Miscellaneous
Satire is an indicator of society’s capacity for self assessment
Krishna Murari Gautam lives a dual life, barring a third which he also claims to have had. Born in Jhaukhel, Bhaktapur in 1953, Gautam is a senior agriculture economist and one of the first generation of home grown development planners. Although already into his mid-sixties, Gautam is as industrious as ever, working on his computer all day, planning projects and policies and implementing them. But at the end of a hectic day, Gautam transforms into a satirical writer that goes by ‘Chatyang Master’.Krishna Murari Gautam lives a dual life, barring a third which he also claims to have had. Born in Jhaukhel, Bhaktapur in 1953, Gautam is a senior agriculture economist and one of the first generation of home grown development planners. Although already into his mid-sixties, Gautam is as industrious as ever, working on his computer all day, planning projects and policies and implementing them. But at the end of a hectic day, Gautam transforms into a satirical writer that goes by ‘Chatyang Master’. Chatyang Master is said to be a writer who rose to fame within a very small period of time. But as Gautam himself puts it, as a child (and even as a man in his early thirties), he never thought of becoming one. In this conversation with the Post’s Abijeet Pant, Chatyang Master talks about his inspirations and about satire and humour in literature. Excerpts:
You are an avid reader. How did you get into reading?
As the first child born into a family in a village made up of barely ten houses, my childhood was full of love. But because I was the eldest, I was also the most mischievous—I used to steal from neighbours’ kitchens, destroy their gardens, and also bully the younger kids. I also enjoyed the privilege of coming from a family with a literate head of the house—my grandmother was the only literate woman in the whole village and she had a certain power and influence on the villagers just because she could read the Ramayana. From her, I learnt early on that literacy was a tool for power.
My father was a strict man and he made it mandatory for me to read a book before bed every day. I would read these books first thing in the morning too. There were no hard and fast rules regarding what genre or what type of book to read—all that mattered was that I read, consistently. This developed into a habit and even later in life, I could not sleep without a book in my hand.
In spite of a prestigious degree, a high-ranking job, and a busy life, how did you get drawn towards satire and literature?
It was only in the late ‘70s that I started reading works of satire published in the papers. By that time, I was already an agriculture economist and a development planner for the government. As someone coming from a technical background, my understanding of writing was limited to logic, research, and depth of study. And these new works that I came across were neither based on study nor on experience.
I believe humour is an alternative way of looking at things. I think if you categorise the members of a society based on their capability of thought—those capable of thinking above the average are ones that are the good humorists. This was not the case back then and the satirical works, in my view, were of a subpar quality. So I wanted to give it a try.
Can you speak more on the satirical literature scene? What topics does it touch upon today?
Satire writing was either salacious or targeted towards the political turmoil of our country. I saw no point in writing humorously about the nature of our body or about the affairs inside Singha Durbar. In the first place the affairs are unseen and secondly, we will never reach the perspective that our leaders have. So, we lack a common ground from which we can satirise the government’s affairs.
Talking about today, satire and humour has been largely limited to caricature and laughing. It is used as a tool to offend others, specially women.
Likewise, what was it that established your image as a poet in such a small period of time?
When one of my first works was published in a magazine, many people congratulated me and admired me for it. I was quite perplexed too. A lot of them had no regard for what I actually did, no regard for my development policies and planning. How did I garner so many fans for one little joke I cracked? I couldn’t understand.
You see, it is an addiction to have the public attention. Once I increased the frequency of my writing, my admirers too increased. Soon, I used all three means of mass media (radio, television, and newspaper) to present my literary works and before I knew it, I was being called a prolific writer.
What do you think is the purpose of satire and humour? What are the matters that you try to express in your work?
There are topics, apart from vulgarity and Singha Durbar, where humour can be applied. Humour can be found in every aspect of our society. Particularly in my works, I try to write about our mentality, our behaviour, and society. This can be anything—a youngster spitting like a water cannon or a public service officer picking his nose on duty. Either way, it is all about writing what relates to you.
Similarly, satire and humour is indicator of a person, but also the society’s capacity for thought, self assessment and change. The things we satirise in our literature are the reflection of our day to day lives. Moreover, I believe that this type of literature can cause a shift in people’s consciousness by inducing them to think more deeply about the world. By nature, human beings are changeable so good literature also contributes in changing our perspective and slowly and eventually, our behaviour.
As someone who has brought radical changes in humour and satire of Nepali literature, what is your message for the next generation of writers?
I have sensed that quantitatively, our literature is well above average. But qualitatively, we are still behind. Writing is a very strict discipline and thus, it is very important to think about the audience and the purpose of writing. There is no point in writing without truly analysing these things. Likewise, publishing too should not be the primary concern of writers. We should all focus on the qualitative aspects of our literature.