 Shanakar Lamichhane is a trend setter in Nepali essays for which he is recognized as one of the finest essayists in the history of Nepali literature. A man of reason and high intellectual acumen, Lamichhane has experimented a new dictum in his essays.
Lamichhane was born in 1984 BS in Kathmandu. When Shankar Lamichhane was just one and a half year old, his mother Yadav Kumari Lamichhane had some dispute with her family and went to her parental house in Benaras, India, along with young Shankar. He attained his early education at home under the guidance of his mother and maternal uncle. Later, he was enrolled in a school but could not attend school regularly because misfortunes fell upon him one after another. When he was just eight years old, his younger brother died. His mother also passed away when Shanakar was 13 years old. This tragic incidents turned his life ups and down. Having none to take care of him in Benaras, he returned to Kathmandu to join his parental family.
In Kathmandu, he was enrolled in Judodaya High School and passed SLC. He completed Intermediate in Science from Trichandra College. When he was in college, Laxmi Prasad Devkota and Bal Krishna Sama taught him. Having found such a great literary icons as his teachers, he got interested in literature. By that time he had already read literary works of many Nepali and foreign writers. In course of his reading, he happened to read some of Gopal Prasad Rimal’s poems, which had a deep influence on Lamichhane’s life.
He wrote the first poem at the age of 14 in 1998 BS. His poems and articles were published in different magazines like Sharada, Indreni, Pragati and Sahityashrot. But he did not document his published and unpublished works. As a result, some of his works have perished. When his poems and articles were published in different magazines, he was known in the literary circle as a young writer. In the meantime, his father died when he was 22. With the untimely death of his father, responsibility of supporting his family came upon him. He, therefore, started working as a junior clerk in the government office. Lamichhane was of unstable nature and he kept on changing jobs. He was always frustrated because of his financial difficulties. This frustration has been reflected in his essays.
Shankar was a revolutionary and maverick. He was against the existing social and cultural practices. He wanted to revolt both in thinking and action. His revolt against the social and cultural practices began with marrying Ratna Thulung, a girl from another caste, in 2008. Shankar was from a Brahmin family and marrying a girl from another caste during that time was a big revolt against the existing social and cultural practices. It was indeed his progressive determination.
Lamichhane wrote in different genres of literature, which include poetry, short stories and essays. But he is basically an essayist. Lamichhane is a solid pillar in the branch of Nepali essay. There were many essayists prior to Lamichhane but they wrote in traditional and monotonous dictum. He was one of the vociferous critics of the old fashion of literary writing. Lamichhane broke the tradition and wrote his own style and art for which he has earned a high degree of reputation. Away from the traditional pattern of essay writing, he has used the form of monologue and tells his feelings in a narrative ways. His expression is artistic, articulate and clear in meaning. In the non-fiction part of Nepali literature, Lamichhane’s essays are characterized by stream of consciousness which many English writers like James Joyous, T S Eliot, Samuel Becket and Virginia Wolf have used in English fiction. His broken dreams and frustration that he had developed within himself because of tragedies one after another right from his childhood and financial hardship he underwent are duly reflected in his essays. He has expressed different aspects of life and society through the use of images. Sometimes the reader finds it difficult to follow the developments in the plot and cannot figure out what exactly the author wants to say because of unique narrative style characterized by punctuation one after another and multiple clauses in a single sentence. In his essays, he wanders from one point to another very frequently and talks of different issues simultaneously. But he has his set goal of giving a clear message— the message of forward thinking and intellectual conceit. Describing his essays, Lamichhane once said ‘my essays are not for ordinary readers but for intellectual and academic ones who would be born in 50 years and even after’. But his essays attained popularity right during his own lifetime and continue to stir the mind of people even today.
Experiment in writing is yet another Lamichane‘s trait in writing. He has experimented diverse issues and styles and also in the use of language. This makes Lamichhane a versatile writer. Although abstract on theme, language and meaning, he has written essays in rhythmic beat that gives the reader pleasure to read and re-read. That is the beauty of his writing. He puts together multiple issues in a single essay but keeps the enthusiasm and interest of the readers intact because of narrative language and rhythmic tempo in the writing.
Introduced by Laxmi Prasad Devkota in his essays, Lamichhane has perfectly followed this style and has carried even further, which is characterized by monologue and self-depicting approach. He always regarded Devkota as his literary guru and he followed his footsteps in non-fiction by applying the same style of monologue that Devkota has used in most of his essays. The essay ‘Abstract Chintan: Pyaj’ (Abstract Thinking and Onion) is the best example of the use of stream of consciousness in Nepali non-fiction. This is also one of Lamichhane’s best works, for which he got prestigious Madan Puraskar (Madan Academic Award). In this essay, he personifies an onion with a human being. He finds life like the onion with numerous layers one after another. According to him, it is difficult to understand one’s behaviour because a person has multiple faces. He has created character and he narrates the story in a way a stream flows down from the mountain top uninterrupted. Lamichhane’s abstract themes and ideas flow like a stream.
In all his works, there is a strong sense of an abstract art in writing. In his essays, Lamichhane has expressed his own pains and plights through the medium of essays. The essays are his pains, plights and tears that he endured when he was alive. He felt as though he was alive not for himself but for others. To some extent, he is true. He lived to contribute to Nepali literature and he surely did. Many readers may not understand his essays in a straightforward manner as he talks all sorts of abstract things.
Lamichhane was always in search of life within himself and new value system in the society. He says, ‘one must know how to laugh’. ‘If one laughs without knowing the art of laughing, it is tantamount to the pain of crying’. He is of the view that the life we are living is an abstract phenomenon and we are living an imaginary life. According to Lamichhane, one conjures of living a meaningful life but that is just an imagination. As a result, the price of life is cheap and becomes cheaper than vegetable. He compares life with the vegetable cooked in the kitchen every day.
In his essays, he mainly discloses the contradictions of the society with which one has to confront every day and face them in whatever way they come. The life begins with the hassles of managing for morning meal and develops by looking for a job during the day and ends with a tired sigh of frustration and pain in the evening. We find abundance satire towards life in his essays. Like Bhupi Serchan, who has used full of satire in his poems, Lamichhane has satired and attacked on the existing social, political and cultural malaise and societal contradiction and perversions. He has his own way of looking at things and he accordingly explains and interprets on different subjects and issues. He sees the things they way other people have never been able to see. He says human being lives on faith and belief. If faith and beliefs are dead, a man cannot remain alive. That is Lamichhane’s philosophy about life. In a way, Lamichhane is a philosopher and a humanist satirist.
In terms of quantity, there are only a few books to his credit. But they are abundant in quality, which represent an entire era in Nepali literature. His four collections of essays have been published. They are ‘‘Abstract Chintan: Pyaj’, ‘Godhuli Sansar’, Bimba Pratibimba and ‘Shankar Lamichhane’.
He is also short story writer and a poet. But his poems and stories are not as powerful as his essays are. His only collection of short stories is Gauthali Ko Gundh ) A Swallow’s Nest). In the stories and poems, his style and approach are similar to his essays.
He was once accused of plagiarism by an anonymous reader, which Lamichhane also accepted. This virtually put his writing career to an end. However, the enigmatic quality of writing, powerful imagination, articulate argumentation and allegorical use of words and language have made him immortal in Nepali literature.
He passed away at the age of 48 in 2032 BS.
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Source: Gorkhapatra (Yuba Nath Lamsal)
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