Poetry and prose blending in fashion . . .
Mohsena Reza Shopna is impressed by a literary compilation
Beginning from December, February and then March, we cannot come out of memories, still fresh, of the liberation war. February reminds us of the young men who laid down their lives to make Bangla the 'Rashthro Bhasha'. This was the threshold of the liberation war and Writing Across Borders encloses such reminiscences. In this month, St.Valentine avowed that love is the most beautiful thing that could happen to a person. Such episodes are accommodated too. It is a privilege to be able to review a book which imbibes this very spirit. To begin with, in Shaheen Akhter's Five Crows and One Freedom Fighter we can see this essence touchingly exhibited in one line, 'He had gone off to Dhaka just to hear Sheikh Mujib's speech on March 7.' The image is vivid due to the accurate names of places and incidents. Agartala, Gomoti are names still fresh in our minds. The crows have been used as a symbol of the respect shown to freedom fighters. 'The five crows stood around the dumb woman's lifeless body, their heads hung low, their eyes filled with tears'. Sadness is interrupted by Aruna Chakravarti's 'From the Inheritors', a typical medieval matrimonial picture probably still present in our country. The placing of Jharna Das Purkayastha's Cascading Rain is not right at this point because of the immense pain rendered through the narration of Joy's 'third eye' with which he could feel the difference between the big and the bright world outside and his pigeon hole of a house! This diverts our concentration from the pain of the liberation war to the unwritten sorrow which class difference and low social status bring and the realization that the world is gradually becoming the preserve of the rich. Times have changed and so have people's values, dreams and aspirations. Joy's suicide was it a protest? Was all the love his mother showered on him meaningless? Is life nothing but a mirage? These are questions to be reviewed by all of us. First published in 'The Statesman', Sanjukta Dasgupta's Mrs.Duttaray, is the kind of anthology which lays bare the 'frustration of riches'. The couple had feathered their nest and yet an inexplicable void seemed so unbearable! In common parlance their marriage was on the high road to Needham. Her life hung like a millstone round her neck. Nobody heard Chandreyi's silent screams behind her gracious smiles. She wondered how Virginia Woolf, who loved the world with so much passion, could leave it so purposefully by drowning herself. She committed the same sin and seemed to smile and say she had cheated life by not giving it a chance and chose security in favor of a full life. Then you ease with Nabaneeta Dev Sen's poem Jungle Story, a relief from 'Mrs.Duttaray'. Audity Falguni's Crossfire is a sharp deviation from the typical form of prose. In a note to the story, the writer explains that the past, present and future tenses have been deliberately confused in an attempt to express political realities. There is a vicarious message in Sunil Gangopadhyay's Ephemeral. 'It is only the musing of man that stretches beyond his lifetime'. A ceaseless effort to search hell and heaven for a more beautiful poem like A Truth Bound Sentiment will be futile. Look at these exquisite lines: 'This hand has touched Neera's face, could I use this hand to commit a sin…these lips have told Neera "I love you", once, could a deceit play on these lips ever again?' I dedicate these classic lines and the ones from Joy Goswami's This One Noon, 'Once I promised to have you in my lips and after so many ages I have come to keep that promise…' to Valentine's Day. But the story on which I would like to dwell all my life is Sulabha Gupte's Valentine's Day. Here is an extract: 'Deep makes Dadaji give a rose to Dadi', and Dadi says, "We celebrate our Valentine's Day not once a year but everyday. There are so many rituals when women worship God for long life of their husbands. At night when my back aches, Dadaji applies balm. In the morning when my knees become stiff he gives me hot water, he even makes tea for me. All these are symbols of love for each other". Deep replies, "I bow to your rich culture". As Kaiser Haq's students at DU, little did we know that he would turn into a lungi activist!! Extremely amazing and a brilliant piece of work where Kaiser demands equal rights for this ethnic attire! One has only to dip into, peruse and pore over Kaiser's Ode On The Lungi to present oneself with an absorbing, gripping and well written ode to celebrate a common object: 'at any one moment there are more people in lungis than the population of the U.S.A'. He terms it as a 'complete wardrobe' read it to find out how. You get a jolt in his unique style of romanticism. 'When romance strikes, the lungi is a sleeping bag for two: a book of poems, a bottle of hooche and your beloved inside your lungi --- there is paradise for you'. In Syed Shamsul Haq's To The Press Reporter, translated by Kabir Chowdhury, he forbids any news of death. 'Is it not enough that when a single flower is plucked, the whole garland heaves and sways, that a single hiatus disturbs the total security of the universe?' But the most moving poem in this entire selection is Khondakar Ashraf Hossain's The Ballad Of The Gravedigger's Daughter. Once our teacher and now head of the Department Of English at Dhaka University, he comes forth with his Brobdingnagian talent! Everyone has a craving for life. What is wrong with Tarabanu wanting the same? This is her doleful story and none could portray a woman's plight in our country as vividly as Selina Hossain In Leaving Home. Remember the song 'Urte mana akaashey tor, boshte mana daaley, basha badhiteyo mana ki ache kopaley!' This is because a girl is first under her father, then her husband and finally her son. She is never free! Syed Manzoorul Islam's The Merman's Prayer, a mixture of fantasy and realism, is a very refreshing diversion from the dismal account of Tarabanu's life. His youngish description of the mermaid's torso is quite ravishing and at the same time surprising! But all admiration and respect goes to the person who included Flotsam by Makbula Manzoor. It is a total history of the liberation war in a nutshell,;all one has to do is read it to know what occurred then against the Pakistani army and the Razakars and the atrocities committed by them. The compilation contains inimitable writings like Razia Khan's Argus Under Anaesthesia. There are gems from Nasreen Jahan, Jharna Rahman, Sudeep Sen and Anwara Syed Haq. This is a book which can boast of clarity with easy diction and a style which is enjoyable. It is studded with beautiful and meaningful imagery. The placing of the compositions is done with a brilliance which becomes only Niaz Zaman, the editor. The beauty of this book is that prose and poetry have blended in the most calculated fashion. Boredom lies at a distance.
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