The Royal Ghost by Samrat Upadhyay

The Royal Ghost by America-based Nepali author Samrat Upadhyay is a good read. It is a short story collection rather than a single novel. The book discusses the stories of various people under going their own path and also their psychological aspect and their behaviour.



One of the stories in the book tells the tale of the time when the Royal massacre took place in Nepal. The book got its name from that story. The book mostly deals with human psychological nature, their feelings and emotions. The characters in the book usually belong to the middle or the lower-middle class groups. It represents the changing human relationships. Also how people’s behavior is affected by other’s thinking, how their activities are affected by what others say is mostly found in his stories. In the last story of the book, The Royal Ghost, the protagonist breaks through the barrier of the society and does what he wants rather than listening to others.

Samrat’s way of presenting the life of these people is good but at some point, it is quite difficult to accept that such kinds of things happen around the Nepali society and in nooks and crannies of Kathmandu. However, that is for the reader to judge whether he has done justice in portraying the life of the lower-middle class people or not.

The author has done justice in explaining changing human behaviors, their psychology and changing human relationships. Thus, the book is a good read if you want something to read about the Nepali society and people.