ब्लग
ABHA ELI PHOBOO
You live in the midst of these stories. You pass them by on your way home and to work and school, never really seeing them from the windows of your air-conditioned cars.
Stories that happen almost everyday around you, things you read in the newspapers, or hear next-door neighbors talk about: Things that you’ve become desensitized to, and distanced from, and those that never seem quite real.
Uwem Akpan writes about these things, and tells us stories through the eyes of children, without seeking pity and sympathy, without coating them with innocence. These are children who learn that evil exists, and the only ones who can help them are their own selves.
“Say You’re One of Them” is Akpan’s debut collection of short stories, set in different parts of Africa. The book has been called one that sheds light on the Dark...
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- PRATYOUSH ONTA
For over a century now, three institutional forms have played major roles in the Nepali book-publishing scene: for-profit outlets, the state, and not-for-profit organizations. Having discussed the last of these entities in an earlier write-up, I would like to discuss the for-profit publishing scene here.
Telescoped History
The first significant commercial outlets of Nepali publishing were started in the north Indian city of Benaras in the second half of the 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, tens of thousands copies of many Nepali-language books had been published from Benaras by unscrupulous publishers, not all of whom were Nepali nationals. These were consumed by variously exiled and educated Nepalis, Gurkha soldiers and migrant workers in India, and a small section of the educated class inside Nepal (The best description in English of the Banaras-led publishing scene is available in the 2003 PhD dissertation of historian Rhoderick Chalmers)
F...
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-BIMAL GAUTAM
The book is by and about Tek Nath Rizal, the prominent democratic fighter of Bhutan. It is a saga of sufferings and struggles that continues to this day with no end in sight. However, there is no escape for him, either. His activism for democracy and human rights caused a chain of suffering throughout his life. This is the story of Rizal, probably the last rebel from the Kingdom of Bhutan.
His recently released book “Torture Killing Me Softly” is all about how he was tortured by the state authorities, even after he was put to jail.
And the torture tactics, according to Rizal, left him in physical and mental wreck forever. How was Rizal tortured? He says the tortures meted out to him were not just confined to physical assaults. He was tortured mentally, too. And mental tortures are more damaging than the physical ones.
If a man is physically assaulted, he can be treated, and even if he is maimed, he may slowly come to terms with it. But mental agoni...
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- ABHA ELI PHOBOO
Genius cannot be hidden. It shows in translation, even when genius depends on the translated words for meaning. Anton Pavolovich Chekhov wrote in Russian, and today, his works have been translated into hundreds of languages. In English, his short stories are considered the best of the genre, the masterpieces on which the art of short story writing stands.
He is accepted as the father of modern short stories. Yet, Chekhov never even considered writing his first occupation. “Medicine is my lawful wife,” he said, “and literature is my mistress.”
Chekhov started writing short stories as a medical student. He wrote them for money, and most of them were comedies and farces. But even his absurd sketches challenged the short story structure of his era. He didn’t give them much thought and didn’t take his writing seriously until Dmitri Grigorovich, Dostoevsky’s roommate and friend, who also helped launch the author’s car...
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