Nothing To Declare - Softcover

Rabi Thapa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143415433 ISBN 13: 9780143415435

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2011

Synopsis

In the title story, Bikram achieves his most urgent middle-class dream, to emigrate to London. Young phoren-returned Nepalis hang out in the bars of Thamel in 'Night Out in Kathmandu', sharing tables with those who did not could not go. They talk about pretty much the same things: visas, music, booze, the impossibility of getting laid in the city. There are foreigners too, trekking on the usual routes, smoking cheap grass and looking for their inner selves. The Maobadis loom large in 'Home for Dashain', wreaking vengeance on behalf of the people. Though rarely mentioned in the city, they are ever present, invoked by the sad pole dancers in the more risqué bars and the transvestites pounding the streets looking for customers. And in 'Aryaghat', a Kathmandu family lays to rest the ashes of a Nepali boy who has committed suicide in Alabama. The sixteen stories in Nothing to Declare are passionate, pensive and at times disenchanted. They mirror the experiences of the middle-class youth of Kathmandu as they build lives, trying to make sense and pushing the limits of a rapidly changing but ever-conservative society.

About this title

About the Author

Rabi Thapa is a writer and editor based in Kathmandu. These days he can be found lounging about the office of the Nepali Times or scrounging around for consultancies that will buy him enough counters to visit the bars, high and low, that he frequents. He cannot stand the vicissitudes of Nepal, nor the relative safety of Western living, but prefers the former for now, not least for the ready, steady supply of material that he can publish. In preparation for this unwholesome existence, he tramped through six continents under a variety of pretexts before realizing, almost too late, that he could not call himself a writer before he wrote.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143415433
• ISBN 13: 9780143415435
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184