A Tale of Torture

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Among a handful of Nepali writers producing English-language fiction, Melbourne based 40-year-old medical doctor Ravi Thapaliya has burst upon the scene with his debut novel Echoes of Pain. As its title suggests, it talks about man-made suffering and that inflicting pain on others doesn't result in pleasure, it instead gives you pain, thus echoes of pain.

Set in the Kathmandu Valley of B.S 2046, a time of turbulence and transition, Echoes of Pain opens with a Teaching Hospital doctor Agni, living with his loving wife Rita and a daughter Sarita and the arrival of Bonza, a mysterious and crooked police interrogator. Bonza offers Agni a lucrative job that changes his life forever. Ruthless Bonza, over a delicious breakfast, convinces Agni, who, of late, is jaded with the stresses and strains of modern life and its growing demands, into torturing innocent people.

Agni's first victim turns out to be Vivas Thapa, a blissfully married music teacher working at Lalit Kala College. He is arrested for insulting policemen and is taken to Godavari cell for interrogation. When Agni, rather reluctantly, approaches his first subject of torture, Thapaliya writes, "There was question in his (Vivas's) eyes which Agni didn't know how to answer."

Most of the book dwells on, in clinical detail, the trauma and pain Vivas undergoes. His entire body is treated as if it were a laboratory of torture. Back home, Agni's wife Rita is baffled not only by the sudden change in his behaviour, but also by the quick bucks he appears to amass. Initially, Agni deceives Rita saying that he moonlights at the police cell. But the truth gradually surfaces. By sheer effort, the protagonists' better halves help their husbands come back to a normal and happy conjugal life. Meanwhile, the author allows Bonza to be resurrected as Bodhiram towards the end of the novel. In the final pages, a remorseful Bodhiram is peacefully awaiting death.

The 338 page novel is followed by an "Afterwords" that, in Thapaliya's words, justifies why he "couldn't write a better novel." He claims that the "Afterwords" is "more important than the whole novel..." Some may see it as redundant, but it evokes the agony an author undergoes while writing a novel. He writes: "Up in the hills of Janagal, Kavre, I used to stay awake till late night in the hospital quarters to work on the novel. Every night I heard explosions. Some said they were rebels’ bombs; others said they were army guns. But, that was beside the point, at least in regard to trying to sit on a chair to write a novel. Most of me was occupied with what explosions might have resulted in."

Although set in the early 90s, Echoes of Pain seems to be the best kind of post-February 1 novel. In a narrative full of ups and downs, Thapaliya describes events reminiscent of the ongoing seven-party agitations. But, the novel is far from being political. It explores the facets of human relationship in a tradition-bound, god-fearing (and worshiping) society that is awkwardly slugging towards modernization and urbanization. People negotiate the thicket of choices, family values are still revered and caste and class restrict any intermixing. But there are some who dare to go against the grain. An example is the love marriage between Vivas, a struggling orphan singer from a lower middle class family outside Kathmandu and Preetishma, his admirer-turned-beloved who comes from the settled Kathmandu middle class. Their relationship depicts the gradual crumbling of traditional norms and limitations.

It is said that a good novel deals with a number of themes. Echoes of Pain manages to explore just about every contemporary issue: arrest of sex workers, proliferation of NGOs in the name of human rights, the supermarket and real estate boom, malpractice in medical institutions, bank robberies etc. Thapaliya has also incorporated an abundance of Nepali words such as bhuttan, bhatti, sekuwa, kanchha, sahuji, dijju etc. into the text. But, without its English equivalent, the use of such words may be questionable.

The characterization of Bonza in the novel is simply superb. In Bonza, he has created the epitome of a morbid soul. He is an example of what humans can be in their worst form. But, finally good prevails over evil. However, in the two protagonists (i.e. Vivas and Agni), Thapaliya portrays meek and feeble characters whereas their female counterparts are surprisingly strong. They come up with a solution, like a magic wand, for every crisis. Agni, even the author agrees, is a thinly veiled autobiographical portrait while Preetishma is portrayed like an angel. Gorimaya (Gauri), Rita's selfish friend, is placed as the latter's foil. The novel is replete with some memorable statements and phrases such as "In love even poverty is fun,"; "evening heralded another lonely night,"; "Nothing had to be real, if words were chosen cunningly enough,"; "To keep the body alive, they had to sell off the body itself,"; "union in the verge of splitting,"; "vanish in the semantics,"; "your slice of cake" etc.

Published by Sajha Prakashan, the novel is edited by Aidan and Caroline Warlow of Kathmandu University. The cover design by artist Tekbir Mukhiya is not bad but a good picture could have been better. Thapaliya provides his theme somewhere in the book: "Nothing else soothes you more than others acknowledging your pain." But, he also points out that “pain begets pain.” The root cause of misery is described to be money and people indulge in the vilest of crimes to acquire it. Agni is such a person who treads the uncharted path of torture. In a nutshell, Thapaliya's brilliant book is a testament of the darker side of humanity. But, the novel ends on an optimistic note. Thapaliya's arrival signals a promising talent in English writing from Nepal.

(Book Review by Deepak Adhikari)



Posted on: 2006-03-26 08:21:04