SONGSOPTOK: Most Bengalis are introduced to Rabindranath through ‘Sahaj Paath’. With
that introduction, people become familiar with him in their own ways. Can you share with us how you developed that
relationship?
SOUMYA: Sahaj Path was a natural sequel to
Barnaparichay, which introduced me to the Bengali language. Sahaj Path, however
was extremely student friendly, which was not the case with Barnaparichay – a
small booklet with a depressing pink colour and which had only one picture of
interest – “Bidyasagar Mahasai-er Bati”. Sahaj Path was extremely readable,
with large wide spaced Bengali fonts and an abundance of linocuts featuring as
illustrations to the text and poetry. Sahaj Path had four volumes, if I
remember correctly, and each was distinctive in its own manner. My relationship
with the text extended beyond the school hours and well into my leisure time,
as it served both as a school text and a story book. Years later I would recall
at times the article on St. Bernard dogs, and many more. The King of Moustaches
Gnopheswar, the village belle P(n)utu who had never heard of glycerine soap, Binu
who dreamt of the colossal city of Kolkata moving are unforgettable memories.
The school I went to encouraged reading and as a result Sahaj Path became a
good friend, since by delving into its depths you could make your mother assume
that her child was indeed concentrating on studies, yet with that book in hand
you could escape into the realm of imagination.
SONGSOPTOK: If we analyze
carefully, we will see a gradual unfolding of Rabindranath in us through
different stages of our life, from childhood to adulthood. We may not be
prepared for this evolution, but Rabindranath leads us through this
developmental process to the blooming of our lives. Can you share with us how
your personal development was influenced by Rabindranath?
SOUMYA: A very
difficult question, since my association with Rabindranath was something which
I was brought up with, in my family as in my school. From a very early age I
remember the German record player which my father bought second hand playing
Rabindrasangeet renditions by Debabrata Biswas on monsoon evenings, his
sonorous voice melding with the bells of the ‘chanachur’ vendor or the call of
the peanut seller. For prayers our school relied exclusively on Tagore. I
remember my first day in school, where, lined up with my classmates in a small
field strewn with pine needles we sang ‘Alo amar alo’ – that was the best
rendering of the song that I have come across. The Rabindrajayanti celebrations
preceding the start of the summer vacations was an event of great excitement to
us. Our poetry text in school in the senior years was Katha o Kahini where each
individual poem is associated with it unforgettable memories, associations and
nuances. This was how I evolved with RNT, unknowingly, but as a part of a
process as natural as the air we breathe.
SONGSOPTOK: Which aspect of Rabindranath
most impacted your young adulthood?
SOUMYA: His wide wide wide span of
knowledge and his command over rhythms were perhaps the traits which inspired
immense awe and liking in me. In our school we had a group of teachers steeped
in Rabindrik knowledge, traditions and mores. In July, there was the
Briksharopon celebration, where students blessed with musical skills invited
into the household the saplings…..the savior of the earth with “ai ai ai amader
anganey, atithi balok tarudal”………..the ceremony making its way through “maru
bijoyer ketan urao shunye” and finally ending with ‘matir buker majhey bandi je
jal lukiye thakey”…………this, incidentally was a favourite song of my geologist
father. Then there was the ethereal harbinger of monsoon……”pub sagarer opar hotey
kon elo parabasi”………all these were part of my young adulthood. On a lighter
vein, Rabindranath’s ‘Bibaho’ was used as a tool for embarrassing our young
Bengali teacher…….as we would ask, with guileless miens, “Sir, amader bibaho
hobey na?” essentially used as an innuendo……These singly and severally
influenced me, as it continues to do so even in the twilight I am passing
through now.
SONGSOPTOK: How would you
explain the rediscovery of Rabindranath at different phases of life? Won’t you
agree that this rediscovery is a consequence of journeying with him? Or do you
feel that this rediscovery happens mostly at the intellectual level instead of being
soul-bound?
SOUMYA: As mentioned earlier, journey with
Tagore was not really a conscious course… it just came naturally. Let me give
you some examples. I was a callow youth in college, studying engineering and
more than engineering I was into student politics. Left politics, mind you,
which required some understanding of philosophy and economics, among other
things. There was this lady who had the misfortune of being attracted to me
which resulted in a proposal which I was unable to respond positively to.
Later, much later, this lady sends me a note……”ami bahu basonai pranponey chai,
bonchito kori bnachaley morey”…………the heart-wrenching feeling still rankles.
This was Rabindranath speaking, extracting from the event just the antithesis
while the whole, when merged, emerged as a philosophical tenet…………
Years
later, as a participant of a Marxist study circle many of us were trying to
fathom contradiction in its real and applied sense. The pastor of the flock, an
experienced communist unearthing the intricacies of Marxist philosophy,
resorted to Rabindranath. He referred to my favourite song….”chokher aloi
dekhechilem chokher bahirey”…….. I looked beyond my field of vision through my
own vision……..well, comrades or not……that WAS contradiction exemplified…..and
that was not borrowed from Marx, but from Rabindranath, who, while not a
Marxist, envisaged in his own manner what Marx did in the form of a theory, a
doctrine.
It was
2002. I was travelling to Kolkata for the Puja holidays. I had a traumatic
experience of being involved in a near-fatal road accident a few days earlier,
and while my corporeal form bore erasable testimony to the incident, my psyche
still carried with it indelible marks. The train was crowded, the ambience hot
and humid, the travelers wanted to be back home, and many were complaining –
about life in general. I, who had witnessed death from very close quarters a
few days before, was just glad to be surviving. And it was in that instant RNT
appeared in the form of his creation…….”ei je herinu chokhe aparupo chobi /
arun kirono majhe probhatero robi/ ei to sokoli pran / tripti koruko daan”.
My father
left us in November 2003. A month later, I, along with my family, was compelled
to attend a typical ‘cultural programme’ where Tagore’s presence was
inevitable. A shy teenage girl started tremulously “amar hiyar majhe lukiye chiley”……and
gradually gaining in confidence, she rendered a beautiful last line ……”ami
tomar gan to gaini”. It was at that moment I came to realise that my father
indeed resided inside me in more ways than what genetics suggests…he was with
me in my limited successes and unlimited failures…….and I never cared to sing
his paean.
I still
cannot listen to this song without tears welling for the time I lost in
understanding my father…and this is Rabindranath’s gift to me. He resides in
our souls, beyond the reach of dry intellect. He nourishes us, rebukes us,
punishes us, solaces us, enthralls us. Intellect has many candidates claiming
individual domains: let Rabindranath reside in our souls, eternally.
SONGSOPTOK: Can you comment
on the influence of Rabindranath in your personal life and on your cultural
engagements?
SOUMYA: His
extraordinary capability of philosophizing events g rave and mundane. I have
heard that he composed the song “bishwa jakhan nidramagan gagan
andhakar”…..when the world is in deep slumber, when the sky is filled with
darkness, someone strikes unfathomable chords in the lyre of my heart…..when
he, sleepless, was tending to his terminally ill daughter.
Secondly,
his huge zest for life.
Third, his
ability for submission to a higher order in life.
Why do
these appeal to me most?
Because, I
have lost my equanimity and the capacity of putting in a philosophical
perspective issues serious and ordinary in the abrading course of the day to
day life.
Because I
never had, or can have the love he had for life…almost bordering on lust for
life. I am a loser, a defeatist, and Rabindranath was never so.
Because, I
as an atheist, could never surrender to powers beyond human comprehension. I
wish I could, in these deeply troubled times.
SONGSOPTOK: We are all aware
of the immense influence that Rabindranath exerts on the modern Bengali
society. However, the guidance that he provided about societal development has
not been pursued. He emphasized rural economic self-reliance. He wanted to
establish cooperative system as a way to counter capitalism. We chose to ignore
his views. How would you address this topic?
SOUMYA: Did we
really choose only to ignore his views on societal development? I have a
feeling that we chose to forget many things he embraced. We have come across erudite
expositions about Tagore in different places, in different circumstances, in
different moods ad nauseam, but we never did try serious critiques of his
philosophy and his creations. We have really not matured as a race as we can
not bear criticisms. We try to iconize individuals and trivialize criticisms.
One who refuses to grant the stature of a god is portrayed as an enemy of the
masses, an enemy of culture. On the other hand, attempts are made to stick
labels and remove him to oblivion, as happened three decades back through the
withdrawal of the Sahaj Path as a text for children. What the society needed at
that point of time was a healthy discourse on the relative merits and demerits
of Sahaj Path and not subsequent action, not a withdrawal following some ill
conceived diktat. The same logic applies to his societal experiments. And I
feel that there still remains enough space for the initiated to examine his
ideas and come up with a really serious critique. This was one facet of
Rabindranath that has not been investigated to the extent it deserved.
SONGSOPTOK: There is another issue that Rabindranath unequivocally championed - the
importance of mother language in education! He argued that children should be
instructed only in their mother tongues till the age of twelve. On the other
hand, Bengali parents would like to send their children to English-medium
schools if they can afford to do so. What is your opinion on this issue?
SOUMYA: Bengali as a race is suicidal, as
has been observed by the erudite. Bengali, as a race that is also delusional.
Nowhere in the civilized society other than in the unfortunate state of ours
would you come across people stating with obvious vanity that their children do
not know Bengali. Knowing Bengali is not considered to be classy enough.
Studying in vernacular schools is passé. That is why Charuchandra Institution
is baptized as St. Chero, Tarasundari Memorial Girls High School as TSM,
Jogeshchandra College as St.Yoges, etc. Unfortunately, Tagore’s stress on the
mother tongue as a medium of instruction was construed by the erstwhile state
regime as an opposition to English, the reason why the latter was discontinued
in every form. Whether the action was correct or whether the explanation is as
simplistic as portrayed is debatable; but I perceive the recent craze bordering
on frenzy for putting children in English Medium schools as a severe backlash
to that discontinuation.
I was a
student of the Bengali Medium. I had to write papers in science, history,
geography, etc. in Bengali, which I did with great pleasure. Fortunately we had
in the school teachers who taught us not to detest any specific language, but
to thrive from the best every language has on offer. Our transition to the
English Medium in the high school level was therefore seamless. I feel that
this is the right way, and this has been practiced earlier in the same schools,
within the same system. Why not revert back then?
We shall
not be able to. Bengalis, as I said earlier, is delusional as a race. These
children, who are being denied their right to the correct form of education
will continue to be hounded by participles, gerunds, infinitives, similes and
metaphors in the same manner as they would be with sandhi, samash, natwa satwa
bodh. They would neither learn English properly, nor would they be comfortable
in Bengali. It is a catch 22 situation: a dilemma or difficult circumstance
from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent
conditions.
The
delusional Bengali, however, will ’adjust’: we have been doing this for years
now!! As for Rabindranath, may his soul rest in peace, may his notions die a
natural death. ‘Sajaye gujaye, goditey boshaye, byatarey banabo dharmabaap
/Manashar puja dher beshi bhalo, ke chai pushitey jyanto saap?’
SONGSOPTOK: We are all too
enamored about globalization, yet we lack interest to (re)introduce
Rabindranath globally. What is your opinion? How and who can be trusted with
that responsibility?
SOUMYA: I have no
ready answer to this question. I shall have to think before I attempt this.
SONGSOPTOK: Is
Rabindranath’s relevance among the younger generations on the decline? If so,
what is the cause of that?
SOUMYA: There
definitely is a marked decline. If Bengal has been in the grip of characterless
mediocrity for the last few decades, it is in the grip of counter culture now.
Bengali is losing ground steadily to English, to Hindi, and more importantly to
Hinglish. Our children are more comfortable in Hindi: they have learnt the
language from TV, from films, from serials. Parents do not encourage children
to learn and appreciate Bengali. How can they appreciate Rabindranath then,
whose profound thoughts were expressed
through his mother tongue. Today (May 9, 2015) the Bengal government has
come up with an English ad in the major newspapers: Kabiguru has been
transformed to Kuviguru!!!
There of
course are isolated pockets of deep influence. However, this does not represent
the prevalent reality.
Cause?
There are so many!! But first and foremost is the inner sense of shame of being born as
a Bengali which most Bengalis carry deep within themselves.
SONGSOPTOK: Rabindranath
emphasized the need to develop egalitarian views instead of egocentric ones.
Unfortunately, we as a society are receding into our impenetrable egotistic armor.
How much has this behavior impacted you?
SOUMYA: At every walk of life.
SONGSOPTOK: What is your
optimism about the relevance of Rabindranath in Bengal of the future generations?
SOUMYA: I resort
to Stephen Spender. I have taken the liberty of altering the first line of the
final stanza.
What I expected was
Thunder,
fighting,
Long
struggles with men
And
climbing.
After
continual straining
I should
grow strong:
Then the
rocks would shake
And I
should rest long.
What I had
not foreseen
Was the
gradual day
Weakening
the will
Leaking
the brightness away,
The lack
of good to touch
The fading
of body and soul
Like smoke
before wind
Corrupt,
unsubstantial.
The
wearing of Time,
And the
watching of cripples pass
With limbs
shaped like questions
In their
odd twist.
The
pulverous grief
Melting
the bones with pity.
The sick
falling from earth
These, I
could not foresee.
But yet I
always expect
Some
brightness to hold in trust,
Some final
innocence
To save
from dust;
That,
hanging solid,
Would
dangle through all
Like the
created poem
Or the
dazzling crystal.
[Soumya Sen Sarma lives
& works in India. He is a Senior Research Scientist at CMERI, Durgapur]
We sincerely thank you
for your time and hope we shall have your continued support.
Aparajita Sen
(Editor:
Songsoptok)
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