Early at six in the morning, she had just returned from India after making final preparations for her new book. Despite a busy schedule surrounding the launch of much awaited novel Seasons of Flight (to be released on Sunday, May 23) Manjushree Thapa looks relaxed and stunning in a black sleeveless dress as she shares her journey thus far as a writer in Nepal. She embarked upon this jounery years ago as an NGO worker.[break]
Mustang Bhot in Fragments was published in 1992 as a travelogue after her almost year long stay in the north-west district of Mustang. For her next proper endeavor, she waited more than eight years. That is also when she decided she wanted to be a writer. Her first fiction came out in 2001. And later, her non-fiction, Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy for Democracy (2005), a work of art, was the best political explanation for the time.
For Thapa, it’s a hundred times harder to write a fiction in comparison to non-fiction, whose home is filled with books. She explains she is in a fiction versus non-fiction zone and claims she just entered the fiction state of mind and does not want to get out of it anytime soon.
She continues, “The challenge is much deeper but so is the satisfaction.” She completed the first draft of Seasons of Flight in 2006; however the book never came out as planned in 2007.
“You start a book to find out where you are going to go and discover what the story is about, only after the first draft,” shares Thapa, who began her research in 2005 for Seasons of Flight in Los Angeles, USA. The protagonist of the novel is a young woman who moves to the United States upon winning a Diversity Visa.
The new book is a feminist novel, the character is disobedient and a woman who “drifts around the world.” Her character and storyline relate to all Nepalis and take foreign readers by a sweet surprise. Most of the story takes place when the war is still in place and end with the peace process still on.
The writing style is shyly influenced by JM Coetzee, which Thapa admits saying is “what I aspire to -- every word in the book with a reason.”
“I wanted to write about a woman who is very free and not a stereotypical South Asian,” mentions Thapa, whose first work of fiction Tutor of History (2001), based on an impression of her father’s experience in the 1999 general election in Tanahu, had just a widow character with other stories mostly with male protagonists.
When asked why a majority of Nepali writers tend to base their characters on social vices and existing political affairs, she answers, “I too base my characters on social issues such as gender discrimination but how to do make them fresh and entertaining is a challenge.”
“The job of a fiction writer, however, is not to comment on large political issues but rather to show the importance of the individual and life,” she opines, shifting her stance. Taking time to sip some water, she elaborates, “We live in a society where life is not valued and we have many social roles from father-mother to wife and son and there is little left for the individual.”
Not actually a social-realist writer, she is however interested in social stories and characters that are grounded in reality and not just “fabulous” schools of writing fantasy. “For me it matters that it’s grounded in reality,” she says.
Till date the 42-year-old has edited, translated and authored over a dozen books. Published in 2007, Tilled Earth is Thapa’s second fictional work, a short story collection. Last year, she came out with two non-fiction books: A Boy from Sikles (2009) based on Chandra Gurung, a pioneer wildlife activist and The Country is Yours, translations of her favorite selection of Nepali literary works.
The decision to become a writer, nonetheless, did not come instinctively to Thapa.
“It took me a long time to figure out that writing was what I wanted to do,” puts in Thapa, who moved to Canada when she was around two to three years old. She came back to Nepal in between but only to leave for the United States at the age of 11. Stating that she was a below average student at St. Mary’s School, the youngest of the three grins and says, “I was a goody two-shoes type of student but with no personality; always scared and not confident.”
Through high school, Thapa’s interests leaned towards fine arts. However, upon her return to Nepal, after graduating with a Photography degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989, Thapa found herself in unfamiliar waters.
“Everything here was a gendered experience to me and I was not used to having to think that I am a woman,” she reflects, adding that she could not read or write in Nepali. “I didn’t want to stay in Kathmandu and began taking field assignments,” says Thapa, who then became involved in the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP).
Her first book Mustang Bhot in Fragments (1992) was based on her travels while working for ACAP. “Most of what I have written has a component out of Kathmandu. Just as life is transparent outside of Kathmandu, writing about it is transparent,” reasons Thapa, who was still contemplating to study Visual Anthropology or Development. But she eventually completed her MFA in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1998.
Thapa assumes that being a writer in English has its advantages because it allows international recognition and it’s “easier to break out,” referring to many brilliant Nepali writers whose work remains unknown outside of the country. Lack of English translations, according to her, is a major reason.
“But then again, because you are writing for an open audience you have to do a lot of cultural explanation because Nepal is still in much isolation. Here, we are still finding the English to write in,” explains Thapa, who tends to write descriptively and furthers, “But you also need to keep in mind how much explanation is too much.”
Thapa slowly began reading Nepali literature, connecting with local writers, and also translating stories and poems. “Nearly 80% of The Country is Yours (2009) include translations that were published in the Nepali Times over the course of two years,” informs Thapa, whose favorite writers include Bimal Nibha and Indra Bahadur Rai.
“For me, translating Nepali work is an attempt to understand Nepali literature rather than just reading them and to know my contemporary writers,” she apprises. Thapa, who credits poet and writer Manjul for her Nepali skills, laughs, “If I try, I can write in Nepali but it’ll be that of a seventh grader,” she laughs.
Although a full-time writer, Thapa also works as a consultant in order to fund her writing projects. Ideally, she writes till two to three in the afternoon each day and intends to finish the first draft of her next novel by the end of this year. The story this time revolves around the life of an adopted Nepali person who is raised abroad.
“In fiction, you have to be out of it, have isolated space,” says Thapa who feels that there are plenty of subject matters to write about in Nepal. “Your made up world has to be as compelling as the real world and for that there has to be a lot of isolation.” She cares about her themes because “if you do not, you can not make your readers care.”
“I have to be really interested in the story I am writing about.” Thapa also brings up the necessity to be interested in the topic of her choice. “If I am going to spend the next three to four years writing about it, I have to choose something that matters a lot to me,” asserts the writer.
With a turn in the conversation, she comments on the reading culture of Nepal, “There aren’t enough reading materials to begin with. Contemporary literature especially gets lost because there is no connection between readers and writers.” Thapa puts the blame on the local publishing industry for this lack of connection. “Publishers don’t need to make money because they are already doing more than they can,” she states.
“At last, why do you write?”
“I write in an attempt to put in order what I can’t understand,” she states without a moment’s hesitation. “There isn’t any order in the world and writing about it, is a start to finding out what’s wrong. Writing is an investigation.”
(Her latest novel Seasons of Flight is available under Penguin Books from Sunday.)
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