Picking up the book, flipping through the various stories, there is nothing that strikes out as being extra ordinary. At least not for readers, those that have thumbed through other English publications by Nepali writers. The titles change, but the content remains the same: entirely plausible. In fact, may seem realistic to the citizens of Kathmandu.
It is perhaps this factor that will appeal most to Nepali readers living abroad. Being overseas, the familiarity in names of places like Maitighar and Putalisadak mentioned in Desire, descriptions of bars in Thamel and Lazimpat as recreated in Trails, and reminders of the brutality of the conflict displayed in Home for Dashain will surely induce nostalgic sentiments. Reading about one’s motherland with the current framework could work towards making home seem less far away.
For readers who may not call Nepal “home” but have been here to visit or volunteer, there will be a charm in reading into the lives of average Nepali folks. Perhaps a means to give life to characters and events like the coming of age ceremony, bratabandha, in Initiation. The book holds no pretense of embalming the idea of Nepal as a Shangri-La and therefore portrays the country for the culmination of poverty and development that it is.
But for residents of the country, the book may not prove to be entirely captivating. For the same reason countrymen and women beyond the borders might lap up Thapa’s words, the tales are stale and lack spice when reading about daily lives, such as in A Nepali Maid, which therefore teeters on being mundane.
Factors lacking in climatic plots are somewhat compensated for with the well built dynamics of friendship as shown through vernacular speech and accurate profanity of boys and men in Angles and After Party. That being said, the collection might have benefited from a few female protagonists offering different voices.
Perhaps if Thapa had been the first Nepali to write and publish a collection of short stories, Nothing to Declare could have been more ground breaking. But if one has already experienced the likes of Manjushree Thapa, Samrat Upadhaya and Sushma Joshi, this collection isn’t too far from the other books that aim to portray the modern day, middle class, “average” Nepal of today.
It refers to the same old – of semi-arranged unions (Arranged Marriage), and what has now become the middle class Nepali rite of passage, heading to the UK or other western countries for “study abroad” like in the story that shares the book’s title. The names of characters and authors have changed, but the stories have not evolved. Along the way the reader wonders if they have already encountered the words being read.
Though there is a charm in the simplicity of the stories, which also makes for an easy read, it fails to be memorable for a more advanced, critical audience.
Amidst high expectations of being a seasoned writer, journalist and an editor, Thapa does not necessarily fail in his debut collection, but he does falter. Perhaps his next book will appeal to a wider crowd than those new to Nepali literature penned in English.
Nothing to Declare is scheduled to launch on Sunday, May 8, 5 - 8:00pm, at Ramalaya, Ranipokhari. For more information or to RSVP call 5536-974 or write to events@qcbookshop.com
Nothing to Declare
Fiction Rabi Thapa, published by Penguin, 184 pages, Rs. 318
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