The leading light of his generation in the field of Nepali story, novel and drama was 89. The litterateur, who started publishing since 1946, had also churned out such popular collections of stories like ´Prem ra Mrityu´ (love and death) and ´Kathaikatha´ (stories galore).[break]
“Nobody had that unique style of taking the internal conflict of the characters to that level psychologically by presenting the conflict at a micro level,” says novelist Dhruba Chandra Gautam. “The new generation has learnt a lot from the man whom we embraced as a hero,” Gautam concedes and adds that Malla´s story ´Ma Jujuman´ has made an indelible impression on him.
Gautam also credited Malla for bringing in the Freudian touch to Nepali novels like BP Koirala did in his stories. “His ´Pallo Gharko Jhyal´ had analyzed the attraction of a woman toward a man staying next door using the Freudian psychology for the first time in a Nepali novel,” Gautam claims.
The playwright in him started to come to the fore from 1953 says his childhood chum and director of his many plays Chittaranjan Nepali. “Me and co-director Shyam Das Vaishnav had used male actors as we didn´t have female actors back then,” Nepali reminisces the staging of ´Bhusko Aago´, which has used only female characters, while standing beside his body kept at the Nepal Academy for last respects.
Vaishnav and Nepali recall how they got close to Govinda Bahadur and his kid brother Bijaya Bahadur --sons of the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Sharada, Riddhi Bahadur -- after the siblings made strides in the field of drama. “The sibling rivalry has given many masterpieces to Nepali drama,” they said. “Govinda should be credited for the seeds of revolution by bringing out the plight of the poor to change the Nepali society back then,” they added remembering how litterateur Parijat had acted in Govinda´s ´Yugko Shikar´ directed by them.
(Photo: Sajana Shrestha)
A statue of the writer of such dramas like ´Chyatiyeko Parda´, ´Bhoko Ghar´, ´Dosh Kasailai Chhaina´, and others has been adorning Gurukul theater in the capital for the past few years.
´Dui Prani´ -- his last creation -- has not been published yet despite his handing it over to the Academy 10 years ago. His family said his last published creation was “Hiranya Kumari and Jung Bhaadur” printed by Sajha Prakashan.
He has been honored with Tribhuvan Pragya Puraskar, Bednidhi Purskar, Pahalman Singh Swar Puraskar, Jagdamba Shree and Bhawani Literary Journalism Award. He was admitted to the Himal Nursing Home at Gyaneshwar 10 days ago following cardio-pulmonary problems and lungs failure due to old age, according to his kid brother and doctor Fatte Bahadur Malla. He also had deficiency of blood and was declared dead at 12:50 in the afternoon.
His son Umesh Bahadur, an engineer and former joint secretary, lit the funeral pyre at the Pashupati Aryaghat on Monday evening. Gothale, who lost his youngest son Ramesh and wife last year, has four daughters.
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