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आकाशमाथिको शहरको विचरण

शिव प्रकाश
बोष्टन, मे २
साहित्य के हो भन्ने विषयमा विभिन्न धारण, मतमतान्तर भएता पनि जीवन र जगतका भोगाइहरु विभिन्न रस र सौर्न्दर्यका रुपमा अन्तष्करणबाट अभिब्यक्त हुने कलात्मक भावुक विचार नै साहित्य हो भन्ने मलाई लाग्दछ । साहित्यका वारेमा धारण वा साहित्यको परिभाषा जे भएता पनि साहित्यको सृजना कसरी हुन्छ ? यो अर्को गहन प्रश्न छ ! तर यसको सजिलै उत्तर दिएकी छिन् कवियत्री भारती गौतमले आकाशमाथिको शहरमा यसरी -
बगैंचाको शीत बनी म रोएको बेला
चराको संगीत बनी म रमाएको बेला
खडेरीको अनिकाल बनी म डराएको बेला
वसन्तको पालुवा बनी म पलाएको बेला
मेरो कविताले मलाई सधैं साथ दिने गर्छ ।
हो, एउटा कवि मनलाई, कवि चेतनालाई, कवि भावनालाई राम्रोनराम्रो, मीठोनमीठो, खुशीबेशुसी र सुखदुःख जुनसुकै बेलामा पनि कविताले साथ दिन्छ । कथाले साथ दिन्छ । समग्रमा साहित्यले साथ दिन्छ । अझ त्यसलाई संक्षेपमा भन्ने हो भने लेखनले साथ दिन्छ । अनि त्यस्तो लेखन नै वास्तवमा साहित्य हुन्छ । कवियत्री गौतमको जस्तो विशुद्ध साहित्य !
यस्तै विभिन्न विषय र वस्तु, समय र परिस्थिति, अनुभव र अनुभूति अनि हाँसो र खुशीको समग्रभावको समष्टि स्वरुपमा कलात्मक अभिब्यक्ति र शैलीद्वारा आभूषित एउटा काव्यात्मक शहर बसाएकी छिन् कवियत्री भारती गौतमले नेपाली साहित्यको फाँटमा नितान्त नयाँ शहर "आकाशमाथिको शहर" !
यो शहर ढुङ्गामाटो भौतिक शहर हैन, यो शहर हो - काब्यको शहर ! कल्पनाको शहर ! भावनाको शहर ! सिर्जनाको अलौकिक शहर ! नितान्त नौलो शहर - आकाशमाथिको शहर !
घरदेश छोडेर धेरै अघि परदेशीएकी कवियात्री गौतमको लामो समयको विश्राम पछि नेपाली साहित्य लेखन क्षेत्रमा आएको सक्रियताले एउटा सरस, सौर्न्दर्य र भावपूर्ण साहित्यिक कृति जन्माएको छ "आकाशमाथिको शहर" भनेर आधुनिक कविता संग्रहको रुपमा !
आकाशमाथिको शहरमा कवियत्रीले मूलतः मानवीय जीवनका आरोहअवरोहलाई विषय र वस्तुका अन्तरभिन्नता र अन्तरद्वन्दलाई कलात्मक ढंगले शुक्ष्मतापूर्ण विश्लेषण गरेकी छिन् । यी विश्लेषणलाई कवियत्री आफ्ना कवितामा यसरी ब्यक्त गर्छिन-
मान्छेमान्छेबीच मात्र नभएर
इश्वरको सृष्टिसृष्टिबीचकै
साझा साइनो थियो आँसु !
विस्तारै आँसुको भाषा
अब त मान्छेमान्छेबीच पनि पराइ हुँदै गइरहेछ
क्लिष्ट हुँदै गइरहेछ
मान्छेले मान्छेको आँसुको भाषा
बुझ्न पनि क्रमशः गाह्रो हुदै गइरहेछ ।
कवि ! कवि भनेको स्रष्ट्रा हो । त्यसैले कविको मन कोमल हुन्छ, कमलको फूलको केस्राभन्दा पनि कोमल ! कविको मन सागरजस्तो हुन्छ, छछल्कि रहन्छ । तरङ्गीत भइरहन्छ । दुःखमा कवि कवितमा रुन्छ, शब्दमा रुन्छ, भावमा रुन्छ । यसरी युद्ध विभिषिकाबाट अत्तालिएर कवियत्री भारती गौतम आकाशमाथिको शहरमा यसरी रोएकी छिन् -
मेरो मुलुकको डाँडापाखामा यो नयाँसालमा
गुँरास हैन, मेरै नातेदारको रगतले रंगीएको छ
मेरो मुलुको जंगलमा कोइलीले
रोदन र चित्कार गाउन थालेको छ ।
गौतमका कविताहरुमा रुपमात्र हैन, रुपकहरु छन् । सौर्न्दर्यलाई बढाउने श्रृङ्गारहरु छन् । मिथकहरुमात्र हैन मीठामीठा मिश्रति भाव र शैलीहरु छन् । कवियत्रीले विम्वहरुसँग खेल्दै प्रतीकहरुसँग रमाउँदै विशुद्ध साहित्यिक कृतिको एउटा शहर बसाएकी छिन्-आकाशमाथिको शहर !
धेरै उत्कृष्ठ र केही मध्यम कविताहरुको समष्टि स्वरुप हो आकाशमाथिको शहर । सेरोफेरो पुरा गरेर बिट मार्दासम्म कतै अल्छि र विश्रामको अनुभूत नहुने एउता सुन्दर काब्यत्मक शहरका रुउपमा स्थापित भएको छ कवियत्री गौतमको आकाशमाथिको शहर !
कवितामा भाषा र शब्द संयोजनले कतै चित्र बोलेका छन् । कतै विम्वहरुले प्रकृतिका सुन्दर दृष्यहरु र्छलङ्ग खोलेका छन् । आकाशमाथिको शहरलाई यसरी नै सजाएकी छिन् । सुन्दर बनाएकी छिन् कवियत्री गौतमले !
श्रीमती गौतमका कवितामा मानवीय भावना, वेदना, सम्वेदना, चेतना, नियति,र निरपेक्षता अनि करुणा, कल्पना, आशा र निराशाहरु बोलेका छन् । प्रकृतिका रुपप्रारुप, दृष्य र सौर्न्दर्यका प्रचुर प्रयोगले कविताको सुन्दरता बढाएका छन् ।
आकाशमाथिको यो नौलो शहर बोधगम्य छ । सरल छ । शिष्ट छ । सभ्य छ । समग्रमा पठनीय छ । संग्रहनीय छ । संग्रहमा साठी कविता संग्रहित छन् ।
साभार - नेपालीपोष्ट डट कम ।

   [ posted by sprakashp @ 03:30 PM ] | Viewed: 2699 times [ Feedback]

This Life on Lithium
A review by Ashutosh Tiwari

BOOK:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
by Kay Redfield Jamison
Vintage Books, New York 1996

Doctors enjoy talking about their specialties. What they don't enjoy is talking about their own battles with various afflictions, be they cancer, drug addiction or, God forbid, clinical depression.

Kay Redfield Jamison is a refreshing exception. A tenured professor of psychiatryat the prestigious Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland, USA, she is one of the world's leading experts on manic-depressive illness.

It is the illness she knows all too well personally as well. "As long as I can remember," she writes, "I was
frighteningly beholden to moods . . .[I]ntensely emotional as a child, mercurial as a young girl, first severely depressed as an adolescent, and then unrelentingly caught up in the cycles of manic-depressive illness by
the time" she "started [her] professional life, by becoming, by necessity and intellectual inclination, a student of moods."

As such, this book is Jamison's brutally honest and
poetically charged memoir about how an intelligent, beautiful and cultured woman like herself has lived with two identities that stand in sharp contrast to one another. The first identity is that of a wailing, helpless manic-depressive who, from time to time, completely loses her emotional moorings, only to oscillate wildly
between feelings of giddy grandeur and crushing despair -- leaving relationships, credit ratings, academic performances and much else besides in utter ruins.

And her other identity is that of a stable psychiatrist who does path-breaking research, wins professional plaudits, savors romance with lovers, enjoys the arts and music,
and helps train the next generation of doctors. Against this backdrop, this memoir can best be read as riveting, frightening yet ultimately inspiring stories of Jamison's wars against herself as she continues to wrestle with bouts of manic-depression in an attempt to lead a happy, productive life.

But just what is manic-depressive illness anyway? Quite
simply, it is often described as a severe disorder of moods. It is a disease nonetheless, as Jamison eloquently writes in her quotable intro, that "kills tens of thousands of [women and men] every year: most [of whom] are young, die unnecessarily, and are among the most imaginative and gifted that we as a society have." Yet, "[t]he
major clinical problem in treating manic-depressive illness is not that there are not effective medications - there are -but that patients so often refuse to take them."

Besides, as Jamison puts it, "because of a lack of information, poor medical advice, stigma.
Or fear of personal and professional reprisals, they do not seek treatment at all." The illness "distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful beahaviours, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is biological in origins, yet one feels psychological in the experience of it; an illness that is unique in conferring advantage and pleasure, yet one that brings in its wake almost unendurable suffering and, not infrequently, suicide."

Jamison's traces the roots of her manic episodes to watching her brilliant, idiosyncratic father periodically fly high and come crashing down on his emotional roller-coaster when she was a child. In college, which was an emotionally traumatic rite of passage to her, she spends more time on research at labs than get good grades. Her research skills get her into graduate school, where, she finds the "freedom from the highly structured existence of undergraduate studies", delves into experimental psychology, and, as a student-researcher, interacts with a variety of patients with mental health problems.

Offered a teaching position upon the completion of the PhD,
she starts a job at a time when her mania hits her with full force. Of that period, she writes, "my marriage was falling apart . . . I was increasingly restless, irritable and I craved excitement: all of a sudden, I found myself rebelling against the very things I most loved about my husband: his kindness, stability, warmth and love. I impulsively reached out for a new life . . . credit cards are disastrous [for manic-depressives], personal
checks worse . . . "

As pieces started to fall out of Jamison's life, it was her
elder brother who, out of love and without judgment, started to settle the dust for her. He paid her bills, bought her the medicine of manic-depressives, Lithium, and basically "spread his wing" over her. Jamison acknowledges that not many manic-depressives are lucky to have such a loving family member, and she credits the support
and care she received from her brother for putting her back on track of doing research. Meantime, she started going to therapies.

And so the memoir goes, in its very readable prose,
detailing intermittent periods of bliss and productivity in
Jamison's life with months of utter despair and madness. In
between, in lucid terms, she talks about the latest research being done in the identification of and in the treatment of manic-depressive patients. She addresses her concerns "about writing [this book] that so explicitly describes my own attacks of mania, depression, and psychosis, as well as my problems acknowledging the need for ongoing medication."

In appearing undeterred by the possible effects of her memoir upon her personal and professional life, she displays much courage, honesty and, interestingly, pure emotional strength. But then, as anyone who, like Jamison, has battled manic-depressive illness for any amount
of time may admit, once you learn to live with manic-depressive illness, there is very little that seems to be of "insurmountable difficulty".

All in all, this is a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading and
learning much from.

**************

Originally published in The Kathmandu Post Review of books (July 1999).

- http://www.asianstudies.emory.edu/sinhas/kprb.html

******************

A recent appearance by Kay Redfield Jamison

- http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518186

The book itself

- http://www.amazon.com/Unquiet-Mind-Memoir-Moods-Madness/dp/0679763309

   [ posted by ashu @ 04:33 AM ] | Viewed: 2453 times [ Feedback]

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Revised and updated, 2002
By Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
Published by Rider, London
Page: 303

A book review by Ashutosh Tiwari

(Originally published in Kathmandu's New Business Age magazine in 2004 or so)

If you want to see happiness personified, spend half an hour talking with Baikuntha Manandhar about the joys of running.

Watch Manandhar’s eyes light up, how his face radiates with a smile, and how infectiously enthusiastic he gets when describing his participation in the Montreal (1976) or the LA (1984) Summer Olympics.

You can imagine him—eyes closed, wiping the glistening sweat off his face and enjoying the roar of the crowd as he nears the finishing line. To Manandhar, the only thing better than talking about running is running itself: setting the goals, throwing himself into the activity, investing all his psychic energy into the process, and then enjoying running for its own sake are what that seem to make Manandhar genuinely happy.

Is there a psychology behind Manandhar’s happiness?

All right, before we get further, let’s accept that when one hears the word psychology, one assumes that whatever it is, it’s got to do with not happiness but unhappiness and misery.

But there is something called positive psychology, now gaining grounds in Western academia. It’s about how one can play up one’s strengths to lead a happier, more fulfilling life.

Indeed, in a conversation with edge.org, a site devoted to discussing cutting-edge scientific ideas, the University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman says that 50 years and 20-billion dollar worth of scientific research by academic psychologists has been able to make “14 major mental illnesses treatable” now—turning many “miserable people less miserable.” Given this remarkable decrease in the “tonnage of suffering in the world”, Seligman sees no reason why academic psychology cannot also help “increase the tonnage of happiness” at workplaces, among family members and in communities.

To be sure, the happiness that Seligman talks is not about “smiling a lot and giggling.” Nor is it about “raw feelings, thrills and orgasms.” Citing Aristotle, Seligman defines happiness as when “one has a good conversation, when one contemplates well...[when one feels] completely at home [with what one is doing]; [when one’s] self-consciousness is blocked...[and when one is in flow] with the music of [life].”

At first brush, such definitions of happiness sound schmaltzy, the kind of stuff associated not with scientists but with poets or hippies. But it also happens to accurately summarise the hard-nosed conclusions of peer-reviewed research conducted over a period of two decades by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi (pronunciation: me.high chick.sent.me.high) at the University of Chicago (he’s now at the Claremont Graduate School in California).

In 1990, Csikzentmihalyi published his findings in a paperback called Flow, which so resonated with the public that it went on to be translated into 14 languages. The book’s ideas found applications in fields ranging “from the manufacture of Nissan and Volvo to the design of art museums...from the rehab of juvenile delinquents to the training of business executives.” This 303-page book under review, written in a language that is easy to follow, is a revised and updated 2002 edition.

Based on cross-country, multi-team and multi-year research on happiness, Csikzentmihalyi argues that life’s optimal experiences are based on the state of flow. It’s the state that’s between energy-depleting states of anxiety and boredom. That is to say, most of the time, we are either anxious that we might not meet the challenges of our work or bored because the work we do is not challenging enough. Either case makes us unhappy. The flow approach takes a different path.

It’s “the state in which people”—corporate strategists, dancers, writers, marathon runners, rock musicians, meditation teachers, surgeons, or even the disabled—”are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

A flow experience stretches us just to the point where we are focused to enjoyably meet a challenge and strengthen our skills.

It thus keeps us engaged to the task at hand by steering us clear of states of both anxiety and boredom. In other words, by consciously injecting a dose of purpose into what we do, flow helps us transform even routine activities into enjoyable, therefore happier, experiences—regardless of whether we are working as a teller at a bank, preparing for a meeting with shareholders or selling products to customers.

What’s the relevance of all this to busy Nepali managers? Plenty. Nepali managers worry about keeping workers motivated to finish the tasks at hand. Their understanding of how flow works to raise individual happiness (and correspondingly, productivity) may help them re-configure work in such a way that it induces numerous “flow states” at factories and offices. This way, the managers may start hearing their workers rave about work the way, say, Baikuntha Manandhar gushes about running marathons.

(Originally published in Kathmandu’s The New Business Age Magazine.)

Here's a relevant recent article from TIME magazine;

- http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1606395,00.html

Here's the book itself

- http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Mihaly-Csikszentmihalyi/dp/0060920432/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-4807608-8082354?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175756180&sr=1-2

   [ posted by ashu @ 01:58 AM ] | Viewed: 2087 times [ Feedback]

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
By Chris Anderson
Hyperion, 2006

A review by Ashutosh Tiwari

Early this year [2006], Kathmandu’s Bhatbhateni Supermarket broadened its premises. Despite this expansion, there is a limit to what it can stock and sell. Bhatbhateni will therefore continue to stock only those goods that it is most likely to sell. This means fewer choices for customers. What if Bhatbhateni went online?

Internet shelf space costs almost nothing. Bhatbhateni online could display hundreds of thousands of more goods, whose details could be had at the click of a mouse. And you could choose what you want from an array of selections and place an order.

When customers search and buy through an abundant of choices, the market, as we usually know it to reward scarcity, starts behaving differently. In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson explains these different behaviours as effects of the long tail (TLT), which he defines as unlimited online markets.

Anderson’s TLT model means that Bhatbhateni’s physical store might carry up to only 15 varieties of, let's say, imported beer. but its online store could well carry 1000 more varieties. Yes, even online, many customers would still buy only 15 to 20 most popular or “hit” brands (say, the Heinikens of the world).

Anderson’s insight is that the online store makes substantial money when it adds up the revenues from the sales of the remaining 985 to 980 “niche” beer (i.e. Kenyan, Brazilian, South African, etc). In other words, in a physical store, “hits”, as in what sells, matter. Online, with its unlimited shelf space, “niches”, as in what could also sell, become a surprisingly big revenue-generator.

One reason why that’s true is that online stores are free from the “tyranny of geography”. People sitting in Jhapa or Jerusalem can buy goods after checking out the vast selections of Bhatbhateni online. Collectively, they will buy not only the popular items, but also quirky, odd ones in large numbers -- thereby driving up the sales of the latter.

To illustrate this, Anderson gives an example of Bollywood movies in the US. Many American movie theaters do not show Bollywood movies. That’s because viewers of such movies are too scattered to be big enough to sustain profitable two-week runs.

The result is that Bollywood movies don’t get shown. Enter Netflix, an Internet-based DVD rental company. Anderson finds Netflix making serious money by supplying – along with the usual Hollywood hits – niche creations such as obscure documentaries, art films and Bollywood movies to customers living all over the US. So what if theaters don’t show Bollywood movies so long as there’s Netflix informing customers about Bollywood by supplying DVDs?

Anderson explains the rising importance of niche products as the result of the convergence of three technological factors.

First, invention of digital cameras, desktop music editing and blogging software have made it easier to create information and put it online.

Second, proliferation of information-aggregating sites such as Ebay, Amazon, iTunes have made it is easier for customers to find specifically relevant information quickly.

And third, Google, blogs, and online purchase recommendations have acted as filters to help customers find the goods they are likely to enjoy, but might not have found in physical stores.

That means, to cite an extreme niche example, if Sanskrit-chanting punk rock music is what you like to listen to on your iPod, chances are high that you will not find it in Tik’n’Tok, Bhatbhateni or even Walmart. But you are most likely to find it on iTunes, which carries, well, unlimited tracks. The Long Tail of massive online inventories helps you keep up with your relatively obscure interests while finding like-minded communities online.

What does TLT mean for Nepali businesses? Three lessons come to mind.

First, think global. Use the insight of TLT and the Internet as ways to access customers. Second, don’t rush to create web sites. Instead, find ways to be on Google, EBay, Epinions, and others in ways that add to your products’ visibility and credibility. Having customers endorse your products is more important than what you create. And third, don’t worry about creating “hit” products. Producing niche goods is fine, for it will give you a long advantage when you sell online to customers everywhere.

(Was this a good review? Or a jhoor and khattam review? Either way, read the magazine -- READ -- which carried this piece, and write to editors and/or contribute your own book reviews. Share your ideas about books, publishing, reading and readers' communities.)

Visit - http://www.fineprintbookclub.com/Articles/?Type=2

The book:

- http://www.amazon.com/Long-Tail-Future-Business-Selling/dp/1401302378

Something tangential, about the culture of reading in Nepal

- http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnepalinews.php?&nid=100209

   [ posted by ashu @ 11:43 PM ] | Viewed: 2489 times [ Feedback] (2 Comments)

A book review

Book: Nepal Studies in the UK: Conversations with Practitioners
by Pratyoush Onta
Publisher: Martin Chautari, 2004, Rs 300

Researching kuire researchers
Studying Nepal is a labour of love for UK academics

A review by Ashutosh Tiwari

There are three ways to describe Pratyoush Onta. By training he is an historian. Ten years ago, for his PhD dissertation on Nepali nationalism (at the University of Pennsylvania), he examined how Bhanubhakta was anointed a Nepali language icon by Darjeeling-based activists in the 1930s, by using the then available printing presses, literary magazines and newspapers to disseminate nationalist ideologies.

That work set Onta off on the path to become a media specialist. In the last five years, together with Martin Chautari colleagues, he has produced 11 books on the state of Nepal’s media, including a history of Radio Nepal. When I asked why he studies media, Onta replied that he wants “to help lay social science foundations in what is still a little studied discipline”.

Onta’s other identity is that of a questioning public intellectual who is interested in how knowledge is created and shared, and what that process means to us as Nepalis. He has hosted programs on radio, written newspaper columns, moderated discussions at Chautari and given public lectures inside and outside of Nepal.

It is Onta’s third identity that is on display in this 210-page book, which he conceived as a visiting scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London in 2002. Explaining that Nepal has long been studied by British academics as a geographical curiosity, as a potential trading partner, as home of ‘martial bodies’, and, in modern times, as a recipient of development aid, Onta aims to understand the typology of recent and contemporary British social science scholarship on Nepal in a who-studies-what-where-why-and-how manner.

His methodology was to email 20-odd questions to a sample of 19 UK-educated non-Nepali academics, comprising of recent PhDs, active scholars and retired professors whose disciplines range from anthropology to sociology to literature to history and languages. The book is a compilation of their detailed answers.

And the picture those answers paint is depressing. Nepal studies—like Nepal itself on the global stage—is on the margin of even South Asian Studies. It is a discipline with no institutional money, no disciplinary recognition, no formal academic home, no flagship journals and with hardly any influence on other scholars and mainstream theories. The British press hardly cites these scholars’ work in its reports about Nepal, and the functionaries of Her Majesty’s Government and of development agencies rarely draw on their expertise when designing Nepal-specific interventions.

While those scholars who obtained jobs when British universities were expanding in the 1970s consider themselves lucky, others say that they do not see prospects for university-based jobs improving any time soon. As David Gellner puts it, “studying Nepal has always been a vocation, never a direct path to a job.” Indeed, what sustains the field appears to be the energy of its geographically scattered yet academically close-knit members, who cobble together occasional ‘high quality’ seminars or bulletins, with Michael Hutt at SOAS serving as an informal dean.

But if, as per the Marxist scholar David Seddon, ‘the investment is greater and the potential returns are smaller’ in Nepal studies, what pushed these scholars into it? Some were nudged in Nepal’s direction by advisers in graduate school. To others, Nepal offered a classic anthropology experience to study ‘non-literate and pre-industrial’ ethnic groups such as the Tharus, Tamangs or Gurungs. And for younger researchers, the year between high school and college spent working or travelling in the hills turned them into lifelong Nepalophiles.

However they entered the field, their level of engagement with Nepali scholars’ work appears split along generational lines. Recent PhDs tend to be fluent in one or more of Nepal’s languages and familiar with research papers coming out of Nepal.

As the standards of social science research rise here, it’s safe to say that we are seeing the last days of kuire academics parachuting in to shoehorn locally collected interview files into ready-made theoretical templates. Indeed, as Rhoderick Chalmers and Mark Turin imply, it’s become increasingly important to study what native scholars are publishing and to engage as equals in critical dialogues with them.

All interviewees agree that in peaceful times, a ‘high per capita cultural diversity’ made Nepal an attractive, safe and easy place to conduct field work. In post-conflict Nepal some day, some of them hope to obtain funds to do research on conflict management, forced migration, war trauma, coping with violence and healing and psychotherapy. Most are concerned that Nepal has become risky as a site, giving them no choice but to send students to other countries for fieldwork.

This book provides a window to understand some of the personalities and institutions that are shaping research on Nepal in British academia today. It also gives a sense of the relative diversity of Nepal-related work that those with interdisciplinary and even non-academic career paths are exploring today. Researchers will find the bibliographies that accompany the interviews handy references.

My only quibble is that since the book adopts a checklist approach to asking questions, it does not give us controversies and disagreements that surround various theories and interpretations. Even after reading all the interviews, the image of Nepal Studies as an academic field is that it is still in its cataloguing phase–not yet intellectually bubbling over with ideas and insights that would attract the most ambitious graduate students.

As such, the book is not likely to be of interest to laypersons. But to those interested in the minutiae of scholarly life, Onta has provided a usefully detailed scenario of how knowledge about Nepal continues to be mapped, produced and shared in the UK—almost 200 years after William Kirkpatrick first published his Nepal report in 1811.

(Originally published in The Nepali Times newsweekly)

   [ posted by ashu @ 08:55 PM ] | Viewed: 1861 times [ Feedback]

पुस्तक समीक्षा
शिव प्रकाश

डाक्टर साप्को मुटुनेरीको सिस्नेरी

फूल किन फूल्छ भनेर कविकै शब्दमा कविले उत्तर खोजे झैं म कविता किन लेख्छु भनेर आफैंसंग उनले अर्को उत्तर पनि खोजेका छन् । यसमा उनले धेरै उत्तरहरु निकालेता पनि आफूमा कवित्वको कमि भएकोले कविता लेख्ने गरेको निष्कर्षलाइ उनले स्वीकारेका छन् । कवि शिव गौतम यस्तै दार्शनिक भावानुभूति बोकेर कविता लेख्ने गर्छन् । अनि मुटुनेरीको सिस्नेरी कविता संग्रह लिएर सुटुक्क पाठक समक्ष आउछन् ।
कथा, लेख, निबन्ध तथा खोज-अनुसन्धानका विषयमा समय समयमा कलम चलाउने उनी साहित्य भूमिको मूलतः कविता विधामा नै नाच्न खेल्न रमाउँछन् । पेशाले तथ्याङ्क र साङ्ख्यिकीका डाक्टर (पीएचडी) भएता पनि भावले उनी एक कुशल कवि देखिन्छन् । स्वेदेशमा त्रिविविको प्राध्यापनदेखि लिएर विदेशका बिभिन्न प्रतिष्ठित विश्व विद्यालयहरुमा अध्ययन र अध्यापन गर्दे गराउँदै हाल अमेरिकाको विख्यात हार्भर्ट विश्वविद्यालयको स्वास्थ्य विज्ञान स्कूल बोष्टनमा प्राध्यापनरत कवि गौतमले आफू घरदेशबाट टाढाटाढा धेरै टाढा परदेशमा रहदाँ पनि स्वदेशलाई कहिल्यै बिसे्रका छैनन् र बिस्रन पनि सक्दैनन् । परदेशमा रहँदा पनि उनले मातृभूमिलाई बोकेका छन् । राष्ट्रियतालाई हृदयमा राखेका छन् । नेपालीपनले अविचलित ओतप्रोत छन् र सगरमाथालाई अझै चुल्याएका छन् । यी भावनाहरुलाई नेपालै बोकेर कवितामा कवि यसरी ब्यक्त गर्छन् ।
जहाँ म टेक्छु त्यो नेपाल बन्छ
म जुन हिउचुली हेर्छु त्यो हिमाल हुन्छ
म परशेमा भए पनि
मेरो देश पर छैन
जहाँ म जान्छु
नेपाल बोकेरै जान्छु ।
भोजपुर जिल्लाको सिस्नेरीमा जन्मिएका कवि आफ्नो जन्मथलोसंगको अटुट सम्बन्ध सधैं अटुट रहने स्पष्ट छनक दिदैं मुटुनेरीको सिस्नेरीमा उनी मातृत्व र भातृत्वप्रतिको स्नेहलाई फेरि यसरी ब्यक्त गर्छन् -
म जतिसुकै बुढो भए पनि
सिस्नेरी !
म भित्रको सम्झना सधैं तन्नेरी
तिमीसंगको दूरी जतिसुकै बढेपिन
सिस्नेरी !
तिमी सधैं मेरो मुटुनेरी ।
संग्रहमा कवि गौतमले समाजका आवेश-परिवेश, विकृति-विसंगति र वास्तविकताहरु साथै ब्यक्तिका वैयत्तिक आवेगहरुलाई संयोजित ढंगले प्रस्तुत गरेका छन् । उनका कविताहरुमा प्रयुक्त अनुप्राशले भरपुर मिठास भरेको छ भने भाव र भङ्गी अनुसार कविको भावना बगेको छ । मूलतः ग्रामीण नेपाली महिलाहरुको दुःख, पीडा, अभाव र कुण्ठाका कथा-ब्यथाहरुलाई पनि उनले आफ्ना कविताहरुका उनेका छन् । हाँसो र रोदन, नेपालै बोकेर र एउटा सम्बन्ध संग्रह भित्रका उत्कृष्ट कवितामा पर्छन् भने राममान र एउटा विरङ्गनाको जीवन कथा यथार्थपरक कविता पर्छन् । जसले धेरैको हृदयलाई छुन सक्छ । दिलमायाको पिरतिमा देश विथोलिएको भए पनि देशप्रति आफ्नो प्रेम अटुट रहेको स्पष्ट धारण कविले ब्यक्त गरेका छन् ।
शिष्ट भाषा र सुक्ष्म ब्यङ्ग्यद्वारा हाम्रो समाजलाई सचेत गराउँदै संग्रहमा ठाउँठाउँमा ठट्टा रमाइलोलाई पनि संयोजन गरेर आफ्ना कविताहरुलाई अझ मीठासपूर्ण बनाउन कवि शिव गौतम खप्पिस देखिन्छन् ।
मान्छे मान्छेबीच हुने घात-प्रतिघात, अविश्वास, कलहकचिङ्गल र मान्छे भएर पनि देखाइने कुमान्छेको दुष्प्रवृतिलाई कविताका माध्यमबाट उनले उदाङ्गो पारेका छन् । यिनका अलावा उनको कविता संग्रह पढ्दा कवि प्रकृतिसंग अति प्रभावित भएको भान पनि हुन्छ । प्रकृतिको अनुपम् उपहार फूलसंग कवि धेरै नजिक छन् । कवितामा उनी फूलसंग खेलेका छन् । हाँसेका छन् । रमेका छन् । अनि ढुङ्गाभित्र पनि मन हुन्छ भन्दै पहराको छातीमा फूल फूलाउँदै कवि गौतम कवितामा यसरी वहन्छन् -
पहरा भनेर मात्रै कहाँ हुन्छ र
उसको छातिमा पनि कतै एउटा
कोमल भाग हुन सक्छ
जहाँ गएर एउटा फूल
फूलेको हुन सक्छ ।
यस संग्रहमा भावुकता कताकता कवि र कविताको विषेशता नै देखिन्छ । हुन त भावुकता बिना कविताको सिर्जना पनि हुन सक्दैन । कविको छवि पनि त्यसैमा झल्किएको हुन्छ । यसले कवि गौतमलाई पूर्णरुपले प्रभावित गरेको पाइन्छ । अनि भाषाको सरलता संग्रहको अर्को बिषेशता मानिएको छ ।
सपनाका रंगहरु पछि साझा प्रकाशनद्वारा प्रकाशित ५१ कविताहरुको संग्रह मुटुनेरीको सिस्नेरी यथार्थमा पठनीय छ संग्रहनीय छ । यो संग्रहले पनि नेपाली साहित्य जगतमा ठूलो गुन लागाएको कुरामा दुईमत पक्कै छैन भन्दा सायद फरक नपर्ला । कविको साहित्य यात्रा निरन्तर रहिरहोस् ।
- शिव प्रकाश

   [ posted by sprakashp @ 11:03 PM ] | Viewed: 2894 times [ Feedback]

The Death of a President is not Fahrenheit 911 and Gabriel Range is not Michael Moore. As long as you don't go into the theater with the expectation of seeing vitriol poured on Bush, you might actually be able to appreciate the movie for what it is worth.

The movie combines actual news footage superimposed with the voices and faces of actors at times. President Bush is shot on the premises of a Chicago hotel in 2007. The director builds up to this event by showing anti-war protesters outside the hotel and breaches of the security cordon around the presidential entourage. A significant part of the movie, and indeed the main plot of the movie, is focussed on the aftermath of the assassination, primarily in finding out who the the killer is.

I am no fan of Bush but images of the guy collapsing into the arms of secret service agents does evoke a tinge of concern if not outright sympathy. Unlike a lot of other assassination movies, this one does not spend a lot of time on the actual event and the kind of public grief that might surround the death of a sitting president. Except for a few shots from Bush's funeral and President Cheney delivering the eulogy, there aren't images of wailing masses on the streets or the kind of post-assassination build-up you see in movies about JFK's assassination.

The movie is not explosive largely because it adopts a matter-of-fact approach in the post assassination plot and does not sensationalize the death. But it is hard to escape the subtle yet consistent political message behind the movie which is the chickens have come home to roost from the Iraq war. The movie repeatedly takes pains to emphasize the extremist nature of the assassin but touches, in passing, on hot button issues like racial profiling , civil liberties and racial profiling.

Overall rating: B

   [ posted by Captain Haddock @ 08:53 AM ] | Viewed: 1550 times [ Feedback]