Sreesanth
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Samrat Upadhyay is a Nepalese author who writes short stories set in Kathmandu exploring themes of desire, spirituality, and the impact of modernization and social norms. His collection "Arresting God in Kathmandu" contains 9 short stories that use wit and compassion to depict the daily lives and relationships of men and women in Kathmandu society. The title refers to how individuals find themselves desiring transcendence yet bound by the expectations of their families and communities in the city where gods are omnipresent. The stories provide fascinating glimpses into the people and culture of Kathmandu through Upadhyay's skilled characterizations and descriptions.
Sreesanth
- 1. Book Review Book Name : Arresting God in Kathmandu Author : Samrat Upadhyay
- 2. About the Author Samrat Upadhyay Samrat upadhyay is a Nepalese writer who writes in English, born and raised in Kathmandu, he moved to United States at the age of twenty one. He was the first Nepali author writing in English in the west. His work has appeared in “The Best American Short Stories” and the “The Best of Fiction Workshop” Now he is the professor of creative writing as well as director of Graduates studies at Indiana University. His books portray the current situations in Nepal, which he views through the lens of contemporary American fiction. The book “Arresting God in Kathmandu” The book is a collection of nine short stories which are psychologically rich, astonishingly acute, ironical and all these short stories have compassion and wit included in them, the important aspect in each story is the expression of love with cyclic nature of love and its passion, each story discuss about desires and societal fear that leads to transgression brutality and joy. The story describe the mortality tales, it takes of the way social norms and family pressures shape lives, as far as the stories are concerned we come to know that Upadhyaya is funny and ionic, the best example for this is a line from one of the short stories ‘so many things are happening in the world, government falling, people dying of cholera and other diseases, wild animals
- 3. roaming in the city and all the you can come up with is tea’, where he express the views towards the society and then the peoples attitude towards them. The title The title of the book ‘Arresting God in Kathmandu’ has got some relevance with the short stories being described in the book. The stories explore the meaning of nature of desire & spirituality in the changing society, and record the echoes of modernization throughout love and family. In this stories he discuss about husbands and wives who are bound together by arranged marriages but sometimes drives elsewhere by an intense desire for connection and transcendence, which is sometimes difficult for people to understand but he could make his reader realize that the world has changed a lot. And he makes the reader to think how much he or she is like the modern world described in the short stories. The title “arresting god in Kathmandu” refers to the city where gods are omnipresent where privacy is elusive and family defines identity, these men and women find themselves at the mercy of their desire but at the will of their society. As the title there is nothing specific about God or spirituality in the book but as it is read it relates us towards a supreme power inside the human which make him do many things which cannot be accepted by the society sometimes. The Short Stories The nine short stories are ‘The Good Shopkeeper’, describes about an affair between a henpecked husband who recently lost his middle class job and a plump servant girl from village, but his subject is the escapism of love., ‘The cooking poet’, short story which describe about a relationship between a teacher and a student., ‘The World’, where the theme is arranged
- 4. marriage., the other short stories are ‘The Room NextDoor’, ‘DeepakMisra’s Secretary’., ‘The Limping Bride’., ‘During the Festival’.,’ The Man With Long Hair’., ‘A Great Man’s House’., each story descried here is deeply related with the society and its impact on the people. Conclusion The narrative style and fascinating characterization with pre use description by Samrat Upadhyay makes the whole book into a single theme, where every story seem to happen in the neighborhood of Kathmandu itself at the roads, the culture, the society, everything remain the same in each story. The narrative style of the book makes it interesting for the reader to read the book.