Words by Sanyukta Shrestha
London, 31st July 2023.
(As published in ‘KarmaYogī Ganesh Rām Lāchi’ edited by Surya Prasad Lakoju, Bhaktapur, 2023)
Multiple facets of cultural contribution
Without an iota of doubt, Ganesh Ram Lachhi who hails from Capāco in Madhyapur-Thimi is known for his contribution to the field of music. Secondly, the way Lachhi set up his house as a museum of musical instruments and ceramic items, and called it ‘Ākhā Cheṃ’ in 1998 is an unprecedented example of one man’s effort not just for Nepal but also beyond. Besides the museum, his enterprising nature catapulted to a new height with the commencement of the cultural procession of YenYaa or Indra Jatra in Sikkim, India, in 2006. There he arranged to train hundreds of Newars in the traditional Newar drum called Dhimay.
While all of the above forays into Newar cultural preservation invariably had music as the backdrop, the third aspect of his applied research of Newar cultural heritage was culinary. His 2012 compilation titled ‘SikkimKo Yātrā ParikārKo Mātrā’ is a remarkable publication listing sixty-four different traditional mari or delicacies made out of flatbread and dough balls, including the recipes for nearly twenty of them. The fourth facet of his multidimensional personality can be analysed under the long list of Newah activist organisations that he has been associated with at both regional and national levels. The fifth dimension of Lachhi’s contributions is his creative involvement as an actor in noted Nepalbhasa movies like Māyā (2010), Timilā (2016) and Tuyumati (2016). Mostly directed by the acclaimed director Aryem Nakami, Lachhi leaves an unforgettable mark in all of these successful movies with his realistic acting despite not playing the lead role.
The sixth and yet important aspect of his multifaceted contribution to the Newar heritage is definitely fiction writing and here too Lacchi has not limited himself to a single genre. Most of his fictional works may be categorised broadly as either humour or poetry, under the pen name of Kuṃbhakār.
Kuṃbhakār
From Durgalal Shrestha appending to his name a ‘Khwobilu’, meaning teary or inclined to crying, to Sudheer Khwobi choosing a tear-drop for his half name, pen names among the literary circle in Nepal have been more literary and frequently melancholic. Not following such a trend, Lachhi demonstrated a poet’s refusal with what could sound a little weird to the uninitiated, – ‘Kuṃbhakār’.
Kuṃbhakār means a potter in Sanskrit wherefrom modifications like Kumhāḥ in Nepalbhasa, Kumhār in Hindi and Kumāle in Nepali have been derived. This struck me only when I first visited him in his Chapāco residence in 2013. Just outside his house a potter was laboriously moulding an earthen pulp and filling half the street with his pots laid to dry in the Sun. Lachhi’s other family name Prajāpati is worth remembering at this point which is the occupational caste of potters among the Newars. In Kuṃbhakār’s case, the mallet is replaced by a pen but he remains true to pottery producing several delicately designed works of creativity. While his sentiments are as vulnerable as the fragile earthenware, his words have also withstood the furnace of life.
Known mainly for his contribution to cultural preservation, there is no denying that Kuṃbhakār the author has been eclipsed by his own shadow as Ganesh Ram Lachhi the activist. A brief study of his literary timeline, however, reveals that he first set out as a major humour writer where he was also able to garner ample success.
The Humour Phase
Two of Lachhi’s published titles based on humour are ‘Hwagāṃkhiṃ’ (1987) and ‘Phyagaṃ’ (1999). When Hwagāṃkhiṃ was published in the mid-80s, the humour genre in Nepalbhasa was still in its infancy. This was a time when the Panchayat system was heading towards the end of its three-decades-long oppression of Nepalbhasa. While poets like Durgalal were writing revolutionary lines like ‘Ghā juyā jaka khwoigu kha jhī’ in Kathmandu, Lachhi in Thimi was doing no less by surfacing various social issues including not only cultural and economic but also political.
Unlike the Bhairav Aryal style of humour in Nepali which is effectively a monologue presented with an overdose of wordplay around the main theme of the prose (see his 1965 title Jaya Bhūṃdi), humour as a genre was already more established in Nepalbhasa as dramatics. This is the format which gave rise to the biggest names in Nepalese comedy from street theatre to the silver screen, – the MaHa Jodi. According to the late critic Manik Lal Shrestha, during a discussion on Lachhi’s first book, the late Padma Ratna Tuladhar, a renowned humour writer in Nepalbhasa, had expressed his concerns over the lack of novelty in humour writing despite its long history in Nepalbhasa.
Lachhi seems to have taken this advice so seriously that he went on to deliver in this direction with unparalleled dedication. It took Lachhi a little more than a decade to bounce back with his second title Phyagaṃ but when it finally arrived, both Shrestha and Tuladhar expressed deep satisfaction. Kuṃbhakār had finally arrived.
With five out of seven plays already winning awards before publication, Phyagaṃ was destined to gather critical acclaim. In this collection, the exceptional list of dramas consisted of ‘Paiṃtis Pratiśat’, ‘Phyagaṃ’, ‘ByāgaḥDyaḥ’, ‘Bayli’, ‘Faujawāḥ’, ‘Mahākālī’ and ‘Pākaḥciyā Hilākhwāḥ’. They were staged between 1994 and 1998 mainly in the annual Palisthā Khyālaḥ Kāsā drama competition, – a path-breaking literary event to which Lachhi himself has also expressed his gratefulness for pushing him as a playwright. Among these dramas, Pākaḥciyā Hilākhwāḥ or the changing face (read nature) of a man called Pākaḥci was the latest addition and unstaged until publication. This was also picked as his outstanding work by all reviewers alike. While Shrestha applauded its sophisticated criticism amidst a generous mix of comedy, Tuladhar praised its witty dialogues.
In general, acclaimed playwright Ramshekhar appreciated Phyagaṃ for its metaphorical presentation of the then government’s failure to deliver to the public who had high expectations post multiparty democracy. In this regard, Phyagaṃ can be considered a timeless work and the best of Kuṃbhakār. The number of characters in his dramas ranges from four to seven but his speciality as a playwright is in effectively conveying the bigger message with lesser characters. The characters are frequently from the lower class society and get their voice through his razor-sharp dialogues.
The Post-Humour Phase
Although Lachhi set off on his literary career with humour, he later moved on to non-fiction in the form of cultural history and research-based titles like ‘Nepālmaṇḍalyā Khwāḥpāḥ Pyākhaṃ’, ‘Thimi Deyyā Siddhikālī’, ‘Thukathaṃ Palisthā Jula Shaṃkhadhar Sirapā’ and ‘‘SikkimKo Yātrā ParikārKo Mātrā’.
Towards the third leg of his journey as a writer, he transformed himself yet again. This time he resumed his initial genre of creative writing but instead of humour, he chose poetry. For instance, his 2009 poem ‘Kusi Ghāḥ’ expresses his disbelief as a citizen of the state through stronger metaphors. Another poem ‘Surdyaḥ’ from the same year rides on the lyrical value of his choice of words in describing the colours of the Sun yet culminates in the voice of a citizen. One notices that his affiliation with critique is maintained but there is a clear departure from humour. Although Lachhi has penned a good number of poems, ghazals and haikus even before this phase, I consider this as a distinct phase in its own right for the conscious effort to switch genres and leave fiction behind.
In the post-humour phase, he published two anthologies titled ‘Chanta Lumanewoṃ’ (2012) and ‘Bhatkiyekā Sapanāharū’ (2013). The poems compiled in these two titles are also different to the kind of poems he had penned before. Here, poetry becomes his refuge to channel an inherent sadness and disappointment. A near-depressed Lachhi tries to gather himself once and again but fails. He is writing more for himself than his readers which is not a problem on its own but what Kuṃbhakār is best known for is sorely missing.
Not unaware of it himself, he changes genres more often in this phase than ever before yet struggles to regain focus. In 2014, he published three books including a drama ‘Hālemāḥgu Mye, Kanemāḥgu Bākhaṃ’ in line with his post-humour phase, then a novel ‘Khwāḥpāḥ’ and finally a humour after long – ‘Human Flu’. Albeit this is his most productive phase in terms of quantity. Post a brief stint with light-hearted poetry between 2012 and 2013, irrespective of his changing genres, he maintains a level of seriousness with his choice of subjects.
There is a lot to expect next from the seasoned writer that is Kuṃbhakār and with his latest innings with Human Flu, I personally believe that taking up humour was one of the best decisions he took in recent times. Here’s wishing Nepalbhasa’s beloved humourist Kuṃbhakār all the best and needless to say, if anyone can redefine this genre once again and take Nepalbhasa as a language to yet newer heights then Lachhi is definitely another name for hope.
References
- Ganesh Ram Lacchi. Phyagaṃ. Thimi: Suprakalā, NS 1119.
- Ganesh Ram Lachhi. SikkimKo Yātrā ParikārKo Mātrā. Kathmandu: Laxman Gamal and Menka Tamrakar, 2069 BS.
- Subhash Ram Lachhi (ed.). Madhyapur, Year 1 / No. 1. Thimi: Thimi Sahitya Parishad, NS 1118.
- Subhash Ram Lachhi (ed.). Madhyapur, Year 13 / No. 1. Seattle: Newatech Inc., NS 1130.
- Subhash Prajapati. YouTube Video – Ākhā Chheṃ – The Cultural Museum (2008).