NELit review

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FEBRUARY 05, 2012

SEVEN SISTERS

LIFE ON THE LONGAI

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OT Peer Ghat, more like heavens banks, Meher Ali murmured looking at the soi made with jengou paat, Since the meleng will be anchored there, I will have to decorate it. The Longais water was still rising. The sandbank was under knee-deep water now. Despite the discomfort, everybody was making melengs. Meher Ali had decorated the soi with dexterity. Meher called Irshaad and pointing at the soi, asked, Oi. How does it look? Wow! Amazing, he went inside the soi and checked it. He came out and said, Is the kundhi broader compared to last time? It has to be. Meher said in a teasing tone, Will the melengial alone go inside the soi? Many dreams will also sail. Comprehending the implied meaning of the words, Irshaad laughed. My work is done! Now you can set sail in the meleng, Meher said. We will sail at such an hour, Irshaad said, so that we reach Peer Ghaat late at night. Eh! Dont boast so much, Meher Ali chided, I have experienced much to reach this age. Get me some tobacco in a silim. There you are! Irshaad thought looking at his chachajaans face, Chachajaan makes him run on such errands taking advantage of his weakness. The hookah was already in chachajaans hand. He snatched the silim from the hookah and went inside the soi. No fire burnt in the kundhis kitchen yet. He took a tikira from a container, prepared the silim and attached it to Mehers hookah. At that moment they heard Nimai Das voice from the edge of the river bank. He carefully climbed down the bank. So why are you so late? Meher said, I was waiting for you at the bus-stop. I am late because of problems at home. Nimai said, You already know, bhaijaan. We are a joint family. My wife and sister-in-law are always fighting with each other. Now my wife wont take it anymore.

Illustration: Amrith Basumatary

Now our family has broken into two. Eh! That is too bad. Meher said, Nimai, there is never any happiness in a family that is in debt, in ill health and quarrelling. Sort out the problems with your brother and bring him back home. After a moment of silence, Meher asked, When will the meleng set sail? I have sent the helpers day before yesterday. They have already built the bamboo pola. Once the melengs are tied, we can go upstream. Nimai asked, Are you leaving right now? We were thinking about it. All right. Go. We will follow. Seeing the swollen river, Nimai said, Pray for us, bhaijaan. See how the river is in spate. Meher looked towards the river! Huge currents were forming in the frothing water of the river that had turned saffron from eroding the red soil from the mountains. The damaged trees were signs of the

iNKPOT
MELENG
Pp: 79-82 Translator- Gitanjali Das
devastation caused by last nights storm. Meher smiled. He looked skywards and said, The badshah of the world exists. If Krishna wishes to save who can kill, if Krishna wishes to kill who can save? Irshaad rolled with laughter like an imbecile. Meher looked at him askance and asked, What has gotten into you that you are laughing like that? Krishnas name on a miyas lips, he kept on laughing. Bopai o. He who knows only one religion, Meher said, does not know any religion. You have spoken the truth, bhaijaan.

Meher burped all of a sudden. He took out a container from where his lungi was knotted around his waist and popped a pinch of soda into his mouth. Bhaijaan! A shocked Nimai looked at Mehers hands and asked, Didnt the three doses of medicine work? It did. He said sheepishly, But then you asked me to avoid eating two things, no? Yes. Bengena and xukan maas. And? Irshaad added, And what about xukan jolokia? Nimai said, Iss iss, you made a big mistake bhaijaan. Nimais eyes had fallen on the soi on the meleng and he observed, The soi looks different. Is it nice? Seeing the silim dying out, Meher took a few quick puffs till it started glowing again and extended it towards Nimai. Will you smoke? Nimai took the silim and after a couple of puffs said, The meleng looks like a zamidars pansoi. Meher laughed raucously.

MELENG Basanta Das AnGik Prakashan, 2005 `50, 148 pages Hardcover/ Novel
The flame of gunaah will burn inside the soi. Irshaad was tying knots in the meleng. Provoked by what his chachajaan said, he retorted, Nimai chacha. Our chachajaan always keeps talking about gunaah. Tell me who

does not have a fault? Only the dead and the babies do not. Are we dead or babies? Era! Irshaad has learnt how to speak! Nimai, Meher said, I am talking to you. Why should this little boy interrupt the conversation between two old people? Insolent boy! Its ok bhaijaan. He is young. Nimai said, I forgot to tell you the main thing. Its my daughters wedding. The 17th day of ahin. That is very good news. Meher said. Where are you marrying her off? Nimai said sadly, What do I say, bhaijaan. Foreign land, in Jagiroad. Jagiroad! Are you still a frog in the well? Meher Ali said laughing, Are we not people of Axom? We are. Then how can Jagiroad be foreign land? Meher bhai, do you know why I called it foreign land? Why? Isnt the language different there? Its different, yet the same. Meher said, When we say kita, kita, do you think it is Bangla? Its a branch of Axomiya. The tree has grown strong with all these branches. We are Axomiya because we are all part of this tree. I did not understand you. You did not understand? Meher closed his eyes for some time and searched in his mind. Finding his expression, he said suddenly, From Sadia to Baxirhaat, Jonai-Darranga to our own Hailakandi, the same Axom has many different dialects. Does that mean that the people from one place will call another place a foreign land? Ok, I undertand. Nimai said, That means the girl will not go far from home. What does the boy do? He is a trader in xukaan maas. That is good. She will live happily. Meher said, Invite me, alright? Why wont I, bhaijaan? Nimai bid farewell and waded noisily through the water towards his melengs. Meanwhile, Irshaad split the two ends of the logi and then flattened them a bit, so that it would be easier to row through the water in the middle of the river. Meher looked at the melengs one last time and set sail. The melengs floated away with the current of the water. T

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TURNERS
SAJAL NAG
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Professor of History at Assam Central University, Silchar, Sajal Nag has authored a number of books like Roots of Ethnic Conflict and India and North East India. He feels that literature from the Northeast will soon dominate the Indian literary scene
u What does literature mean to you? Do you think it has any relevance in our day-to-day lives? According to you, does it have anything to do with all that is happening around us? t Literature to me is the representation of life, but representation cannot be ordinary depiction. It has to be such that it attains a higher form and becomes an art. Since literature is about life it has certainly relevance to everyday life. It emerges out of life and enriches culture. It makes civilization. In fact, the government should provide free copies of some important poetry, fiction and essays to every family for reading. Literature informs, it makes you aware and makes life meaningful. It makes people strong and sensitive. People must know their daily life, their tears, their laughter are all meaningful. These have reverberations somewhere else. Literature is the mirror of what is happening around us.

BOOK ABLE
Announcement: National workshop on Teaching Vocabulary and Pronunciation at Tertiary Level
Organiser: Department of English, Sathyabama University, Chennai Date: 10 February 2012 What is it: Workshop to equip teachers, scholars and students with changing trends in vocabulary and pronunciation in ELT Deadline for registration: 5 February 2012 Registration fee: DD for `250 payable to The Registrar, Sathyabama University, Chennai Contact: Richard Jegadeesan +91 9962392404 Email: englishsathyabama@gmail.com Website: www.sathyabamauniversity.ac.in

Poetry tells white lies: Joy Goswami

Ananda Bormudoi explores the many facets of Joy Goswami, the poet who turned critic with Gnosaibagan

u How close is your relation with literature in general, and with literature of the Northeast in particular? t I am very close to literature. I cannot sleep unless certain books of fiction and poetry are beside my bed. I may not read them all the time, but the thought that they are there and I can read them whenever I want makes me comfortable. It makes me sleep peacefully. For me, literature has no region. Hence I read anything, be it from the North east, from Bengal, or elsewhere in the world. u What future do you see for literature from the Northeast? t I am aware of Assamese vernacular prose and poetry. Assamese poetry, I think, has made tremendous headway. It has moved ahead with such force that it is difficult to ignore it anymore. I am sad that some of the prominent young Assamese poets are not writing anymore. English prose and poetry, I feel, comes naturally to the people of the Northeast. Suddenly there is a flood of books from the region, each of them fabulous and remarkable. I do not want to name them, but I think the poets and novelists from the Northeat are soon going to dominate the Indian literary scene.

CFP: National conference on Information Technology, Society and Literary Restructuring (NCITSLR-2012)
Organiser: Department of Computer Science and Department of English, Panjab University Regional Centre, Jallalabad Road, Muktsar Date: 12-13 March 2012 What to submit: Research papers and abstracts on Information Technology and Society and Literary Restructuring Deadline for paper and abstract submission: 5 February 2012 Contact: Jasminder Singh Dhillon +91-8146584341 Manish Kumar Jindal +91-9779351188 Email: confpurc@gmail.com Brochure: http://puchd.ac.in/includes/conferences/2012/ 20120125165605-muktsar-brochure.pdf

CFP: National seminar

Theme: Medical Ethics in India: Challenges and Prospects Organiser: Ambedkar College, Fatikroy, North Tripura Date: 9 - 10 February 2012 What to submit: Papers on issues related to medical ethics Deadlines: For submission of paper: 5 February 2012 Registration: 9 February 2012 Email: dr.subrataphilosophy2@gmail.com ambedkarcollege91@yahoo.co.in Website: www.conferencealert.com Blog: http://ambedkarcollege.blogspot.com

Ans 1. C

2. A

3. C

OTED Bengali poet-critic, Joy Goswami, visited Dibrugarh recently and interacted with poets in Tinsukia, Duliajan and Dibrugarh. The poet was overwhelmed to see that his poems were read and admired in Upper Assam where he knew no one or had no acquaintance. The discovery of his literary friendship with people about whom he knew nothing greatly inspired him. He was pleasantly surprised to see that in the poetry reading sessions at Guijan, Satyajit Gogois house, Duliajan and Dibrugarh University Guest House, the readers were carrying with them collections of their favourite poems. A man reveals himself while talking about others and Goswami does exactly that. He has written two volumes of poetry criticism titled Gnosaibagan. It started as a Sunday column in a newspaper and the title came from a ghost story that had gained popularity at that time. Just as a ghost is never clearly seen, poetry is also never fully understood. The same great poem may have several independent interpretations. Joy Goswami began a series of critical essays with diffidence because he did not have college or university education. He felt that he did not have the knowledge or training needed for poetry criticism. But the Gnosaibagan volumes have turned out to be very useful essays on literary criticism. Goswamis policy of inclusion and exclusion is a striking feature of his essays. He selects a poem or a passage from a poem and mediates between the poet and the readers as an explicator. This role of the critic is very much needed in view of the ever-increasing volumes of poetry. Nobody has time enough to read all those poems and someone has to make a selection of the very best for the lovers of poetry. Goswami takes up a poem or a few passages from poems and reveals the most striking feature of the poet. This feature is invariably a celebration of life and the world. His personal observations often come close to theoretical points in literary criticism. A keen awareness of human suffering and a positive assertion of human values have been central to the essays of Gnosaibagan. The poets are of different ages, the poems

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addresses serious issues relating to literary creations. His arguments can be summed up thus: Shakti and Sunil are not writing in one style. Shakti himself has written poems that are quite different from one another in style. He also wonders whether the poems of Alok Sarkar, Utpal Kumar, Alokranjan Dasgupta, Binoy Mazumdar, Tarapada, Pronobendu or Shankha Ghosh can be put in the same category as poems written in the same style. In this context Goswami raises a fundamental question regarding the creative urge of a person. Why does a person write? Does he or she write to get rid of a turmoil or fire burning within or to escape from a sense of impotence while watching men killing men? The writing may not alter the real situation but the writer feels relieved of his or her suffering. WH Auden had said, in his poem written in memory of WB Yeats, that poetry makes nothing happen. Joy Goswami knows that those who launch a new poetic movement must break with the poetic preconceptions of their predecessors. He also raises questions about the freedom of those poets who may not share the manifesto of those who consciously launch a new movement. This notion of the freedom of the writer comes very close to what George Orwell says about the freedom of a writer in Inside the Whale. Henry Millers Tropic of Cancer did not refer to the big international events of the time but the novel created its own environment. The novelist enjoyed full freedom of staying comfortably inside the whale. To quote Orwell, The whales belly is simply a womb big enough for an adult. There you are, in the dark, cushioned space that exactly fits you, with yards of blubber between yourself and reality, able to keep up an attitude of the complete indifference, no matter what happens. In discussing a few passages from Mallika Sengupta and Manibhusan Bhattacharyya, Joy Goswami draws

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TO him, poetry cannot be consciously and deliberately constructed. It comes like a dream
depict different situations and events, and the invariant core of the essays is a keen human concern of the critic. As a critic, Joy Goswami is not guided by names. He concentrates on the poem and not on the stature of the poet. One brilliant example is the discussion on Basanti, a poem authored by young poet Chandranil Bhattacharyya, which is pretty long. The comment that precedes the quotation reads: We may not be used to the thoughts and ideas of the new writers. But I can understand that the words are uttered from the centre or the core of life. The poem, as Goswami observes, captures the essence of society. It deals with the middle class, especially lower-middle-class Bengali girls. Literary critics in general are a bit more rigorous in indulging young writers, but Goswami judges a work on its merit. In the mid 1970s, the editor of a little magazine that published some poems of Goswami, had asked him to consciously launch a poetic movement against the style of Shakti-Sunil that started in the 1950s. Goswamis reaction to the proposal recorded long afterwards in Gnosaibagan

a very significant conclusion: Within the commonplaceness of our daily life, it is possible to be blessed by an unusual touch of heavenly happiness. He has assigned to poetry the task of healing the wounds of the suffering hearts. Poetry can very well be a nurse. While discussing a poem of Alokranjan Dasgupta, Goswami says that poetry often tells us white lies. This is another way of saying that poetry need not deal with historical truth. The law of profitability is all that matters. Goswami reveals his own poetic beliefs through a comment on Alokranjan Dasguptas poetry: His poetry transforms distrust and disbelief into trust and belief. This is perhaps the task of all great literature. Joy Goswami is respectful to his readers and seriously thinks of the problem of communication with them. He wonders how he can know what his readers want, and it is just an accident if a poet can express what is on a readers mind. About the actual creative process, he says something very interesting. A spirit called Karnapishas talks to the ear of a poet and the poet notes down what the spirit dictates. This idea about the creative process resembles the idea of automatic writing that many modern writers talk about. Joy Goswami approximates poetry to incantation by talking about Karnapishas. To him, poetry cannot be consciously and deliberately constructed. It comes like a dream. However, regular exercise has an advantage. If someone sits regularly to write poetry, the person can produce lines generally accepted as poetry. If the person is an established poet, the lines get printed. Regular practice gives technical perfection to a poet. In an essay, Goswami says that his pain as a poet is his inability to find the exact word for an emotion. It is unjust to call ten different emotions by one name. It is an insult to them all. This shows how careful Joy Goswami himself is in his search of verbal equivalents for emotional states in him. To solve such a problem of verbal equivalents, poets like Mallarme, Baudelaire and Navakanta Barua were assiduous readers of dictionaries. Goswami may also be one such. T

u What book would you recommend for our readers and why? t I would recommend Kynpham Sing Nongkynrihs poetry collection. I always have a fascination for political poetry which is very rare and difficult to write. I think Kynphams poetry is extremely political. Mixed with aesthetics, it makes for wonderful reading.

u Name one book that had a lasting impact on you. In what way? t I have just read Temsula Aos These Hills Called Home and Easterine Kires Mari. These had a tremendous impact on me as I was working on the Second World War and the impact of counter insurgency operations by the army on the Nagas. I feel the official information that I had on them had come alive and become more meaningful with these accounts.

TUG-OF-WORD
I Which of these is the New Testament of the Bible in Kokborok language? A. Traipur Kothamala B. Hachuk Khurio C. Smai Kwtal I Which of these books is a collection of personal essays? A. Writing on the Wall B. Laburnum for My Head C. The Legends of Pensam I To which genre does Lakshminath Bezbaruas Nomal belong? A. Novel B. Poetry C. Play