Palpasa Cafe
Finally read this popular book by Mr. Narayan Wagle. This was my first ever novel by a Nepali author written in English. Well, actually Mr. Wagle wrote Palpasa Cafe in Nepali and had a bunch of people translate it to English.
I like the storyline and I like the protagonist Drishya’s psyche except quite a few times in the beginning of the novel where he comes off as a total voyeur. Admiring beauty is one thing, but the following snippet from the book is just bad writing, unless of course the author wants us to know that his protagonist is a sexual predator, which we will know as the novel progresses, he is not.
I went to pay my bill and say good-bye to the hotel owner. Her daughter was now halfway up the coconut tree, trying to knock down another coconut. I wondered if there was any point in going to stand underneath her, but no, she was wearing trousers.
Is it just me or is the excerpt above a bit too awkward? I understand this is a translation (I have not read the Nepali version) but could the Nepali version be any different from the following ?
म मेरो बिल तिर्न र उतिनै खेर होटलको साहुनी सगंपनि बिदा मागैं भनि होटलको अफिस तिर लागें। साहुनीकि छोरी नरिवलको रुखको बिच सम्म पुगि सकेकी थिइन्। रुखको मुनि जाउंकि जस्तो लागेको थियो तर साहुनीकि छोरीले प्यान्ट लाएकि हुनाले केहि फाइदा नहोला जस्तो लाग्यो।
Just to silence my curiosity, I’ll have to make a visit to a bookstore one of these days. By the way, Mr. Wagle won the prestigious Madan Puraskar for this novel’s Nepali version. Madan Puraskar is to Nepal what Pulitzer Prize is to the U.S.
Mr. Wagle’s vision for this novel is solid, though it’s not a unique and will-blow-you-away type of story. The presentation is severely lacking in the English version, so is the description of characters. I say that because when I’m reading a good novel, everything belonging to that novel plays out in my mind like a movie as I’m reading. Not so in Palpasa Cafe. Not all the time, anyway. In Palpasa Cafe we are forced to guess what most characters look like because Mr. Wagle doesn’t help.
Another thing I didn’t get entertained by is just how easily Palpasa comes back to Drishya’s life. I could take their unexpected meeting in Kathmandu but their sudden encounter in that night bus was just overboard. Mr. Wagle could have done better, I think. And the love letters were just too corny for my liking.
I enjoyed it when Drishya has delusions of seeing someone like him a couple of times in his journey. I thought that fit into the story nicely given the experiences Drishya goes through on his trek. I have to give props to Mr. Wagle on his ending as well. Had the ending sucked, I would seriously have demanded my Rs. 300 back from somebody.
Rating: 6/10.
ma yesh book ka writer narayan wagle jyu lai thank u vanna chahanchhu.malai yo kitab padhera nepal ko kahali lagdo bigat ra jestha 19 ko samjhana aayo.hami kathmandu ma basera pani pahad ka keta keti ko jiban bujhana payun.malai lagyo drisya le palpasa lai antar maan dekhi nai chokho maya gareko ho tara usko biyog ma afulai santa parna euta bidesi keti [christina] lai bhane upayog matra gareko jesto chha.
Yangsung, kahani ma jod cha – kunai sanka chaina. Aba war ko bela ko portray jun tarika ley bhayeko cha ra baccha haru ko exploitation ko barema jasari Wagleji ley prastut garnu bhayeko cha, tyo prasamsa ko layak cha. Tara overall presentation ra incomplete references lai chain Wagleji ley chodinu bhayeko cha jasto lagyo English version ma.
Palpasa Cafe is new Era of the Nepali Novel history, i am crazy about this book. I am in Cario, Egypt nowdays, one my friend tell me about this book and i ask him sent it and he sent me. When i received that book start read on night and i finish this book without sleep, repiat it more than ten times. i really slute you for this novel.
Sharp observation here….I like the paragraph you have up here…even I had second thoughts about what exactly he was trying to show Drishya as when I first read it…. but nevertheless, I would not take away the effort he has put in the novel (which does not mean in any ways that you are demeaning the man of his worth either) and the reality it made me realize about Nepal…I read the first 104 pages in one read – I really did…. before I had to go to sleep for my early class…or I might have very well ended the whole book in one sitting…and like I have already mentioned in my reply, I guess I was only to overwhelmed with what I read and what I pictured – the horror and terror I never knew existed, that I let things like these just slide by…. I was only too distracted by the bigger picture of the novel – the insurgency, and its aftermath, that I must have not paid detailed attention to the traits of the main character or how some incidents – as the one you mentioned about Drishya meeting Palpasa in a bus randomly of all the places – were a bit too overplayed and unrealistic…And I don’t know if I sound too inclined towards the writer, but I really could picture almost every thing he had throughout the book – the gallis, Palpasa’s granny’s library, Drishya’s gallery, the little girl on her way to her mitini, the comrades at the eating stall, the mitba and mitini aama…I really saw them alive and well as I flipped through those pages….Nonetheless, I would still like to think it was one of the best reads I have had in quite a while. May be the whole idea of me not having realized how the situation was back then has more to do with the fact that I am being a bit biased towards the author. But still, I’d like to think of the book as one that’s worth the bucks and the time !!!
Remember, I fall on the minority here, Pukurey. Many people I know have that connect with this novel in a variety of ways – you obviously have one, I don’t. I felt the effects of the war via various in-my-face factors: this novel wasn’t one of those factors for me.
thasks narayan dai
Dai mahile aja samma pani yasto novel padeko thiyana.prakash kobind ko dherai pade tara palpasa cafe mero jiwan ko “1 of the best novel” huna aayo .
thanks narayan dai aru pani lekhdai janu hola yahi 6 mero new year 2067 BS ko suva kamana.
byeeeeeeeeee
Narayan Bro. your novels is BEST. keep it up.
Sir, ur novel is one of the best nobel.
I loved ur novel.
Keep writing nice novels.
aaalllllllllllllll the bestttttttttttt
ok byeeeeeeeeeeeee
Aru ramro lekhnu hola
pustak niskane bittikai kinera padhe, feri padhe ra feri padhe. ma bidesh aauda yo pustak chadnai sakina ekdam maya garera liyara aya.bidesh ma pani 3 patak padhe ra sathi lai padhna diya. Afsoch tyo kitab sathi bata firta ayana. sathi ghar gayachha malai khabar nagari. Ma yo ghatana birsana sakdina.
maile yo book ta padina tara shruti sambeg ko through bata sundai chu fm ma..aja pailo bhag sune.dherai ramro rahecha.ahileko samaya sanga mel khado rahecha.
Thanks to the writer Mr.Narayan wagle..
i wanntt to read itttt
awg=rghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
umm i really want to read this bookk
can sumone please upload the whole story in google plz
thank you
I LOVD UR NOVL…M HAPPY…THANKX
i used to think that nepal’s prizes r just nothing, but when i read this book i found thai i was wrong. hat’s off to such a book ,it describes the then real nepal…. great book ;flawless
Hello Mr. Wagle. i am most happiness to read you novel. actually this is a event of life. i want to contact with you please provide me you email id and cell no.
thanking you
naveen acharya
juropani-5, jhapa Nepal
cell-9807964190
नमस्ते नारायण सर,
पल्पसा क्याफे मलाई आज सम्म पढेको किताब मा सबै भन्दा मन परेको किताब हो।
Hello sir ur novel is great.you did such a great work.I love the ending of this book.I m so glad that i read ur book and such a nice work.Keep it up………..best of luck in the future as well.
Really it’s very nice book i love ur novel .!!!
Thank you sir
narayan wagle is a killer…..he killed my palpasa….
dear sir, i like your novel very much.best of luck for your up coming future.
i like ur novel its great n i like its love story tooooooo much
Hello sir ur novel is great.you did such a great work.I love the ending of this book.I m so glad that i read ur book and such a nice work.Keep it up………..best of luck in the future as well.
I just Finished you novel yesterday..It is just so amazing & so real…every word is interesting…
I finished this novel with in 15 days. I found the it mind blowing. Really the rhythem of writting is heart touching. The story is also very fabulous. It is not only entertaining, it also express what the real feeling of heart that we called love means. I love this novel and want to suggest to Narayan sir to do give us such novel time and again.
this is really very much best novel a have ever got…….. narayan dai ko yo novel le nepali sahitya lai agadi badna ko lagi thulo bhumika kheleko chha. i have studied this novel more than three times but the pleasure i get from it never decreases. heartly thanks to you ….
so sweet book that u have written.i like the best
.yestai lekhna ko karan nai nepali sahita ko bikash huncha
Dear Sir,
Maile pahilo novel padheko nai palpasa cafe ho so aru novel padhda khasai lagdaina jun ki fact kura lai dekhaiyako 6……… I like your writting style actual ma meetini ko part sarai man paryo………. 2nd novel Mayur times pni padhe tyo pani ramro lagyo keep it up your writting speed all the best
so sweet novel. I like this novel very much.
fantastic
dear sir, i like your novel very much.best of luck for your up coming future.
its the best novel ever of nepal
i would really like to read some more nepali novels like palpasa café but in nepali language… any suggestions?? BTW I LOVE PALPASA CAFÉ my all time fav. book.
palpasa
cafe malai sarai man pareo
Can you download this book on internet? So that we the Nepali who are staying out of Nepal can read this.Even I read your book briefly and from that I know the the golden words and meaning of the book.
I really enjoy this book…….. Best wish for your other book also… 1st time i but this book and i read because i love this one. i read 2 times and i listen the audio also… love this book
well, i went thrrough the book, chapterwise. unluckily, i could not find in nepali the first one. but the english one, is well trasnslated, i suppose. it is easy to read and understand. the protagonists are not ended and united well. there is the incident like that of the film stars. plausible incidents should have been much better to reconcialiation. the coincidents are not quite plausible, in goa and in ktm. but anyway, i have chosen the book for my thesis. i am thankful to wagle. ithe book is worth reading and for madan puruskar. i percieve , i will learn a great deal from this book. i felt so interesting, – a nepali writer writing in the western style, depiction of mixed culture, victimization of the poor proleterians by maoist and govt. police is nicely portrayed. i like it .so much, that i finished the book in 19 hours.
thanks once more.
I am studying palpasa cafe………when i finished i will comment again….
Sure – are you reading the Nepali version or English?
एदी यो कथा वास्तविक हो भने द्रिश्य लाई सलाम छ।। र एदी यो कथा कल्पनिक हो भने वाग्लेसर लाई सलाम।।। आन्त्यमा
म एकचोटि पल्पसा सेरिज हेर्न चाहन्छु। । ।
पल्पसा सेरिज? फेरि अर्को?
त्यो चित्रकला द्रिश्य को, आनी फेरी आर्को पल्पसा सेरिज।
म आझै एस कथा बाट बाहीरि संसार मा फर्किन सकेको छैन।।।
palpals cafee is very nice nobel dedicate in the nepali history during donda kal…….thanks for u ….
I thought it was okay. Thanks.
palpasa cafe yo 1 dherai dherai ramro book ho yeshlea hamro samaj lai unate ra pargari ko path sikauxa ra yo bastama reality pani 6 malai ta dherai dherai ramro lagyo …??? Thank u Narayan wagle feri arko palpasa cafe 2 leyara aaunu hola yehi suvakamana hajurlai …???]
Every time I read this novel, I consider my self as palpasa but Drisya of a story as Drisya.. I wish I could go inside the bookand meet Drisya.. Narayan Wagle, the writer of this novel has all the humor, joy, emotions inside this novel but one point that still doesn’t have satisfied me is the death of Drisya’s parents, about his family back ground. Other wise the story, presentation, ups and down are really upto the mark…
Tpi ko Novel dhari ramro 6 sir, Radio nepal ko program ma pani bachan bhaya ko recording gari sadhi jaso sunne gar6u. Thanks u for your new creation ……….