Indeed time has no time and the old Professor Sharmas are being replaced by new Professor Sharmas. There is a huge difference between the old Professor Sharmas and new Professor Sharmas, yet at the same time there is no difference at all. The change is merely for the sake of change that time has forced upon us.
Neither the Professor Sharmas have changed nor the students. Yesterday also students used to set fire to the departments in the University and today also they have not stopped doing so. Today, their parents also have started bashing up the teachers and it’s anyone’s guess what the students — the children of these parents — will do tomorrow.
Poet Viplav Dhakal has woven the words in his poem ‘Professor Sharma ko Diary’ with as much skill and patience as a weaver strings together a piece of cloth; a beautifully work of art and craft. Maybe, it’s because he has seen that life, and lives that life.
Professor Sharma’s diary of 30 years is lost and so is his entire world of pseudo intellectualism. He has so dependent on his diary that in the absence of the diary he cannot face his students. The poet through the students challenges his professorship. “What is the difference between the university and buffalo-shed?” — the students ask professor Sharma. Has our university really turned into a buffalo-shed? No one has the answer.
Be what may, Professor Sharma will not die. He may disappear for the time being but he will come back again from his grave and start chasing the new Professor Sharmas. He will continue haunting us as long as our old mindset does not change enough to accept the reality that we are human robots operated by some old sutras in the manual — Professor Sharma’s diary.
Professor Sharma has taught many of us and we are no better than his carbon copies. May be there is a cultural defect. It is a satire that the young poet of this generation depicts of our education system — a system that needs complete overhaul.
Professor Sharmako Diary depicts the reality of our times. The poet is successful in depicting our time and its naked truth. There are very few poets in this generation, and  Dhakal is one of them, who dare sympathise and yet at the same time reject the plight of old Professor Sharmas and lampoon the new Professor Sharmas.
New Professor Sharmas are always fearful of the return of the old ones. This fear pyschosis has to be cured. The sooner the better !

…………
If old Professor Sharma is successful
in getting his old diary back,
what the new Professor Sharmas
will do from tomorrow?

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Book — Professor Sharma ko Diary (A long poem)
Poet — Viplav Dhakal
Publisher — Kaal Chakra Nepal
Price — Rs 55
Pages — 52

Capitol Hill is a collection of stories of Nepalis in
America - the land of dream for most of us. Rajab has, in this collection of 11 stories, portrayed the migrant Nepalis and their dreams, sufferings and musings, in the United States.

The collection gives us glimpses of the Nepalis and their life in the dream land. The educated but frustrated mass still flocks to the dream land but there is a vast gap in between life in the US and Nepalis dreams. Still Uma - a reader in the Tribhuvan University back home - continues to work as a babysitter in the US forcing a reader to think why is she compelled to do what she is doing in the US.

Similarly, the characters — Carlo Roshi aka Kashinath Joshi, Babukaji or the old grandpas — have more or less realisation of the stark reality of the American life. But back home their dreams are shattered. They have no present in Nepal and no future in the US. Unlike Nepali society, the American society is more individualistic where people do not trust people but animals.

Readers will enjoy the stories in Capitol Hill as Rajab’s characters speak like man on the street around us. His description is not lengthy and complicated. Capitol Hill is a canvas where Rajab has painted the American life in black and white.

Readers will enjoy these stories as they find themselves in the characters. In contemporary Nepali literature, Capitol Hill is one of the best short stories collections.

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Book: Capitol Hill

Author: Rajab

Publisher: Orchid Books

Pages: 132

Price: Rs 160

A joyous ride

Shree Krishna Gautam, a retired bearcat has authored his sixth book Maldivesko Prem Katha Ra Anya Yatraharu (a lovestory of Maldives and other travels). Writing travelogue, a least written genre in Nepal literature, has been recently picking up in Nepali language, as it’s the author’s third travelogue.

This small book gives a reader a joyous ride to almost all the major cities in the world from Paris to Washington, Petersburg, New York, London, Colombo, Maldives, Busan, Seoul, Tehran, Osaka, Tokyo, Hanoi, Rome, Bangkok to Beijing.

In Tehran, the author seems to have found a lost connection - in the development of our civilisation - between Iran and Nepal. His confessions about the Iranian beauties and experiences seem true to his heart.

The book that has 20 travelogues is a worth read in one sitting.

……………….

BOOK REVIEW

Book - Maldivesko Prem Katha Ra Anya Yatraharu (a lovestory of Maldives and other travels)

Author - Shree Krishna Gautam

Publisher - Sajha Publications

Price - Rs 75

Pages - 82

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Blowing the ashes

Niguroko Kharani, ashes of a fern, a collection of four-long poems, is Tanka Uprety’s fourth poetry collection.

Long poems generally loose their charm till they reach the end, but its not the case with this collection. The poems, the most written genre in Nepali literature, are the representatives of our present and past. The poet has developed his own style that they look like a long poem but at the same time they could be fragmented and still make sense.

His poems protest against betrayal and they also challenge the regime. They are bitter but yet sober. They are long but not boring to read at the same time, because it seems he has embedded many hykus (three-liner poems) into one long poem.

In Uprety’s poems, a reader can find many metaphors like Birupakchhya, who represents regressive forces, Yalamber, a character from the mahabharat is a mute spectator, Jalkhumbhi, a water hyacinth is a vicious network and Niguroko Kharani itself represents the unfulfilled wishes. With so many metaphors, he is confused himself;

I’m thinking

Who is living

With my face (Yalamberko Shikar)

……………………

BOOK REVIEW

Book - Niguroko Kharani (Long narrative poems)

Author - Tanka Uprety

Publisher - Sarbada Bangmaya Prathisthan

Price - Rs 75

Pages - 72

My 2 Innings, a memoir of a paediatrician-cum-author who writes under a pen name Mani Dixit, has some pleasant and some not so pleasant memories over the years from his life.

Dixit takes us back to the Nepal of 40s and 50s that is more pleasant and forth, the stark realities of present that is not so pleasant. However, My 2 Innings is a pleasant read because it not only tells us about the author and his growing years in serene Kathmandu, but also gives us the vivid picture of the then Kathmandu, its people and practises.

The septuagenarian author, in his book, recalls his childhood and planting of a copper coin so that it will grow into a money plant one day; the then Kathmandu and the snow fall in Kathmandu, a rare phenomenon that has again occurred after 62 years on February 7 this year. He also recalls many of his friends, seniors and juniors like Pashupati SJB Rana and Ruskin Bond during his school days.

The author, who gave life to many as a practising doctor, survived a murder attempt on himself in Kathmandu, the capital city in 2006. The readers will definitely be compelled to ask, after going through the last chapters, why were KMC — a professional organisation and its board members hunted and what was their fault. Though sad these chapters tell us a lot about our corrupt system and its ineffectiveness that is counting its last days. It should be an eye-opener for the state mechanism, if it wants to boost its citizens’ confidence.

The book also has some of the rare pictures like snow-covered lawns of Singh Durbar some 62 years back, car being brought to Kathmandu in the forties and many more.

It seems that the author in his second innings will score a century.

IN SET

Book: My 2 Innings

Author: Dr Hemang Dixit

Publisher: Makalu Publication House

Pages: 169

Price: Rs 150

Samjhanaka Kuenetaharu is a collection of memoirs — of Khagendra Sangraula, one of the most read columnists — which are written in different time and spaced during the last decade.

In the book, a reader can encounter different people — from Bhawani Ghimire to Basant Thapa to Nirmal Lama to even earlier British envoy Bloomfield, to contemporary literary figures. Some of them are the author’s teachers, some are his friends, philosophers and guides, and yet others are the common characters from among us. But they are not redundant as the readers get to know them more, of course from the author’s eye. In some of his memoirs, the central character is even a radio, a cap or a telephone. But they are some of the metaphors of his life and our society at present.

There are 26 memoirs in Samjhanaka Kuenetaharu that helps us peep into not only the author’s life but also into the time he has lived and we have lived as well. A lot of people love him and equal number of people hate him, at the same time. The reason: his aggressive writing style. “He is a daring writer,” Narayan Wagle, writes of him. But sometimes, somewhere he seems childish in arguments, not daring rather a stubborn child. But it’s a difficult thing to be a child also. That’s why his literary work is the most controversial and at the same time contemporary.

As it happens though rarely, memoirs are always not true and authors are famous for lying to the readers. But his love-hate relationship with Nirmal Lama, honour and respect for Bhawani Ghimire seem true to his heart.

In many ways, Samjhanaka Kuenetaharu is a collection of contemporary essays that brings some rich and some poor memoirs of the author’s life. In many ways the essays seem familiar, at least to the readers of his column.

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Book: Samjhanaka Kuenetaharu

Author: Khagendra Sangraula

Publisher: FinePrint

Price: Rs 250

Pages: 209

BOOK REVIEW

Desh Bidesh
Author: Dr Ram dayal Rakesh
Publisher: Bidhyarthi Pustak Bhandar
Pages: 131
Price: Rs 100

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Divine musician - Dibya Sangeetkaar

Dibya Sangeetkaar, Dibya Khaling is a book that has memoirs of musician-cum-lyricist late Dibya Khaling written by his friends and family members from a very senior poet Madhav Ghimire to his collegues Kiran Pradhan and Bulu Mukarung to his juniors.
Dibya Khaling was not only musician, but a well-known lyricist also whose ever-green songs like Sadhai Ma hanse, Timilai ruwae (I always enjoyed, making you cry), Mera Geet Sabai Timilai (All my songs are for you), and Preyashika Yaadharu (memoirs of girl-friend). “These hit numbers make him immortal and he doesnot need any adjectives for his introduction,” writes Bulu Mukarung in his memoirs. Famous singers from late Narayangopal, Arun Thapa, to present Gyanu Rana and Mira Rana are remembered because they all sang his songs on his composition.
Dibya Sangeetkaar, Dibya Khaling has the collection of Dibya’s lyrics and his family pictures that makes this book a real memoir. Grace Khaling, Dibya’s wife; Prakash Sayami and Bhuwan Devkota have put their hard labour to bring this book out and what could have been a good present than this for a man, according to his own son, “who lived, slept, and breathed with his harminium, and with the joy of playing his instrument.”  

BOOK REVIEW

Book — Dibya Sangeetkaar, Dibya Khaling

Publisher — Ekata Publication
Price  —  Rs 250

Pages  — 336

Bhanchiyeko Maan — a collection of pieces of his broken hearts — has almost a hundred songs and ghazals, mostly on love, betrayal and tragedy. For the first time reader can realise that pain can also be melodious.

He writes a letter to his beloved on the petals of rhododendron but when she rejects, his heart melts and starts to flow from his eyes in the form of tears. He writes with his tears, “It would have been better, if I had had a heart of stone. There would have no beautiful thoughts of her, no love and no pain.”

As Prof Dr Durga Prasad Bhandari writes, “Only a mystic can reach the state of no-mind – thoughtlessness, and there will be no love or hate and no pain. Dhungel is a normal man like us, he is no mystic.” But all the creative souls are, to some extent, a mystic; they can see what other normal souls can not see; they can feel what other normal souls cannot feel. As Sufi mystics call god their love, going through Bhanchiyeko Maan, one can call Dhungel a lover and a mystic.

BOOK REVIEW

Book — Bhanchiyeko Maan (Broken Heart)

Poet — Subash Chandra Dhungel

Publisher — DMPS former Students Society

Price  —  Rs 100

Pages  — 101

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The Loner

It has been raining collections of songs. More and more lyricists are coming out with their songs’ collections. And here is yet another young lyricist, Arun Tiwari, who has brought his first collection of songs Eklai Eklai (alone). Image Best Lyricist award-2061 winner and a representative of the present generation Tiwari feels loneliness after his beloved leaves him. He does not say why she left him but he has learned a lesson from the tragedy. “We were born alone, and will die alone. Then why do we need a friend in life, if we don’t find a true one.”

There are 70 beautiful and melodious songs - which are not new to us as we have been hearing them regularly - in Eklai Eklai. Tiwari calls himself a professional lyricist, but that does not satisfy him. He thinks he deserves more. “I have published Eklai Eklai for mere satisfaction,” he says. And the collection satisfies the readers also.

BOOK REVIEW Book — Eklai Eklai (alone)

Poet — Arun Tiwari

Publisher — ANT Price  —  Rs 75

Pages  — 70

• Kuber Chalise

Contentious Politics and democratization in Nepal – edited by Mahendra Lawoti, an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science in the Western Michigan University, USA – has raised several questions on our feudal and centralised state polity and highlighted the most contentious issues. The volume has tried to demystify the myth of ‘a peaceful Nepal’. It focuses on identity struggle vis-à-vis Maoists insurgency its causes and effects, violent and non-violent movements and social exclusion that has subsequently fuelled the gender and identity movements.

Nepal , according to Harka Gurung, was brought together territorially by the Gorkha conquest but it has not been unified psychologically and economically even after more than two centuries. And Lawoti blames caste-based Hindu hierarchical order for this discrimination and exclusion.

The book has a dozen articles – on democracy, role of stakeholders in democratisation process, relation and effect between social movement and political parties, ethnic nationalism and Maoists Insurgency – contributed by a range of journalists to scholars from different parts of the world.

The volume is divided into five parts and the first part gives an account of different social and economical sectors and their exploitation by a small elite class.

The second part has covered the Maoists insurgency. Li Onesto, a journalist, has in The Evolution of Maoist Revolution in Nepal in an Adverse International Environment credited Maoists growth to largely broad strategy developed by Mao half a century ago. Has only Nepali Maoists followed Mao, and there were not social exclusion and huge disparity in Nepali society, could the violent movement succeed? Maoists have also accepted the fact that different actors have played different roles in their growth.

The third part is on identity politics. This part delves into the issues of diverse ethnic communities that have become the scapegoat and are largely manipulated. The rising number of militant groups in Tarai in the name of liberalising Tarai in recent days is an example of how they are manipulated.

There is yet another face of identity politics, which the editor knowingly or unknowingly, has missed. It would have been better if the book had separate chapter on the struggle between Janatrantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha and Chure-Bhawar Ekata Samaj.

Similarly, fourth part deals with the rights of people to protest in democracy.  But there has always been confusion in Nepali society as it never learnt to respect other’s right while exercising one’s right to protest.

The fifth part concludes that neither the social cohesions and demoralisation of society nor the continuous breaching of law and order will strengthen the democracy. Democracy can only be strengthened in a just society. Peace without justice will definitely uproot the democracy sooner or later.

Contentious Politics and democratization in Nepal aims to communicate the experiences and perceptions of the social political contradictions in Nepal . Nepali society is undergoing a massive transformation, something that is yet to be realised. The book touches upon the root causes of our present social malaise and also gives us a chance for serious introspection.

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BOOK REVIEW

Book: Contentious Politics and democratization in Nepal

Edited by: Mahendra Lawoti

Publisher: SAGE Publications and Bhrikuti Academic Publications (for Nepal )

Pages: 348

Price: Rs 1112

·        Kuber Chalise

Shivaraj Acharya Kaudinyayan has authored Veidic Dharma, a book in Nepali that contains the Vedic teachings that our ancestors have left for us in Sanskrit. The book is a summary of all the four Veda, six Vedanga, 56 Smriti and 18 Puranas.

One might feel uncomfortable to believe in the existence of god, but Dharma does not only mean worshipping of an idol, it is rather a way to lead a harmonious life, be dutiful and responsible towards oneself, one’s family, society, nation and the humanity, according to the book. Veidic Dharma has introductions to each traditions and school of thoughts — from Vedic era till date — in a readable style with the original Sanskrit reference. It also provides comprehensive information about the festivals.

Religion gives us an identity and a belonging to a society to which we relate. It is rather sad that today it has become a cause to more problems than solutions. The book forces the readers to seriously think on scientific bases of Vedic religion.

From the study of various religions and advances in modern science, one can come to a logical conclusion that it is science that can bring emancipation to humanity from the ravages of famine and starvation, deadly diseases, and will provide people with food, clothing and shelter. “And it is the Veda that guides us to live a responsible, healthy and harmonious life. If we follow the Vedic lifestyle, we will be free of all the worldly woes,” claims the book.

In this age of science, we must think in terms of scientific and verifiable evidence and not in terms of dogma. And this book will certainly help people to clearly differentiate between the religious dogma and the scientific Vedic life. The book is useful to the researchers and students alike. It can be used as a means of education, reference or inspiration, as the author — an avid follower of Vedic life-style himself — has penned down his years of experience in rather simple words to the benefit of mankind.

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BOOK REVIEW

Book: Veidic Dharma

Author: Shivaraj Acharya Kaudinyayan

Publisher: Swadhayashala

Price: Rs 500

Pages: 800