The roses and thorns of life

When an anthology of stories is titled “Rato Gulaph” and translating perfectly into “Red Rose”, one expects an abundance of romance, of sweetness and beauty. And while Bhagirathi Shrestha’s collection of stories does include the aforementioned elements, there is an overwhelming focus on the themes of disillusionment, loneliness and alienation – the thorns of life in contemporary times.[break]



The very first tale, Ujyaloko Parkhal, elucidates the major theme of the work – deception. It begins as a typical story of ungrateful children who turn inhuman to their elderly parents, with the cruel son going so far as to dupe the mother and leave her in an old-age home. But it does not have an ordinary ending – it has an unusual and gratifying one which has to be read to be understood.



This theme of deception is continued in a host of other stories. If Pida Binimaya is the harrowing and realistic tale of relations breaking apart due to dishonesty; Chyatieko Note gives the example of an ill-arranged marriage to depict how easy it is to get cheated in marital relations – and also how to overcome it with head held high. In Afnai Dharatal, the little helper’s attempt to fool her friends into thinking of her as the daughter of the house backfires, albeit with a positive result for her. This story talks intelligently about peer pressure as well.



In contrast to this domestic tale comes the only story, Biplab, which deals directly with the devastation caused by the so-called People’s War. This one deserves accolades for its fearless and accurate representation of the atrocities – of how a beautiful village and its innocent inhabitants are made pawns by ruthless terrorists. And in a subtle level, this talks of a sham too – of what sorrows a peaceful countenance can hide.



Aashakti is a similarly sad tale, though the setting is that of a city, and the protagonist is a cancer-riddled woman who does not let go of worthless pleasures like jewelry even at her deathbed. It also points to the packrat tendency that most of us have, of storing things with a desire to use them sometime later: and that time never arrives. Such is the superficiality, the hypocrisy of modern life.



This hypocrisy is also reflected in Uddam Lahar, Pancchi, Nirbastra and Dosro Bato, all of which shred apart the flimsy veil which people use to hide their weaknesses. Some yarns talk of wives turning brazen and characterless, while others depict pathetic husbands. A tale on these lines is Sakshiko Bayan on a typical chauvinistic male venting his impotence on his family. It is slightly different as it uses the concept of a shadow as the narrator.



The writer specializes in real-life relationships exactly as they exist in the society, an example of which is Khel. Handling the relatively daring theme of homosexuality, she observes it minutely through her characters, with apt comparisons to Krishna-Gopini, before drawing to a surprising conclusion. Juxtaposed against this refreshing theme is Aago Ra Pani, which is clichéd right from the selection of its title to the plot: that of an illicit relation between the youthful lady of the house and the equally manly and trusted domestic help who comes of age. It is full of cringe-worthy dialogues like, “At this moment you’re my man, not my servant.”



Rato Galaicha, the eighth tale in the collection, deserves special mention because it builds a whole story upon a simple object like a carpet, coloring it with nostalgia and emotional attachment that seem justified even to the readers. Another unique tale is Agrahan, which makes for a good reading due to the proper development of its central character. It is a multilayered tale that speaks eloquently about a single woman’s woes, of a hardworking lady accused baselessly of philandering, and yet her simplicity and innocence winning over all. “Somewhere I felt her happiness was her success,” says the narrator, and this rare display of dignity warms the readers.




Two other stories full of warmth are Naya Chori and Rato Gulaph. While the former is hopeful of strong, humane relationships existing even in these chaotic times, the latter is a very sweet, touching, practical tale of first love and misplaced romance, of Prince Charming coming true for a fleeting moment, of a humdrum life made beautiful by red roses.



Some of the themes imagined by the writer certainly demand praise, though the majority can be lumped together as ‘discord in relationships’ or ‘a picture of contemporary times’. And while some stories, like Rato Gulaph and Biblab shine due to the use of multifaceted and believable characters or sleek writing, the style turns lackluster more often than not. There are awfully boring rhetorical questions that last whole paragraphs, for example, in Agrahan. Or this selection from Nirbastra:



“Creation or destruction?



Victory or defeat?



Heaven or hell?”



The writer frequently uses sentences which do not give readers any pleasure save their stock literary meaning, such as “I felt – he was hitting my head with a stick.” Something beautiful is described in this mechanical way, “I felt as if I was losing a priceless heritage of love.” In addition, a single page contains a variety of errors, ranging from grammatical ones to typos, disturbing the flow. For example, the male is addressed in feminine terms at times, and vice versa.



Also, the wife-husband characters in the stories are all carbon copies of each other. One of the partners is dissatisfied and unfaithful, while the other is saintly and wants to work it out. It gets grating after a while, for their features and their future can be predicted by the readers as soon as they are ascribed to the characters. Add to this the worn-out and vague lines like, “She separated from the field of my life and became the sea in the field of someone else’s life”, and one begins to wonder whether one is in a melodramatic movie.



This is not, however, to minimize the strength of the writer. She is clear about what she wants to say, and she does tell it by the end. Infidelity, ill treatment, same-sex relationships, crumbling family ties, and duplicity – she lays it all bare without inhibition or sugarcoating. And so, as a guide to today’s uncertain times, “Rato Gulaph” works just fine.

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