Book: Hostage
Author: Greta Rana
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Pages: 223;
Price: Rs 350
Inarguably literature is a mirror of society, the hands which hold this mirror are those of socially conscious authors. They act as the mouthpieces of their times. They don’t only wallow in their own joys and sorrows rather their oeuvres bring about a new awakening among the readers. Similarly, having lived for forty years in Nepal, Greta Rana, a UK born author, mirrors the struggle and strife of the poor Nepali migrants with utmost poignancy in her sensitively crafted novel Hostage.
She presents a ringside view of the seamy side of life in Nepal and some of the Gulf countries. Rana has felt the pulse of the critical times in Nepal, reeling under the maladies like terrorism, poverty, rampant corruption, drug addiction, cast-conflict and messy political system etc., chiefly through the portrayal of Hari Parshad and his family. Hari Parshad, a responsible husband, a doting father and an honest commoner has to leave his motherland and first take up some menial jobs in Dubai to rustle up adequate money for redeeming his mortgaged land and ensuring quality education to his children.
When after five years, he returns home with a sufficient sum to translate his dreams into reality and live a debt-free life of dignity, he is disillusioned to witness the rabid anarchy prevailing in Nepal. The unemployed qualified youths like Siva Bhadhur have been fully indoctrinated and the country has become a hot bed of Maoist insurgency. Therefore, Nepal symbolizes a microcosm in macrocosm.
Today, no nation has escaped the swathes of these diabolical social scourges. Placing in the Indian context, the novel gains more currency as India is also locking horns with such daunting challenges.
Undeniably, Rana is a pacifist and believes that fire can not be quenched with fire. There is a need of holistic approach to tide over these looming crisis. An empty stomach is nothing short of a lethal bomb and most of the times political apathy breeds bickering in a social order with the consequent rise of the fundamentalist organisations (like People’s Party). George W Bush pertinently remarks that we don’t create terrorism by fighting the terrorists. We invite terrorism by ignoring them.
The book also addresses the alarming issue of Islamic (read un-islamic) terrorism that has spread all across the globe. In search of the greener pastures when Hari Parshad once again returns to Gulf (This time in Jordan and Iraq), he is held hostage with 12 other migrant workers by a terrorist organization “Ansar al-Sunnah.”
What lies in store for these captives should be left for the readers to find. But certainly, the novel is a slap in the face of the corrupt and incompetent leadership. These wicked rulers are busy lining their own pockets whereas countless Hari Parshads get banged up abroad in their desperate efforts to keep the pot boiling at home and some of the hapless are never reunited with their families.
Thus, writing in a lucid manner, Rana is at her best in fictionalising reality. What endears her novel to the readers is its disarming honesty, speaking through the pages.