Writing from the heart

Somewhere in a faraway village of a war-torn nation lived a boy who dreamt of joining the military to fight against those who wronged him and his family. To achieve that dream, he left home at a young age, but his background and age created hurdles along the way, as they always had. The above narration is the story of ‘Tungcha’, the lead character of ‘Rato Chamkilo Tara’, a Chinese children’s novel translated into Nepali. But it also happens to be a piece of writer Raju Syangtan’s own childhood—both the book and the story. Born in a small settlement of Khairmara in Ward 11 of Bardibas Municipality to a house helper and a home mason, Syangtan’s early life was marred with problems and hardships. As a kid, academics never really fascinated him. Nor was he good at it. He was a last bencher and coursebooks seemed to weigh a ton, and the chapters a jargon. It was the Chinese novel given to him by the Maoist rebels that sparked his interest in books. “Our settlement was separated from the ‘upper class’. This made our homes a preferable stay for the Maoist rebels during the insurgency,” Syangtan said. “They [the rebels] would often leave leftover food grains for us. During one of those stays, they handed me two books—‘ Rato Chamkilo Tara ’ and ‘The Communist Manifesto’.” While the content of the latter went over the then-16-year-old’s head, he would end up reading the former many times over. Syangtan has always had a keen interest in writing, having started writing stories and songs at a young age. As a kid, he recalls envying the polished-tile-decked houses of the ‘upper class’ and staging them as antagonists for his stories. The writer still seems to abide by the same practice, traces of which are evident in his debut book ‘Oh Pengdorje!’ Named after the Tamang luthier who invented the damphu , a tambourine-like percussion, the poetry collection is a form of resentment and angst against the entitled and the privileged. The poems are also pieces of Syangtan’s personal life and past experiences. […]

Click here to view original page at Writing from the heart

© 2023, wcadmin. All rights reserved, Writers Critique, LLC Unless otherwise noted, all posts remain copyright of their respective authors.