Khem K. Aryal’s In-Between Sway

Gopi Sapkota

Gopi Sapkota

It was 1995 or may be 1996. You tend to be forgetful, or you would not care, when you are over fifty. It does not really matter even if you miss a year when you are counting years from your past.

Having wandered on campus corridors for a while looking for my classroom, I recall, I had entered Room Number 11, where some 30 or 40 semi-attentive students listened to a lecturer, who I would later know as Anita Madam. It was my first day of class as an M.A. student at Ratna Rajya Campus.

On that day, I didn’t know two things would happen in the future. First, out of those 40 unknown faces, I would find Nirmala and marry her; and the second, I would make decades-long friendship with Khem K. Aryal and write about him following the publication of his book in the United States, something we didn’t hope could happen to us one day.

In the last 27-28 years of our friendship, you can’t imagine how many hours we must have spent discussing writing, publishing, recognition, publicity, contribution to Nepali literature, what not.

One day, during our early years of our friendship, I remember, one interesting incident happened. Khem invited me to his rented room for tea. It was a decent-size room, painted in light yellow color, with a small book rack in a corner. When I was scanning his room, I saw a painting hanging on the wall over the book rack, signed by the artist as Kumar Shishir.

It was a familiar name to me. I asked Khem whether he knew the painter. He smiled and asked me, ‘Do you know him?’

I said I knew him by his name but didn’t know him personally.

He smiled again, and I sensed that he himself could be the artist.

I asked, ‘Are you him?’

He laughed, and then both of us laughed.

At that point, Khem had already published a collection of Nepali poems in his pen name, Kumar Shishir. His stories were getting published in Nepal’s prestigious literary journals like Madhuparka and Mirmire.

As we were completing our master’s degree, I could see that he was getting more into English writing while I continued to write in Nepali despite writing in English occasionally. Both of us were getting more serious about writing, while struggling to find a space in the literary landscape of Kathmandu.

Khem K. Aryal, Author of The In-Betweeners

It was in interesting period in Nepali English writing. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, new English publications and English medium schools were burgeoning and the demand for English writing and venues to share English writing were increasing. Under the guidance of senior writers and professors, such as Padma Devkota and Shreedhar Lohani, we founded an organization, Society of Nepali Writing in English (NWEN), in 2000, to promote Nepali writing in English. Khem was nominated as president and I became its secretary. This resulted in monthly meetings in which we mostly shared poems, the publication of the Of Nepalese Clay, and liaison with English newspapers to publish creative writing pieces in their weekly supplements. These spaces encouraged writers to write in English as well as to translate Nepali writing into English. As president, Khem lead in the organization’s efforts very effectively, and we remained close collaborators until 2007, when I migrated to the UK and Khem was planning to pursue his Ph.D. in the USA.

During those NWEN days, Khem’s two English poetry books, Kathmandu Saga and Other Poems and Epic Teashop, were published in Kathmandu. He took the lead to publish Of Nepalese Clay, and co-edited it with Professors Padma Devkota and Hriseekesh Upadhyay for seven years. Most of the Nepalese writers writing in English featured in journal. The journal was also instrumental to producing many new writers in English.

Samrat Upadhyay and Manjushree Thapa were our idols back then. Samrat’s debut short story collection, Arresting God in Kathmandu, which won him the Whiting Award, and Manjushree Thapa’s The Tutor of History, were creating a big noise among English readers in Kathmandu and that inspired all of us. We too dreamt of publishing our books in English from the United States or United Kingdom one day, though that one day didn’t appear anywhere on the visible horizon.

I decided at one point, though, I would not bother about writing in English. I was making my space in Nepali writing, with books published from the Academy and Ratna Pustak, which were considered top publishing venues those days. I continued to concentrate on Nepali writing, whereas Khem continued writing in English. His dedication, passion, and his belief in himself has finally led to the publication of collection of his stories, The In-Betweeners, from an American publishing house, Braddock Avenue Books, and that makes me feel that the dream we saw together long ago has come true. I cannot be happier for him and for Nepali writing in English as a whole.

The number of Nepali writers writing in English is growing, within Nepal and outside Nepal, but we have yet to see writers of major consequence since Upadhyay and Thapa. I genuinely hope that the publication of The In-Betweeners will be just a beginning for Khem.

Khem is a happy person in life, but when it comes to writing he is never happy. The time and effort he invests in editing, crafting and revising amaze me. It seems that he enjoys the process of writing more than the writing itself. I am envious of his patience in waiting for publication. I remember that a novel he wrote about twenty years ago was accepted by a small publisher in Delhi, but he stepped back and never got it published.

In terms of his subject matter, Khem deals with socio-political and family issues. He picks up simple but somehow weird characters from the society, examines them closely, and crafts their stories in carefully designed plots with artistic details; most of the time, playing with their ambivalent mental states.

On the surface, the stories in The In-Betweeners are stories of Nepali immigrants in the USA, struggling to establish themselves in the new country while still thinking of their life back in Nepal. However, you delve into them more, the stories will open new windows to understanding human predicaments in general. I feel that these stories are more than just the stories of in-betweeners, or they make me feel that all of us are in-betweeners. They deal with human weaknesses and resilience, and they deal with personal and social absurdities we all are part of.

Khem’s stories are unique as they deal with seemingly minute issues that most of us even don’t think of writing on. While reading some of his stories, you may get irritated with his characters and feel like shouting at them for not sorting out even a minor problem. The main character in “Shopping for Glasses” suffers for long simply because he is unable to decide which frames to buy and the shopkeepers are not forcing him to buy any, unlike in Nepal. The stories feel so deep that readers will find hard it to come out from the fictional well that the writer has dug. I think, that’s the success of a writer. I wish The In-Betweeners a big success. 

(Courtesy: The Rising Nepal, Friday Supplement, 26 January 2024)

Road to Wisdom

Professor Dr. Iswari P. Pandey

Prof Dr Ishwari P. Pandey

Brace yourself for a pleasantly enlightening ride as you start reading this wonderful collection of stories by two beautiful souls, for these are not children’s stories in the usual sense of the term. They are for all, irrespective of age, as the stories are distilled from ancient myths and folk tales as much as the needs of modern life in an interconnected world.

As a reader, I was impressed by how easily each story highlights the value of one major virtue to live by, often indicated in the title. The collection begins with Buddha’s teaching on forgiveness (“On Forgiving”), and the lessons keep coming in. As I finished reading the first story, I was amazed at how lucidly the tale made forgiving a matter of reframing life’s vicissitudes as opportunities at self-transformation, where one can easily turn any day into a “new life.”

As intimated above, each title serves as the core message of the story. “On Problems” exhorts us to think calmly and turn our gaze inward in order to find solution to our problems. “On Attachment” tells us that it is often our attachment to inanimate objects that brings us all the worries. “On Thoughtlessness” narrates a boy’s quest for peace of mind through meditation.

What is noteworthy is that these are not dry and metaphysical essays but stories with easily recognizable characters, such as the Buddha, and simple plotlines that deliver the pearls of wisdom, one at a time. For example, by following the struggles and the paths that the boy goes through in “On Thoughtlessness,” readers may feel like getting the exact same lessons as the boy does to deal with their thoughts, without ever leaving their armchair. Similarly, “On Meaning” guides one to find purpose in life and pursue it. As the priest reminds, "No one can change the decisions you make for yourself. No one can change your thoughts. Others can only show you the path. It is up to you to choose to walk the path or not." It's up to each of us, the readers, to find the meaning of our life in our own way. “On Waking Up” uses a simple act of waking up as a metaphor for being mindful of true reality, moment by moment. The final story, “On Death” narrates Buddha’s lesson for a young mother grieving her baby’s death. Reading these stories is to glean important lessons on gratitude, love, mistakes, purpose, death, learning (and learning a lesson), and so on in a manner that is deeply moving.

Most stories have some basis in little or well-known ancient tales, but some have a distinctly modern setting. “On Perseverance” is a case in point. True, its lesson is as time-tested as those of the rest: that envy does not let us claim our own happiness or success and that we can overcome adversity through patience and perseverance; however, it is a story that happens now, here, and everywhere. “On Belief” shows the folly of believers and the complex nature of belief itself. “On Inspiration” shows how a simple gift can inspire one back into active life. “On Life Wasted and Not Wasted” is a humorous tale in which a pedant mocks a simple boatman, literally at the cost of his own life.

The young authors also reveal much about their family life especially in two of the pieces. “On Testing Times” connects the reality of living during the coronavirus global pandemic to traditional family life as narrated by their father in a letter. “On Truth” describes an incident from their father’s childhood to highlight the value of living a guilt-free life by doing the right thing.

One may be forgiven for thinking that the stories could have been written by a sage, not two teenagers, for their preoccupation with topics of eternal value. But they clearly are for their focus and attention to issues of relevance to contemporary readers. These are stories clearly for the young adults and those who are young at heart. They distil age-old wisdom for finding meaning and purpose in modern life. Going through these stories has made me feel calmer, richer, and more purposeful. They may do the same to you. 

Happy reading! 

(Seventeen Petals: The Growing Up Stories was written by Sukriti Sharma, in collaboration with her brother Simon Sharma. This piece of writing is the foreword for the book by Professor Dr. Iswari P. Pandey. Prof. Pandey is the Award-winning author of South Asian in the Mid-South: Migration of Literacies and he currently teaches in California State University.)

Settling Thoughts about Suicide

Krishna Sharma

Writer Krishna Sharma

The Front Cover of Gopi’s “A Suicide Note” is really gloomy. It gives total justice to the title of his anthology of poems, his first in English. But for readers, it does not. It scared me as hell when I received his book in the priority mail some two months ago. Leafless trees that stood against the cold wind of an autumn evening with heavy skies above them would not please one’s eyes as they would try to make their minds up to turn on the pages.

The book lay on the table with the cover page buried under other books for as long as a month until Gopi called me in Viber from London one late Saturday morning. I knew he wanted to know if I had finished reading his poems by not asking about it at all. And I had felt guilty that I had not read them although I had gotten that scary looking tiny little book some good weeks back. After a brief chat I hung up the phone, stretched my legs on the table and took the book to my hands and started turning the pages, one after another.

It took a little more than an hour to finish 30 poems that I thought would resemble the garland of human head-skeletons. I was wrong. I was goddamn wrong. My perception of the front cover was completely otherwise. I was absolutely stupid not to anticipate the clean bright sunny day after the storm would pass. I was ashamed enough for not recalling PB Shelley’s celebrated last line of the poem -- To the West Wind --  “ … If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Gopi makes fun of the act of suicide so much in his “Suicide Note” that readers are not as confused as Albert Camus once was (Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?: The Paradox of Choice), and choose to have a cup of coffee before thinking about doing anything. I had a nice cup of coffee myself after I had Gopi’s poems read.

Gopi’s poems talk to you as if they are the characters of a play addressing to you from the stage. They talk to you about things you always feel uncomfortable and ashamed of taking about. You always wish someone to open the topic for discussion and then you join. This is exactly what happens when yu read Gopi’s poems. They talk about forbidden thoughts which you want to discuss about. With his poems you feel yourself at home and finish the entire thirty some poems in a single sitting and stand up laughing, laughing to yourself and many others who feared to celebrate death and thus always lived poor.

Gopi’s first effort in publishing in English is not faultless, however. Known to Nepali literary world as an emerging dramatist, Gopi in his poems wanders around topics like he wanders in real life – from Nepal to Europe and from Europe to Nepal. His favorite topics are what you and I like to talk about: life, dreams about life, struggle, failure and of course, the thoughts of suicide.

While leafing through the pages of the book, readers would definitely want to advise Gopi to streamline the thoughts by streaming the poems of similar topics together and make it seamless. Gopi talks a lot about dream in many poems. His poems on dream are scattered here and there.  However, Gopi would listen but not heed much to such thoughtful advises while finalizing his upcoming drama as he strongly believes Sartre’s philosophy and calls life as the product of random acts.

Give Gopi’s thoughts a try and settle your thoughts about suicide. Former secretary of the Society of Nepali Writers in English while in Kathmandu, Gopi’s this anthology can be ordered online via amazon.com, which will ship your order home in less than a week.

Krisu’s Song of a Bird

Kamala Budhathoki Sarup

Kamala Budhathoki Sarup

Krisu Chhetri is one of well-known Nepali poets. His recently published book Charaa ko Geet, ‘Song of a Bird’ has been popular among Nepali poetry lovers.

In my view, it is a beautiful collection of poems, and it has enhanced Krisu Chhetri's power of poetry. The poet has been advocating about the real situations of people that they face in their day to day life. In other words, he is a man who strongly advocates truth and reality. His unique style of writing along with attention to details has never ceased to amaze me and therefore, reading his writings attracts me to read more. Hence, readers can remember and relate to what has been written in his poem.

He sees other people’s pain through his own eyes and I think it is a very important quality for a writer. He has also shown readers to be optimistic. He also tries to use specific details rather than a superficial poetic expression. So, readers can remember what the poetry say. He pays a lot of attention to craft poetry. I think, poetry is more than a mere entertainment and remains pertinent over time.

‘Charaa Ko Geet’ has also successfully addressed life and has a touch of an eternal beauty. In his poem ‘Charaa Ko Geet’, he has expressed the importance of freedom. He has concluded that every people and animals in this planet must have a right to freedom and no one can violate it for their personal gain. This poem not only delivers a strong message, but also it has delivered the complex message in simple and clear language.

Krisu is not difficult to read.  I think, when he started writing he had the confidence that his subject will be of interest to his readers which are not only intellectual but also the ordinary ones. Krisu had a good bit of life experience and some bad as well. Those experiences made him a poet. He wants to thank those people who assisted him to be a poet.

Originally from Jhapa, Chhetri's poems have enliven the love and life relationship. He has depicted the life of different people. He is an active member of Basundara Man Pragya Pratisthan Foundation that promotes literature.

A total number of 42 poems are included in this collection. Most of the poems from this book draws attention to the very beautiful feelings of life, emotion and love. Mr. Chhetri has written and published eight books so far. This book was published by Sajha Prakashan, Kathmandu.

(Journalist, Poet and Editor Kamala Budhathoki Sarup is an editor for mediaforfreedom.com. She is a regular contributor to Cape May County Herald newspaper and UPI- Asia News. She has also published two books of stories)

My Poetry is to inquire the Consciousness: Dr Dubasu Chhetri

Kamala Budhathoki 'Sarup' 

Kamala Budhathoki 'Sarup'

I recently spoke with Dr. Dubasu Chhetri (Durga Bahadur Subedi Chheri). Dr. Chhetri is a famous poet from Nepal. He was awarded with the Sajha Purasakar, one of the most prestigious awards from Sajha Publication for his anthology of poems 'Aswomedh Yagya ka Ghodaharu'. This book has been regarded as his masterpiece.

Poet Chhetri said, ‘In my book 'Aswomedh Yagya ka Ghodaharu', the love, reality, and nature are personified. I think that the epic with the power of love can lead the situation, and at the same time it can protect the literature with value. I have projected values in my book. This very fact perhaps might have provided this beauty in the literature of consciousness’.

Poet Dubasu further added. ‘I am pleased to mention that Sajha Puraskar, the most prestigious award was conferred on my literary work. I feel that I was awarded in recognition of my experimental writing in Nepali literature'.

‘My poetry is to inquire the consciousness because it does succeed to meet its own conditions. Yes, what I learn about my book and literature of consciousness in particular just accentuates my profound non-ignorance of both subjects while I was writing my epic’. Poet Dr. Dubasu Chhetri said.

Poet Dr. Dubasu Chhetri

Dubasu Chhetri's writing style is unique. He has received appreciation from different critics for his uniqueness in his writing. He further added, ‘If we are to be a poet, a little poetry will help. I wrote a different verse like Shakespearean writing, in my book 'Aswomedh Yagya ka Ghodaharu', to try to fit such style into our writing. If I write something that does not meet the above conditions, then I regard it as a literature of non-consciousness’.

‘I read lots of literature of consciousness, and I realize that similar facts reflect in my writing’. Poet Dubasu added.

Yes, in Dubasu Chhetri's anthology 'Aswomedh Yagya ka Ghodaharu', we can feel our life, beauty, love and the present circumstances. His book is highly experimental and it reflects a different style of writing.

Poet Dubasu Chhetri also said, ‘My poetry and literature of consciousness both are useful for our society. Literature of consciousness is entertaining. I see them between two sentences. In every literature, the style can be different. However, I emphasize in the continuity of the same theme from the beginning to the end. Remember, this is the beauty of our writing. Yes, we must write within the framework of the original consciousness writing.’

The consciousness writing is an integral part of the writing phase. It does not interrupt the flow of the original writing. Of course, the writer would have to give the impression to the readers.

‘The subject of my book about life is not complicated, and this is relevant to the current time. It talks about contemporary issues’. He said.

Along with poems, Poet Dr. Dubasu also writes songs. He said ‘Long ago, I myself visited in different places to listen songs which I really enjoyed. I listened to local people singing which helped me to extend my understanding of musical horizon. The songs from villages are truly beautiful.’

His other books are also becoming famous in Nepal. I admire Chhetri's continuous quest for knowledge. A poet like Dubasu is not made but born.

Pondering Over A Suicide Note

By Hem Raj Neupane

Hem Raj Neupane

A Suicide Note is an anthology of English poems composed by Gopi Sapkota. Needless to exaggerate, Gopi has earned a promising name in the field of Nepali literature, especially in drama and poetry. Already published over half a dozen of books in Nepali language, his dramas have been broadcast by Radio Nepal and several literary works have been published in different magazines and newspapers in Nepal. However, A Suicide Note, is his first attempt in English, which is published by Lulu Enterprises, UK Ltd.

            

The anthology consists of collection of thirty poems. Although the very title of the book and its layout of cover page could suggest that the collection is all about extreme frustration, suicide and death, his poems are of diverse nature and they serve the menu of various flavours like dreams, love, nature, beauty and so forth. The poet has picked up very ordinary topics for composing his poems, the contents are presented in very ordinary way but the messages they communicate are extraordinary. The poems are full of characters, symbols and images.

            

Undoubtedly, a number of the poems in the anthology contain the theme of death. I think, using the imagery of death, the poet might have tried to demystify the mystery of death and appealed to the readers to embrace it as a natural phenomenon of life. In other words, the poet might have tried to communicate the message that life and death are complementary to each other. He says himself that life is a transition between birth and death and mortality is the absolute reality. The poet in some poems sounds like Harry Scott-Holland in his poem ‘Death is Nothing at all’ where he says death does not count and it is just like slipping away into the next room or like Khali Gibran who expresses:

….If you would indeed behold the spirit of death

Open your heart wide unto the body of life

For life and death are one, even as the

River and sea are one…

(Khalid Gibran, ‘On Death’)

In ‘A Suicide Note’, a poem, which has been used as the title of the anthology, the poet seems to have tried to depict the fragile mentality of those feeble and fugitive characters who feel tired of their lives and wish to commit suicide rather than waiting for their natural death. I think the poet has tried to shed an irony on those characters by inducing them to commit suicide. The poems like ‘Losing me within’, ‘Birth and Death’, ‘The Dreams of Falling Leaf’ and ‘Death on Call’, the poet sounds extremely despondent and frustrated with his present state. That may be the reason he even warns the Death and God not to approach him or else they might get killed in his poem ‘Birth and Death’ almost sounding like Donne. In ‘The Dreams of Falling Leaf’, he is expressed sheer unhappiness about his present state of affairs like this:

…Neither did I fall like this in the past,

Nor will I fall like this in the future…

However, the poems like ‘Dreams’ and ‘December Dreams’ elaborate the optimistic approach to life, whereas, the poems like ‘lust’, ‘Whisper of Zephyr’ express about love and beauty of nature. In ‘Lust’ a symbolic poem he expresses:

…Purer are the naked ones

Standing with skin-coloured trunks

Stretching leafless, bare branches…

On the contrary, ‘Love and Life’ satirises the modern trend of love and marriage which are very short lasting and can break at any time. ‘Visiting the Country Churchyard’; I think is one of the most powerful poems, in which Sapkota has depicted the fate after death of human beings and the vanity of their wealth, name, fame and also about their pride and prejudice. ‘The Shattered Dream’ and ‘The Injured Present’ try to share the pains of the poet who is in the state of extreme agony due to short-sighted political leaders, conflict, war and loss of innocent lives. Thus, whichever the poem, content or theme, the poet has beautifully coined and assembled the words and interwoven them to make a work of live tapestry.

Despite consisting beautiful poems, I feel that the anthology has some limitations as well. I think that there is dominance of dark images which might give the impression of the poet that his poems are the outcome of extreme frustration and negative attitude to life. Similarly, the readers may find contradictory features and themes as they go on turning the pages. Next, I feel that the poet could have given a thought about the ordering of the poems. One example; the last poem ‘Aftermath of Suicide’ appears like an epilogue as if all the previous poems are related to death or suicide. However, I cannot deny the subjective interpretation of the readers that the most proper way of ordering and presenting for one person could appear to be the most improper way for other as the poet himself expresses in his first poem ‘The Creation’. I highly recommend the readers to go through is anthology and enjoy different literary tastes the poet has tried to share.

(Courtesy: Nepalipatra, 23 -29, September, 2014)

Communicating with Nature

RRS

Sea, hills, vales and Himalayas. Yes, these signifiers of nature remind us of the lines of great romantic poems of Wordsworth and Coleridge. In 'Daffodils', Wordsworth meanders like a cloud:

Poet Bhisma Upreti

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills

Bhisma Upreti invokes similar spirit of romanticism in his 'Just As I Am', a collection of his new and selected poems that he composed relishing the beauty of nature. His heart beats as the waves break on the shore. He goes ecstatic when the breeze blows high above the hills. The caravan of mules on the trek of Himalayas impels him to ponder over the fate of the poor animals. Instantly, the poet's heart melts as he sees a band of porters following the trails of mules. Written in tranquility and melancholic setting, the translated poems provide a fresh look into the poetic genius of Bhisma, who have over a dozen of books on poetry and essay to his credit.

For the poet, sea, hills and Himalaya become the greater sources of enlightenment. He personifies sea in the following lines. He extols the splendour of sea in its nudity:

When I went to meet the sea,

I found her stark naked,

Sunbathing

The sea's nudity

Was unexpected but beautiful

Fitting and appealing.

(The Sea - Three)

Here the poet draws an analogy between the sea and human heart:

I am hurrying along

To meet the sea.

But the sea stopped me and said -

'I have seen a sea inside man,

Have you seen it too?'

I looked into my heart,

(Where I found a sea)

And for the first time I realized

That a sea exists in man -

Sea of salty tears,

Sea of unfathomable sorrow and bitterness

(The Sea - Four)

These lines portray a contrasting picture of modernity and backwardness. The hill folks erupt into euphoria when a tractor reaches their village for the first time. This is still a reality of many Nepalese hamlets tucked away in remote hills. The rustic masses hope that the tractor that ferries people and goods as well as plough the terraced hillside heralds the beginning of new civilization in their locality:

First time,

When a tractor reached the hill

The villagers were bursting with joy.

They assembled in the open air

And worshiped the tractor

With a new shoot of hope in the heart.

The villagers for days talked

Of the arrival of new possibility,

A new civilization.

(The Hills - Eight)

Here is another beautiful verse that revolves around the themes of mountains, hills and rivers. The hills are not happy with the ungrateful rivers that run away like a selfish lover:

 

The mountain has lot of snow,

The snow melts

And becomes rivers.

Thus the hills has rivers too

But those ungrateful rivers

Run far, far away

Through dark, narrow dells

And the hill contorts

Every single day

For want of water

(The Hills - Nine)

The poet sees no fundamental differences in the life between the mules and porters. Their agonies are well depicted in these lines:

A caravan of mules

Just went past this way

Stirring dust as lovely as longings

And now,

A band of weary porters

Is scaling the trail in the same way !

Both have pain

Piles on their shoulders;

Both have had no time for a bath;

Both are hungry and tired too.

Cold has been tickling both;

A foul odour fills the nostrils of both.

(Commonality)

The following short stanza taken from Just As I Am, which is also the title of the anthology, shows a sharp contrast with the optimistic and hilarious tone expressed in the previous poems. The dark sky and howling wind generate a depressing mood. It is further heightened when the clock of time swings frantically:

There is no light in the sky

The wind is howling.

Oh! there is no view of sun,

Not a fragment of blue sky.

Turbulent the world around

And the clock of time swings frantic

(Just As I Am)

Bhisma's poems open up new poetic avenues. As Dan Disney mentions in the introduction of the book, the entire text is filled with 'epiphanies and moments of truthfulness'. The poet communicates with the abstract nature and lends his mellifluous poetic language to innocent folks to bring forth their pains and sufferings. Simplicity and flow of language have made the poignant themes ever expressive. The anthology truly carries the typical national and cultural nuances to the wider readership.

(Courtesy: Friday Supplement, The Rising Nepal, January 30, 2015)

Gopi's A Suicide Note: Celebration or Challenge

Mohan Prasad Kharel

Mohan Kharel

I received Gopi Sapkota’s collection of poems, A Suicide Note, in October amidst a busy schedule of school, family, and work.  I had heard about the book before, but now I got something concrete in my hand, a publication from someone who was my M.A. classmate, back in 1995.

I somehow conquered the temptation to read the book right away so that I could focus on my schoolwork. I waited for the semester end, but in the meantime I kept wondering what might have made Gopi write on the topic of suicide.

At the time I received Gopi’s book, I had to bear with some heartbreaking news of suicides committed in Nepal, U.S.A. and Canada. Although suicide is not anything new and writing on this topic has always been there in one form or another, it is not at all a pleasant topic to talk about, and it is often a controversial topic.

In poetry, a poet basically expresses feelings. While Gopi embraces the topic of suicide and seems to give it a hug, I constantly hid the book from my children because I was worried that they might infer something sinister seeing A Suicide Note in their dad’s hand. Or what if they learnt a few lessons from the book and concluded that suicide could be a viable option?

In literature, suicide can be a theme, or a metaphor, but in societies across the globe it is a stigma, a taboo, and an indelible scar often associated with illness. Apart from painful terminal illnesses when it seems logical for people to decide to end their lives, not many people would endorse suicide as an option. If they do, then there must be an existential crisis or a huge amount of injustice. Reading Gopi’s poems in this collection, mostly on the theme of death, left me confused whether his approval for the choice of death as an alternative to life has to do with existential crisis or with social injustice.

Gopi seems to be referring to hundreds of deaths a person dies on a daily basis due to penury in this fiercely competitive and selfish society. It can also be extended to social injustice, oppression, and their repercussions, leading to drugs, depression, hence making suicide the only alternative. However, Gopi seems ambivalent, or maybe too resigned, in terms of indicating the rationale behind the choice of death when he says “Never earned to the level” in one place and “One should die one day/ It’s about time; it’s about luck/You never know how long you live.” How can one not blame the society or system that keeps people so vulnerable? How much your service to the society is proportionally reciprocated?

It is always easy to preach and so immensely difficult to practice. Yes, the monstrous system that keeps us powerless is so strong, so invisible, and so shrewd that many of us would rather go into a bar or feel depressed or criticize the politicians, or quietly leave the world, as not much is available to hold onto. Interestingly, the world that has ever been blind and deaf to you until you live seems to notice you once you leave the stage. And it is this phenomenon of our time, or of all times, that seems to inspire Gopi to write these poems, in which each endeavor of a common person looks hopelessly dwarfish and insufficient to counter the systemic forces.

What baffles me though is the tone of widespread resignation in some of his poems that relate to the theme of death. Could it be a strategy to challenge the establishment by celebrating suicide so much so that one day people will be convinced that it is the best option and line-up for the journey to the other world leaving behind a few capitalists wondering what went wrong?

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)