I Didn’t Mean To Write This

Come sing my song and make me feel good

In a morning light let the song go wild

And in the evenings let everything go bright

The church is empty and scared

Do you know that the church is empty and scared?

Is Jesus in there?

If he is in there bring him out alive

I wanna sing my song to him

I have a voice enough to make the Shepherd

let loose the lambs in a heavenly pasture land

I know the first three lines were pretty like a song

But the rest are…

Well, it often happens when Jesus comes along…

I am Jesus. Come crucify me.

Or have you already done it?

I was sleeping with an alcoholic dream

And when I woke up

I looked like Jesus

And Coelho where are you?

I aspire to be a Jesus

Now how sure are you that I become one?

I am gambling my life against your lies

That everything changes if you aspire…

A poem by Kamlesh Pandey

Jaipur Literature Festival 2010: A belated entry

It’s exactly one month past the Jaipur Literature Festival and I haven’t posted anything about it. But I can’t let all the photos, videos and notes I took at the festival go to waste. Thus this entry:

Day 1 @ JLF : ( It was the second day of the festival.) Jaipur Literature Festival might actually be ‘the greatest literary show on earth’ (last year it was ‘Asia’s Leading Literary Festival’) but I had never heard of it until I came across the Jan 8-21 issue of Time Out Delhi. I am sure it was in the news in Nepal but I have absolutely no memory of it. A few Nepali journalists seem to be regulars at the festival. On the other hand, quite a few people in Jaipur were clueless about it too. And the credit to this finding goes entirely to my ritual of asking directions. Pedestrians did show us the way to SMS hospital road nearby but they didn’t know their city was hosting a ‘world class’ literary show.

We reached the festival venue on the second day (Jan 22) and I knew what I wanted to do: Attend a session called Travels with a Typewriter in the Mughal Tent. I had done a bit of homework on the festival before leaving Delhi and the realization was disheartening. I had read the works of only two of the 200 authors who were to be attending the festival- Chetan Bhagat and Shobha De. I could not bear to make it to the end of the list because I was frustrated by seeing the names of so many people I had never read! Shobha De was a huge hit among us girls back in school (pre-S.L.C.). It was a book where she talked of her relationship with her young daughters. I don’t remember a word of the book now, nor the title. I read Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five point someone’ in 2007 and ‘One night at a call centre’ sometime later. I am actually ashamed to admit I have read such books! No offense to Bhagat fans but I can’t understand why he is such a huge hit in India. A recent Tehelka survey of bestselling books in India reveals that the first 4 out of 10 bestsellers in India are by Bhagat….simply unbelievable!

Getting back to the festival, I presumed ‘Travels with a typewriter’ to be a session which would discuss the art of writing travelogues. I later realized the session was named so after one of the speaker, Michael Frayn’s book . It was a pleasure listening to the British writer. He spoke well and the best thing he had to say was this:

Travels With a Typewriter By Michael Frayn

Finally a Podcast

आज यो पोडकास्टका मार्फत धेरै अगाडीदेखिको आफ्नो एउटा इच्छा पुरा गर्दैछु। दुई हप्ता अगाडी लोडसेङ्गिगको बेला मैले पारिजातको ‘शिरीषको फूल’ पढिसिध्याएँ। ढिलैभएपनि त्यो शुभकार्य गरेकोमा म निकै खुसी छु। यो पोडकास्टमा मैले नेपाली साहित्यको त्यही अद्वितीय कृतिका केहि हरफहरू पढेकी छु। वाचन गरिएका हरफ छान्नु पछाडि कुनै विशेष कारण छैन। म समाचार वाचिका वा अन्य रेडियो कार्यक्रम प्रस्तोता पनि होइन त्यसैले यो पोडकास्टमा त्यो गुणस्तर नखोज्नुहोला। यसमा पनि काँटछाँट गर्नुपर्ने केहि ठाउँहरू छन् , ती चाहिँ Audacity मा पोख्त भएपछि हुँदैगर्नेछन्। पाश्व सङ्गित मलाई असाध्यै मनपनें ‘Sur Le Fil’ ( Soundtrack from Amélie by Yann Tiersen हो । आशा छ तपाईहरूलाई पनि सुन्दा रमाइलो लाग्ने छ।

प्रेमको उडान

यो मेरो होइन, बर्नाड स्लिङ्कको ‘प्रेमको उडान’को चर्चा हो। चर्चाभन्दा पनि नामक पुस्तकको छोटो (५०० शब्दको) समीक्षा हो। हुन त यो कुरा मैले धेरै पटक भनिसकेकी छु त्यही पनि म फेरी बर्नाड स्लिङ्क मलाई सबैभन्दा बढी मन पर्ने लेखक हुन् भन्ने तथ्य दोहोर्‍याउन चाहन्छु। उनका प्रत्येक किताब पढेपछि म आफूमा केहि परिवर्तन आएको महसुस गर्छु। करिब तीन चार वर्ष अघि ‘द रिडर’ पढेपश्चात् उनको फ्यान भएकी हुँ। त्यो किताब मैले एवान पुस्तकालयमा फेला पारेकी थिएँ। पछि काठमाडौंका धेरै पुस्तक पसलहरूमा त्यो पुस्तक खोजेँ तर अहिलेसम्म पाएकी छैन। केहि समय अगाडी पिल्ग्रिम्स बुक हाउस ,ठमेलमा मैले स्लिङ्कको ‘होमकमिङ्ग’ फेला पारेँ र उनले लेखेको त्यो पुस्तकको एक मात्र प्रति देख्ने बित्तिकै किनिहालेँ। ‘फ्लाइट्स अफ लभ’ चाहिँ मलाई एक मित्रले दिएको उपहार हो। यतातिरको बजारमा स्लिङ्क पारखी कम भएरै सायद उनका कृतिहरू फेला पार्न अलि गाह्रो छ। तर गाह्रो छ भन्दैमा राम्रो कुराको खोजी गर्न त छाड्नु भएन नि! मलाई यति राम्रो पुस्तक उपहार दिने मित्रलाई धन्यवाद दिँदै यो भूमिकाको अन्त्य गर्दछु। यो लेख गएको शनिबार वैशाख १९,२०६६ को कान्तिपुरमा प्रकाशित भएको थियो।

Bangalore, Balram Halwai and the Nepali Identity

Late December last year we were staying at a hotel in J.P. Nagar,Bangalore. We were three in number including one man and two women. So, on this particular evening before the day we were to leave for Delhi she wanted to have paan after dinner. There was a small ‘Paan Pasal’ just in-front of the hotel and when the shopkeeper handed her the ‘Paan’, she looked at it and said “Yesma ta kei chaina” (It doesn’t have anything). Then a person emerged from the other side of the stall told something to the Paan Pasale in a different language. The Pasale started adding ingredients in it, handed the pan back and she exclaimed “Oho feri kati dherai haldeko!” (He’s put too much of everything!) . The person emerging from the other side of the stall introduced himself as a Nepali. He was from Baitadi. It had only been 3 months in Bangalore and he was working at the hotel as a guard during the nights. ‘He’s also a Nepali’ he said pointing at another guard. “Maile chineko manche vanera dherai halde jasto cha!” he said explaining the extra ingredients in the Paan. And they talked for a while during which she said ‘She was from Baitadi’ too. It was such an interesting situation for me. Two people from both from Baitadi, a relatively underdeveloped district in the Far-West of Nepal, both in the same hotel, same place, beside the same Paan Pasal yet leading lives as different as Black and White. It could be the most simplistic explanation Nepal’s Gini Coeffient as well.