Romancing Words :)

\ We live in a country where if we were asked to name some good books by a Nepali writer who writes in English, I’m sure only few names would strike the frontal cortex of your cerebrum. And Samrat Upadhyay is not one of those names which can possibly skip our minds in those moments of peril. “Buddha’s Orphans” is the latest novel by our native author of “Arresting God in Kathmandu.” Hailed as a Buddhist Chekhov, it’s incredible how the Whiting Award winner author, who himself has been living in the States for more than two decades has been able to pull a novel off his sleeves which is permeated with so much originality of our culture. The story transverses us more than half the century back to the era of social and political upheavals in Nepal to the present day. Provided that, most of us , including the author himself,were not even born during the year when the story unfolds, still Upadhyay has carved his writing in such a way that the pictures from the alleys to every geogra...

A few months back, while I was spending my vacation at home, I was on my way to my music class and there was this little boy walking few inches ahead of me…5 or maybe 6 years in age…might I guess. He looked so cute in his school uniform that I couldn’t refrain myself from talking to him…and in no time I was already asking for his name and whereabouts. Fortunately, we were heading in the same direction. We talked so merrily and it didn’t feel like it was our first conversation. Then I noticed the kid had no bag, no shoes. He was wearing slippers and carrying polythene to school. I couldn’t help but ask him about it. Without hesitating even for a second, he was like, “My parents have no money to buy those for me”. And all of a sudden I had nothing to say. “I should get home fast. I've got to look after my kid-brother”, he added and paced his steps. I was walking in a daze now. Then this other day, I was out shopping with my mother, I saw this little boy selling socks.  I ...