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| NSD performance of Andha Yug |
- Brian Mendonca
Today's paper for Semester V of the B.A. course of Goa University on Modern Indian Writing in English Translation (UEND 103) was good and not-so-good. Some students said they had much to write but they could not complete the paper.
Browsing through the paper I saw we had covered much of the content in class. There were gaps, of course, but none that could not be out-maneuvered by the almost 50% choice available specially in the essay-type questions.
For the 2-hour paper students needed to pace themselves for 20 minutes per question for each of the 6 questions. That would leave them with a precious 5 minutes for each of the short notes (any 4 out of 6). It was the short notes in Q. 1 that waylaid them. So much so that Q. 6 on Andha Yug - a testament of our times - went abegging. They knew the answer, but did not have the time to write it.
Students need to practise writing fast. Mock tests preparing for the University exams could help - provided they make the effort to attend class.
The issue of the loneliness of Kauri - an elder cut off from her roots - is beautifully brought out in the Punjabi short story 'A Season of No Return' by Gurdial Singh (1933-2016). She misses the dung cakes of rustic Punjab. This idyllic story is in sharp contrast with the modern day vortex of violence in which Moosewala lost his life in Mansa. The story of Rebati (1898) by Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843-1918) in a story by the same name, translated from the Odiya, highlights the unrealistic expectations on a young girl who just wants to study.
The symbolism of the quilt by Ismat Chugtai (1915-1991) in her Urdu short story by the same name is not lost. In 'Lihaaf' (1942) the quilt is compared to an elephant and could well conceal the elephant in the room, viz. forbidden desire.
Also in Urdu is Kaffan / Shroud (1935) by Munshi Premchand written in 1935 a year before he died. Premchand (1880-1936) dissects the abject poverty that Ghisu and Madho live in gulping scalding potatoes to survive. They are chamars but they do odd jobs as well.
Often it is the poor and defenseless who are bullied and victimized. Two months ago Sabir Malik (22) West Bengal was lynched in Charkhi Dadri, Haryana by cow vigilantes on the suspicion of cooking beef. It was found that it was not the case. Sabir was a rag picker. He leaves behind his wife and 2-year-old daughter who have returned to West Bengal.
The novel Untouchable Spring (2010) by Kalyan Rao is a saga of Dalit oral history. Translated from the Telugu (2000) it is an assortment of incidents stitched together by the memories of the narrator Ruth of her husband Reuben. As she recalls the moments with him and grieves for her son Immanuel killed in the struggle, we also think of Vasantha Kumari and her daughter Manjeera grieving for G.N. Saibaba (57) Former Assistant Professor in English, Delhi University, who passed away in Hyderabad earlier this month after a decade in jail.
As lanterns peep out this Diwali, Tagore's poem in Bangla 'Light, Oh Where is the Light?' sets the mood. 'Let not the hours pass by in the dark. Kindle the lamp of love with thy life.' 'Dali, Hussain, or Odour of Dream, Colour of Wind' written in Manipuri by Thangjam Ibopishak Singh (born 1948) inhabits a surreal space in which a cashier eats up his notes. In a series of dream images Singh presents a fractured reality redeemed by a peepal tree.
Amrita Pritam's 'To Waris Shah' (1948) in Punjabi is rendered in song in 'Aj Aakhan Waris Shah Nu'. Waris Shah (1722-1798) was a Punjabi poet known for his verse epic Heer (1766) telling of the love of Heer for Ranjha. Pritam (1919-2005) pleads with Waris Shah to write again to restore the mayhem into which Punjab has fallen following the partition of Punjab.
All one is left with is 'The Void' by G. N. Muktibodh (1917-64) from Gwalior (MP) in Hindi. The void breeds 'saws, daggers, and sickles' which dispatched Nitish Katara (23) in Ghaziabad (UP) in 2002. The sole witness Ajay Katara lives in fear for his life.
We move in darkness in this dark age where like Gandhari one is twice blinded. The dramaturgy of Andha Yug (1953) by Dharamvir Bharati in Hindi, in the aftermath of the Partition, powerfully evokes the meaninglessness of war and violence. The peacock feather, the vultures flying towards Kurukshetra, and the skirmish of the crow and the owl at the end of Act III help create a cosmic dimension. Framed by the Mahabharata, the principal players re-enact the drama in the idiom of our age but with emotions that stretch across the ages, like hatred, anger, deceit, and desire.
Across diverse genres of poetry, short story, novel, and drama, the texts on the course of Modern Indian Writing in English Translation offer a compelling commentary on our time. History and fiction interweave like the warp and weft of the nation. To teach the course is to implicate oneself in the searing world of regional writing in India, very often voicing the cries of the displaced and downtrodden - like Gauri Lankesh (55) in Kannada who was murdered on Teachers' Day in 2017. I titled my poem 'Weep India'.
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Pic courtesy National School of Drama, New Delhi, nsd.gov(dot)in; Updated 29/10/24.
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