Greta Rana’s writing and history

Walking into the family of the Ranas, Greta walked into the unknown realms of Rana history.

A theatre artist called me on January 5 to say that Greta Rana had just passed away. Born in Yorkshire, United Kingdom in 1943, Greta is established as a Nepali novelist and poet in English. The theatre artist’s call says Greta was also a theatre director and performer. Her image of a poet is very strong in my mind. But how Greta met an alien history is something that presents us with surprise and admiration. English and French writers and anthropologists came to Nepal at different times, and described this country from various perspectives. Some of their interpretations of Nepal, its culture, arts and society are striking, even though some of them may sound like exoticisation as explained by Edward Said in