so on and so on. We often strive to fit ourselves the best in the situations. We are born with a bundle of desires and struggle from the beginning to accomplish such desires. We fulfill some of them. But we get never satisfied with it. And we shouldn’t be. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari said “ever since birth his crib, his mother’s breast, her nipple, his bowel movements are desiring machines connected to parts of his body”. This desiring machine leads to the infinite production in the human life if we know its management. Sometimes, unmanaged bundle of desires may result in depression and frustration.

Professionally, I am a teacher/ instructor. Personally I am a son to my parents, husband to my spouse, and a father to my son and so on. I have multiple responsibilities. While working with these responsibilities, balance is essential. I think I did my best despite some problems. My parents live some 250 kilometer far from me. I hardly could manage time to meet them except during Dashain vacation. My spouse and son live 80 kilometer far from me and I visit them fortnightly. Thanks to internet and telephone which made me keep in touch with keens and friends. Thanks to Facebook for digging out the holes and rewarding me with my best friends. Moreover, internet assisted me in problems. Thanks to Google, Facebook, Skype, YouTube, twitter, Gmail, LinkedIn   and many more for keeping me in touch with people, events and information.

Books are my best friends. Books are my mentor. 2069 gave me enough time to read the books. I washed my sins, brushed my knowledge, added fuel to the desiring machine, and discovered the secrets of happiness. The Difficulty  of Being Good : On The Subtle Art of Dharma by Gurucharan Das made me watch the Mahabharat. After reading the book I watched whole epic drama day and night. It gave me wisdom.  “What is here found elsewhere? What is not here is nowhere.” –Mahabharat  I.56.34-35. Gurucharan Das was graduated from Harvard University where he studied philosophy and Sanskrit. In his book, he has given the comparative study with western philosophy and ranked the Mahabharat at the top. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and Family Wisdom by Robin Sharma are the enlightening books which deserve much appreciation. In fact, these books unfold the layers of unconscious and make us realize what life is and how to live the life. You can Sell by  Shiva Khera is another book with a bundle of tips to those who are selling their knowledge or skill. Little princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennam is structurally well crafted and semantically heart throbbing book set in Kathmandu and Humla. It’s a live documentary of trafficked children from Humla during Maiost Insurgency and how they were rescued and reunited with their families through Next Generation  Nepal founded by Grenam . While reading the book , what the hell the government I think of, the layers of my forehead gathered and my head reeled. Sold  by Patricia McCormick is another heart touching book about the trafficked girls of Nepal who are living a hellish life in the brothels of India. Despite the sufferings of the girls in the brothels, it also digs out the poverty , insecurity, evil practices of Nepal which ultimately have  become cause of the plight of Nepali girls at the hands of traffickers who are their own father or the relatives.

Sakas by Jagdish Ghimire , a rewritten history of Nepal with the unfolding of hidden black faces of Nepali politicians gives tears and laughter together.  Before I bought this book I had not read its review but his earlier book Antaraman ko Yatra  made me buy this book and I really enjoyed it. Ranabahadur Shah and Kantiwati, and Ranabahadur’s shahs activities after Kantiwati’s  death  still make my hair straight. Khana Pugos Dina Pugos by Rabindra Mishra has left an imprint in my heart which always makes me think what can I do to laid a stone on the whole structure of social work done by many people like Puspa Basnet, Dilshova, Gayatri Bhattrai, Minbahadur Gurung etc. I don’t mean to say that these are the only people mentained in the book, there are many others who have contributed equally to give the voice to the voiceless, food to the foodless not  in their speeches and popular columns or in their Dollar farming fake documents but in their actions, toils and sweats.  Khagendra Sangraula’s Samjanaka Kuinetaharu  made me feel that how poor I am in Nepali language. His writing is stunning. Though they were published earlier, Pretkalpa by Narayan Dhakal, Ular by Nayanraj Pandey, Radha and  Saranarthi by Krishna Dharabasi Basanti by Diamond Shamser Pagal Basti by Sarubhatka, Anuradha by Vijaya Malla , Maita Ghar by Lainsingh wandel, Hitlar and Yahudi by B.P. Koirala, Swasni Manchhe by Hridayachndrashingh Pradhan Pallo Ghar ko Jhyal by Govinda Malla Ghothale etc were the books which made my 2070 more fruitful. I regretted for not reading these books in the past. After reading LU, I instantly went to the book shop to by Ular. Udhamiko Aankhama Arthatantra by  Binod chaudhary is different book with different taste for the students of literature like me. However, I learned a lot.

Chetan  Bhagat’s books added some flavors of teenage in me. Later Subin Bhattrai’s novel  Summer Love made me criticize him for adopting the similar technique with different technique. Bharati Mukharji’s Miss New India made me review the predicament of young Nepali girls and their challenges in stunt male dominated society. Anjali Boss, the central character of the novel undergoes several hurdles in her life and can’t come out of the whirlpool created by the society. I see the same fate in every young Nepali girl. They should read this book once. Hundred Days in Maoist Arrest by Narayan Subedhi  gives some truths and fictions in a collage form.  I too Had a Love Story by Ravindra singh gives the new way of love using internet matrimonial sites. Besides, many other books which became the feast of my hunger in 2067, were equally valuable and inspiring.

I too watched movies and documentaries available and accessible to me.  The Interpreter, Beasts of southern Wild, Silver Lining Playbook, The Terminal, Skyfall, Men in Black III, Catch me I’m in Love, The Last Song, Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Caravan etc. are the stunning Hollywood movies I watched in 2069. I too watched some of the Bollywood and Nepali movies. They also equally deserve appreciation as per their quality. Tony Hegan’s 1950’s Nepal, Greek Myth Documentary, Egypt; Rise and Fall, Abraham Lincon, Easter Island, Buddha, Edmund Hillary etc. are the thoughtful documentaries which changed my perspectives in viewing the contemporary world.

2069 was good for friendship, family matters and profession. Dissatisfactions and mistakes are human kind’s daily feast. Negative views and behaviors are like the weeds in a field. They come without our efforts and spontaneously.  I tried my best to remove the weeds and germinate the lifesaving plants and also irrigate which is really hard but creative. Farewell 2069. You will never come in my live but your fruits will be always with me.