0. Background
Science fiction is a distinct type of fiction that uses scientific
rationale besides having the regular features such as plot, characters,
setting, action and point of view. It speculates about the situation of human
beings in the world of science and technology; real or imaginary; present or
future. Despite being imaginative in quality, it is different from fantasy because
of the content of science used in it.
Since the publication of Frankenstein (1818), a precursor of science fiction[2], by Mary Shelley, English
literature has got several works that have used explicit and coherently developed
scientific principles. They are divided into two main groups- hard and soft- by
the critics. The former uses much of scientific knowledge and gadgetry along
with scientists and engineers as its protagonists. The latter exploits the
ideas from other branches of knowledge such as sociology, psychology,
philosophy, etc. while raising moral questions about human existence in the
world of science and technology.
Recently, a new type of science fiction called cyberpunk has come
into existence in English literature. Its characters, either human or
artificial intelligences, are set in ‘virtual reality’[3] created by the use of
computers and computer networks. It seems to be a combination of science
fiction and fantasy.
Despite being greatly influenced by English literature’s universal
presence, Nepali literature is still far behind in this genre. Moreover, it is
a very novice idea in Nepali literature for children.
In this context, this article tries to discuss, in short, the
presence of science fiction in Nepali literature written for children. The
major discussion is focused on how a novel, Paaneeko Thopaa (The Drop of
Water), written by Kavitaram, for children, can claim its position as a science
fiction. The conclusion is based on the findings of the discussion.
1. Science Fiction in Nepali Literature
Science fiction is in a marginalized state in Nepali literature.
It is a less heeded genre by Nepali writers.
After BiraaT Parva, the first
published narrative work in Nepali, translated by Shakti Ballav Arjyaal from
Hindi (in 1827 B. S.), Nepali literature had to wait almost seven decades more
to get its first original fiction Rupmati (1991 B. S.) by Rudra Raj
Pandey. (Baral and Atom 2056 B. S.:73) Since then, several works of Nepali
fiction (long and short) have been published, but science fiction is still in
the marginalized state.
Critic Krishna Chandra
Singh Pradhan says that early Nepali novels (written around 1970s and 80s of
Bikram Sambat) were similar to either folk tales or miracle tales, or social
and reformative novels since they borrowed ideas from Veda, Braahmana, Upanisads, etc. (quoted in Shrestha 2008:12).
Along with time, literary works based on different isms such as
Idealistic Realism, Social Realism, Historical Realism, Socialist Realism, Human
Psychology, Existentialism, Feminism, Post-modernism, etc. appeared (ibid: pp 12-20).
But hardly a few works have science as their subject matter.
Aatmaako Meemaansaa (2011 B.
S.) by Shankar Lamichhane is
said to be the first Nepali science fiction that encouraged many other Nepali
writers such as Ramesh Khanal (RoboTko Maanabiya Astitwa), Vijay Malla (Engineer
ko Taauko and Pravesh Nishidda), Saru Bhakta (Padaarthaharuko
Geet, Chhoree Bramhaanda and Saayad Mahaavisphot), Madan Mani Dixit (Kaanch,
Shubra ra Devyaanee), etc. into this genre. Some other science fiction
writers who have mainly written for children are: Kavitaram, Gorakh Bahadur
Singh, Vijay Chalise, Vinay Kasaju, Dhruba Ghimire, Kapil Lamichhane, etc. Their
works can be categorized into three- mechanical, adventurous, and social- based
on the subject matters included. (Atom 2068 B. S.:pp 100-11)
1.1. Science Fiction for Children in Nepali Literature
Most of the works in Nepali literature written for the children seem
to have only one motto: to entertain while teaching moral lessons to the
readers. Therefore, most of the works for children are influenced by folk tales
because of simplicity,
imagination and entertainment found in them (Rai 2067 B. S.:77). And many other
works are based on myths.
Laxmi Prasad Devkota’s Raaj Kumaar Prabhaakar (1997 B. S.) is regarded to be the first published
work for children in Nepali (Pradhan 2057 B. S.:27). After him, some other
Nepali writers such as Madhav Ghimire, Dev Kumari Thapa, Krishna Prasad
Parajuli, Parashu Pradhan, etc. published their works for children. But they
have not included science in their works.
Critic Pramod Pradhan (2057 B. S.) has given credit to Kavitaram
as the first Nepali writer of science fiction for children (28). According to him,
Kavitaram's published books on the genre are Bandevee (2036 B. S.), Paaneeko Thopaa (2038 B.
S.) and Kamilaa ko Kathaa (2048 B. S.).
2. A Study on Paaneeko Thopaa as a Science Fiction
2.1. Summary
The novel Paaneeko
Thopaa (The Drop of Water) is an account of the adventures of the main
character called Paaneeko Thopaa. Written in the third person narrative form,
it presents many scientific facts about water in a simple and lucid language suitable
for children.
Paaneeko
Thopaa evaporates off the sea, becomes cloud and drops to the earth as a
hailstone. A small boy’s mother puts it into a freeze and prepares ice-cream.
It enters the boy’s body through his mouth and is dragged into different organs
by an unknown force. Together with other drops of water, it falls into the
toilet and reaches in a sewer pipe which leads it to a flooded river. Flowing
down, it reaches the deep mines of gold, diamond, silver and coal and comes out
to the earth’s surface along with a stream of hot water. It reaches into the plain
as a dirty river contaminated with the human created pollutants and germs. A farmer collects it in a pot and waters a
flower plant whose roots suck it into. From the leaf of the plant, it reaches to
the sky through evaporation. Flying over the Himalayas ,
it falls down into a glacier as snow. Reaching over the snowline, it melts into
water to be collected into a pond. From there, it falls upon a turbine used for
the production of hydro-electricity. Then, it falls upon a wheel of a water-mill
used by a farmer for grinding flour and reaches into a pond. A group of
children having picnic on the pond pollute the water. The germ-laden Paaneeko
Thopaa drops into a kettle of a small boy through the nozzle of his house tap.
When the boy boils the water for making it pure, it comes out of the kettle in
the form of vapor and gets stuck on the window pane. The next morning, the
house owner opens the window and Paaneeko Thopaa reaches up into the sky being
evaporated by the heat of the sun.
The wind pushes it toward south and,
after all, it reaches over the sea, its home. It becomes frost and falls down into
the sea, and gets reunited with all its relatives.
2.2. Use of
Science in the Novel
Prarambha
(2010) says the majority of Nepali fiction for children is based on myths that
are hardly believable in the modern context and they cannot fulfill the modern
generation’s need for “intellectual input in the art of story telling”. Therefore,
myths should be recycled with “a scientific taint” (ibid) to win the children’s
hearts.
Paaniko
Thopaa has no myth. The whole novel is based on one complete
cycle of the journey of water from the sea to the sky and finally to the sea
again. The scientific description through the narration of Paaneeko Thopaa, the
protagonist of the novel, who encounters various odds and evens along its
adventures, is delightfully knowledgeable to the children.
The
heat of the sun evaporates Paaneeko Thopaa, a drop of water, off the sea. The
vapor flies high up in the sky and changes itself into a cold cloud. (Kavitaram
2059 B. S.:2) A hurricane pushes and tosses the cloud that turns into
hailstones that fall down to the ground with rain.
Water freezes when it is kept in a
fridge. This theory is applied when a boy’s mother makes ice-cream from Paaneeko
Thopaa.
Water,
when drunk by someone, reaches into different parts of human body and do the
appointed works. When it reaches into the blood stream, it helps to reduce the temperature
in human body. Water also helps in the formation of tear, saliva, mucous,
urine, etc., and in cleaning the body. Paaneeko Thopaa reaches into the urinary
bladder as urine after cleaning up the body (ibid:9) and waits there to be
thrown out.
When water is polluted with harmful
germs, nature tries to purify it in its own way. As the narrator describes,
soorya
tantalaapur chamkiraheko thiyo. safaa haawaa pani bahiraheko thiyo. sooryako
taap ra haawaa ma bhayeko aksijanle usma bhayekaa kitaanuharu bistaarai mardai
gaye. (ibid:11)
(The sun was
shining brightly in the sky. The fresh wind was also blowing. The germs he
(Paaneeko Thopaa) contained died slowly due to the sun’s heat and the oxygen in
the air.)
Thus, water restores its natural
freshness with the help of oxygen and the heat of the sun.
Streams of hot water are found to be
flowing under the surface of the earth. The streams spring out at various
places on earth where humans take bath for healing purposes. Paaneeko Thopaa
finds a boy taking bath in one such spring. (ibid:16)
How does lava burst out of the
earth? The process is described in the novel in simple words of a drop of water
through its own narration:
…talatala
puge pachhi ma yesto thaaunmaa pugen jahaankaa dhungaa, maato, khanijharu sabai
pagliyera paaneejastai taral bhayekaa thiye. tyahaan ma maatra pugeko thiyina.
ma jastaa asankhya thopaaharu pugekaa thiye ra sabai pugnaasaath baafmaa
parinat bhaisakekaa thiye. ma ta baaf hundaa aafno yo aakaar bhandaa satra saya
gunaa failiyen ra tyahaan tyasari failane ma maatra thiyina. haamee ek arkaalaai
thelamthel garee tyahaan nai atesmates garirahyaun. thaaun ekdamai saano thiyo
ra tyahaa nayaa thopaaharukaa dhaaraaharu uttikai aaundai baaf bandai jaandai
thiye. antamaa haamee sabaiko thelamthel le gardaa tyahaan jameen nai futyo.
tyas futeko thaaun baata sabai baafharu baahira niskiye. baafharu sangai tyo
taatole pagliyeko aago jasto taral padaartha baahira bhutututu niskiyo. ma tyo
baafko rupmaa aakaasmaa pugisakeko thiyen. tara tala maile dekhen, tyo aago
jasto taral padaarthale waaripaari ko jangal ra maanchhe kaa gaaunharu sabai
dadhaayera bhasma paaryo. (ibid:18)
(… going deeper into
the earth, I reached the places where soil, stone, minerals, etc. had melted into
liquid. I was not the only one. Innumerable drops of water like me had
immediately been changed into vapor. My volume increased by seventeen hundred
times, and I was not alone there to have the fate. We kept pushing and pulling
each other for some time. The space was very limited and the new trickles of
water were being changed into vapor. At last, the earth split open at a place
due to our force. Then, the vapor came out of the rupture. The melted hot
liquid was also spilled out all over the surrounding forests and the villages
which were immediately burnt down by the excessive heat.)
There is also a description of the
scientific process of the formation of water. A science teacher and his
students conduct an experiment in the lab where they mix two parts of Hydrogen
and one part of Oxygen in a glass tube and put a burning match-stick into it.
Drops of water are formed with a loud bang in the pot. (ibid:20)
When water is polluted, it is full
of harmful germs due to which the aquatic animals die of diseases. (ibid:21)
Water also helps in photosynthesis
in plants. A flower plant absorbs water through its roots. Then, it is sucked
into stalks, branches and leaves of the plant in turn. (ibid:24)
Paaneeko Thopaa turns into snow and
falls down on a mountain. It reaches into a glacier which flows very slowly,
not more than one and a half inches everyday (ibid:26). After years, Paaneeko
Thopaa arrives at the snowline, the place where the temperature is enough for
snow to melt automatically, and becomes water again.
Water is led into a reservoir through
a canal and is dropped upon a big wheel through a tunnel. The force of water
turns the wheel round and produces electricity. (ibid:27)
There is also a watermill that is
run by the force of water falling down through a tunnel. Human beings pollute
water by carelessly throwing dirty things. But it can be purified by heating it
for twenty minutes in a high temperature. A boy puts the kettle with Paaneeko
Thopaa and other drops of water on a stove and boils the water for twenty
minutes. All the germs in water are killed. (ibid:31)
The water vapor has been a very
useful form of energy in the human history. Many descriptions about vapor
engines that pulled trains, ships, etc. can be read in books. In the novel,
Paaneeko Thopaa sees the lid of the kettle being pushed up by the force of
water vapor. (ibid:32)
The
vapor rises high up into the sky, becomes cold mist and starts coming downwards
to the sea at night. At last, the mist gets into the sea water. Then, another
cycle of water starts. In the same process, Paaneeko Thopaa reaches into the
sea. (ibid:pp 33-5)
Besides Paaneeko Thopaa, there are
many other assisting characters that come along the events in the novel. No
character has any specific name. Perhaps it is the writer’s effort to
generalize events and the characters in the novel.
No hard and fast scientific theories
or rules are explained in the novel. The language used and the information
included target the general reader, preferably children, without any prior
knowledge on science.
3.
Conclusion
The
novel provides knowledge of various scientific facts about water in an
interesting third person narrative with omniscient point of view. It is entertaining
as well as knowledgeable to the children, the targeted readers, due to its simple
and lucid language. Also, it describes human behavior towards nature and water,
one of its main ingredients. Water is life for human beings and all living
creatures in this world, but only a few people know everything about it. On the
whole, the novel is focused on showing through an interesting narrative how
water is useful for human beings and how it reaches from one place to another.
References
Atom,
Netra. 2068 B. S. “Nepali Bigyaan Kathaa Siddhaanta ra Prayog”. Garima. Kathmandu :
Sajhaa Prakashan.
Baral,
Krishnahari and Netra Atom. 2056 B. S. Upanyaas Siddhaanta ra Nepali Upanyaas.
Kavitaram.
2059 B. S. Paaneeko Thopaa. 3rd edition. Lalitpur: Sajha
Prakashan.
Pradhan,
Pramod. 2057 B. S. Nepali Baal Saahitya ko Itihaas. Kathmandu: Bagar Foundation Nepal
Prarambha,
Mahaesh Paudyal. “Reinventing the Art of Storytelling”. The Kathmandu Post. Page no.
6. December 4, 2010.
Rai,
Bhakta. 2067 B. S. “Baal Saahityamaa Lok Saahitya ko Prabhaav”. Garima. Kathmandu : Sajha
Prakashan.
Shrestha,
Parshu Ram. 2008. Voice for Aestheticism in Palpasa Café. A thesis
submitted
to the
Department of English, Mahendra Multiple Campus, Dharan in
partial fulfillment of
the requirements for
the degree of Master of Arts in English.
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