A Book Review : Envisioning Glorious Future amidst Ignominious Present

-Uttam Poudel*

A Book Review

Released a couple of months ago, the novel, Dead Sukrabir (Dead Spermatozoa) is written by T.N. Bhatta “Bishwamitra”. A debut novel by the mentioned writer is an experimental one, in which the lived social realities including love, sex and war are uniquely fused in a single frame. The novel unpacks the absurdities and anomalies existing in diverse sectors of Nepali Society— social, political, academic, economic and so on from the last two decades.

Through the leading characters, Bibek, Manab, Manjil and Manabi, the writer intensely dramatizes the bleak picture of Nepali society. The novelist unflatteringly portrays the modern Nepal ravaged by dead spermatozoans, who, lurking in a so-called high profiled position in politics, bureaucracy, academia and dozens of other sectors of the concern for the general people, are infecting the country. These people are merely hankering after pelf, power and prosperity putting their duties, responsibilities and honesty aside. They are rather callous, deceitful and reckless.

Before analyzing the novel and its deep-delved ideas, it is imperative to outline its plot. The plot of the novel is shrewdly knitted giving a sustained attention to Manjil and Manabi. They are the admirers to each other during their university time. Manabi, a revolutionary girl in nature, involves in People’s War and remains underground after exchanging the first kiss with Manjil. She meets Manjil in a bus after twelve years. The nostalgia makes them reunite again. After getting married, their new phase of life begins. As neogamists, when they begin to indulge in the romance of nuptial night, surprisingly, Manjil remembers corruption, conspiracy, crisis and percolated darkness in Nepali society. So, he cannot have sex with his wife in full-fledged pleasure and he even fears to deposit his semen thinking that the begotten baby will again be in the whirlwind of dead sukrabirs. However, at the end, he becomes ready to deposit his semen with the hope of begetting a baby, who will be the Live Sukrabeer to bring about positive changes in Nepal through radical touch and innovative twist. The writer has mentioned different faces of dead sukrabirs in Nepal—

1. Those, who are consuming salary in schools and universities without being dutiful,
2. The students, who have involved in politics without doing study and research,
3. Corrupted politicians,
4. Those, who are leaving countries after being qualified herein,
5. The so-called lawyers, who are turned out to be only liars,
6. Blind supporters of corrupted leaders,
7. The authorities of CIAA, who can do nothing to politicians and high-profiled corrupted people,
8. Those, who distribute tickets during the election taking megabucks,
9. Medical Mafias.
10. Those, who have become doctors by giving donation to medical mafias,
11. The government officials, who are secretly flying to America through DV lottery,
12. Those, who are checking the answer sheets of the students thoughtlessly,
13. The so-called students, who put a black smear on the face of teachers and professors,
14. The new generation absorbed in social media forgetting their familial, social and stately duties and responsibilities.
15. Those, by having illicit sexual relationship with the wives of migrant workers of Nepal, are disintegrating the wholesome and healthy family life,

These are some dead sukrabirs, thousands of others are still lurking like wolves in each and every corner of Nepal. The writer, however, has mentioned some Live Shukrabeers (Live Spermatozoans) in Nepali history, rather in a roundabout way, who really wanted to establish Nepal as a powerful and prosperous nation. These names are— St. KP (Most probably refers to Krishna Pd. Bhattarai), B.P.  (May refer to B. P. Koirala), Comrade M.M. (May refer to Manmohan Adhikari), P.L. (Most probably refers to Pushpa Lal), Comrade M. (May refer to Madan Bhandari).  They, however,  were victimized by the hostile internal and external forces of their time. The great irony, however, according to the author, is that even the successors of such great souls are doing nothing for the nation.

The author is bitingly critical against the Maoists, who launched People’s War in 1996 with the view to bringing radical change in Nepal. To succeed it, they allured people with their tall claims and sugar-coated slogans. However, they turned out to be so corrupted and self-centric that they just forgot their promises and commitments. And now, they are enjoying luxurious and lavish life turning deaf ears to the real problems of common people. People’s War just turned out to be a great fiasco.

The writer is quite conscious about the persistent power tussle in Nepali politics, which has overshadowed the immediate national issues. He has darted his criticisms against the political parties, who made political movements only as means to personal gain being oblivious to their promises to build the nation.  Every political change in Nepali history simply brought trial, trouble and tribulation for Nepali People. There is no any hope with new generation either, as they are already indoctrinated by diverse ideologies and false certitudes imposed by dead sukrabirs of different faces.

The novel has given unique flavor of experimentalism by the execution of magic realism. At the end of the novel, we see the protagonist, Manjil, chatting with his own sperm (Yegee) on the contemporary situations and circumstances of Nepal. When his “sperm” comes to know that the entire nation has been the victim of dead sukrabirs, it shows its intense desire to take birth as a Live Shukrabeer to save the country from the eternal damnation caused by dead sukrabirs. Perhaps, this kind of idea is quite new in the world literature.

When Manjil becomes ready to deposit his semen to the womb of Manabi with the hope of begetting a Live Shukrabeer, the novel takes an optimistic turn. That Live Shukarbeer will be the better and bright future of Nepal. Here, the Live Shukrabeer is Krishna of Mahabharata and Nietzsche’s Superman and Mahamanb of Shisir Yogi’s Song, who will appear for the welfare of Nepal and Nepali for the fertile, fruitful and fructifying life ahead.

From the start to the end, the novel maintains a sustained curiosity among the minds of the readers. The fusion of English, Nepali and occasionally Hindi language has added extra flavor to the entire text. The distinguishing hallmark of this novel is that in the course of reading, when readers are upset and frustrated with the activities of dead sukrabirs, there is sudden interruption of humor, satire, love, romance and sex, which motivate the readers to laugh silently and move ahead. Flash back and flash forth techniques are uniquely executed throughout the novel.

The novel is impregnated with distinct characteristics of postmodern literature such as intertextuality, metafiction, pastiche, irony, black humor, hypererality, fragmentation, late capitalism; consumer culture, etc. These ideas are pervasively used by the writer, perhaps to capture the postmodern depth and dimension of the society.

In sum, it can be safely said that Dead Sukrabir is a penetrating piece of social, political, psychological, academic and economic commentary, attuned to the inequalities, injustices, frustration, hopelessness, haplessness, and multitude of evils. To put it more pointedly, this book gives an insight to the readers to get dark picture of Nepal caused by irresponsible and ill-willed deeds performed by dead sukrabirs. It also envisions a superman as Live Shukrabeer for the glorious future of Nepal, which otherwise, is ignominious at present infected by the wrongdoings of dead sukrabirs. The grim world of the novel is finally removed from the mind of the readers with the glossy image of the arrival of someone special to drive the country to the pinnacle of glory.

*The reviewer is an Assistant Professor at Nepal Sanskrit University, Balmeeki Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal.