The Transience of Human Existence: An Ecocritical Interpretation of Parijat’s Blue Mimosa

Blue Mimosa (Shirishko Phool), a landmark in the field of Nepali novels written by Bishnu Kumari Waiba, who adopted the penname Parijat, is mainly studied as a semi-biographical account of the writer’s experience as an existential expression of a modern, bold lady due to her education who could not make her life that meaningful enough that has been expressed in the form of her knowledge of nothingness and absurdity. However, the main objective of this research article is to study the novel to discover the inherent and intricate interconnection of nature and human life, how significantly human life depends upon nature and natural conditions, as human life itself is a tiny part of nature as a whole. The literary theories of ecocriticism and environmental humanism, with a special focus on the Anthropocene, have been exploited to study the novel for this purpose, along with the help of other supporting knowledge of the critics of the field. This article explores the theme of the transitory existence of human life and the inherent relationship between human life and nature, which depend on one another, like an ecosystem. Through its complex characters of Sakambari, Suyogbir, and Shiva Raj, the other family members, Suyogbir’s experience of WWII as a war veteran, Parijat has very artistically woven the interdependence of persons within one another in their lives, and the effect of nature on human lives. Keywords: Environment, existence, interdependence, Bishnu Kumari Waiba, Blue Mimosa, death.