| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| najar | Posted
on 08-Feb-03 10:39 AM
Samrat Upadhayay on his book tour visited Ann Arbor on Friday, Feb 7th accompanied by his wife Babita and an adorable daughter Shahzadi. He made Ann Arbor audience feel special by stating that this was the only tour to be accompanied by his wife and a daughter. Another coincidence was that his own principal from St. Xavier’s—Father Leo Cachat (Xaverian sajhaites, sound familiar?) was in the audience. Being an STXC alum myself and having met Fr. Cachet in the LTC conferences, it was momentous to have Fr. Cache’s presence in the book reading. A proud glow in Fr. Cache’s eyes was clearly visible as he saw his pupil, an accomplished writer and an assistant professor give a talk on his recently published second book---The Guru of Love. Mr. Upadhyay began the talk by saying---“Tonight, I am honored to present my book—The Guru of Love, dedicated to my own guru, Fr. Cache, who was my principal when I was a kid.” Fr. Cache with a smile made a hand gesture saying—I have known him since he was this (small) big. The audience was moved by an unexpected pupil-teacher reunion, offered a warm applaud. He read a few pages from the first chapter followed by an informal interaction afterwards. He was attentive, enthusiastic and responsive while he patiently briefed with the interested audience individually. In response to my curiosity on how he came up with Goma’s character, a rather unusual stand for a wife in our society, he said with a light laughter—“I created this character as a strong and unique or so I thought until recently when the same scenario happened to a distant cousin of Babita”. Mrs. Upadhyay with a smile further evidenced the statement, stating how surprised she was to hear the similar case from her mother recently. For those who have not read the book---Goma is a wife of a primary protagonist Ramchandra. She is portrayed as the most powerful character in the novel. When she finds about her husband’s romantic involvement with his tutee Malati, not only does she demand that malati move in with them but also leaves the bedroom for them, all the while acting indifferent except her initial brief stay at her maiti. Other discussions were similar to what have already been posted on sajha in the past. He also mentioned time permitting he will try to write for nepali magazines, including –The Nepal Digest. Mr. Upadhyay also looks forward to his new position at the Indiana University as an MFA faculty starting from the fall. Mr. Upadhayay was very encouraging to the interested young nepali writers and said he would be happy to give his feedback on their work. Overall, the talk was mind stimulating and inspiring! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S: Thanks to Oys for alerting me well ahead of time regarding Samrat’s visit to Ann Arbor |
| oys_chill | Posted
on 08-Feb-03 01:38 PM
oiee dizzu..... ani thanx ta malai.............ani didn't u fufill my request with the sandal? eheh....j/k. anyways, very interesting experience.......ko parecha Fr. cache re.....never even heard of that name.........I only wanted to ask him one thing though "whether he writes his stories considering the mass audience for US bound or the Nepal bound?" ali chitta nabujya kura ni.......too much exaggeration jasto lagcha....:) anyways, aroo ni lekchan ki hamra atal writer jyu le..... oys |
| Rusty | Posted
on 08-Feb-03 02:14 PM
Najar, Interesting experience.... Malai pani bhetna ta man thiyo, thaha payeko bhaye Ann Arbor authe ni... I had enjoyed reading his "Arresting God in Ktm." Guru of Love pani ramro jasto cha, according to your excellent precis. Oys bhai, good question there? exaggeration ta ali ali hunu pari halcha ni...Ani..Marketing/business view le pani hernu paryo ni...testo usto kura haro pani ali ali hunu paryo ni!! You see what I'm sayin;) |
| SITARA | Posted
on 08-Feb-03 06:41 PM
Najar... Interesting synopsis of a memorable event! Thanks! |
| isolated freak | Posted
on 08-Feb-03 09:28 PM
najar ji, goma ko character ta harif raicha ni... ramchandra bhagyamani rai cha tyasto swasni pauna.. k bhancha, bhagyamani ko bhootai kamaro... hoina ta? thanks for your nice narrative of " a memorable event". |
| Kale_Ko_Chartikala | Posted
on 09-Feb-03 05:44 PM
Thaks Najar. Just wanted to add "faleko brik.shya nuhunchha" : 1. Even after getting to zenith of his career, he (SU) said that he will write for other magazines like The Nepal Digest. ( http://theNepalDigest.org ) 2. What else could be more encouraging to hear than he will welcome other young writer's works to give feedback on them. Guess what I am doing next, send Samrat quite a few emails with long attachments! ;) |
| DISCO | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 08:23 AM
Anyone know if Mr. Upadhyay is coming to DC area???, if so, where and when?, would really appreciate it....thanks. |
| najar | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 08:34 AM
Thanks everybody for your comments... Oys, my pbpb :) kina yesto "oograwadi" bhaa hola, testo sandal ko kura pani garne ho? :) anyway, you probalay don't know Fr. Cache becaue he was serving principal at Samrat Upadhyay's period but in the 90s was involved with LTS and counseling services. Would have relayed your question, had you asked me to run it by him before friday. Rusty, he also came to sahars close to your place also but i think it was this week. Not only did you miss in ann arbor but also in northeast :( some other time..Thanks for your comments Sitara, and Iso---thanks for your comments :) Kale dai, he remembers talking to you in dc and was really glad to hear that you got TND up and running. Discoji--Didn't see DC on the tour list, may be in another tour series. |
| DISCO | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 01:13 PM
najar ji, thanks a bunch, btw, where would i get hold of the list you mention?? |
| najar | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 03:35 PM
Discoji, you can find the schedule at http://www.suskera.com/jan2003/tour.html |
| SimpleGal | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 05:24 PM
Najar, Thanks for the piece. Glad you enjoyed the event. Have yet to read Mr. Upadhyay's works of which there seems to be much talk. In peace. |
| VillageVoice | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 07:08 PM
hey, along those lines... smarat was in nyc yesterday. Bonus: At his reading half the crowd was Nepali--among them Pratyoush Onta, of the Martin Chautari fame, and Shushma Joshi, a short story writer herself. |
| Poonte | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 07:10 PM
VV!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr....kina khabar nagareko????????? |
| VillageVoice | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 07:16 PM
Poonte, thought you knew. Sorry, mate. Samrat's all over gbnc lately :) |
| VillageVoice | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 07:26 PM
Najar, Remember, we kinda agreed at some point that the writer ignores Goma after Malati comes into the household. You probably mentioned that you found the twist a bit incredulous. Well, a member in the audience said that's exactly what he liked about Goma. Pasand apne, apne. I did like the book on the whole, though. And also don't quite agree with the New York Times reviewer that the novelist overdoes in translating, expalining, nepali words to English readers. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised that the book had fair bit of sprinkling of Nepali sabdaharu and some very, very colloquial expressions. |
| ashu | Posted
on 11-Feb-03 11:49 PM
Since Samrat will be joining the creative writing (MFA) faculty at Indiana University in 2003 Fall, here's the URL for that program: http://www.indiana.edu/~mfawrite/intro.html According to Samrat, it's a very old program, lasting three years instead of two, with the last year solely for "thesis," a book of poetry or fiction. Students are supported all three years through teaching assistantships or scholarships, a real bonus as far as writing programs go. [Samrat] will be part of the admissions committee, and [is] expected to attract more of an international community of students, a role [he is] eager to fill. Just spreading the word about the Indiana program. Thanks to Educational Book House's Anjan Shrestha, "Guru of Love" (Indian edition) is on sale in Kathmandu for 250 Rastra Bank rupees. oohi "alas, more of a non-fiction lover than a fiction freak :-)" ashu ktm,nepal |
| DISCO | Posted
on 12-Feb-03 02:30 PM
Dyamn, he no come to my hometown, and I be already read his book... |
| baadal | Posted
on 13-Feb-03 02:09 PM
i am surprised at all the hype that surrounds guru of love. i do like the descriptions of the story-setting but the story just does not work for me. also, i am baffled at everybody's characterizations of goma and malati as "strong." for despite the anguish, does not ramchandra get the best of both worlds? |
| computer | Posted
on 13-Feb-03 02:19 PM
Click/visit the link below : http://www.indiana.edu/~mfawrite/upadhyay.html |
| sally | Posted
on 13-Feb-03 02:33 PM
Baadal, the story did work for me, but and I did view Goma in particular as strong, but it seems to be an almost unbelievable (and male fantasy) kind of strength. Yes, she forces Ramchandra to face the untenable nature of what's going on by basically giving him an overdose of it, and if someone could really do that, it would be amazingly strong. But at the same time the strength doesn't just come from Goma as a person, but from Goma's absolute devotion to Ramchandra. So it's a male fantasy, stand-by-your-man kind of strength. Or, more charitably, a strength like the perfect wife of legend. (And one can assume that women didn't write those legends.) I definitely have criticisms of the book. (Ramchandra is no government minister and he's a modern guy, but he's wearing a daura surwal around ... in 1989? He'd only seen one movie with Amitabh Bhachan, who's described as a "new" star? When he went for his interview at the school where he works it "wasn't his idea of a school" because it didn't have a playground, in maybe 1980?!?!?!?!?!? How in the world did Ramchandra manage to be so sheltered as to be shocked by the lack of a playground? That sort of thing.) But for me, the bottom line is that it kept my interest, I did suspend disbelief in the context of the story (except for those little Unreality Blips above), and it was a real page-turner ... I did want to find out what happened to these characters he created. So I give lots of credit to Samrat. Besides, the scene at Pashupati is a classic!!! |
| bhedo | Posted
on 13-Feb-03 05:04 PM
I can't really say I liked the story. Since when do Nepalis kiss? Heck, we don't even hug each other, that's why we got that "namaste". All right, fine, they were having an affair, but I know for a fact that we don't pacify someone by kissing, do we now? The guy wanted to attract western audience, and hence the slant. I also don't understand why he had ti include all those bits and pieces about Nepal's political situation at that time. The bits and pieces weren't linked to the plot at all, except perhaps a bit with the baby incident. And who here thinks Samrat Upadhyay was influenced by Naipaul's "A House for Mr Biswas"? Boy, took me two weeks to read the book. Some parts were very funny though, like shoving banana down Goma's throat during their wedding night. |