Book Review: Buddha's Orphan

\

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 geographical coordinates, he describes about Kathmandu, begin intriguing our minds as we go on. Besides,the author doesn't hesitate in using Romanagari frequently, assuring that bridging the gap between the Nepali and the Western literature is his forte.

In a country where so many orphans linger around the city in helter-skelter, the story of the novel revolves around the foundling character, Raja, who is orphaned by a young woman in the parade ground of Tudikhel as she commits suicide in Rani Pokhari on one misty morning. Bokeyba who first discovers Raja and Kaki, a corn seller are the indigent rescuers of Raja. Keeping her hunger at bay, Kaki dotes on Raja and burns the candle at both ends; only to be ultimately ditched by the latter to be son to Ganga Da in a middle class family albeit to the sketchy mentally ill mother, Jamuna. In between,Raja falls for a high class girl of privilege, Nilu, who abandons her convent school and luxury and follows Raja to be together with him. Ganga Da illicitly cons the downtrodden Kaki to adopt Raja as a pacifier to Jamuna’s illness and the event haunts him down forever. Raja gets married to the upper class girl, and only after few years of navel-gazing lands up in a job of a journalist. Meanwhile, the country shudders in protests against the political distortion and epoch making changes.A catastrophe falls on the couple when their son Maitreya faces an untimely demise which also results in faltering their marriage. Their final reconcile after few years and Ranjana, their 17 years old daughter becoming out of contact in the States brings moments of angst into their lives. As Ranjana finally returns back to Nepal and births Kali, the novel descends towards conclusion.

This multi-character, multi-generational story portrays a notion of how we’re intertwined and how we are self-enclosed entities merely chasing after our own narrow interests. Upadhyay has ably framed the cliché that whether we live in prosperous America or poor Nepal, there's no escape from suffering through his story while the frequent repartee in the story adds vouch to the fictional ability of the author. In Buddha’s Orphans, Upadhyay has masterfully blended history, politics, tragedy and romance with a Nepali touch to create a backdrop of vibrant in the literary field of our country and once again he has been successful in arresting the hearts of his readers through this epic tale of Kathmandu. All in all, it is a story of faith, love and the way these lasso our past, present and future.

P.S. I'd kill to meet Samrat Upadhyay someday.