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Posted
on 30-Oct-01 10:31 PM
Following is from the Hindustan Times, 31 October by Khuswant Singh
Close to 90, Khuswant Singh is still going strong.
Enjoy. AT
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To Nepal with love
Khaireni Tar is a small town six hours away from Kathmandu. Like other towns of of its size, it is a ramshackle collection of small shops, tea-stalls, a primary school, a timber factory, barbers, cobblers, a watch-repairer and a drug store run by a compounder passing off as a doctor. There are also a few non-descript temples and a church. Nothing much happens in Khaireni Tar. Men work in the fields, women look after their homes, feed their husbands and children. Men get drunk and beat their wives. Wives whose husbands are away in India, Korea, Hongkong or in West Asia spend their time gossiping with other women — and if they can, have clandestine affairs.
Everyone knows his or her place in the caste and class hierarchy. At the top of the class structure are men who have served in the British army and now draw handsome pensions. Then come the land-owners of real estate, contractors, owners of lodging houses and bars. Caste distinctions are more rigidly observed than in India. Ethnic and linguistic diversities are also more complex. Nevertheless, life goes on at a peaceful, leisurely pace.
This is the setting of The Tutor of History (Penguin) by Manjushree Thapa, daughter of Nepal’s ambassador in New Delhi. The title is somewhat misleading as the history tutor plays a side-role in the story, most of which is devoted to the impact on Khaireni Tar of Nepal’s general elections. Nepal’s film idol Nayan Raj decides to stake his chance from this constituency which spreads to villages surrounding the small town. Many locals raise to his support against the Nepali Congress and the Communists.
Among those who join him is Rishi who gives up his private tuitions in Kathmandu to settle down in Khaireni Tar to help Nayan Raj’s party of moderates committed to clean politics. Their election symbol is a tea cup. He is put up at the party’s election office. A clutch of young girls looks after their comforts and food. Among them is Binita, a comely young widow still pining for her lost husband.
Manjushree goes into tedious detail about the electoral process: painting the electoral symbol tea cup on walls and bare rocks; having them defaced by the Communists’ hammer and sickle symbol; fighting fisticuffs and flashing khukris.They take stock of the progress being made over home-brewed rice beer, Everest Whiskey and Nepali rum. Eventually, the ‘tea cup’ party realise that noble ideals alone do not win votes. Like other parties they have to make false promises. They have to bribe village leaders to get block votes. Nayan Raj goes along with these. Rishi is disenchanted but stays on till the polling day. Communists manage to wreck the tea cuppers’ office.There is false voting, fights and booth capturing. Despite the euphoria built up for the matinee idol, he loses the elections. The Congress candidate, nephew of the prime minister, is the winner. All this is reminiscent of elections in India. All said and done, the Nepalese are our cousins once removed.
The story ends with Rishi proposing to Binita and returning to Kathmandu to resume teaching and set up a home to receive Binita as his bride. The Tutor of History is a charming, sizeable novel giving detailed insights into the lives of common Nepalese townsfolk.
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