This collection of essays is designed to take the measure of contemporary feminist thoughts as well as to trace women’s problems and give them voice by redrawing the boundary of idea. [break]
Mostly, it contains essays selected from both obscure and most eminent literary journals. Over and above, two of her comparatively good essays have also been incorporated in this anthology.
The title of this collected works underscores a leitmotif which runs through all of the essays, specifically the correlation amongst mainstream politics, women’s experiences, and the uneven subject of women’s position in Nepal.
The three sections of this volume group the essays according to the specific area under discussion.
The first part centers on pure feministic themes: male chauvinism, gender neutrality and male-made tradition that aims to treat women along with socially constructed capricious discourse to vilify women’s position. Part two includes nine essays of Giri’s own experiences.
Most precisely, this section shares the author’s autobiographical accounts. Correspondingly, in the third part, the essayist spends 24 pages to pour out her memoir. Into the bargain, she recollects the times when she was in touch with Shailaja Acharya, the late woman leader of the Nepali Congress Party.
Most of Banira’s essays proffer a womanly shade to the presentation of her actual dynamism. She has attempted to occupy herself with ideas and rhetoric concurrently. But in most of her essays, her thought-delivering technique is rather poor than that of other novice women writers in Nepal.
Most of her prose is superfluously poetic, feeble and flimsy. Readers have to strive a lot to follow the undertones of her essays which are very poor, and readers will most likely give up reading them.
The opening essay of this collection, Mahila, sounds similar to that of “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir in many ways – from the title to its thematic periphery, under which she chats about the concerns of women.
Strictly speaking, it sounds like a rewritten version of “The Second Sex” for the reason that there is no new idea of her own. In course of writing, at times, she sounds like a “radical feminist” and sometimes akin to a liberal feminist.
She has not employed any consistent approach while delivering her ideas. Even her language is superfluously obvious, pretty transparent and informal; sometimes it even fails to transport what she wants to convey.
Therefore, sometimes, her writing seems to be dry; sometimes, redundantly microscopic, and most often, readers find insignificant details in her writing.
Similarly, Samagratako Pakhandabhitra Nari Asmita is an essay of challenged relationship, and at the same time, she talks about women’s emancipation by giving it a somehow interesting tone, while comparing with her other essays.
Likewise, one of her essays, Mahila Pradhanmantri, is comparatively noteworthy, for it examines gender neutrality that most women have to encounter. What is more, it offers insights to some gender issues from several diverse perspectives.
Possibly, this essay is more gratifying to those who are discontented by male-made norms and values. Similarly, in Srashta: Kokh ra Kaakh, she argues that a creator has no sexual category.
Metaphorically, some of her essays sound like an old vehicle that is full of passengers and striding in an exasperating manner, as well as some are analogous to threadbare clothes. (An instance is Thulo Buwa! Kichkanne Sanga Bhet Bhayo.)
Though Banira Giri is one of the “acclaimed” writers in the Nepali literary firmament, her essays featured in this volume do not deserve that much of compliments for which she has been “well-liked.
” At times, her ideas seem to be unbalanced as she has not been able to unfasten the tight lid of her inner faculty. Most of the time, by just jotting down the unstructured pile of words, she closes the curtain of the stage of her essays. In some places, Banira affirms some of the repetitive things we have figured out in Nepali societies over the years.
Nevertheless, three out of her 28 essays are worth reading because of her more or less sound elucidation probing the depths of female experience and carrying the tone of women’s problems. To some extent, some reader can assert that most of Giri’s essays are her own reflections of the society and traditions she lives in.
In Samanantaar Rekha: Naari, she argues that most Nepali women have been stumbling upon hardships not because of their fate but because of the society they live in.
Here, she acknowledges the multi-dimensional and catalytic role of a woman to convert a “man” into a real man who again exploits her.
Through the essay, Alchhipan Kurupta Ho, she examines the inner splendor and aptitude of women, and at the same time, she talks about women who are being dependent on their husbands.
Also, she has attempted to seek out the root cause of identity crisis of women within the society. Tersely, her main focus is on women’s role, and the conditions under which they are compelled to make their ends meet.
On the one hand, the feminist context of her book seems as if it would be exactly cordial to most Nepali women’s sentiments, and on the other hand, there is something shadowy, which leads to tedious discussions.
Correspondingly, in her essay Laxmi: Lachhini–Alachhini, Banira tries to show that even in modern times, the traditional preconceptions have been turned out to be an indicator to measure the position of women in Nepali societies.
Likewise, the essay, Parvatko Arko Naam Parvati, after which the entire volume has been named, tries to mark out a nexus between women who live in rural areas and metropolises.
In the very last section of this essay collection, Shailaja Sambaad: Suksukaunda Bimbaharu, she shares much of her own personal narration and her thoughts about how she became fascinated in writing and how she felt while meeting with Shailaja Acharya.
Additionally, it examines the country’s enmeshed time along with the politics of preferential treatment in Nepal. It is more like a piece of journal than an argumentative essay; while the majority of her essays are thematically monotonous.
At times, some sound like a mind-numbing speech, and most of the times, she does not seem to be able to introduce her essays with an attention-grabbing hue.
Through Parvatko Arko Naam Parvati, Banira has tried her best to reflect on the struggles of women and their experiences in the midst of paradoxes widespread in our society. But this anthology, on the whole, deserves a mediocre reading as it fails to incorporate what the author intends to do.
It could have highly benefited from critical editing.
The editor of this book could have used his editorial rights to give it a readable tincture.
The reviewer is a student at Nepa School of Social Sciences.
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