POKHARA: With hopes of making life easy for him and his family, Maniraj Basanta flew abroad and worked in Qatar for three years.  There he saw a different perspective to life, went through countless hardships, and upon his return he decided to write it all down in his book ‘Mudir’.

‘Mudir’ was recently discussed in the 74th book discussion organized by the Random Readers’ Society of Nepal on Saturday. Writer Basanta shared that had he not been abroad, the book would not have existed.

“In Qatar, three things are not certain; death, poverty and salary. But the main problem was not getting paid by the employee (Mudir) on time,” Basanta stated while explaining his book at the discussion.

A participant (name not mentioned) in the discussion questioned Basanta regarding the similarities between another book ‘Khabuj’ to which Basanta denied and clarified they were not related adding that ‘Mudir’ was supposed to be published first. Another participant, Udip Raj Dhungana, appreciated the book for honestly depicting hard realities of the migrant workers and clarifying that money doesn’t grow on trees abroad, as many believe it to be. However, he added that the book failed to fit the story in a clear timeframe.

‘Mudir’ portrays the journey of an average Nepali migrant worker through the protagonist Damber Bahadur Rai, incorporating the struggle and the sufferings that the writer faced with an irresponsible Nepali Embassy during his stay there.