What to expect from Samrat Upadhyay's "The Guru of Love"? #THEGURUOFLOVE

What to expect from Samrat Upadhyay's "The Guru of Love"? #THEGURUOFLOVE

-Ghanashyam Khadka

If you have recently seen my twitter timeline, you must have seen that I was reading Samrat Upadhyay's "The Guru of Love". The book was published in 2003 by Rupa, New Delhi. I must have bought this book way back in 2008-09 and I have just finished reading it.

It is a small blog about the book. I am not sure how much publicity this book could garner at the time it was released. However, I don't think it was anyway, required for this tasteless book. Samrat became well known author for us after his "The Arresting God in Kathmandu" - the collection of short stories. However, thereafter, he has barely managed to bring out any meaningful creation.

 I had lowered down my expectations before I started reading "The Guru of Love" and it really helped me. The story is very simple and in no way, even ordinary. The monotonous and boring details and events move in the book in their own pace and leaves the readers unimpressed.

The main protagonist is Mr. Ramchandra - a mathematics teacher and private tutor of SLC students. The story hovers around 1989-90 AD, 2046 BS when Nepal was going through revolution to throw old Panchayat Regime and was at the verge of welcoming bahudaliya prajatantra (multi-party democracy in Nepal). He is poor but married with a girl from a rich elite family of Nepal. His Parents-in-laws were well connected with Rana, Panchayat regime of Nepal, and with the royal families. Ramchandra doesn't get warm welcome from his rich Sasurali which is usual in Nepali Society.

He lives in a crammed flat in Kathmandu with his wife - Goma and two children - Sanu and Rakesh. They have the usual and ordinary life like how many poor and lower middle class people live in Nepal. And there enters a girl/woman Malati, an unmarried mother whose lover made her pregnant and got disappeared.

Ramachandra (RC) and his student Malati start getting closer and Ramchandra starts banging her. and tells this one day, to his wife Goma. and again the usual family issues. Goma agrees to sleep in children's room and let Malati and RC sleep together. Now, they (RC and Malati) fuck as if they are husband and wife. Finally, the HERO returns - Ranjit -paramour of Malati, who made Malati pregnant and vanished earlier, comes back and agrees to take Malati and child Rachana. and they live happily? thereafter. This is the motamoti story in "The Guru of Love"

In my opinion, from any literary point of view, the book is barely average. It did not disappoint me as I had no expectation from this book. I knew that Samrat would insert few fucking scenes and they are exactly there scattered in the book. Sometimes, RC fucks his wife, Goma and many times, his young lover student. The insertion of sex scenes too frequently in any story/plot is hallmark literary quality of Samrat Upadhyay. The same can be said about Manju Thapa.

That's all about "The Guru of Love". I rate it 1/5.

My reading habits and Nepalese Writers writing in English

My reading habits and Nepalese Writers writing in English


-Guest Writer: Ghanashyam Khadka, (@nppoet), Jhapa



If you remember my earlier tweets, I had started reading book on Jim Corbett. Corbett was a white man, was settled in India for long time when British Raj ruled India. He was known for his brave hunting of man eaters, wild animals in Kumaon/Gharwal region of India. He was settled in Nainital but after British left India, he migrated to Kenya and died there. Jim Corbett was a hunter initially and enjoyed in Shikar. Later, he realized that wild animals, especially tiger and leopard would become extinct if they are not preserved. So, he started advocating for preservation of wild animals. He did photography and even made some films on wildlife. India's first national park Jim Corbett National Park rightly honours him for his effort in wildlife preservation, for his contribution and love of nature. The national park is located in Uttarakhand/Uttaranchal state of India.


About the book: The book is written by D.C. Kala -claimed to be a journalist- and surely a Corbett fan. The language used is ordinary. This is neither a biography nor a complete book to bring new facts about Corbett. There are hardly any notable events or things that have been recorded in this book. This is just an average book BUT I enjoyed reading it. Do I recommend this book to you? I may not but you may still go ahead and read! If you are a nature lover, if you want to know something more about wildlife,history, culture, landscape of India, you may read it. I have extensively traveled in the nooks and corners of Nainital, Bhimtal, Ranikhet, Kausani, Kumaon region of India and I love to read more books from this area. This is a reason why I chose this book though it was never the most talked book of the town. I simply love Pahadi life of India and Nepal and love to read more books which cover life and struggle of people living there. The book on Jim Corbett definitely, to some extent, helped me to quench the desire of learning more about the place.


Now, what I'm reading next? I have picked up Samrat Upadhyaya's book "The Guru of Love" published in 2003 from Rupa, New Delhi. When I talk of Samrat, I wish to club another author along with his name and She is ManjuShree Thapa. I don't know when but sometime around 2008-09, I thought of reading Nepalese authors writing in English. The only two prominent and internationally recognized authors were Samrat and Manju. I bought all of their books those I could find in nearest bookshops in Chennai and Indian online stores. I was looking forward to reading some of the best creations by our own Nepalese writers. But, to be very honest, I found their writings to be very lame, and ordinary. In fact, they were very usual boring stuffs. Both the authors seem to have an impression that sex sells and can be sold easily in literature. The ugly and monotonous insertion of sexual encounters here and there make their creation below ordinary literature. Having said so, I must give credit to them that they have excelled in one or two short stories. Of course, I can't recall the title of their stories. Their novels are simply unreadable and mostly culmination of trash literature. For example, "Buddha's Orphans" - a novel by Samrat hasn't turned out even to be an ordinary book/novel. It shows they could create more media hype over substance in their books. That was the reason why I stopped buying them and reading them.


Now, the reason is why I am reading "Guru of Love"? As you see buying books is an addiction, hobby, passion and everything to me. Every month, I'm buying so many books. I read them slowly and many of them are lying on my cupboard. The cupboards are simply getting full and I need to shred, throw, donate, give, sell some of the old books which are not worthy of collection. I still have few unread books of Samrat and Manju and I'm going to read them first before I kick them out from my library. My library/ reading room is polluted by these cheap literature and I can't keep them any more. 


What sense I get from Samrat's Guru of Love? I'm a mad reader. I read books from cover to cover and sometimes even ISBN Number. I have read reviews of books published on cover and get sense that the Mathematics Teacher (Guru) is going to teach one of his young students how to do dirty things in dark. It says that the teacher faces some difficulties once the things come out in open and also finds kinky and romantic stuffs about his wife (most probably the stuffs she did before she got married). You see now the level and imagination of Samrat who has barely managed every time to produce cheap sex literature. It seems the book is all going to be about Sex! Sex!! And Sex!!! Most probably, Samrat is trying to create Nepali Kamashutra. And the story as of now revolves around Kathmandu, the usual setting for Samrat in his each book. I have only read 15 pages and get this sense. The more I read, the more will follow! Namaste!!