The Absurdist Of Kathmandu

In 1940 Hitler gifted a Mercedes car to the then monarch of Nepal, Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev. The story revolves around this historical fact; however the main plot of the novel is the romance between a Nepal princess and a man from Kerala, a South Indian state. Both these characters are real people. The man from Kerala is the protagonist of the story. He was in Kathmandu in 1989 to pursue his post-graduate studies. One of his classmates at Tribhuvan University was a princess, a relative of the then monarch, King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. One day she showed him the Mercedes car, which at that time had been abandoned by the royal family and was resting at the Nepal Engineering College compound. The protagonist was a bit skeptical of Hitler's motive in gifting the car to the Nepal king, but since the princess could not give him a credible reason disregarded the matter. After about 22 years the protagonist and the princess come together and travel to Mt. Everest to unearth Hitler's motive in gifting the car to the Nepal king. On the scary and freezing slope of the highest peak in the world they come to know about many unknown facets of Hitler and the main reason behind the fall of the Nepal kingdom. Along with that they also come to know about their past lives, which was scarily excruciating, at the same time thrilling. It is this revelation about the past lives of the protagonist and the princess that binds the story together.

This is the story of a girl who’s fantasies and traumas begin to blend with her reality till the lines become so blurred she’s not sure which one is actually the reality

The novel is mainly about the forgotten British poet/writer named C. J Richards who lived in Burma/Myanmar in colonial times and he believed himself as a Burmophile. He served as I.C.S (Indian Civil Servant) and when he retired from I.C.S service, he was a D.C (District Commissioner) and he left for England a year before Burma gained its independence in 1948. He came to Burma in 1920 to work in civil service after passing the hardest I.C.S examination. He wrote several books on Burma and contributed many monthly articles to Guardian Magazine published in Burma from 1953 to 1974 or 1975. Though he wrote several books which had much literary merit to both communities, Britain and Burma (Myanmar), people failed to recognize him. The story has two parts: one part is set in the contemporary Yangon (then called Rangoon) in 2016 context and a young literary enthusiast named “Lin” found out unexpectedly the forgotten writer’s poetry book and there is surely a good deal of time gap that led him into a quest to know more about the author’s life. The setting is quite different comparing to colonial Burma and independence Myanmar (Burma), early twentieth century and 2016 which is a transitional period in Myanmar. The writer’s life is fictionalized in the novel and most of the facts are taken from his personal stories and other reference books. It is a kind of historical novel with a twist and it has comparatively constructed the two different periods in Myanmar history to convince readers, locally and abroad more about history, authorship, humanity, colonialism, and transitional development in Myanmar today.

While doing my girlfriend Bianca White's laundry, I found an envelope with a certified marriage certificate and a wedding photo between her clothes. In the wedding photo against the white background, the young man beside her smiled with bright, reckless confidence. I shook all over and slammed the document down in front of her. Bianca gave it one calm glance, then tapped the young man's face in the photo with her fingertip. "Mason Rivers. You know him. He failed to get into grad school and tried to kill himself last year and I saved him, so we exchanged numbers. He wouldn't have come to me unless he was desperate. "His parents are very controlling. Back home, they were trying to force him into a marriage and give up on his education. As an educator, I couldn't just stand by and watch him die, so I helped him." Bianca said it so casually, as if she had only done him a small favor. However, the marriage certificate and wedding photo would not go away. I stared at it, then suddenly laughed until I almost cried. I had waited eight whole years for that certificate, yet I had never once gotten Bianca to say "Let's get married" even now. I never expected Mason to get it with one sentence.

In the madness of life, we find the madness of life in ourselves. We are a reflection of the madness of life. We are the embodiment of a crazy life.

Olivia remembers being attacked by a monster, but the doctors say it is simply an overdose of caffeine. Knowing monsters aren’t real, she assumes their correct… that is until she starts noticing changes in herself and the strange blackout she had on the full moon. New friends and new love come into Olivia’s life, changing her world, or is it all a delusion she created for herself?