The Eternal Optimist

 

Photo from net uploaded by Atlaf Majid

Growing up in Assam in gloomy eighties had a toll on our psyche. The otherwise hyperemotional people didn’t have a single positive thing to think about. Already we gained a reputation for our step motherly attitude to humour and laughter; I clearly remember we felt guilty if we were enjoying something.

May be it is not normal to enjoy as everything is going from bad to worse.

All the schools, colleges, streets, shops buses- mostly remained closed.

Unexpected deaths were (still is) daily headlines so were the sense of losing identity prevailing everywhere.  

The effect of surroundings was terrible and on top of everything –the bombardment of negative, egotistic, remunerated news.

Conflict had no end  but the intolerance were at its peak  –among people /language /religion /media house/views ,politicos /students  parents and from left right centre and periphery everyone were against each other.

Those who had the power either betrayed or exploited our faith.

The situations lead to an era of darkness.

What we all wanted was little bit positive news. (ভাল খৱৰ, শুভ সংবাদ)

But there weren’t any ……

At that time two greats of contrasting characters came out with similar prayer-.

One was Bhabenndra Nath Saikia ,who accepted the society as it was but never given up and tried to bring changes being a part of the system.He wrote a full length play শুভ সংবাদ meaning Good news for  the moving theater of Assam so that prayer can be herded across the Bramhaputra valley

The other person I am talking about was a different person altogether .A master in his craft and far ahead of any other contemporary in case of the momentum of his thinking. So naturally when it comes to personal feeling about the surrounding; he was very cynical and far more frustrated than any one else.

 I have never met him but neither any other person in this universe .As the great craftsman  Sourav Kumar Chaliha lived in complete obscurity .The man whom we have known as the man who knew SKC best Surendra Nath Medhi was by mean less noteworthy  . Though petrified with the moronic behavior of natives it doesn’t mean that they (SKC and him) shy away for their responsibility for the society .Both SKC and Surendra Nath Medhi (the man who knew SKC best) were fierce critique of the all evils without any kind of fear. Be it insurgency (Like on death of journalist Parag Das ,or on issue of insurgencies ), or intellectual vacuum in the valley both of them came out with article/stories that can open the window of knowledge .  

Two decades ago may be still not old enough to wake up with a hangover on New Year’s dawn ; I was enjoying the sunshine with news paper in one hand and morning cup of tea on another. As a new kid on the block we had upbeat dream but due to the situation we couldn’t think out of out of that sense of nihilism.

The news paper had a front page news article –Good news (ভাল খৱৰ) by SKC.

It was neither about negativity nor an optimistic article talking about a utopian tomorrow.

But after reading it I felt better and it made me believe that there can be a better tomorrow while living with the darkness at hand.

Demystifying the best seller’s techniques

Down, alone and having time to kill after failing in doing anything creative I looked for some inspiration. I surfed through my 200 GB of world classic movie collection –Pier Paolo Pasolini. Claude Chabrol   Jean-Luc Godard (from 1980 onward); well…after few hours I couldn’t concentrate on any one and most of them had a negative affect on me as well.

I was down and the theme, content, negativity of those entire movies was nauseating.

In past also I had gone through passes like this (dark)  I stopped and tried to finish Terra Amata by French author and Nobel laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio.

I found it was about nothingness  my recurring theme. It’s been six months and I am halfway through the book, it seems I will need three more months (and three bout of depression) to finish it. Nothingness and the negativity associated with it were becoming repulsive, so I kept the book aside.

Thankfully after a couple of days I fell sick and this time I didn’t dared  to venture into the mistake I made just 2 days before.

Again I had to kill the time this time I decided to do it with something light and palatable.

I opened R 2020.

By evening I finished the book.

And after finishing it (me Mr. dark painter as my friend decodes me for my passivity) I too had some good vibes.

Mr Bhagat has become a phenomenon .You may love him or you may hat him, but you can not ignore him, what makes him what he is, I pondered.

After many months I picked up my pen started writing it down on my diary.

As I was blank so I thought of typing and uploading those 11 points (read 5.5 x2)

I wrote:

He is what he is because he could hold the nerve of the Indian reader because He

1. Writes in (simple) English
2. Use short sentences (the Nobel aspirants consumes one paragraph for one sentence) with words that most of us use when they are (ab) using English.
3. The most of the narratives are in conversations, not about subplot or mental mind game, smell, taste, scenery of the place. For all those he uses only one or two sentence so that reader can understand where the characters are and what they are feeling about. Thankfully most bad times pass very fast keeping the reader happy.
4. Love / romance will be there -unabashed .Most of the Nobel aspirant will try to write what is real /Mr .Bhagat will write what we fantasize about it-boy meet girl then he meets /hates /fights ….. (and whether movie ,music or popular literature romance sells)
5. The theme will be about something to which common people (read target audience, mostly youth) could relate to.
6. the protagonist tells the common feeling of a young guy (about girls ,sex, rich ,…..or common thought bubble of the youth )
7. Enough of humour and satire in every page so that no one is bored.
8. Sex –at the time when it seems reader are losing the grip, it freshen the mind up, so that writer can give you the final punch.
9. The protagonist will do the thing that most of the target reader do like –eating in Café Coffee day ,loitering in a popular hangout places(CP  , Dasaswamedh Ghat etc)
10. At the end the protagonist (a looser like most of us) become a winner (morally) and also to the eye of the reader (his main objective).
11.  Most importantly  There is a story –an opening ,a climax ,an ending (with a twist )  .He will not try any other new/unknown / zigzag narrative literary style (like most Noble aspirant do)  

Still there are many following the trend written above but this man is far ahead.

There are criticism against him also ,But I strongly feels in a democracy we all follow a cafeteria approach .You have all in the menu but reader have the right to choose /discard among all .

An ode to youth hood (যৌৱন)

An ode to youth hood (যৌৱন) 

After birth – the crying

Then the slumber of forgetfulness

Slowly its adolescence

Thereafter its youth

Youth hood is none but a dream.

And what after the dream?

The dream is better

Let it continue

 

Piece from Jatra (যাত্রা), a collection of creative fiction about journey of a young mind searching exactitude .

Also read:Jatra 

Sans You Bhupenda

artist :Uddip Talukdar

 

Sea of people on his arrival(from net)

On 05 th November when we got the news and everyone were shell shocked.

For All the three corore people who lives or has their roots on the eastern part of India, his existence is always taken for granted over last 75 years at least.

Long back when the new age Assamese brand was evolving only this man announced his arrival by singing in front of crowd at Axom Xahitya Xabha.

From those days till this date his name is synonymous with the Assamese identity.

For all the four or five generation we have taken him for granted .We know he is there as a evergreen figure in the moment of crisis ,in the moment of happiness ,in moments when we have to showcase ourselves and what not.

We can not imagine an entity called Bhupen Hazarika which can be wiped out just like that.

Still we can not imagine him to be an old man not being able to communicate to his people. As too us he is much younger than me, than my parents, grand parents.

Three years back I had my own bout of depression when I saw him as a slightly old man still trying to sing way he has been doing since last sixty years.

After that all of us knew that this day will come, but as it is unimaginable so we brushed this kind of nightmare away and prayed for his speedy recovery.

On the very first time when I got the news by night I thought with time I will be able to recover from the grief state of mind.

But it’s been three days and I am more grief stricken that before, as life sans Bhupen Hazarika will become a reality in the time to come.

As an individual I thought it is time for all of us to become more responsible in the time to come.

But on the very next moment, I become angry at my impudence,

How can anyone ever think of taking responsibility of such a big vacuum? 

If you closely observe –last three days not a single mind in the valley is at peace, all of us are restless as no one can ever imagine we can exist sans the Jajabor .

Who echoes (Prtidwani) the existence of a valley /a region / a contemporary entity called Assam.

Nilakantha

Great creators observe the society very precisely and in some of their creation they sketch the darker side of people in general which we deny in order to project our limitation as inevitable.

Somewhere in my blog I have written about the master Hrithik Ghatak in Meghe Dhaka Tara where he has nicely explored this cunning /unforgiving /ruthless/jealous /selfish human nature in the characters surrounding main protagonist Neeta. In fact this nature is in all of us and as in India –we are all some social creature so everyone has to intact the way society expect it to do so. And while performing your social responsibility you might lose your money, self respect and eventually your whole life.

Off late I was reading Natya Sambhar (নাট্য সম্ভাৰ)–the complete collection of plays written for moving theatre of Assam by master visionary Late Dr.Bhabendra Nath Saikia .

It’s a huge collection consisting of  24 full length  plays. Unquestionably all of them are masterpiece. As I started with the topic of uncivil behaviour of our so called community while I went through the plays in many plays I observed the same bitter observation as in Ghtak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara in completely different plots.

What runs parallel to Neeta’s life in the movie is similar to what happens in the life of Nilakantha (নীলকন্ঠ) - in the play by the same name. But Nilakantha was much stronger than Neeta .He had dream for himself, for his town, his family but all people wanted from Nilakantha was sacrifice. Nilakantha never minds giving, but appetite of a selfish surrounding was never satisfactory and fate had decided some other ending to his life.

But Nilakantha never bowed down to his fate but preferred to live the non existent life of monetary misery but his head still held high.

Terrific narration and as usual very illustrative dialogue with metaphor from daily life (the trade mark BNS dialogue) like

Nilakantha asks Radha after meeting her eleven years apart ‘How are you Radha? Any news?

Radha: What news can you expect from me, I am okay.

Nilakanth: Its been eleven years and still there is no news?

Radha: Even if it rains cats and dog have you seen water settling on duck's back, my life is something like that….

Dialogue like that hunts a spectator for many years .Nilakantha is notably one of the best drama from this collection. And that is the reason I believe we need more and more publication of plays and we should build up the habit of reading drama.

Because once staged a drama vanishes in the ambiguity of high speed life, and unlike movies and books never come back to public eyes even people want it to reproduce.

Death of a playwright

 

Students of English literarture begin with Shakespeare as they approach their subject, and Sanskrit Students starts with -Kalidas .Besides literature some examples of most common references from history, politics philosophy we quote are from works of Sophocles, Christopher Marlowe, Samuel Beckett etc .You can assume all those are playwright and their works have remarkable impact on human society till today.

Over last few years we have observed a sudden surge of readership when it comes to reading novel, short story, poems and even articles in Assam. That’s a very good sign.

But are we reading plays?

‘Not really ‘will be the answer from most of the avid reader.

Why?

Before going to its answer let us think what really is keeping the Shakespearean spirit alive? Definitely the numerous discussion, scholarly article, research and criticisms on Shakespeare over the years. That has lead to numerous adaptations in modern day venture (novel, cinema, songs) by virtue of which the culture is infused over the non reading generation also. So what is the problem we have in Assamese plays? 

Now the problem with Assamese drama is that modern Assamese play came late into the picture (1^st Assamese modern play was written in 1857, Gunaviram Baruah   ) and by that time Assamese short story, novel and poems had already arrived so to reader drama became a full fledged live audio visual art (so it developed a popular believe among common reader no need to read them)

Then come the Bramyaman theatre which is doing immense work in the field, but as it’s a commercial venture and many Bramyaman productions are made for mass audience. While doing so they become copycat reproduction of cheap Bollywood movie. Because of this many critique are distancing themselves from Bramyaman .And again because of it they are ignoring a important aspect of Assamese literature which needs to be discussed /researched etc. (because there are many original good stage venture in Bramyaman also)

So to a top critique drama in Assam they mean only the   -Amateur plays.

Now this amateur theatre in Assam are having problem of their own .From lack of facility, money, infrastructure, govt support, vcd aggression, and so on.

And what adding cheery on the top is a new form of change in amateur theatre.

Since last 15 years a new concept is evolving where theatre worker do not follow any text as script .They just take a concept/plot, and the script evolves during rehearsal with visual inputs from all the workers.

I have no problem with that kind of production but…. If this continues then their will is no one left to write an original Assamese play.

That might lead us to a day when no new play being written, so no one will read it so forget the staging / discussion or criticism part.

So as a result a whole genre of literature will lost as we seat our eyes closed.

Marketing of indigenous products

 

Everyday when you open a news paper or TV channel we see launching ceremony of new book or a new vcd. But after a few days when you got interested and ask for those book in a book stand or a mushrooming vcd parlor they will simply refuse its existence. You beg, you pray …but definitely you will not get hold of that book.

Even if you go to the most established book distributor in pan bazaar (the capital –of book industry) no one can help you.

Why it is happening?

I found as there are thousands of books being released every year  so they can not accommodate every book (or not bothered) any way there are text book, various model answer book or book that have guarantied selling (Test paper ,TET exam ,সহজলভ্য বনদৰব etc. etc…) to distribute so why to take headache .

True very true. Why to take headache?

That’s why a group of young publishers are coming up with a model example of holding book fair in every corner of Assam and selling their books. That’s a very welcome gesture ,but that results in one 6 or seven day event in one town .what if some one want to read ,buy a book in other 360 days of the year.

I believe the market of VCD is even worse when it comes to direct selling.

Now take the example of any English book /vcd or product.

You are not getting the product in your local store googled it you can buy the book /DVD on line on various reliable web site dedicated to marketing .So they are making the world easier for the net savvy  -book movie lover .You can buy other product too but I am talking about my forte only.

By dedicating service many of these web site owners are earning a fortune also.

The population of Assam is around 3 crore, much bigger than many of the east European countries.

Than why are we not having such facility in Assam also?

May be because we are not bothered or may be because we don’t have those skill or honesty needed for those venture?

Or we are happy that may be one book out of three thousand that are published and two VCD out of 1000 produced are doing very good business.

What about those other 99 % being shadowed in the oblivion?

In Assamese scenario we discuss a lot about role of critique or environment but the business part we seldom utter. So I believe we need these important things so that the market improves:

1. Proper marketing channel
2. Individual outlet listening to consumers wish and trying to satisfy them rather than continuing with their habit of why to take headache attitude  
3. Having honest E store for local product (As now the market is world wide)
4. To have honest publisher /producer.   Also read Bhruka 

The role of a Sutradhar

camera and our life

taken from net

Over the years the conventional understanding about a sutradhar was that it narrates the story but by itself it don’t take any active part, But to go against the defined rule is what excite more and so everyone rebels against the defined system .even if it is a –machine.

In modern day life the most well established story teller is –the camera ,wherever u go camera capture and tell the story ,remember Diwakar Benerjee’s LSD out there camera are playing the role of a sutradhar .

It was okay till then, but I strongly believe this modern world sutradhar is gathering some kind of paranormal power that affect psychology of the people it capturing

Few examples:

 A group were leading a peaceful protest rally, the camera arrived, and once the cameraman opens its shutter:-they started giving slogans and soon, they got out of control and started destroying everyone nearby

There were report of some scandal (it can be true ,it can be false and the incident is many days event )Once camera came to investigate ,people gathered ,Then they identifies the culprit (who might not be the one person who has done it ,but once camera rolls people started beating him up.

She is a normal girl next door with a boyfriend, the boyfriend buys a camera phone ---the rest is a movie story

SO is it our normal way of life  or the modern day sutradhar  induces us to act differently then we would have behaved without the camera shutter on , over which we don’t have any control.

In search of topoemas

A Topoema

Octavio Paz

It was 1996, I had some time off and was regularly loitering the book shelves of District library, Guwahati. I was ready to gulp anything that could food for thought and one day I picked up –The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz . I knew nothing about him at that time except that he is a big name.  I borrowed the book home, tried to read and comprehend but most of them were smarter than me at that time. To me poetry is to feel not to understand, so I was not bothered as long as I could feel them. What attracted me was some bizarre line in the form juxtaposition of word and sketch. They were named Topoema by the author.

I didn’t had a clue what was it all about but it appealed me so much that –I had those pages photocopied (may be illegal as per copyright act) and I am carrying those page till today though I have moved from Guwahati to Dibrugarh then  to Delhi then to Dehradun then…..over next twenty years.Those scripts continued to puzzle me and after the advent of internet I started to goggle what is topoeama by Octavio Paz but I found nothing.

When I could afford and most books become available in online shops I brought the book from flipkart then I found some clue and fell in love with the concept of topoeama .

It seems Mr. Paz also had some problem with words (or their meaning…also read words...

Even In net sphere now a days there is a very very little information available on Topoema .But  gradually I became convinced that in order to escape time and space and to give meaning and mystery to words Mr. Paz created Topema.

Later I found a paragraph about Topoema in a Spanish language in a Spanish website and had it translated with help of Google translate it says

“One of the most common obsessions in his poems is the desire to escape time, which led to the creation of a poetry space whose poems were baptized by the author under the name of topoemas (Moles + poem). This is what poetry space, poetry as opposed to the typical temporal and discursive. It is an intellectual and minority poetry, almost metaphysical in sign language also includes visual signals. In topoemas, as occurred in the poetry of the avant-garde, stress is suggestive and expressive power of visual images. There is no doubt that the last poetry of Octavio Paz is quite esoteric, but, beyond that, above all his poetry is noted for its lyricism and the magical sense that the author gives to words."

I said “Pretty surreal but damn appealing”

Much later I was intending to fictionalize Surrealism (not that I will write about art history but I intended to take some theme of surrealism and to write a fiction on it),I was lost then this Topema came to my rescue by becoming a part of the story .

About art history fictionalization 2: Impressionism

Uddip Talukdar The forgotten face

Claude Monet, Impression,1872

It’s paradoxical. I started to work on a story with the idea that I will fictionalize the impressionist art movement.  No, I will not write about art history but I will take spirit of the art movement as a theme for the new story. The idea of building a story out of a painting came to my mind when I came across this painting being made by one of my friend. I took the required permission and I fixed the title of the Story –Impressionism (চিহ্নবাদ).  But those of you who have little idea about art history will defiantly say that this painting doesn’t belong to the –impressionist genre.   

              This story is all about genesis. Conception of the story is somewhat similar to how some new and awkward art style was named as ‘impressionist’ by a sarcastic comment of art critique. A Claude Monnet work ‘Impression, Sunrise’ (1860) that was criticized as ‘Impression — I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it … and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.* (See wiki for detail by clicking here) Gradually the art form used in ‘Impression,’ became a style in itself.  full of visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities * for detail click here 

           When I saw the work The Forgotten Face for the first the impression was that of pain of genesis (of creation /creator or procreation).The impression created by the painting, idea of creation and the pain associated with the whole compulsive process was so overpowering that gradually it took the form of a story  'Cihnabad’ (ছিহ্ণবাদ not প্রতিতীবাদ which is the literal translation of impressionism in Assamese). Sometimes I feel I should have destroyed the story soon after I finished because of the negativity of the story or the story might have hurt a few people.

Later on I decided against it. As I believe the product of that huge traumatic mental exercise was not just a case of pseudocyasis but if we continue with the flow we might find some answer to our eternal problems.  

Also read# :Fictionalizing DADAISM