Word: royal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...stands broke into such an uproar that the rest of the announcement was lost: "Three minutes, fifty-nine and four-tenths seconds." London July 21, 1947 There were many arrangements to be made. Philip, for instance, was comparatively poor ... But in Manchester a bus driver conceded: "I think the royal family gives us something other countries haven't got. I'm willing to pay for it." King George was expected to ask Parliament for ?35,000 a year for Philip. Elizabeth's own allowance (?15,000) would be upped. In time the couple would get their own town house, though...
...frightening Maoist guerrillas. Until a few weeks ago, its cities were brimming with baton-swinging riot police in blue fatigues and protesting students with torches in their hands. Average people doing average things seem about as common as yetis?except in the work of Nepali author Samrat Upadhyay. The Royal Ghosts, his new collection of short stories, is full of characters who care for sick parents, fall in love with the wrong people, cheat on their spouses or get drunk in the afternoon when they should really be more responsible. In short: normal folk living normal lives...
...teaches at Indiana University in the U.S. and writes in English, doesn't ignore the violence and political strife of his native country?he just keeps it in the background with controlled plots and measured prose. The title story takes place immediately after the 2001 massacre of the royal family by Crown Prince Dipendra. While the country is thrown into confusion and grief, cab driver Ganga is confronted with a more personal upheaval?learning that his brother is gay. In Supreme Pronouncements, another story, when the student organizer Suresh is thrown in jail for writing a provocative editorial about...
...first short-story collection, Arresting God in Kathmandu, religious themes are everywhere in The Royal Ghosts. Through them Upadhyay reveals the universal in the apparently exotic. In The Weight of a Gun, a mother of a mentally ill son consults a clairvoyant believed to be possessed by a goddess. But in Upadhyay's telling, this hardly seems odd. He pares down the extraneous bits to reveal the characters' underlying humanity, rendering clear the woman's reasoning?she is simply trying everything she can to save...
...grow food and raise cattle, and sand and stone for them to build their homes. Every year they bring Merapi gifts of food, tobacco and clothing, both to appease it and to seek its protection. The volcano even has a caretaker, appointed by a former sultan of the nearby royal city of Yogyakarta, to ensure that offerings are made and rituals observed. This is no mere mountain, but a giver of life and a deliverer of death...