| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 08-Mar-01 12:05 PM
Congratulations to Nepali writer Manjushree Thapa
on getting her debut English-language novel
"Dessicated" (to be) published in September
2001 from Penguin India.
Manju says that her novel is set in Nepal,
and uses Nepali locales to narrate its tale.
Since I have a lot of admiration for Manju's
writing, I am looking forward to reading
her novel.
This is the first time that a publisher with
a world-class name is publishing a novel in
English by a Nepali writer. This is just
great.
BTW, Manju's connection to Boston is that she went
to school near Boston, at the Rhode Island
School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island,
where she majored in photography and art as an
undergrad.
[A few years later, after working
in Nepal, Manju attended the University of
Washington, Seattle's two-year ko Master's
in creative program on a Fullbright Scholarship].
Likewise, Houghton Mifflin (USA), another
major publisher, is bringing out a collection
of short stories sometime this summer by Samrat
Upadhyay, a Nepali writer now based in Ohio, near
Cleveland.
It's really great to see works by two Nepali writers
writing fiction in English being published this year
by major world-class publishers.
Their success should motivate/inspire many other
Nepali writers too.
Here's a toast for all their continued success!!
oohi
ashu
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 08-Mar-01 02:15 PM
I extend my congratulation to Manju on this, though I heard this
news long ago.
I haven't read Manju much, I confess. And I remember only one
article of Manju now, I guess it was about Nepalese writers
published in Himal. That was a fine article, where she accused
established Nepalese writers to be plagued with irrational pride.
Now, let me say this: her publication is great news for Nepalese
English writers. Also for readers like me. We know, Our novel and
poetry in Nepalese language is pretty refined. Poetry specially.
Our poets try to use all the styles, and each year, even the new
poets come up with great poems.So,let's understand that it
is not necessary to have international publication to tell that
our literature is arrived eventhough a lot of us become naturally
inclined to express such conclusion.In this same forum, a lot of
readers enthusiastically mentioned 'aaja ramitaa cha' as a great
novel. Such novels may never be written in English language,
because literature comes with distinct flavor and appeals to
everybody.Not without any reason that almost all Latin American
tells us to learn Spanish to enjoy Pablo Neruda and Marquez.(Hey,
we enjoyed them in English also!).
My view about Samrat's Shopkeeper is already published here. He
wrote in great style and flow. Yet, the story line appeared corny,
and for the readers of Khuswanta Singh, the expletives used there
doesn't convey any newness either.A lot of sentences actually
remind Khuswanta Singh. The brightest color that the story exudes
is in style, not in any reality reflection, at least in my view.
Let's hope our new stars shine brilliantly along with time. It is
always easy to write critical comment about somebody, I know. All
we can do is expect the best from them. Nepalese writers in
English will be bound by the necessity to pen Nepalese reality
and vend them in international flavor. It is naturally more
difficult task than writing in Nepali and appealing to the
consumers with Nepalese flavor.
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| george |
Posted
on 08-Mar-01 08:13 PM
Hey Ashu, I had heard a long time back that you were going to publish a book of your own. Can you tell me what is the name of the book and where it might be available at? I imagine it's also published by a major US publisher like Hougton Mifflin or Simon and Schuster and is readily available here.
Ciao!
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| ashu |
Posted
on 08-Mar-01 09:20 PM
>Hey Ashu, I had heard a long time back that
>you were going to publish a book of your own.
> Can you tell me what is the name of the
>book and where it might be available at? I
>imagine it's also published by a major US
>publisher like Hougton Mifflin or Simon and
>Schuster and is readily available here.
Hi there,
I appreciate your interest in my books.
Manju says that it took her FOUR years of full-time
writing to finish her book. That's not counting
the time she found her publisher!! And she's a
first-rate writer!
Much of the time in those four years, she was
revising and revising and revising and revising the
text. And intensive revision is one very crucial
process completely unheard-of among most Nepali
writers.
Like Manju, I too am a great believer in
'write once and revise 100 times' school of
thought. It's the revision part that takes and
should take a lot of time and energy, even if it
is sometimes fraught with frustrations.
My book on logic in Nepali language is undergoing
intensive revisions and editing at the moment. The
process should take some more time, and that's the way it is.
My book on Kamaiya is being completed: It's
a long process, and I have learnt to enjoy -- taking
one day at a time --the writing, the researching,
the interviewing, the editing and the revising
process thoroughly.
As you well know George, I have long
enjoyed promoting my friends and their works, even
when in some notable cases, more out of helpful
friendship than anything else, I had to write their
essays on something like urban planning or
architecture in my own writing style so that
they could get credit :-)
So, don't worry, my friend: With this history
of promoting my friends' work behind me, I won't
be far behind in promoting my own work, once the sometimes-tedious-sometimes-arduous process gets
finished with time-consuming revising, editing and
all those phases.
Meantme, if you will kindly post or email me your full
name, and email and smail-mail address, I'll be happy to
personally send you a signed copy each of my books
when they come out all nice and clean.
Again, many thanks for generating fresh interest
in my coming books!!
oohi
ashu
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| mouse |
Posted
on 09-Mar-01 11:42 AM
I also congratulate Manju thapa. but let me ask this. Isn't she daughter or niece of the former ambassador to US? And isn't the Fulbright scholarship meant to extend cultural understanding specifically for people not with previous experience of the US?
I don't really know mjch about Fulbright but I was only wondering if someone is permited to receive this after US experience such as being undergraduate in US.
BTW, Manju's connection to Boston is that she went
to school near Boston, at the Rhode Island
School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island,
where she majored in photography and art as an
undergrad.
[A few years later, after working
in Nepal, Manju attended the University of
Washington, Seattle's two-year ko Master's
in creative program on a Fullbright Scholarship].
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 09-Mar-01 09:08 PM
>Isn't she daughter or niece of the
>former ambassador to US?
She's a daughter of the Ambassador.
But as far as I know, Manju's been standing
on her own for much of all adult life,
without piggy-backing on her father's
prestige, though, like any daughter, she
surely loves/respects her father.
If one is so inclined, one can start to TWIST or
make light of Manju's achievments on account of her
father's high-profile, of course.
But, hey, a book from Penguin is a book from Penguin,
and when reviewers/critics sit down to evaluate it in
October, 2001, I doubt whether they'd care much about
the status of Manju's father.
In other words, Manju's professional achievements
(i.e. her status as a Nepali novelist in English)
would have little bearing on what her father does.
>And isn't the
>Fulbright scholarship meant to extend
>cultural understanding specifically for
>people not with previous experience of the
>US?
It seems: Not necessarily.
And that's the key phrase.
There have been a number of cases where Fullbright
scholarships have been given out to Nepalis with
previous undergrad or even graduate degrees from the US/England/Australia/Japan/India AFTER they have spent
anywhere from two to six years working full-time
in Nepal.
A prominent example is Bikas Pandey, who spent
a number of years working in rural Nepal after
graduating from MIT as an undergrad. He later
attended Cal Berkeley on a Fullbright Scholarship.
Since I personally know a lot of Nepali
Fullbrighters, one interesting and INFORMAL
thing I have observed is this:
All things being equal, those with an undergrad
degree from the US, followed by a few years of
solid work experience in Nepal, followed by a
Fullbright, are more likely to return permanently
to Nepal to work (even when they could have stayed
permanently in the US or a third country) vis-a-vis
those with no previous US experience, going there
for the first time to do their Master's on a
Fullbright.
I want to emphasize that this above para is
based only on my informal observation, and
that's that.
oohi
ashu
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 10-Mar-01 09:41 PM
I once talked with a friend who used to work in Mustang in one
conservation project(King Mahendra Trust..) Mustang is pretty
difficult place to live,even for men. However, my friend told me
he saw a girl there who was pretty confident and hardworking. She
later also wrote a book which was probably about tourism in Tibet
and Himalaya area. My friend was highly impressed by her
fortitude and honesty.
If I remember correctly, the name of the girl he was so
appreciative of was Manju Thapa. I don't know if he was talking
about the same Manjusri Thapa that we are now talking about.
****** ------ ********* ------ ******** --------
I think it is natural if somebody writes about Manju and mentions
her father simultaneously. However, now that she is grown up, we
can safely ignore her father and read her.
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| george |
Posted
on 11-Mar-01 01:47 PM
Sorry for being out of the loop Ashu, I was under the impression that you were finishing up your book on bonded laborers like 3 or 4 years ago. Anyway good luck on a speedy publication.
Usually, for first-time book publishers, finishing up a book can take a long time. So we advise them to work on one book at a time and stay focussed. Don't you think it's better to have one book published in time rather than have several books pending completion for several years? One of the other reasons for having the first book published before proceeding on a different one is the advantage of receiving (and incorporating into subsequent works) the feedback received from the general audience on the first book.
Thank you for willing to send me a signed copy of the book. I appreciate it. You can just address send it to WordsWorth Books of Harvard Square (I'm sure you have the address). I'm simply known as Curious George by those in the know. Any idea when I can expect to receving it?
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