शान्ती स्तुपा, पोखरा Sunday, May 18, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Book review - Palpasa café
Many people criticized Palpasa Café as it does not contain tradition way of writing and did not like it because of the popularity of the writer. Narayan Wagle the writer of the Palpasa Café is a journalist of the daily newspaper Kantipur and people say he got award for this book because of his popularity as a journalist. I don’t know it may be true. But any ways I liked the book because it contains the simple language which is easy to understand and Nepal’s present situation, and after all it contains emotional love story and modern characterization.
The story does not contain traditional way of writing because it is based on the characters of modern age that never use literature in language and often used English phrases and informal way of communication. I am not sure whether this story is based on real story but the story no where seems like a fiction. Every thing the story explains could be the reality but may not be of the single person. I appreciate the opening and the ending of the story. It was wonderful. It was really unpredictable and the love story was nice though it was not focused much. The story focused much on Nepal’s situation based on maoist condition and he successfully linked it with the love story.
During every conversation between Drishya and Palpasa (the leading character of the story), I can feel their presence in the reality. They could be anyone among those who are seen traveling on the street of New road, Thamel or Kingsway every day. The death of Palpasa and disappearance of Drishya is just the symbolic representation. There may be many more that had died and disappeared in such a way.
I never liked the tragic story in which the leading characters die at the end. But Palpasa café is the exception. When I heard about translation of Palpasa Café in English I recalled the story again. I wish to see Palpasa Café as a movie and I am sure it will be a successful movie.
The story does not contain traditional way of writing because it is based on the characters of modern age that never use literature in language and often used English phrases and informal way of communication. I am not sure whether this story is based on real story but the story no where seems like a fiction. Every thing the story explains could be the reality but may not be of the single person. I appreciate the opening and the ending of the story. It was wonderful. It was really unpredictable and the love story was nice though it was not focused much. The story focused much on Nepal’s situation based on maoist condition and he successfully linked it with the love story.
During every conversation between Drishya and Palpasa (the leading character of the story), I can feel their presence in the reality. They could be anyone among those who are seen traveling on the street of New road, Thamel or Kingsway every day. The death of Palpasa and disappearance of Drishya is just the symbolic representation. There may be many more that had died and disappeared in such a way.
I never liked the tragic story in which the leading characters die at the end. But Palpasa café is the exception. When I heard about translation of Palpasa Café in English I recalled the story again. I wish to see Palpasa Café as a movie and I am sure it will be a successful movie.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Book review - Guru of Love
About the book "Guru of love" written by Samrat Upadhyay that I have gone through recently, the reason I liked this book is that it is written by the Nepali writer in the context of Nepal. The book contains lots of details of Nepal, especially different places of Kathmandu and the details of Nepalese life style.
When I first heard the title of the book "Guru of love", I expected to get the emotions, success and power of love in it. But there is no emotion explained in any of these relations. All the relations exist in the story like the stones lying on the street. The stones lie on the street only because no one removes them from there. Relations in the story are not bind. Relation between Goma and Ram Chandra, Ram Chandra and Malati, Malati and Amrit, Nalini and her husband, all are hollow from inside.
Ram Chandra is a middle-class teacher, who used to take tuition for money and Malati is a poor lady, who wants to pass SLC to get good job for her daughter's future. It's the story of an extra marital affair of a teacher Ram Chandra with his mature student Malati. Probably that's the reason; the story is named as Guru of love. But does Ram Chandra really know any thing about love besides sex? Can he be called "Guru" of love which means teacher of love?
The relationship between Ram Chandra and Malati, around which the whole story moves, seems to be merely the mistake between two adults rather than love, as it does not make any difference in both of their lives. Neither Ram Chandra nor Malati is affected. Neither Ram Chandra nor Malati cared. The relationship between them ended like the journey of two passengers end after getting off from the bus.
I liked the concept, the story without a negative character. Goma was good with Malati and Ram Chandra even though she knew they had an affair, and Ram Chandra was good with both Goma and Malati, which is rare (when a man gets into an extra marital affair, he usually does not care about the first wife); Malati was good with Goma too. When Malati returned to Amrit, Amrit was good to both Malati and Ram Chandra (quite strange). So, probably the writer wants to teach the readers to be kind to everyone in every situation. I think that's the moral of the story.
When I first heard the title of the book "Guru of love", I expected to get the emotions, success and power of love in it. But there is no emotion explained in any of these relations. All the relations exist in the story like the stones lying on the street. The stones lie on the street only because no one removes them from there. Relations in the story are not bind. Relation between Goma and Ram Chandra, Ram Chandra and Malati, Malati and Amrit, Nalini and her husband, all are hollow from inside.
Ram Chandra is a middle-class teacher, who used to take tuition for money and Malati is a poor lady, who wants to pass SLC to get good job for her daughter's future. It's the story of an extra marital affair of a teacher Ram Chandra with his mature student Malati. Probably that's the reason; the story is named as Guru of love. But does Ram Chandra really know any thing about love besides sex? Can he be called "Guru" of love which means teacher of love?
The relationship between Ram Chandra and Malati, around which the whole story moves, seems to be merely the mistake between two adults rather than love, as it does not make any difference in both of their lives. Neither Ram Chandra nor Malati is affected. Neither Ram Chandra nor Malati cared. The relationship between them ended like the journey of two passengers end after getting off from the bus.
I liked the concept, the story without a negative character. Goma was good with Malati and Ram Chandra even though she knew they had an affair, and Ram Chandra was good with both Goma and Malati, which is rare (when a man gets into an extra marital affair, he usually does not care about the first wife); Malati was good with Goma too. When Malati returned to Amrit, Amrit was good to both Malati and Ram Chandra (quite strange). So, probably the writer wants to teach the readers to be kind to everyone in every situation. I think that's the moral of the story.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Yatra: "Journey from the dawn to the dusk"
Life is a journey with uncertainty. No one knows the destination nor have any clue for the prediction. No matter where, with whom and how the journey is proceeding, everyone has to reach to the end. Journey does not begin with the first ray of sun but it begins with the first step taken with courage. Journey from the dawn to the dusk is just a small part of long journey of uncertainty.
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