 SUSHAN PRAJAPATI Lila Maya Rai, as featured in the book. |
In this age when even super-heroes have received image makeovers to catch the receding attention span of readers, stories seldom cut through to the audience. Audiences are being blasted with a deluge of information and entertainment and most accounts are met with apathy. Except for the rare instance, even wars fail to move audiences now, forget sports, cinema and people. So, would stories about some old, ageing grandmothers be compelling enough to entice a casual reader to flip through 140 odd pages?
Hamra Hajurama manages to do just that, successfully engaging the reader with plain, simple and non-sensational stories capturing in photos and text the tales of ordinary women, whose only qualification for inclusion is grandmotherhood. The book documents 12 grandmothers from across Nepal, and in doing so, allows a peek into their lives, their issues and dreams, in the fast changing socio-political and economic Nepali landscape. Coming from different places and communities, they expose a common thread that ties the average Nepali together, the needs and challenges of plain everyday living.
The genius often resides in the ordinary, and photo.circle has hit on it with a concept so simple and yet adorable - grandmothers. The foreword though is a bit too academic and overpowering and out of place with the rest of the book, somewhat intimidating a start for something so charmingly uncomplicated and endearing.
 Hamra Hajurama (2009) Author: Various Publisher: photo.circle Genre: Photo Essay |
The book comes out as very politically correct in the new 'inclusive' Nepal, but it is the diversity in the choice of characters that gives Hamra Hajurama the edge. The mix of geography, ethnicity and religion is one of Nepal's most distinctive features, and also one of its biggest woes. Arriving at a satisfactory range of subjects, representing such a variety, thus, is quite an achievement.
A lot of time, thought and effort has gone into the project and it shows. The narrative may not be as racy as a Dan Brown novel and the photographs may not match a National Geographic spread, but Hamra Hajurama is a worthwhile read. The tales will make for some delightful slow, lazy reading, one grandmother at a time.
Vikash Pradhan
Lila Maya Rai,
as featured in the book.
Hamra Hajurama (2009)
Author: Various
Publisher: photo.circle
Genre: Photo Essay
