Fragile Mountains (International E-Book Edition)

“An enchantingly beautiful and moving novel about life, love, death and rebellion in the eastern hills of Nepal”

If you like/love the beautiful and exotic Himalayan country of Nepal and want to know about the country and its people, then forget about guidebooks and travel books because this is the only book you will ever need to read. This novel doesn't only take you to places in Nepal; it takes you inside the Nepalese mind. The novel has received excellent reviews in the English languages papers in Nepal and is recommended reading for all who wish to acquire and intimate knowledge of the country.

Background

It is said that all human activities seem futile and insignificant against the backdrop of the mighty Himalayas. Yet, even here, as everywhere else, people have hopes, dreams and aspirations. That's what keeps them going in this highly impoverished but enchantingly beautiful land. A fortunate few get to live their dreams, most don't. But life goes on, as it must; like the river, twisting and turning, and overcoming or bypassing all obstacles, but always on course to its final destination.

Fragile Mountains is a story of three generations of a family who hope and dream and generally live life as it comes until they find themselves trapped in the midst of a bloody Maoist rebellion. The book is also about the tradition and culture of the Limbu people, an ancient and proud people of Mongoloid race who have made the eastern hills of Nepal their home for countless centuries.

The novel is made of four parts:
Part 1: Life is a River
Part 2: Acts of Destiny
Part 3: Depth of Sorrow
Part 4: Reign of Terror
Total number of A4 size pages: 188
The author (Madan Kumar Limbu) can be directly reached at madan540@gmail.com.

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Newspaper / Magazine Reviews:

A Review by ECS (Expatriate Community Services) Magazine, a monthly glossy for foreigners living in Nepal

March 2006
Text by: Kajori Aikat

Author M. K. Limbu admits that one of the reasons for writing his novel, Fragile Mountains, was to express the deep sense of anger and frustration he felt with regard to the political uncertainty in his country. He points out that “two sets of people are responsible for the quagmire our country is now in - those who stand in the path of change and those who want to bring sudden change by violent means”. This novel “is intended as a rebuke to both of them – the feudalists and the revolutionaries”. However, Fragile Mountains is not a political novel in any simple sense of the term; the writer has no political agenda, and neither is there any single message or “lesson” to be derived from the novel. From beginning to end, it remains firmly rooted in the lives of men and women – characters so sharply individualized and real that we cannot help but be drawn into their lives, dreams, and aspirations.

Fragile Mountains is the story of three generations of a family, that of Dil Bahadur Limbu of the tiny village of Khewang in the eastern hills of Nepal. The Limbus are descendants of an ancient race called the Kirant, a people of Mongoloid origin who arrived and settled in the foothills of the Himalayas thousands of years ago. Most of the land they owned and had cultivated for generations was forcibly seized from them, and today, they are both politically and economically marginalized. For the author, himself a Limbu, the novel is an attempt to explore the identity of his people, “to explore their history, culture, tradition and philosophy of life”.

Dil Bahadur and his family lead relatively peaceful and contented lives in their sleepy little village until the Maoist insurgency of the mid 1990s transforms it into a war zone. Limbu brilliantly captures the fear and helplessness of the ordinary villager caught in the crossfire. Dil Bahadur is forcibly roped in as a Maoist supporter and other villagers are threatened, coerced, arrested, tortured, or even killed in cold blood as the Maoists intensify their operations in eastern Nepal. The representatives of the “state” that we meet in the book are no better – Milan (Dil Bahadur’s son) and his friend, Hari, are brutally beaten up after a brief altercation with a policeman. Later, both Dil Bahadur and Milan are suspected of being Maoist sympathizers, and arrested by the army. In fact, although Limbu is clearly not in sympathy with the violent means adopted by the Maoist party, he shows a clear understanding of the social conditions that have led to their rise – rural poverty; political, economic, and cultural marginalization; gender inequality; the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of an urban few; and what, sitting in Kathmandu, is obvious to all of us (but, is by no means, a new phenomenon), the Kathmandu-ization of Nepal’s politics.

Fragile Mountains is a fascinating, absorbing, but deeply disturbing book. Long after I had finished reading the novel, I caught myself thinking about the issues raised. Although the central characters in the novel belong to a particular ethnic community – the Limbus – the novel will strike a chord with all Nepalis and all those living in Nepal in these uncertain and difficult times. Ultimately, the novel tells the story of the ordinary woman or man desperately trying to survive amidst circumstances that are beyond their understanding or control. It is also the story of hope in dark times, and is especially relevant today, when all hope of a solution to the political stalemate between the state and the rebels, all hope of peace, seems further away than ever.

ECS Magazine

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Newspaper / Magazine Reviews:

A Review by The Kathmandu Post, the largest selling English daily in Nepal.

A Novel - Fragile Mountains by M K Limbu Sunday, March 18th 2007, The Kathmandu Post
Another Quest for Peace

After Manjushreee Thapa's "Forget Kathmandu" in English and Narayan Wagle's "Palpasa Café" in Nepali, MK (Madan Kumar) Limbu's novel in English, Fragile Mounatins, is a timely addition to the literature of one of the bloodiest insurgencies in South Asia. This book not only informs readers about the insurgency but also stimulates their insights into how social conditions combined with the unique character of the People's Army's revolutionary doctrine determined the evolution and the future trajectory of the insurgency movement in Nepal.

Written with a deep concern for the political future of his country devastated by the authoritarian impulse of the old feudalism on the one hand and the new anarchic violence of the Maobadi insurgents on the other, the novel weaves facts with fiction. It is on the surface the story of three generations of Dil Bahadhur Rai and how his own dreams, and especially that of his son Milan and his daughter-in-law Lalita, were shattered by the Maoist rebellion that began in 1996. Also, the story of Lalita and Milan is not merely a yarn of two star-crossed lovers but of the struggles for survival of the thousands of young people living in Nepal.

First published on demand by the Canadian publishing house of Trafford and recently by Vajra Publications of Kathmandu, Fragile Mountains chronicles the major events in the history of Nepali politics, such as the 1990 people's movement for democracy, the royal massacre of 1 June 2001, and the take over by King Gyanendra on October 4, 2004 that has intensified the Maoists insurgency. What makes the book a memorable read is the writer's ability to take the readers to the edge and then make them see for themselves the plights of the people victimized by both sides – the state and the rebels.

The writer has vividly portrayed the historical subordination of the indigenous population of the hills by the feudalists. He deconstructs the present Nepali state structure dominated by the so-called upper classes, and asserts that the Maoist insurgency sprung up from the state's neglect of its aborigine people and the Maoists' promise of a just and equitable society upon the success of their revolution.

Limbu begins with a picturesque description of "the sleepy village where life moves at its own slow and tranquil pace, following its own age-old pattern, quietly and peacefully…as if nothing of significance happens here." Khewang is one of the many such sleepy villages where life moved on at its own leisurely pace until the Maoists transformed it into a "guerilla zone".

The writer has brilliantly captured the chaos that haunted the predominant Limbu population of Khewang when all of a sudden the Maoists intensified their operations in the eastern hills of Taplejung. Hundreds of people, such as the patriarch.

Dil Bahadur were roped in as supporters, by force or free will. Members of the People's Committee such as Comrade Prakash and Comrade Raktim dismissed the elected village committee and unilaterally declared villagers as members of the people's government at the local level. People were routinely tortured, threatened, assaulted, beaten up and sometimes murdered for the slightest offense. To avoid being picked up by the security forces or the Maoists, men started fleeing to Kathmandu and across the open borders into India. Left behind were women like Laxmi and a large chunk of the elderly people who managed the family amid the conflict.

The writer has presented a chilling account of the army atrocities – of how innocent villagers were tortured in army barracks and some shot dead in front of their own homes for supporting the Maoists. The writer is equally critical of the Maoist violence — that included, among other things, the brutal torture meted out to people such as the politician Hemraj and the local teacher Chandra, the latter alleged of being an informer.

Limbu has also brilliantly pointed his fingers at some of the ills prevalent in our society. One interesting topic that Limbu has repeatedly broached in his novel is his criticism of the Nepali belief in destiny or niyati. Lalita becomes a mouthpiece to vent the author's belief that man makes his own destiny. When Amrita tries to reason the treachery of his beloved as something written in Niyati, Lalita is quick to explain that cheating someone and blaming it on niyati is ridiculous. She gives a reference of how she defined her own fate and so did Milan. Lalita further reasons that Suraj deserted her because he had better options and because her love for Amrita was insignificant with regard to the lust he harbored for Anita.

It took the writer almost a year and a half to write the book and four months to edit it. However, there are still some grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. An efficient proofreader is what this book needs before the third edition is brought out in the market.

Fragile Mountains is a disturbing book, and a novel at that. It concludes on a happy note, but there is also a grim prediction that there will be more bloodshed in the days to come, with scores of ordinary people dying in a war they did not support but could not avoid either – except by dying at the discretion of the warring factions or fleeing one's village and country.

The Kathmandu Post

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