Naipaul in the banal continent

By BASANTA LOHANI

Twenty days after October 11 when Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in literature "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories", VS Naipaul made a momentous announcement over an American Broadcasting Company relayed all over Sweden. He expressed his gratitude to the prostitutes for the comfort they provided him at a time when he was so busy in writing that he had no time for courtship outside his marriage.

The Swedish Academy was visibly embarrassed and dubbed it his personal matter. And, this is precisely where I found Naipaul a hero and wrote thus: "this has, in fact, increased his height further not because he went to prostitutes but because he showed the guts to admit it publicly." To the lot basking on the glory earned through deceitful manoeuvres, he certainly was a nincompoop making such an uncalled for and self-damaging utterances not in line with the worldly wisdom of hypocrisy as the pervading vista to success and prosperity. But this is precisely where I found him taller than the height he had gained twenty days ago as that of a Nobel laureate.

A creative writer the way he is, Naipaul seems particularly obliged to Marcel Proust, the French writer, who has influenced the world literature in terms of digging the lost memory by triggering it with the details of our day-to-day incidents. This is possible if the writer is creative enough to be aware of his self as distinct from what is manifested from our habits. In his forty minutes address to the Nobel ceremony on December 7, Naipaul starts from quoting Proust thus: " if we try to understand that particular self, it is searching our own bosoms and trying to reconstruct it there, that we may arrive at it."

I believe this requires patience and cheerful attitude to play with solitude where one can hear its music of bliss. For someone who has never heard this music it may be frightening in the beginning. In this process of giving oneself to writing, beauty radiates unravelling the happiness of life. Like Proust who relied on intuition and good luck, Naipaul has done the same thing. He underscored this theme in his Nobel lecture: "I have trusted to my intuition to find subjects and I have written intuitively." He ended his lecture quoting Proust who considered talent as "the memory of a melody though we are unable to capture its outline" It is this type of "blurred memory" that one may not be aware he is gifted can pour out beautiful things in terms of writing. To this end, Naipaul quipped "I would say luck, and much labour" This brings intuition, luck and labour in the confluence of literary outpour flowing with a rhythm of grandeur and magnanimity.

When this blend of creativity is polluted with increasing dozes of banality as we have seen more so in this continent, a true artist gets suffocated and reacts in a kind of outburst the way Naipaul did recently. He was in India and created uproar when a kind of commonplace discussion leading to nowhere triggered the volleys of his anger. Mediocrity, the way it has taken the cockpit of our sociopolitical, economic and cultural life even in our own country, speaks volumes of degenerating values and ethos. When I see even Nepalese literary criticism, it is in the spirit of eulogizing one another forming groups or even a so-called ‘scholastic cartel’ in the typical rhythm of ‘you scratch my back and I scratch yours’. Our society has become so decadent that social milieu has become suffocating because of this swamp of mediocrity or banality. I will have occasions to talk about this perspective later. Let us try to examine Naipaul’s outburst against banality now.

His ancestors from father’s side were Nepalese as he said, " I know only that some of them came from Nepal." This Trinidadian novelist and essayist, in his literary span of over 42 years, starting with his first novel The Mystic Masseur in 1957, has shown marked revulsion against banality. His 1977’s novel India: a wounded civilization is an all time powerful expression of defiance. Here he portrays the agony of the continent with his incisive imagination and, thus, capturing its hidden pangs of alienation. The foreign rule has wounded the country so much that it has still not healed. The reason is simple. It is just the lack of regeneration that has constantly agonized India. No wonder the turbulence is oozing out. The inability of asserting as an Indian race and talking of emotional integration, instead, in the backdrop of a blank civilization has the disastrous effect while coping with the borrowed institutions. This is how Naipaul has concluded that the problem of India is the lack of ideology. And, the solution he has found is a swift decay of the decaying civilization.

It is for this kind of ingenuous diagnoses that Naipaul was hailed as having done a work that the economist are yet to delve into. His ideas generated violent reactions too .It did create a controversy especially when he remained harsh not even to give the country’s liberator Mahatma Gandhi his due. But it is also true that Naipaul has never been a writer at the periphery. He manages his way to the centre to sneak into human vulnerability because of his intuitive way. I trust him when he said, "every book has amazed me, up to the moment of writing I never knew it was not there" The fact that he himself is amazed of his won creation is the proof how significant is his writing in terms of inner sense of "incorruptible scrutiny."

It is the creative writers like Naipaul who can perceive and narrate such flow of time blended with the flow of emotion. And, it is exactly here that Naipaul has found mediocrity taking the lead in a society. The first thing that comes to any inquiring mind is: how is it possible? To be a leader means, at least, rising above the average where the vision could extend much beyond the present. The answer, as expected, is that it is the myth that transforms an individual from mediocrity to an exulted position of a leader or even that of a messiah. Interestingly, this is what history has corroborated mostly. The 7000 years old human history starting from Egypt with the end of Stone Age passed through the ‘painted pottery civilization’ encompassing Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian and Chinese, so diverse, so separate, but converging on the same plank of time leading us to where we are today.

All along this period, human passion for violence has been mostly for creating the myth so that it can take the front seat covering the mediocrity driving the canopy of human lives. Civilizations flourished and died perhaps in the rhythm Aristotle once described about 2300 years ago when he said anything that has a beginning also has an end. Many empires were built and destroyed. It was a trading on the ignorance of the people. When religion became the vehicle to drive human passions, religious institutions and state came in tandem and colluded to condition human lives so that the process of dehumanization could take its further root as a socially accepted way of living. This is how the common lot became like a commodity for the use and gratification of the rulers whose mediocrity was wrapped up in the myth of a saviour.

William Wordsworth has reason to lament when he remarked, "have I not reasons to lament what man has made of man?" Paulo Freire, in his magnum opus, The pedagogy of the oppressed, has brilliantly explained its dynamics how the rulers keep the disadvantaged lot ‘submerged’ so that the critical awareness of the masses remains elusive. To quote him " the struggle is possible because dehumanization, although a historical fact, is not the given destiny but the result of an unjust order that endangers violence in oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed." I think this is very close to the governing reality of our own county. Forget about the past when wars were fought and won for an extra space of the deserving most or for their righteousness or purity even if many such wars were nothing more than absurdity bordering onto lunatic extravaganza.

When such events are lost in the suppressed histories where banality have been the order of the day, Naipaul gets obsessed because his intuitive reflex gets to its depth through his sense of incorruptible scrutiny. That is what makes him different from others. When he does not get to write and has to use his gab instead, his violent outburst becomes frightening. The New York Times, in its editorial the next day he was declared Nobel laureate, has rightly described it thus: "Mr. Naipaul is often a better guide to the world in his prose than his spoken remarks which has resulted in accusations of homophobia and racism." Once he is in writing he does not loose his patience even to lift the microscopic details so delicately that it is possible for him to do so because he is gifted with that craftsmanship.

Banality has different components like greed, corruption, callousness and betrayal. These are powerful areas of literary investigation where writers can exert powerful pressures and produce great literary works. The emotion of the writer itself involved in such literary outpour has to flow transversing the contours to get the closest feel of these emotional shades and the gradient of the socio-economic and political setting. One of the chosen areas of the great Russian dramatist and short story writer Chekhov is banality like lovelessness.

Naipaul is very powerful in his writing when the focus is on exposing banality or bathos from where he gains his literary height in a magnificent way. But when he himself has to be a character or a party of an ongoing banality, furious he becomes the way he recently was in a symposium in India. As the media coverage goes, he shouted and disrupted the Indian literary festival on February 21st when writer Nayantara Shegal opened discussion on issues of colonialism and an author’s responsibility with gender and oppression. An infuriated Naipaul reacted by bellowing, " my life is short. I can not listen to banalities. This thing about colonialism, this thing about gender oppression, the very word oppression wearies me. I don’t know why, I think it is because banality irritates me."

Bikram Seth, another writer, who was sitting next to him tried to calm him down by gently patting over his shoulder but this only fuelled his anger further when he thundered, "why are you doing this. This is only the second literary conference I have come to. The first was a calamity. I have attended two sessions here. This has been the least fortunate session for me. If writers just sit and talk about oppression, they are not going to do much writing. And my difference to that type of attitude is that I have to make a living by writing" He questioned the validity of talking about colonialism when the British rule in India ended over fifty years ago and said "give me the date of colonialism, when does it begin, otherwise it is dancing in the air."

I would think that the Naipaul’s outburst against banality was true to that of a creative writer the way he is. And, I am glad that persons like him still exist in this world even if as a misfit to many. It is a difficult time now because human beings are gradually degenerating to become vegetables due to pervasive banality triggering a competition not to excel but to degenerate further. Naipaul has proved to be as symbolic as a misfit. And, I remember Rajneesh saying that it is the misfits who can make this world beautiful. Let us be what we are and not get scared to be a misfit in this endemic mediocrity. This is the only way not to succumb to be consumed by the pervasive banality, which has become the order of the day.

(Based on the paper presented at the 14th Annual Conference of Literary Association of Nepal held recently in Kathmandu)

UK support for Nepal Police

By RONALD NASH

The UK has been supporting the development of Nepal’s Police since 1993. Our aim has been to assist the organisation to develop into an open and accountable service, responsive to the needs of ordinary Nepalese and trusted by the community at large.

As one example, in the past few months we have sent two of senior Police officers to the International Commander’s course at Bramshill in London. This is part of a long standing tradition. Once again, in the most recent case, the performance by the Nepalese officer concerned was outstanding. This should be a matter of pride to Nepal.

The UK’s support, under a long-term programme by the Department for International Development, included the engagement of a senior UK police officer, Dr Stephen Males. He helped put together many of the basic procedures and areas of training, used by the police today. These included areas such as traffic management, strengthening the National Police Academy, basic training, police personnel and management systems training, scene of crime investigation, and crimes against women and children.

But DFID’s support did not stop with Stephen Males’ departure and the conclusion of our main programme. Two key initiatives have been undertaken over the past 18 months.

The first was the establishment of twelve Community Policing Service Centres, all with full community participation. As well as providing financial support, we have provided for training, workshops as well as materials on community policing. I understand the Centres are working well, and that the police are planning to establish more.

I also know that the police have established a new Community Policing Division, with a Senior Superintendent of Police to look after community policing. The idea of developing the police as an instrument of community service is in my view the key to developing the institution over the longer term. It can help build up real authority and support from ordinary people, whose backing the Police need if they are to achieve real professional success and aspire to international standards.

It will require huge efforts, and a real cultural change at the base of the organisation if this transformation is to be achieved. Ordinary people still experience far too many problems in their encounters with police officers as they are going about their daily lives or travelling around the country. It is at this level that the challenge of reform will be the most difficult.

The second DFID initiative concerned women’s and children’s rights. The police are active, often in collaboration with such NGOs as Maiti Nepal and other government agencies, in important efforts to curb trafficking and domestic violence.

Last year, the Police identified twelve sites to construct Women and Children Service Centres. The choice of these locations was based on the rates of crime against women and children in the areas concerned. The police themselves then helped design the buildings with UK support. Construction of all twelve buildings was completed by last October.

The police are now planning to post five officers to each Centre. These will be, for the most part, women officers. They will receive specialist training so that they can provide effective and sensitive services to women and children. The British Embassy, working with UNICEF, has been supporting such training since December 2001.

The UK would like to continue supporting the reform and modernisation of the Nepal Police, and we are using DFID’s Enabling State Programme to do this. ESP sought ideas from the police themselves on the best ways to build on earlier efforts, since it is for Nepal to initiate change, not outsiders. Last November two police consultants visited Nepal to discuss new forms of support. A very useful report has been produced which we will be taking forward with the police in the very near future. I hope that the new programme will embrace important areas such as the quality of the selection process, community policing, human rights, and police relations with the general public. I hope to be able to say something more detailed about this before very long.

Unlocking the secret of words

By RAJEEN NEWAA

We all comprehend the fact that words make sentences that convey thousands of expressions which enlighten the depths of our emotions, and form the base of what and how we communicate. However, a very exceptionally limited number among us may be aware, to a certain extent, that these simple words also contain some mysterious messages hidden behind them. These micro-multiple meanings, to our confounded amazement, hold very true to the psychological dimensions that hide behind these words. Take, for instance, the word "world," which also contains the four-letter-word "lord" indicating that the world was created by Lord. The word "god" when spelt backwards, becomes "dog", a symbol of faith and loyalty. The Almighty looks after us by day and by night and the dog, not to misapprehend the message it conveys the other way around, obeys its master with full sincerity.

The word "class" has within it the word "ass," which implies that a class is a group of ‘asses,’ who are always fond of being noisy, regardless of the presence or absence of the teacher. Analysing in the same fashion, the word "jungle" reveals words like "leg" and "gun". This again tells us that one needs a gun and the skill to climb up a tree to trudge fearlessly in the jungle. Only to have the gun in itself is not enough but equally important is the skill to climb up the tree if in case one is attacked by a wild boar or a tiger. With the use of hands one can only hang on to the tree, but it is the skill of your legs that gets you up to the top of the tree.

The other word equally interesting to note could be "reporter", which has the word "porter" hidden in it. This can simply be analysed as porters that carry ideas or information back to the place of work, and from there onwards, to readers. The readers are again very often like "deer" who take for granted whatever they read as true and munch it "dearly" with much flavour. Now one may wonder what secret meaning the word ‘editor’ has concealed in it. Without misunderstanding ‘the-gift-of-the- gab,’ going through the word "editor", one can literally detect the word called ‘idiot’ if we take the initial vowels /e/ as /i/, as the letter /y/, sometimes is taken for /i/. Editors are sometimes termed "idiots" probably because theirs is a kind of thankless job, working hard for someone else.

Take again another word "taxi". It unlocks the word "tax," which tells us not to expect free travel in a taxi. You just have to pay a tax for every purpose of convenience. Other brainstorming word to analyse could be the lexicon "palace" in which we come out with words like "cap", meaning prestige and the "lap," that implies abode or comfort. This prestige and comfort which one attains in the "palace" is, however, not without "lace" meaning bond or responsibility.

Thinking in a similar fashion, we get the word "duty" in the word "study," which again arouses our interest that studies done half-heartedly can never be effective. The word "economy" is another ideal word which deals with "money". The lexicon "word" itself contains the other word "row" meaning perhaps a series of letters. At times, these "words" also kick up a "row" that arises from misunderstandings.

By penetrating words in the same manner, we can come across plenty of secret meanings. Take for example, the word "mother," It contains the word "home," a place full of love and affection. It is a place where you feel safe and secure. You may then enquire about the word "father," right? Of course, it has the word "heat" confined in it. This has a lot to do with zeal, enthusiasm and energy that children beget from him. About "parents" taken righteously, they may be paying "rent" to children of their previous life. Mind you, Karma indicates not only immediate reactions to immediate actions. The Karma has to do with a grand total of actions which one may have carried out in a series of one’s previous lives.

People often say when you are indecisive, always listen to your "heart" because it has ears. At times, the heart can also burn out of jealousy because it has "heat." However, it also takes no time to break. To hear something sad, it also contains the word "tear."

World renowned numerologist Goodman, illustrating the word "heart," says it contains very artfully the word "ear" and the two ears joined together with each other form the human heart. Talking about lexigrams, she states the south means so hot, the north implies not hot, violent means no love, postage denotes paste to pages, diplomacy signifies mad policy, moonlight has thin gloom, the truth hurts and twinkling is like winking.

Lexigramming is in no way a kind of fun meant to play with words. It is, in fact, a secret full of mysteries. The secret meanings in the words are believed to have deep-seated purposeful truths in them.

If this is the case, so let it be written, so let it be done, because it’s only ‘words’ and words are all I have, to steal your heart away.

English or Neplish? The choice is yours

By RISHI RAM PAUDYAL

Question-tags like ‘no?’ and ‘isn’t it/that?’ (for any kind of statement) are very common among Nepali English speakers, especially among those who didn’t study/haven’t studied or haven’t understood how question-tags are formed in the English language. You can hear even some private (boarding) schools teachers and students using the above-mentioned question-tags in various situations.

Now let’s see how the Nepali-English ‘no’ question-tag fits in different sentences:

You went there yesterday, no? (means ‘didn’t you?’)

You like it, no? (means ‘don’t you?’)

She has gone to America, no? (means ‘hasn’t she?’)

You have finished your work, no? (means ‘haven’t you?’)

They are coming, no? (means ‘aren’t they?’)

I’m looking alright, no? (means’ ‘aren’t I?’)

He was friendly, no? (means ‘wasn’t he?’)

It’s time to go now, no? (means ‘isn’t it?’)

They should provide facilities, no? (means ‘shouldn’t they?’)

They will invite us, no? (means ‘shouldn’t they?’)

They won’t like it, no? (means ‘will they?’)

These/those are nice, no? (means ‘aren’t they?’)

This/That picture is wonderful, no? (means ‘isn’t it?’)

The garden is beautiful, no? (means ‘isn’t it?’)

Nobody cares about it, no? (means ‘do they?’)

Another Nepali-English question-tag ‘isn’t it?’ can be heard used in a similar way in almost all kinds of statements. Sometimes ‘isn’t it?’ is replaced by ‘wasn’t it?’ A few example are given below:

I told you about it yesterday, isn’t it? (means ‘didn’t I?’)

You have already learnt how to solve this problem, isn’t it? (means ‘haven’t you?’)

You should know how to behave, isn’t it? (means ‘shouldn’t you?’)

She was brilliant, isn’t it? (means ‘wasn’t she?’)

He can’t pass his exams without working hard, isn’t it? (means ‘can he?’)

Let’s do it tomorrow, isn’t it? (means ‘shall we?’)

At this time last year we went on a picnic, wasn’t it? (means ‘didn’t we?’)

Another use of ‘no’ in Nepali English could mean ‘you see’. For example: ‘I went there, no (=you see). And met this nice person.’

And if ‘no’ is followed by that (that no), it means that the person speaking to you is trying to remind you the subjects or objects or persons or any other things which you (listener) had already seen or known or experienced. The speaker uses ‘that no’, especially when s/he forgets the names or when s/he can’t express it in words. For example:

‘What did you buy yesterday?’

‘That no, that we use it while cleaning carpets. It sucks the dust inside.’

‘Oh, you mean vacuum cleaner?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

In this way if we continue speaking English in our own way, soon we will have our own English language and the native speakers of English will have to learn our Nepalish, and we will have to unlearn our English and learn their English to understand them.

What shall we do now? Shall we speak English to understand our own Nepalese brothers and sisters? Or shall we speak English so that foreigners can understand us and we can understand them? It is up to us to decide. Let’s decide right now before it is too late.