Hisila from Revolutionary to First Lady

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In this fascinating book, Hisila Yami traces her journey from being a young Nepali student of architecture in Delhi to becoming a Maoist revolutionary engaged in guerrilla warfare in Nepal. Yami was one of the two women leaders who were a part of the politburo of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which led the People's War (PW) in the country that changed the course of its history forever.

This is a lucidly written memoir where Yami talks about gaining political awareness, joining protests, being imprisoned, participating in the PW and, later, her experiences as the first lady and a minister. But at the same time, this is also a vivid narrative that offers touching glimpses into her personal life. She candidly writes about falling in love and marrying a fellow politician, Baburam Bhattarai, who later went on to become the prime minister of Nepal. From how she balanced her political life with motherhood to what it really meant to be a woman in the communist party that launched a civil war-Yami tells all in what is truly an unforgettable account of a remarkable life.

HISILA YAMI is a Nepali politician and an architect. Born into a well- known Newar family in Kathmandu in 1959, she started her revolutionary life as a student activist in 1978. During the 1990 uprising against the Panchayat regime in Nepal, Yami was one of the most prominent women leaders. She has been arrested many times for her anti-monarchy stance. She graduated from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, India, in 1982 and completed her master's from Newcastle University, UK, in 1995. The same year, she became the president of the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary). She also taught at the Institute of Engineering in Pulchowk, Kathmandu, for thirteen years.

On the afternoon of 25 April 2015, a massive earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck Nepal. Another earthquake of 7.3 magnitude occurred a fortnight later, on 12 May, around the same time. It razed to the ground my late father Dharma Ratna Yami's five-storeyed house in Bhurankhel, Kathmandu, where I was born. It was by no means an ordinary house. It was where great personalities such as B.R. Ambedkar¹ and Rahul Sankrityayan had visited my father who was an anti-Rana crusader, a poet, a social reformer, a writer and a deputy minister of forest (1951).