Yuvraj Chaulagain is the Secretary of International Department at the UCPN (Maoist) Party. He rose to prominence through the student movement and has also penned a book based on the education system titled Revolution of Education. He has keen interest in sociopolitical issues and claims to be a closet poet as well.
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The Week's Priyanka Gurung sat down with him to talk about his opinions on literature and his reading habits.
In my opinion, books can help make people's lives easier. It's a very effective tool to pass words of wisdom from one generation to another. Books give us all a privilege to learn from other people's experiences. It also shows us the ways to achieve the standards that the greats have set. Like many people out there, I too have found inspirations through books. So indeed, they have proven to be important to me.
Have you always been interested in reading and books?
I grew up in a village in Ramechhap. So comparatively, there were fewer books and the reading culture wasn't that prevalent. Though I do remember we had this circle of friends who were into reading a lot. It all began with those romantic novels, of course. We were just at that age fantasizing about being the hero of the story and what not. Fortunately, we had enough sense to carry on with the reading habit. During our college days, we even used to actively go looking for libraries. The college library alone didn't cover our interest, so whenever we could, we used to travel and browse through whatever collections we could get our hands into. There were times when we visited Biratnagar and the ghumti library in Udaypur. They are all very fond memories. I actually think it's the reason why I still make it a point to visit bookstores when I travel.
Which are your favorite genres?
I definitely enjoy fiction more. In fact, just recently I finished reading George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'. That was a nice one. I particularly like it when a fiction work also addresses some socio-political topics. The tragedy, though, is that time often doesn't allow me to indulge in as many fiction books as I would like. So these days, I usually read books related to my work, like studies of society, leaderships and development. I find them interesting and insightful in their own way.
Since you read books in both English and Nepali, do you find yourself comparing the differences between the two?
There's a different kind of fun in savoring books in our own Nepali language. Though English books obviously have its own quality and their writers have achieved a certain height in the literary world, and their expressions reflect that. I think it's a little unfair to ask about the differences between the two because that's like asking what your experience was like eating at home and at a five-star hotel. The fancy hotel delicacies are on their own level; however, at the same time, your mum's food isn't any less.
Is there any book that has had a big impact in your life?
Yes, actually there have been many over the course of time. The one that I came across relatively recently is the memoir by Li Zhisui, called 'The Private Life of Chairman Mao'. Zhisui was Mao's personal doctor for 23 years, and in this book he makes very careful observations as well as deep analyses of successful personalities and their lives. Not just the good bits but the things that are missing from their lives, their problems, their weakness and the factors that could help manage them. Though I'm not entirely convinced about everything the book states, it does help readers gain some perspectives.
If given a chance, are there any writers, dead or alive, whom you would like to meet?
Most certainly, there's a long list of writers I would love to meet. Starting with Shakespeare and Wordsworth, I often wonder what they might have been like. Tolstoy as well. His works, though a little intimidating lengthwise, are still relevant. I wonder how he must've been in person. Similarly, reading Devkota's biography, you imagine him cycling down the dusty roads of Dilli Bazaar, and it would be a privilege to bump into him. I would love to discuss about what they were thinking about when they wrote certain scenes and created certain characters. To hear these writers talk about their opinions and fields of specialty would make for an amazing afternoon.
