Her first story, “Prabal Iksha”, was published in Ruru in BS 2022 (1965 AD), and she was a writer by the time she came to Kathmandu to enroll at Padma Kanya Campus for undergraduate course. Marriage came in the way of her studies, and she later graduated from Tribhuvan University as a private student.[break]
Bhagirathi Bajimaya became Shrestha after her marriage to civil servant Durga Prasad Shrestha. She traveled with her husband to the remote districts of Nepal and watched with the dispassionate interest of a chronicler the mundane lives of common men and women constantly engaged in negotiating through the minefields of often strained personal relationships.
About the simple complexity of her works, literary critic Taranath Sharma says succinctly, “Bhagirathi Shrestha’s characters are mostly newly wedded wives in search of conjugal harmony in adverse circumstances, or mothers highly conscious of their duties towards their innocent children.”
Commentator Dayaram Shrestha is more effusive in his praise, “Many dimensions of social reality find their place in Bhagirathi’s stories. She has tried to capture the agonies of people afflicted with trust-deficit in her narratives.”
Depicting the force of circumstances that makes individuals feel powerless is the literary forte of Bhagirathi. She makes her characters examine life, struggle with injustices, and then have them submit to whatever fate has in store for them. She tells everyday tales with dexterity, but avoids moralizing.
In “Bhumigat” (Underground), a story in her eponymous collection, the writer takes a somewhat clichéd theme of an opposition politico who becomes a minister and quickly forgets his past benefactors and companions, and then turns the tale into a powerful narrative of coping with hard realities of life.
The emphasis is on accepting and moving on, rather than going around in circles. The acceptance, however, is often tinged with sadness and optimism, rather than frustrations and pessimism. Detecting a quiet determination amidst tales of determinism can be strangely uplifting.
In a simple paragraph that resolves the love triangle in “Yasto Auta Akash” (One such sky), the writer merely makes the protagonist stare as the male character infers, “There’s no trace of rage in those eyes, nor the impassable forest of anger and violence. There’s only affection…”
The protagonist responds with her own train of thought, “Perhaps happiness disappears like drops of water upon sand in lives that passes through plain routes. Therefore, joy has deep significance after a journey through agony—only after the pangs of suffering, the pleasure is intense.”
Commonplace thoughts, simple sentences, but powerful expressions – nevertheless!
Bhagirathi is also a poet of note and a novelist. But she is better known for her short-story collections – “Kramasah”, “Mohadangs”, “Bibhram”, “Bhumigat” (Sajha Prakashan, Kathmandu, BS 2062), and “Rangeen Pokhari”. She has also written two novels: a forgettable “Malati”, and the more acclaimed “Yasto Euta Aakash” (Nepal Rajkiya Pragya Pratisthan, Kathmandu, BS 2046).
She is associated with several literary organizations, including Gunjan, and PEN Nepal, and is the recipient of the National Talent Award, RatnaShree Gold Medal, Garima Award, Mainali Katha Puraskar, Shankar Koirala Smriti Puraskar, and Nur Ganga Talent Award.
Bhagirathi lives in Kathmandu and continues to write and comment.
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