The Guru of Love
Samrat Upadhyay
Houghton Mifflin

From the author of “Arresting God in Kathmandu,” a collection of short stories that won the Whiting Prize, we have another intriguing title called “The Guru of Love.” The second book secures Samrat Upadhyay’s reputation as a master storyteller. Like R.K. Narayanan, he shows himself to be a shrewd observer of humankind, and he tweaks family friction to the best advantage.

“The Guru of Love,” is narrated from the point of view of the protagonist, Ramachandra. The very first sentence shows us what will become his preoccupation. “Thin as a waif, she wore a faded kurta suruwal.” (Fortunately, the prose is better through the rest of the novel and lets us concentrate on the story without making us stop to reread an awkward phrase.)

Ramachandra is a struggling teacher who has the misfortune to marry into a rich family. His parents-in-law treat him like dirt and reserve their favors for their other son-in-law. Indeed the friction between them and the protagonist is a source of joy for the readers, who will relish the tension which the author plays out cleverly. It is a great mystery to Ramachandra why his in-laws arranged his marriage to their daughter Goma. Their lifestyle is far removed from the one he can afford her. She was brought up in a big four-storied house called Pandey Palace that had marble statues dotting the lawn and a balcony overlooking a pretty view of the neighborhood. His earliest memories are of a general store in a mud hut. After his father died, Ramachandra, who was still a schoolboy, and his mother came to Kathmandu with her jewelry in a plastic bag and the address of a distant relative. The only reason Goma’s family knew about his existence was because he tutored her younger sister. He wonders rather unfairly whether there was something unsavory about his wife in the past.

Ramachandra and Goma count every rupee to save some money for a house. In order to make more money, he falls back on tutoring. Malati, an unwed mother of a baby, comes to him for help in passing the S.L.C. exam so that she can attend college. She relies on the mercy of an albino stepmother to provide her a place to stay. The stepmother, though not fully developed, is a colorful character with her capricious moods and witty vulgarities. Predictably, Goma’s sympathy for Malati helps an affair between her husband and the young woman develop. Ramachandra slips senselessly into the affair, which affects not just his relationship with his wife but also his two children. Indeed there is so much at stake here that it is hard to believe that a man with a hitherto unblemished reputation will let the winds of fate buffet him between the two women, instead of being guided by compassion or decency or reason.

Goma submits her marriage to a surprising litmus test, one that only a Sita type could sacrifice herself to do. In the process, she scandalizes society and her parents. Her daughter, who comes of age in the time period of the novel, changes from being a defender of her father to a hater. Ironically, unscrupulous as Ramachandra is about having lured Malati, he is very vigilant about the virtue of his daughter. Somehow it is fitting that the daughter becomes a defender of women’s rights. Before Ramachandra’s affair becomes public, he is called upon by the principal to tackle a man who shows an unhealthy interest in a student.

The background for the family drama is a time of unrest in Kathmandu. The Panchayat system is unpopular and protested against. The father-in-law, as is to be expected from a man whose residence was once a Rana palace, loves to praise the dead King Mahendra. He snubs any attempts by his son-in-law to express his own political opinions.

The pressures of poverty and overcrowding in Kathmandu are effectively portrayed. Indeed, the reader becomes as conscious as Ramachandra about the expenditure of every rupee. Towards the end of the novel, when he fantasizes about wealth, we wonder whether greed has made an inroad into his character.

Samrat Upadhyay is the first significant Nepalese writer in English. He has made his country and people familiar to readers in the endearing manner that only literature can. The universal emotions of love and lust brought to the capital of Kathmandu have their own local coloring. Asian American writing will garner more attention with new voices like Upadhayay enlightening and engaging readers.

|