Kathmandu Saga and Other Poems: Politics and Philosophy in Poetry

Dr. Shreedhar Gautam

Poetry primarily deals with feelings and attitudes of human beings. Great poems try to recreate human experiences that involve the readers emotionally and intellectually. However, in today’s world, most people have become so obsessive with their personal affairs that they have neither any interest nor time to imagine something beyond the materialistic values. The majority of people do not feel pained by the growing immorality and inhuman tactics pursued in society for gaining narrow goals. If politicians are lost in the lust of power, ordinary people are hankering after money and prestige, forgetting the basic purpose of life. In this light Khem Aryal, comes with a collection of poems under the title "Kathmandu Saga and Other Poems."

The book under discussion contains 35 poems written on different occasions on a variety of topics, and it is illustrative of the poet's mission. Through innovative logic and humanistic appeal, he has drawn everyone’s attention. Starting with a philosophical poem "The Wonder Man," the book takes the reader through the intricacies of human life and the problem resulting from political corruption and immorality. The poet is concerned about the two-pronged violence resorted to by insurgents and security personnel, plaguing the country into crisis.

The focus of the book is on portraying the mysterious and illusionary world and the people’s miserable life. It reveals the poet’s deep experience of life and appeals to our sense of moral values. The poet raises various common issues, including the deceptive nature of love and friendship, loneliness of human life, greatness of mother’s love, and the shock from the betrayal of dear and near ones. These are experiences commonly felt, but very few can give a philosophical touch as exemplified by Aryal.

Some poems reveal the poet’s sense of humor, and some other are written with the seriousness of their meaning. The book has blended the poet’s spiritual outlook as well as his sense of responsibility to society. He asks readers to realize the omnipresence of God in all lives and places, and conveys a meaning that God can be realized not by merely following rituals and outdated tradition, but also by rendering services to the needy and showing social protest to all political evils and social discrimination prevailing in society.

The book stresses on understanding the value of life and developing spiritual awareness with social responsibility by referring to the life and deeds of great seers like Buddha and Socrates. For the poet, being spiritual does not mean being contented with the graveyard-like silence in society, but arousing and awakening people to realize their potentiality that transform lives of individuals as well as the entire country. He highlights the benefit of meditative life to them who are not aware of their capacities, strengths and energies. Giving a message of universal brotherhood and oneness of humanity, the poet abhors the insulting behavior shown to the downtrodden by some people under the egoistic influence of their materialistic prosperity. He holds the socio-political system as responsible for the growing number of alienated and fragmented people. He exhorts that it is the responsibility of right thinking people to change the quality of human life with collective as well as individual efforts.

Poet Khem Aryal

"Kathmandu Saga" depicts the city's pathetic scene as it does not look like a healthy place. It does not represent a place of democratic and human rights even after the passage of over fourteen years after the restoration of parliamentary democracy. Like in the totalitarian Panchayat system, still lovers of democracy and human rights have to fight for the cause of people. The rhetoric used by the freedom fighter as reflected in the poem is inspiring and thought provoking. Fighters prefer death to slavery and suppressed life, and want the streets cleared off security personnel, who symbolise terror to common people.

For freedom fighters, the city has been turned into a military barrack where people cannot have free movement of life and free flow of speech. They lament that this is the same city that saw the assassination of a king and a queen in the early hours of a fateful night, despite the deployment of a large number of security personnel around the palace.

Everyone feels that the city has lost its earlier solemnity and purity. It has become a paradise for a few and alien place for many. Freedom fighters are unhappy because they no more hear the beautiful songs over the sky of Kathmandu, except either speeches of protest or political slogans in the corners of city, a metaphor of Nepali plight.

The poem ends with the optimistic assertion of freedom fighters that very soon the city will regain its earlier glory and then people will have freedom to express freely and fearlessly. Kathmandu Saga and other poems has covered various aspects of Nepal’s socio-political life, including the plight of the people within the single poem. It is readable, informative and relevant as it raises philosophical issues related to human life; it sheds light on the current socio-political situation of the country.

(Courtesy: Creation And Criticism: A Miscellaneous Thought, 2008)