KRISHNA DHARABASHI

Krishna Dharabasi Bhattarai is a novelist of Nepal and a winner of the Madan Puraskar award with his book Radha (2005). His novel Jhola has been adapted into a film by the same title.

After reading his books like Radha, Jhola, Aadha Bato and Padhulipi, I became a huge fan of his. These books had emotional which touches the heart of the people. Krishna Dharabasi wrote those books with his heart and soul.

Radha is a 2005 novel written by Krishna Dharabasi and winner of Madan Puraskar. The novel was an adaptation of the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharat, giving greater prominence to the character of Radha. Inspired by Jacques Derrida's Theory of Deconstruction, Dharabasi completely changed the characters of Radha and Krishna, making Radha is brave, dignified and revolutionary.

The plot of Radha reflects the situation in Nepal at the time of its publication, especially the Nepalese Civil War.

Radha is an example of “Lila Lekhan”, a Nepalese metaphysical novel concerned with explaining the features of reality that exist beyond the physical world and our immediate senses, for which Dharabasi is known.

 

Jhola, on  the other hand, is about Sati custom is an ancient practice of burning a widow on her deceased husband's funeral pyre or burning her alive in his grave. According to Hindu Scriptures, the custom of Sati was a voluntary practice in which a woman voluntarily decides to end her life with her husband after his death. But later the practice was abused and women were forced to commit Sati or were even dragged against their wish and put into the burning pyres. Historical accounts show that several Royal and common women were burnt alive through this savage practice. In BS 1977 Ashad 25 (1920 AD), Chandra Shumsher J.B.R. officially abolished the Sati system from Nepal.

 

Kanchi is a young woman who was married to an old husband who is 40 years elder. In present, Kanchi's husband is ill because of his old age and finally dies. Now, as per the social rules and regulations, Kanchi had to go Sati where she should burn herself with her husband's deceased body. But, fate is on her side and she manages to survive. She starts to live in the cave of a nearby jungle. Ghanashyam being lonely in the absence of his loving mother visits the jungle and finds his mother hiding in the cave. Kanchi unites with her son but they are unable to stay in the same society because the society people would kill the women even though they have survived Sati in any means. Ghanashyam makes a plan of leaving the village and getting settle in other places so that they could make a new beginning. He asks his mother to stay in the jungle and goes home to bring their belongings. Later, Kanchi's brother-in-law and his wife join and assist them to leave the village. As Kanchi with son Ghanashyam is going to leave the village, they witness a woman, who is to be Sati but couldn't do so and runs away, being killed by the people of the funeral.

Aadha Bato and Padhulipi are about his life and his struggle. This book also describes the true love between husband and wife. When his wife dies, what happens to his life is explained and how he came out is explained.

Honestly, I love his writing skills. After those books, he somehow started to be commercial. Books like Great Falls, Gestapo, Lilabodha, etc. I didn’t like those books that much as before. He used to write full of emotions. He used to capture the readers by his heart-touching story but after his autobiography, he somehow lost his charm of writing. It feels that he is rushed to finish the book rather than giving the quality of books. Somehow the emotions have lost in the rush of writings. I wish he could come with the quality books like before.