A girl, a boy, a vision, dreams – they all hold important meanings in our lives. We can’t separate our life visions from our girlfriends or boyfriends because they come together.
Normally, ideologists separate ideas from our life partners but poets and philosophers say that ideas can never be separate from our friends, love, our dreams and fantasies.[break]
Even BP Koirala, while reading his autobiography, we find that he was a brilliant thinker; he was a romantic person; he fell in love, had scandals and was always a dreamer. So, it’s natural for people to fall in love, fail in love, create new ideas, ideologies and move on.
As youngsters, we all live in a jungle of fantasy, visions and illusions. But we actually live by certain illusions and dreams all our life – as children, youth and even in our old age. The concept of moksh, nirvana, purity and staying adrift from these illusions and social relationships in life is all myth.
Jack Kerouac was a kind of an American hippie himself of the Beat Generation of the 1960s. The book is also about this generation, the lifestyle of these youngsters always on the road but it actually represents youth everywhere. Especially the youth who are tired of society and want to break free of social bondages to discover new places, new relationships and always marching through new terrains in search of the meaning of their life.
This book on whole is about search, and it inspires us to journey on. You may not be able to find the things you were looking for but the journey allows you to realize life in its bare forms and find a meaning to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shiva Rijal’s love for literature is apparent on his enthusiastic gestures and expressions every time he talks about the literary world. A PhD on theater, Rijal also teaches western plays and performance studies at the Central Department of English at Tribbuvan University.
As a scholar, he has worked on several translations, research works and published books such as “Theatre in Nepal: Resources and Creativity” and “Performing for Tourists: Redefining Performers, Performances and Audience.”
Currently, he is researching architectures and open public spaces in Kathmandu with reference to the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square. His research focuses on how there is very less open space in Kathmandu where people can go and unwind themselves freely without having to become consumers.
RIJAL´S FIVE PICKS
Daarimko Rukhnera by Laxmi Prasad Devkota
Only this book has shown how much can be achieved, how deep you can go and the range of emotions that can be expressed with Nepali words. It flies into the core of philosophy, the core of poetry, the core of religion, and it takes you to the extreme heights and depth of knowledge.
This collection of essays has such powerful flights of words, emotions, ideas and intellect that nothing in Nepali literature surpasses this. In a sense, Devkota is the Guru bird, as no one else but he has been able to take such wonderful flights with Nepali words.
Aatmabritanta by BP Koirala
This book takes you into BP Koirala’s journey from a young dreamer to a national leader. Had this young boy not taken his journey, Nepal wouldn’t come to this stage. BP Koirala, as a democrat, set canons for Nepali politics.
Koirala has said so many important things in this book, like, to understand politics, compare your nation with your family and how it works and how modern national boundaries that have created artificial maps have destroyed our cultural maps and harmony. There’s no one like Koirala in Nepali history who has taken politics, writing and philosophy together and has been great in everything. This book really makes you miss BP Koirala.
Illuminations by Walter Benjamin
Most people refer to history as a graveyard but this book argues that history is always ever present. The past, present and future are not separate. We need to see time as an eternal form, it’s not like something that ends and the other phase starts.
Every past and present action has an effect on the future. So we’re in eternal battles and challenges that have continued from times before us. The book reflects on how history is not like turning pages and closing chapters but like a chakra that keeps moving and affecting the future.
Aandhiko Aaweg by Manu Manjil
Contemporary Nepali poetry is so clichéd nowadays with themes of fragmentation and others, but Manjil’s poetry can actually bring a wave in literature.
This collection specially has brought the flavors, emotions and auras of Nepali poetry back. I can’t say about classical poets, but in contemporary Nepali poetry, amidst all the pretensions, Manjil’s poetry remains true and beautiful.
Beautiful things are always going to remain beautiful, but you just need to acquire a vision to see that. With everyone around celebrating ugliness and banality, his poems give hope and beautifully prove that everything is not lost yet.
“History as Mindscape: A Memory of Peasants’ Movement of Nepal” by Yogesh Raj
Most of the times, history is written around powerful and successful people like kings and major politicians. But this book tells history from a perspective of an ordinary citizen – Krishna Bhakta Caguthi from Bhaktapur – who was a force in Nepal’s peasants’ movement, who later got into politics but wasn’t successful and yet lived a normal life.
This book has to be the first of its kind for the research methodology it has taken. It is an example of seeing history from the underground, from the grassroots, and with a not a big issue in mind but a micro one.
This is a book all contemporary researchers should read for its style as it acquaints you with the Nepali history in interesting, small narratives. This is a daring exercise that the author has taken.
(As told to Ujjwala Maharjan)
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