Sarad Pradhan
In an interview, I asked Prakash Sayami, a writer and film director on Radio Tourism, “Which novelist do you like?” Unlike what I expected he replied Prakash ‘Kovid’ without thinking twice. He was of the opinion that many writers today, must have read his novels once in their lifetime. In the meantime, a discussion emerged about Mr. Kovid’s acclaimed books within the popular Facebook group bOOkahOlics. Prakash ‘Kovid’, who has been forgotten by many long ago, seems to me that he has been resurrected. Perhaps the new generation who read Subin Bhattarai, Chetan Bhagat, may have found his name completely new. But the name is by no means new to readers in their 50’s now.
In early sixties, Nepalese readers were glued to the novels of Hindi writers like Ranu, Gulsan Nanda, Colonel Ranjit and the likes. But after the emergence of Prakash Kovid, Yudhir Thapa, Harish Bamjan and Subash Ghising in the Nepali literature, people started reading them passionately. They succeeded in providing alternative reading material to the common readers who felt difficult to understand the novels of Parijat, BP, Gothale, Indra Bahadur Rai, Vijay Malla. But even among them, Prakash Kovid was very popular in pulp fiction, what is called in popular parlance today. His writing career started at a time when Indra Bahadur Rai, Bir Bikram Gurung, Vikram Rupasa, Indra Sundas, Shiv Kumar Rai, Gabriel Rana and Jagat Chhetri were leading the way in writing novels and stories in Darjeeling.
In the literary competition organized by the Youth Federation in 1955, Prakash won the first prize in essay competition. In the same competition, Agam Singh Giri and Bir Bikram Gurung came first in poetry and story respectively. Prakash ‘Kovid’ passed the Kovid exam in Hindi, so he was fortunate enough to add this nickname. Literary writer Jagat Chhetri, who passed Kovid with him that same year, did not use this title. Even though he was named Nar Bahadur Rai in his naming ceremony known as Nowran in Nepali community, Kovid was known as Bhampu in the neighborhood and Prakash ‘Kovid’ in the literary world.
Many understood Prakash Kovid in their own way. For some he was a novelist, for others a painter. And a sculptor for someone. He had flair in writing children’s stories, plays, poems, essays and stories equally. Such talent is rare even today in Nepali community. In Darjeeling, artistic paintings of birds made on bamboo by Kovid were found everywhere. It seemed that there was no house without his picture in Darjeeling in the seventies and eighties.
He became a writer in 1946 at the age of 14 after the story ‘Chitrakar’ was published in ‘Uday‘ magazine published from Banaras. During his 61 years of life, Prakash Kovid wrote about 50 novels, six collections of short stories, a collection of plays, a collection of one-act plays and several books on children’s literature. As special as it is to write so many numerically, it is just as special to be popular with all books. He also published some translated literature. In response to a reader’s question in Baisalu magazine, he writes: “A novel cannot be based on empty imagination. If reality is the ‘back-bone’ of a novel, fiction is its body.” The main feature of Prakash Kovid is simplicity. And his skill is to present the subject matter around him in a nice way.
His most realistic novels are Noyo, Arko Janma (Next-Birth), Neelo Akash(Blue Sky), Anuradha, Har-Jit, Tista-Rangit and Seema. His stories and novels written in the early stages are- Rekha, a collection of stories.
In this phase of writing, Prakash Kovid was at the height of his literary career and produced excellent novels with quality both in content and style.
Noyo, Devta, Arko Janma, Mero Hazur, etc. are of very good standard in terms of story, writing style and ideology. Noyo, written on Tibetan refugees, is considered his masterpiece.
Sangam was translated into Bengali by Girindranath Chattopadhyaya. In his novel ‘Dui Phool Ek Bhool‘, Tulsi Ghimire made a movie ‘Bansuri’ without his permission. Among his story collections Chot, Rekha, Hamro Kancha, Dakbangla are very popular.
Veteran critic Guman Singh Chamling acknowledges Noyo as a literary masterpiece. Chamling, who also won the Sahitya Akademi Award, has extensively discussed this in his critical work ‘Maulo’. Reaching the second stage, Prakash Kovid was burdened with heavy family responsibilities. 6 children, one teacher’s earnings, and wife. It was too much for him to feed so many months with meager earning he made out of his teaching job and selling arts and crafts. To sustain the large family, he began to write commercially without much literary flavour.
Due to a lack of money, he began writing novels hastily, sometimes completing them within a week. Expenses for cigarettes and alcohol further strained his finances. In such a situation, producing high-quality literature is often challenging. As he sold his books for a lump sum, perhaps in low price, he was also deprived of the royalties. While the publishers got fat, Kovid never got enough to make his end meet. Dobato, Vivas, Chalis Din, Arpan etc. are the novels of his second phase.
Kovid was also an expert in children’s literature. Children’s literature written by him used to be in the curriculum of many primary schools in Darjeeling in seventies and eighties. He wrote about the training he received in children’s literature, “I received training in children’s story writing from American professors under the auspices of the National Christian Council in Nilgiri Hills in South India selected from Darjeeling and Nepal. Representatives from 21 states took part in this workshop”
Another strong point of Prakash Kovid is painting. After the selling of his painting while he was still in the ninth grade, Kovid took the path of professional painter. He was also inspired by Desmond Doig, then the editor of Junior Statesman and a well-known painter who saw his painting in Darjeeling. Desmond Doig lived in Nepal after leaving Calcutta in the early seventies.
Kovid specialized in oil painting. Mountains, hills, tea plantations were the subject of his paintings. He worked hard to make paintings, and his wife and children always helped him in this task. His contemporaries in painting in Darjeeling were: Lainsingh Bangdel, Gore Duglas, Birendra Subba, Bhotu Pradhan. He exhibited and sold his paintings in various places annually including in Nepal.
Collected the tears giving pearls
Becoming Victory not defeat
Flowers falling from the branches
Could not forget love.
This line, written in dedication to Nana, can be read in all the novels of Prakash Kovid. It is dedicated to his estranged girlfriend of nine years of love. She encouraged him to pursue a career in literature and the arts.
Famous singer Kumar Subba was his own brother-in-law from first marriage who completed his studies staying at his house and was inspired to get involved in music. Another famous singer-songwriter Ashok Rai is his cousin’s brother. They continued their literary and musical journey together.
He was born on 14 February 1932 and died on 11 November 1992.
