Lū, time to read!
Review of Nayanraj Pandey's Lū (2012)
The continuous dry pachhuwa that invites lū in the wind is an experience not many would wish on their enemies. One cannot imagine its dilapidating intensity on the body and the mind from the comfort of temperate hills and the chilly mountains. But in his celebrated novel, based in the fictional Pattharpurwa set near the banks of the Rapti close to Nepalgunj and hence beside the Nepal-India border, Nayanraj Pandey takes on the burden of bringing Lū to us. And Lū brings with it the debilitating wind — the kind with hope-laden destitution that the people of the Banke plains have been experiencing for generations as people living in the shadow of two apathetic nation-states.
Lū follows Illaiya, a lonesome Hindu gunda-of-sorts, in his quest to confess his Bollywood-and-RamayanMahabharat-inspired love to Nushrat, a Muslim girl. But the journey is not merely of a singular protagonist, but of an entire village. The love-plot is simply an excuse to grip the readers into Lū’s world of Hindu-Muslim, India-Nepal, rich-poor interactions.
In two hundred fifty one pages, Pandey develops numerous characters of the Pattharpurwa village and transforms them into something-they-were-not. While creating individual character arc itself is a difficult ordeal for any writer, it is rarer in Nepali literature to witness just the protagonist become a completely different person. Pandey does this not only to Illaiya but to other characters including Radiolal, Bajrangi, Brijalal and Tutey Pandit. To top it off, Pandey has designed his characters to be extremely memorable for their quips and quirks. Illaiya is a hot-headed rogue, Radiolal is a wife-worshipping loverboy, Kareem is poor but claims his dignity, and Tutey Pandit is a God-evoking scamster. The radical shifts in their character traits towards the end of the novel makes each character worth following throughout the long-winding story.
Pandey is a gem of Nepali literature. His characters in Lū represent the caste-ethnic diversity of the lower Rapti area — a place of Madheshi Muslims and Hindus, but also a few migrants from the hills. This is not a unique set-up in Nepali literature. However, Pandey goes well-beyond by not writing simply in the commonly used Pahade Nepali. His Nepali is that of the people, laden with localized expression particular to caste/ethnicity/religion/class and their intersections. Not only does he use dialogue with precision and care, but the narration, too, is rich in its ethnic vocabulary. One only wishes that a few words in the novel were not translated into Pahade Nepali for the ease of the folks-of-the-center. Reading should be as much for comfort as it should be for discomfort.
Lū is many things. Lū is witty. Lū is funny. Lū is sad. Lū will make you cry. Lū will dry your tears. Lū will wipe your tears. Lū will make you realize how little you know. But, Lū will also make you understand what it means to be a person of a place and what it takes to fight for it.
Pick up the book here. Unless… (In Illaiya style).
