KATHMANDU: It’s not often that a
princess decides to write about a scandal involving her own family. But
Sheeba Shivangini Shah has been doing
just that with stories that take in Nepal’s
complex equation with its now-deposed royal family. The 34-year-old, of royal
birth and married to a nephew of Nepal’s last king Gyanendra, is soon to
publish her third novel.
But it was her first book, Loyals of the
Crown, which laid bare the violent sub-text that appears to run through
Nepal’s royal history. Published two years after the 2001 massacre of 10
members of the royal family, it centres on another royal massacre. That was the
1846 Kot killing of some 60 nobles, instigated by a junior queen to avenge the
death of her lover.
Shah says she empathized with the frustrations
of this queen she read about in a history book. ‘‘I came across a
passage that said a junior queen of King Rajendra Bir Bikram Shah (who ascended
the throne in 1816) harboured fond sentiments for a courtier. Kanchamaharani
Laksmi Devi’s affair roused my imagination. She was a talented poet, but
had nothing to look forward to. The king ignored her; he was under the thumb of
the senior queen and her son had no chance of being king.’’
It took Sheeba four years to write that story. By the time the book
was published, her in-laws were dead, along with King Birendra, Queen
Aishwarya and all three of their children. Sheeba says the massacre in Tribhuvan Sadan,
now razed to the ground but its site an object of tourist curiosity from Friday,
was more than a personal tragedy. The nation lost a part of itself.
‘‘We were brought up in a system where the king was our father
figure and now he was no more. The entire country was terrified.’’
She says that Nepal’s 239-year-old monarchy “united the
nation and generated global interest in Nepal. Just like the Queen of England,
people outside talked about Nepal’s royaltyâ€.
But she is
stoical about the loss of royal status. The last king left for India, his first
trip abroad as a commoner, a day ahead of his palace being opened to the public.
Sheeba says, ‘‘My in-laws used the royal titles, but we
didn’t. If the abolition of monarchy is needed for peace, so be
it.’’
--http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sunday-TOI/Nepals-history-seen-in-a-novel-light/articleshow/4206034.cms
