Kathmandu:

His barbs have always found their marks, and with his satire directed at everyone, he has made the dreary drudgery of life a little more bearable.

The book Batsyayana and his barbs — A cartoonist’s take on post-1990 Nepal is a treasure house of Durga Baral, popularly known as Batsyayana, Nepal’s foremost cartoonist’s works.

His book of barbs has been divided into two parts — political and social. The political section as evident from the title covers all political acts and mis-acts from TADO to freedom of Press to government-Maoist talks to the parties’ common agenda and many others.

There are a number of cartoons on the freedom of Press that bear witness to Batsyayana’s creativity and wit and talent in having the ability to depict one situation in a number of different ways.

The cartoon on Democracy Volleyball is also very symbolic. There are these popular political leaders playing democracy volleyball right outside the palace walls and the cartoon shows that one of them has pushed the ball into the palace grounds, right into the royal court.

The book would not have been complete without the cartoon showing GP Koirala carrying the carcass of a dead donkey, depicting constitutional monarchy that he’s salvaged from the dumpster, on his back. This cartoon had kicked up a furore, it only adds to the book’s worth.

The social cartoons are all about a common man’s whims, fancies, follies, recent fads and trends like copying Ramdev’s yoga poses from the television and getting all the joints locked to our foolishness of destroying our own property to vent our anger at something that happened thousands of miles away. The cartoons make us laugh at ourselves and also makes us laugh with ourselves.

Most of the cartoons are coloured with only an odd one here and there in black-and-white. The glazed paper adds to the appeal of the illustrations and the delicate colouring. And if you do not understand Nepali, no problem because English translations of the speech bubbles and other signs in Nepali accompany each cartoon.

Ajit Baral’s introduction gives a face to the cartoonist that the Nepali public has always know as Batsyayana and it adds to pleasure of going through the cartoons. Perhaps a few will not understand the political cartoons as one needs to know the history of the times as to understand why Batsyayana penned these cartoons, but the social cartoons should be enjoyed by all as it relates to everyone’s everyday life and experiences.

A must-buy for Batsyayana’s fans, and for all who would love to have a document of the 15 years of democracy after 1990.

Batsyayana and His Barbs...

Compiled/Introduced by Ajit Baral

Published by FinePrint

Price Rs 600; hardcover - Rs 700