History

Gopal Parajuli, born in 1950 to his mother Thir Kumari Parajuli and father Jibanath Parajuli hailing from a farmer’s family in Koteshwar, Kathmandu, got married to Laxmi Adhikari (b. July 25, 1969) in 1986, and became father to five children: four daughters namely Dr. Rakshya Parajuli , Er. Dikshya Parajuli, Shaila Parajuli and Srija Parajuli and a son named Sayuj Parajuli. His first book appeared under the title Golardhaka Dui Chheu (The Two Extremes), a collection of one-act plays, which made completely new experiments in all three aspects: style, story and idea. Prestigious Nepali paper Samikshya, edited by Madan Mani Dixit, applauded the work for ushering a new turn in Nepali literature by publishing a special feature on it in a box on 11 July 1980, which came to create a literary scoop in the Nepali media.

Parajuli, who married quite late in his life, tried his hands in a number of tasks, donating land to social organizations (for example to Jagritinagar Development Committee in 2008), volunteering as a teacher in schools (for example at Mangal Adult School from 1967 to 1970), again getting enrolled at Banaras Hindu University to seek Master Degree in English and working for a brief time in 1984 for His Majesty’s Government at the capacity of assistant expert, and editor of Tuki, a periodical published by the Commission for Population.

On 29 September 2004, renowned journalist Yubaraj Gautam wrote a feature on Gopal Parajuli in Gorkhapatra daily with the headline “A Coy and Vegetarian Boxer Wins Nepali Nobel”.

Yubaraj Gautam wrote the following report

Kathmandu, September 28

Those days, Koteshwar was still a village. It was quite far from the city. A village boy often came down to Kathmandu even in the hot summer days to attend poetic recitals as an audience. With time, his works started appearing in periodicals like Rooprekha and Ratnashree. His stories, poems and plays started getting published.

After passing out his fifth grade from Sinamangal’s Guhyeshwari Primary School, he got admitted to Padmodaya School, Ram Shah Path. Before completing his formal education for bachelor’s degree, he completed a diploma level course in English language from the American Language Centre. This turned out to be quite instrumental in helping him understand world literature.

Mr. Parajuli, winner of Madan Puraskar for the year 2004, including a cash prize of one hundred thousand years for his epic Naya Ishwarko Ghoshana (Declaration of a New God), has spent almost four decades by now in literary pursuits. How soon time happened to slide on its wheel before notice! Many years have elapsed since the publication of his first books Golardhaka Dui Chheu and Dishaheen Aakash (Directionless Sky) that are taught as part of the syllabus at school and college levels. Parajuli, author of works like Prithvimathi Aalekh (The Mother Figure), Himalmathi Aalekh (Mark on the Summit) and Deshmathi Aalekh (A Salute to the Nation), has two plays, two story collections and six epics to his credit besides many uncollected poems.

Poet Parajuli has adopted a style of his own, consisting of three-line stanzas. He himself admits: “Even the Rigved has verses consisting of three lines. Haiku, a Japanese form of poetry, is also written in three lines. But my style of writing in three lines is my own. It’s not an influence from any quarter.”

When he won the Nobel Prize for literature, Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz had told reports, “I have youthful daughters at home. They wear high-heel shoes, and put on clothes of newer fashion. I fear that the cash I got as my prize will now be spent for the same.”

But Gopal Parajuli, a vegetarian, doesn’t have such problems. A man who tied his nuptial knot at an age of about forty in the year 1986, Parajuli is father to four daughters and a son, who are still quite young. Income from the land he received as his share of legacy from his ancestors is adequate to keep his family going. He doesn’t have high ambitions, nor is he the type of man who would approach the vigilance agencies for more wealth. He is the editor of Garima, a literary monthly published by Sajha Prakashan. This means, Gopal’s poems are like Gopal himself, and Gopal is like poetry. What a wonderful coincidence!

From 1968 to 1971, Gopal Parajuli was a renowned boxer of the country. The dons of the town were all afraid of him. A runner up of the national boxing championship, Gopal had a young poet squatting inside his heart, who consistently said to him, “Gopal, you can become a poet. You can become a playwright. You can become a writer. Never abandon literature.”

While he was a student, Gopal, a member of the Rashtriya Sewa Dal, got selected the post of Second Lieutenant in Nepal Army. His peer Rajendra Thapa became a General in the same army. Remembering Rajendra’s song “Pohor sala khushi phadda”, Gopal Parajuli says, “Rajendra didn’t stop writing poems even from inside the Nepal Army. Had I joined the army, I would also have kept the poet in myself alive. Only that, I might have written lesser.”

Gopal has won nine awards so far. He reached as far as England to get his books launched. His works have been published in a number of e-magazines as well. There still are a few modest, decent, peace-loving and placid people like Gopal Parajuli, who do not approach any quarter for prizes, honors or artificial recommendations. But now, he has also started developing some faith in people’s capacity to judge others’ strengths.

His book Proposal for the New World published in 2012 from the UK, and its Nepali version Arko Vishwako Prastav presents his history in a vivid way. A Solider in Search of Peace is his latest epic. Committed to poetry and epics at this time of his life, poet Parajuli has a staunch faith in the world, and ignores someone who shows arms to humankind, and in this epic, he raises a pen of challenge against death as does a sage, who has freed himself from the manacles of life.”

Images of historical moments