Damini Bhir is a wonderful novel which is written by the popular Nepali writer Rajan Mukarung. This novel is one of the Madan prize winner books. The writer has written about the cultures, traditions, thoughts, psychology, pains, and sorrows of the people of eastern Nepal. Especially he has reflected Rai culture or Mundumi culture in this novel.
Actually, Rai is one of the indigenous castes of eastern Nepal. They have their own language, own culture, own religion, and their own festival. Since there are people of other castes in the high positions of Nepal indigenous castes including Rai are going to be vanished. Their languages and cultures are vanishing considerably. So, I think the writer has written about Rai’s culture to remind the new generation.
He has also written about lifestyle of eastern hilly region. He has shown the sorrows and pains of these people who are struggling with Damini Bhir. Actually, Damin Bhir is the Nepali word which means Damini hill. He has used many characters in this novel with their own stories like Kanchha, Lachhi, Namdeng, Hangdima, Paruma, etc.
At the opening of this novel, all villagers are destroying a big hill which is very strong to make the road. They are remembering their own life experiences while resting for some time. Each of the characters has their own story of struggle. However, I want to summarize the two-story of two characters i.e. Lachhi and Kanchha.
Lachhi is the daughter of the Damai family which is a very low caste or untouchable caste of Nepali society. She was beautiful, brave, and smart. At an early age, she fell in love with Chetan, the son of the chief family of the village. Though their status, culture were very different from each other both of them were in love.
One day, they made love and get pregnant. Chetan had said to her that he loves her very much and he will marry her. But, he goes city in the name of study after making her pregnant. It is a terrible situation for a woman in Nepali society to become pregnant without marriage. Her family was shocked. Everyone knew that the father of that baby is Chetan but none say something about it because he was from a rich and big caste family.
Some people suggested to abort and some people suggested to marry another man but Lachhi did neither. She promised herself that she will care for her baby herself. She gave born a baby boy. She became a little bit happy and waited for Chetan. However, Chetan never returned from the city until about seven years.
And another story is the story of Kanchha. He is the son of the Chhetri family which is a high caste of Nepal. He had married a beautiful girl but she died after giving him a son. After then, he also became alone with his son.
Both Lachhi and Kanchha were in the same condition. There was only one difference between them that there was no hope with Kanchha because her wife is dead whereas Lachhi had a hope of reunion with Chetan because he is not dead. However, they also both were in love but in spiritual love. Kanchha had proposed to Lachhi to marry him but Lachhi had a little bit of hope with Chetan. So, they were living like best friends.
When Lachhi and other villages had gone to do protest programs. She met Chetan but not her beloved but a singer Chetan. Then, villagers called Chetan to discuss the relationship between Lachhi and him. In front of Lachhi, he says sorry for everything. After then, Lachhi feels relieved and says to him that she lived for more than six years without him and she can live without him all her life. Then, she married Kanchha who was not like Chetan and his love was pure and real.
This is one of the best books that I read. If you read this book, you will know about the life of ordinary people in Nepal. It is very interesting to read that it includes many stories. So, I think everyone should read this book who is interested in real-life stories and ordinary life. This book also speaks the voices of people who are under the society. 🙂
