Book Review for the month of January:

Here @ कामकुरा .com, we had an awesome idea of bringing you a book review every month (yes, every month! And boy, are we psyched we just met the deadline for this month! :D ). For our first book review, we have come up with the perfect book “Shirish Ko Phool”!!  Enough said!!

Sirish ko Phool

One of the most talked about books in Nepali literature, and my all-time favorite book, Sirish ko Phool makes my heart break every time I read it. Mere thirty-two pages changed the way I perceived of love and made me realize how ironic love can be when a forty-something retired army officer falls in love with a rebellious woman in early twenties who had no interest in him whatsoever. I have read this book over twenty times (no exaggeration), but every time I read it, it leaves me in awe of how Parijat was able to weave such a heart wrenching love story when she herself was unmarried and sick in bed all her life due to paralysis.

“Afno nimti fulnu, afnai nimti fakranu, jharnu jasto euta badhyata lai swikar garna ka nimti bhawara sanga lappa khelnai parchha, jharna ta parchha-parchha bhane bhawara ko chot sahera kina jharne? Afu matra jharne, afno ichhya le jharne." This is what Sakambari (the female protagonist) has to say to the male protagonist (Suyog Bir Singh) when he tells her that flowers bloom so that the bee could suck all the juice out of it to finally let it die. Sakambari, being the headstrong, opinionated and rebellious woman, does not agree to be a subservient to any man, even in that day when all Nepali women did was to cover their bodies in dhotis and stay in the house taking care of the family.

Suyog Bir, on the other hand, a retired army who was incapable of any human emotions was in his mid-forties and “friends” with Sakambari’s brother. This book shows how ironic and helpless love is when Suyog falls in love with the bald and big-mouthed Sakambari, who has no problem calling him a “drunkard” and “old.” He does not understand why he did not fall for Sakambari’s older sister, Mujura, who was the type of girl every Nepali boy would want as a wife; calm, introverted and feminine. He was the person who indulged in drinking and smoking to avoid relationships and we find out that he had a fair share of women in his youth with whom he had slept with. The fact that he fell for the unexpected person at an unexpected time in his life never fails to baffle me and I am sure we can all relate to it at one point in our lives when we finally fall in love.

It makes me proud every time I think of how Sakambari always stood up for herself in those years when women were not supposed to have opinions on anything else except the kitchen. She is a woman us women should look up to, who does not care what the society has to say and who does not believe that women’s purpose in life is determined by the men in her life (father, brother, husband, son). She smoked and did not fear death, she called people out for drinking, and was proud enough to voice her opinions (Kudos to you girl!). This is hard for Suyog to digest, who despises himself for falling for her and almost dying when she leaves to go out of the valley for a month. Unable to control his emotions and out of frustration, he kisses Sakambari when she gets back, who right after that gets sick and eventually dies in less than a month. This leaves everyone wondering what actually killed her and completely heart-broken over Suyog’s ironical life when the only person he had ever loved in his entire life, had been taken away from him.

This novel carries the passion of living a human life, that comes with getting attached to people and falling in love, no matter how much you run away from it and the heartbreak that follows if it is not successful. It beautifully analyzes the psychology of a woman repressed by the circumstances surrounding her, and we never even find out if she had any feelings for Suyog. This book makes you respect love and as much as you want to dislike Suyog for taking advantage of women when he was young, you still cannot help feeling sad for him when he is completely helpless and frustrated out of his love for Sakambari. As a Nepali, I am proud to endorse this book, and I strongly encourage everyone to read it. There is a reason this book was adapted in English to be taught in one of the Universities in the States…trust me!!!

--Moana Kanel

   Hanover, Indiana, USA