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Uprety’s ‘Hansa’ Wins Padmashree

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TGT Correspondent
Kathmandu, September 27

Hansa, a novel by Sanjeev Uprety, has been declared the winner of the prestigious Padmashree Award for the year 2020. A press release issued by Khemkala-Harikala Lamichhane Foundation Chairperson Mr. Jiba Lamichhane made this announcement on Sunday. Similarly, senior poet and critic Modanath Prashit has been chosen for Padmashree Honor. Both these recognitions carry a cash prize of three hundred thousand rupees and a citation each. The press release further says, the award distribution ceremony will take place at a convenient date, unlike on previous years, when it used to take place on Kojagrat Poornima Day, following the Dashain Festival of the Hindus.

Uprey’s Hansa was published by BookHill Publication in 2020. It  is a story that performs on two fronts: environmental issues and human relations. Set fundamentally in and around Taudaha Lake in Kathmandu, the book dismantles myths associated with the lake, and renders the story new from the perspective of ducks deconstructing earlier myths that were anthropocentric in nature. Divided into twelve short chapters, the novel features two protagonists: Prem, a disoriented human, and the whimsical duck. Prem is a disillusioned poet, whose life, including his relation with his wife, has been thrown off the gear due to alcoholism. The whimsical duck, on the other hand is a domicile of  Taudaha Lake that is critical of almost the prevalent norms, and believes in escaping them and moving beyond.  The animal myths, also including those of the native snakes of the lake twined with the main plot in an episodic manner besides the tale of the domestic and migratory ducks, are allegories, and contain the overtones of the human affairs, including migrants and diasporas, and their anxieties and ardent searches for alternatives that have rendered their lives sour due to mistrust, sexual violence and indecision.

Hansa is Uprety’s second novel in Nepali, following his highly acclaimed debut fiction Ghanachakkar.

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