The genre of ‘coming of age’ stories includes a number of famous novels that seek to illuminate the challenges of the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is rare for non-fiction writing, indeed an ostensibly ordinary diary, to take on the dimensions of vivid literature that invites the reader into the mind of a young man at the doorstep of maturity.

Such is the case with My Diary, 1968-1969, by Jaya Raj Acharya. In the course of those seminal years in Nepali and world history, the reader is offered an intimate glimpse into the thoughtful and passionate reflections of a Nepali youth with an emerging global vision.

Keeping a promise

Jaya Raj Acharya was born in 1951 AD in Bhanu VDC of Tanahu district. He studied only Sanskrit in his village school. From the eighth grade on, he studied English as an optional subject in Kathmandu. He felt that he was weak in English. However, he was the national first in the Sanskrit Purva Madhyama exam.

Jaya Raj’s teacher advised him to write a diary in English in order to improve it. This book is his diary of 2025 BS (1968-1969 AD), starting on the New Year’s Day.  Jaya Raj made a “promise to write my diary every day throughout this year.”

He goes on to say, on that fateful New Year’s Day, that he will “write about what I saw, what I read in the newspapers, what I heard on the radio, or what people told me in the daytime.” He also promises to “write about my own thoughts and make some drawings and sketches.”

And what thoughts they are! Printed in young Acharya’s literal handwriting, and thus approximating a kind of intimacy of form and substance, the reader is able to go through a year where an awakening mind is developing. We see the emergence of a political, social and moral consciousness and conscience which, years later, develops into a man of distinguished accomplishments, including becoming the Ambassador of Nepal to the UN.

Early in the year, young Jaya Raj writes, “I have to keep my promise, and write every day.  I must not be afraid of failure.” Sure enough, he writes every day, with a diligence that helps sow the seeds of future success.

There are many seeds to the exemplary development of the individual. An important one is healthy mentors, including our parents. Acharya frequently quotes them in his diary, reminding himself that his development is linked with the wisdom of his elders: he is reminded by his father, for example, about the importance of proper attire, and is appreciative of his father sending him money to purchase a set of national dress (daura-surwal coat). Later on in the year, he writes about how his father rejected suggestions from others that he require his son to become a medical doctor, like himself, but rather encourage Jaya Raj to follow his own interests, “to become a professor and a diplomat” which is exactly what happened, to the great benefit of Nepal.

Local to global

The diary reveals the great importance of certain teachers to Jaya Raj’s development, as well as the great religious literature of Hinduism that provides steady guidance through the challenging temptations of youth. He also greatly benefits from the wisdom of world figures—because he reads them, and ponders on their words—such as Gandhi, Einstein, and Martin Luther King.

The young man does not shy away from commenting on Nepali affairs, through his daily thorough reading of the newspaper Gorkhapatra. Somewhat restrained at first, the reader sees the development of a voice that offers a surprisingly mature critical perspective. On May 27, 1968, for example, he says, “King Mahendra may be a good ruler but he has murdered democracy. He has kept the elected Prime Minister BP Koirala in jail. He dissolved the people’s parliament.”

Later in the year, he comments with some prescience that “it is painful that the country is wasting time in a kind of political deadlock.” This young man, mindful of the accomplishments of previous Nepali generations, comments on a variety of topics that hold relevance still, such as rural poverty, natural disasters, the environment, and the Nepali education system.

His awareness and vision focuses on the local issues of Kathmandu and Nepal, as well as international events that reflect his youthful concern with the development of society, conflict resolution, and the futility of war. A consistent theme throughout the year of the diary is the war in Vietnam, which anguishes the young man as he tries to understand the global geopolitics while considering the moral and ethical failure.

Days gone by

Of course, he writes poetically of his passionate admiration for young women, and his desire for a romantic partner—he is 17, after all. At the same time, what is characteristic here is consistent with all his other writings throughout the diary: a young man of great intellect and heart, including a moral perspective to all that he observes.

One of the pleasures of reading this fascinating book is the reviewer’s similar memories and perspective as a young man, even from the vantage point of the US. We are of similar age, and were both deeply concerned about our respective countries, as well as the world. A year in which poverty and human rights in our countries occupied the headlines, where illegitimate government power aroused us, where a war in Asia raged, where great leaders such as Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated—all these things, and more, mattered to us, and still do.

The triumph of My Diary is the glimpse, at a critical juncture in the lifespan, of the formation of an engaged mind and heart in the person of Jaya Raj. Nepal is all the better for it and the pages of My Diary is where it all began.

Fleischer is a Professor of psychology and education at Keene State College, New Hampshire, the US