“The Guru of Love” is the second book by Samrat Upadhyay, who lives in Cleveland and teaches English at Baldwin-Wallace College.

Samrat dedicates the book to his wife and appreciates the contribution of his family in the opening, who believe in his writing ‘without having to read it.’ A dedicated husband, he often writes books revealing the sexuality of the Nepali people, mostly living in Kathmandu--or sexuality as he thinks it is.

“The Guru of love : A novel”: By Samrat Upadhyay.

Published 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

KC Bhatt lives in Kathmandu, Nepal.  He asked me to do some editing on his review, as it was the first one he wrote, and English is not his first language.  Any editing I did was mostly taking away some commas, and reducing the length.  His insights are very good, and I welcome this new reviewer!

By the way, the occasional type face problems are my fault, not KC's.

Reviewed by KC Bhatt

“The Guru of Love” is the second book by Samrat Upadhyay, who lives in Cleveland and teaches English at Baldwin-Wallace College.

Samrat dedicates the book to his wife and appreciates the contribution of his family in the opening, who believe in his writing ‘without having to read it.’ A dedicated husband, he often writes books revealing the sexuality of the Nepali people, mostly living in Kathmandu--or sexuality as he thinks it is.

His first book ‘Arresting Gods in Kathmandu’ was a collection of many short stories that revolve around sexual themes. His third book, ‘The Royal Ghost’, had a title that promised some politics, but he inevitably returns to talk about homosexuality.

‘The Guru of love’ is a title given to a middle-aged man by his infant daughter Sanu, who considers him a loving father. The daughter who grows up to flirt with a boy who comes to her father for tuition, and resents her father when he tries to intervene. She is squeezed once on her bottom by the crotch of a passenger, in a crowded local bus of Kathmandu, while travelling with her family. RamChandra, her father, looses his cool on seeing his daughter being molested and challenges the passenger for a fight, to be only calmed by his wife Goma, who wants him to ignore the incident.

Goma is a devoted Hindu wife from a reputed family.  She marries Ramchandra, a tutor-student without any regular income, who gives tuition to her sister Nalini, as arranged by his parents - the Pandeys. Pandeys are the elite of Kathmandu, unable to treat a destitute village migrant like Ramchandra as an equal, till they live. RamChandra was raised by his young mother, who was perhaps abandoned by her husband: something which Samrat doesn’t explain, avoiding carefully the sexual harassment a young woman living without her husband is subjected to in the society. In one scene the young, tearful Ramchandra chases away a landlord trying to rape his mother.

The Pandeys treat Ramchandra contemptuously for his poverty, even front of their other, richer son-in-law Harish. Sanu protests it at times.  RamChandra often suspects Goma had a scandalous life before she was offered to him as a wife, given that he finds his in-laws unable to reconcile with his poverty—why else did they “give him” their daughter?

Ramchandra teaches mathematics to the children at school and to the ones who come to him for tuition. He comes across an older student Malati, whom Ramchandra considers a loose woman merely because she belongs to the eastern part of the country. Soon it turns out that Malati has fallen into an intimate affair with a taxi driver who deserts her when she becomes pregnant. Malati lives with her stepmother, an albino, the second wife of her late father, a migrant village destitute. Malati, after giving birth to a illegitimate daughter, has no shoulder to fall back upon.

Ramchandra is a complex character.  He follows Malati around the streets while trying to win back the love of his wife. He thought, like others, that a wife must ideally be seven years younger to her husband.

The book authentically describes the political turmoil in the country. It was when India imposed economic sanctions on Nepal, which exacerbated the political problems and resulted in a movement that brought a kind of democracy under the constitutional monarchy in 1990.

There are some factual mistakes. Like the goddess of wealth, Laxmi is described as wielding a trident in one of her many hands. Also a goat or a hen is not sacrificed in front of a deity, as mentioned in the book, but only a male animal is. In the later part of the novel the story stretches on, trying the patience of a reader. Ending the story a few chapters earlier might have been better.

Some of the western analysts have described his books as a good combination of spirituality and sensuality. Samrat’s characters seldom talk sex, but they always have it in their minds. They have it too, but without ever referring to it directly.  Perhaps he authentically describes the typical Nepali psyche in his stories, which are prudish. The politics of sex is tyrannical or predatory in the work of Samrat, as the psyche of Ramchandra demonstrates.  After all, he wants to keep a young woman as a sex-slave, but at the same time retain his kind, tolerant and well-bred wife (whom he never quite accepts, as he suspects her of not being a virgin before their marriage).

The writing is good.  Samrat makes no pretensions at having a lofty vision for his characters. They lead the real, instinctive life of ordinary Nepali people. Writing about the sexuality of the society, which is so often considered spiritual and conservative, is a new experiment by Samrat. 

Last update : 03-04-2007 19:49

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