Fossil, Homage to Martyrs

At a time when novels have set up good trend and market in the literary bazaar in Nepal, a new story collection has arrived to renounce that story writing has its own scope and the desire to read them by readers is not less than that of novels. Kumar Nagarkoti's new venture Fossil has arrived and the readers have aspired to find the newness in it. Nagarkoti, already renowned as a story writer especially among the young circle has definitely tried to give new taste to his readers.
Fossil comprises of eight stories, some too long and some too short, all that revolves around the setting of urban city especially the kathmandu valley. Many topics of his stories are in English. Not only the topics but the content of his nepali stories are at many places found to be in english. This makes us clear that the author seems to be highly influenced by the western literature and culture than the nepali one. But at some places he has brought references of nepali literary pieces and literary figures.

The first story Dance of the Vultures is too big at length. This story is about the search of the lost son and the ultimate finding of him. There are many plots and sub plots. The story starts with a notice where there is information of the lost boy Ukhan, the physical traits, appeareance, skin color etc. Then after there is conversation between the inspector and the father. A few less significant characters are found.
Many english words are used in the novel. Some of them are photogenic, hysteria, mortal, token of love, domestic, desert, dehydration, receive, investigation, punk literature, seven o clock, genuine and the list goes on. This over use of english terms in nepali literary books certainly marks the hegemony of english over nepali. On the other side it can also be taken as influence in the time of adoption of western culture.
The conversation between the inspector and his corworker is less significant. Many literary tools are found to be used. Some of them are dramatic monologue, metaphors, images and soliloquy. Nostalgic anecdotes have certainly provided the reading taste to the readers. Nagarkoti's writing is idiosyncratic. From the letter of the dead man, shape of a tree is formed. From the tree, the garden of that tree is described relating to the protagonist Ukhan Bikram Malla. Reference of the poem by Devkota is also found.

The story through the conversation of the little boy and his parents shows the love and affection of the only child by parents especially of the urban nuclear family. The story is largely dominated by ficiton than realism. The arrival of dead body and the notes written by him regarding the taxi fare clearly proves this. Recap of the images is knowingly written. Some of them are: pear's tree, little monster, Lachhu uncle's poem, devkota's poem, vulture in the tree, hypnotic attraction and others.
The sub plot of the story, the loss of the penis does not have realistic grounds and is less significant part for the story's main theme. Just in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex where the people died because of hunger and due to Sphinx, the people are made to be suffered, the loss of penis, the sudden demise and so on are portrayed in the story. The chaotic world is presented. A world where daytime lacks sunlight, thunder's reign, and the rule of the deadly vultures in the sky is depicted. The bitter realistic incidents like the sacrifice of the martyrs, the blaming as a witch and punishment to her are shown the key reasons for the chaotic world.
The martyrs are the symbolic images and metaphors of the vultures whose soul wanders throughout the sky to find solace. The writer sympathesize the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the nation and also tells that their matryrdom has gone into vain. The boy's rebirth is shown where in his earlier life was abducted by the state armies, killed and buried during the time of maoist insurgency.

The second story does not carry much significance as it seems to be the writer's own summary of his life events. 'Slok' is a story about a couple who live together but are not socially married. The new concept of living together found in the urban cities is also shown. The story contrasts the reality and fiction and asks if we are in the state of fiction. In 'Deconstruction', many references of the west from Darwin to Marx is found. Three sub stories are included in it. The first is about the leaf which tells how the studies during university made him a writer in him. The second is about a mother where womanhood is valued and shared how a woman fulfills her responsibility giving birth to a child and also a female child who is a potential mother. The third one titled vulture depicts how an injured vulture after getting treatment from its master comments the inhumane nature and behaviour of human and at last flies away to the vast space in sky for freedom. It also tells ho human society is tied and braced by so called nations, religions, culture, politics and geography.
Other stories like Catharsis, Pandulipi and Revolver are completely fictional. These stories have been categorised into many forms and broken down into many plots. In Catharsis, the protagonist's catharsis is revealed where he was alive but thought as dead by other after a newspaper printed his condolence. Pandulipi comprises of four sub stories, 'unknown writer', 'unknown reader', ' Tiger's story' and 'Bear's story'.

'Fossil', the last story of the collection is revealed as folk tale by a dog of museum to his bitch friend where the protagonist Aadim Nepal laments over his age and recollects his youthful days. He wants his dead body to be buried and not burned. He asks his junior son to do so before he dies. During post-mortem, the surgeon by mistake leaves his historical shaligram beside which is finally kept inside the body and sewed later by his co-worker. Later the elder son of Aadim returns from abroad and burns the dead body of his father following own Hindu rites. His father turned into fossil at end.

Ken Subedi