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POST script
FEBRUARY 19, 2012

SEVEN SISTERS

NELit review

FIFTH WALL
UDDIPANA GOSWAMI
Literary Editor

Why I am a poet
GG

Endangered ethos

HE Bishnupriya Manipuris are a community spread over a large area geographically. One would, for instance, encounter people from the community in Bangladesh and Burma, besides the northeastern region of India. Manipur, Tripura and Assam house a considerable population of Bishnupriya Manipuris. In Assam alone, they number nearly two lakhs. Most of them have assimilated with the local population and despite a rich tradition and culture, this has led to a loss of much of their original traits. In fact, the language of the community has been listed as endangered by the UNSESCO. This, despite the fact that the language has two dialects Rajar Gang (Kings Village) and Madai Gang (Queens Village) and the community as a whole has a rich repository of oral literature. In an effort to save their mother tongue from extinction, a few dedicated individuals from this community have been engaged in producing literature in Bishnupriya Manipuri language. They have also formed some organisations for the preservation of their language and culture, the Bishnupriya Manipuri Writers Forum (BMWF) among them. This organisation is holding an international literary and cultural festival to promote the communitys identity and traditions. This issue of NELit review was planned to coincide with the said festival which is slotted to be held on 18 and 19 February. The president of the BMFW, Dils Lakshmindra Sinha, speaks to us in this issue about his reading habits and puts forward his own recommendations for our readers. Ramlal Sinha reviews his book of Bishnupriya Manipuri folktales and finds that it reflects the ethos of the community. Ramlal Sinha also brings us in translation a couple of thought-provoking short stories by Smriti Kumar Sinha. Another poet from the community, Champalal Sinha, takes us on a journey into his childhood memories, tracing the compulsions behind his poetic creations. In Other Words this week, we have the review of a book on ethnic conflicts in Assam. In the burgeoning market for academic studies on the issue, where does this book stand? T

BRAJESWARI Raaikishori Aamaai dayaa karla naa Aamaar sanger sangi sabaai gelo Aamaar jaowa holo naa G G
It was a Friday in 1966/67. It was my birthday. After his catnap in the afternoon, Baba washed his face and sat on a low floor stool on the verandah. He yawned and stretched. I was lying prone on a cot near the left side of the door, and reading. Master, fill a hookah of tobacco, and give me. Where is your mom? Baba said, and yawned again. Baba used to call me master, fondly. I filled a hookah with tobacco and handed over the hubble-bubble to him. Fan it with your mouth till smoke comes out, Baba said, and started to hum a song, that, after a while, came out in a free-flowing voice Aamaar saadh naa mitilo, aashaa naa purilo, Sakali phuraaye jaai maa (My desire remained unfulfilled, hopes remained unmet, Mother (Shakti), let me go exhausting all) The lyrics of the song, its sentiment, meaning, Babas sweet voice, the sweetness of the tune and the accurate maintenance of musical note, time and measure kept me spellbound within moments, and an imaginary world started to engross me. Tears kept dripping down Babas cheeks, and he was wiping them out while puffing the hubblebubble. He started another song Brajeswari Raaikishori Aamaai dayaa karla naa Aamaar sanger sangi sabaai gelo Aamaar jaowa holo naa (Radharani of Brajabrindavan has not been generous on me. While all my colleagues have got her blessings, and departed, I have got stuck) Tears kept dripping down his cheeks. Baba was a man of a contemplative turn of mind. He was too emotional. I have inherited a great deal of his emotion and sentimentalism and perhaps that could have been the true inspirations which inclined me towards poetry. Be that as it may, I shut the book remembering that, since my mother was not around, it was my duty to offer Baba a cup of tea. I rushed to the hearth, ignited the fire from paddy husks kept nearby as firelighters and put the kettle over it. The remnant of the song, on the other hand, kept humming in my ears. I was filtering tea with a wire mesh. Master, where does the smoke come from? Baba asked me. Im preparing tea, I responded. Hari, Hari! (Oh God! Dear me!) As if my throat is wet. Bring it soon. I have to go to the front hamlet. I have something important there. Baba left for the hamlet after taking tea. Baba is no more, but his sweet voice still overflows on the verandah, the yard and the entire house. Wherever I tread, I hear his sweet voice that still touches me. Why will I not be a poet?! Why will I not write poems!

Heirloom
I am not immortal Like everyone else, What will I leave behind As my parting gifts? Who knows when will the void A shedding flower leaves On the branch be filled? I know not who my heir is, Or would be. As heirloom, I have only My unfulfilled wishes, Pen, papers, rivers, Canals, streams, the sky, Factories, machines, protests, agitation, Love, affection, And the entire world. I will take my lethargy With me, of course. Oh, my heir, Have you born, or not? I am waiting for you, Day in, day out.

Bishnupriya Manipuri poet, Champalal Sinha, traces the origins of his poetic consciousness

ULTIVATION of poetry, study of poetry, service to the nation, society and the like are all that my life is exactly about. I am still alive because I was attracted to all these virtues at the right age. Many a cyclone of distress, shock and penury blew over my head, and keeps blowing even now; but against all odds, I am indifferent and unshaken only by virtue of my cultivation of poetry, study of poetry, and service to the nation and society. Among all these, cultivation and study of poetry inspire me the most to be resolutely self-confident. The study of any branch of literature shows one the right path of life, gives immense pleasure, inspires one to work

LOOKING GLASS
and leads towards light. However, no other branch of literature can be a parallel to poetry in providing one with the pleasure of creation, awakening in him a sense towards his work or duty, and making him rich in metaphysical wisdom, which is why poetry is the origin of any literature in the world. Though I was inspired immensely to write poetry by the melodious songs of Ojha Senarup (a poet and singer of repute), I was attracted to poetry since childhood. My Baba (papa), more often than not, read out and sang the poems of Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, Jogindranath Sarkar, Rajanikanta Sen, Kusumkumari, Priyangbada, Mankumari and others. He also sang the songs of the Azad Hind Fauj and that of the Swadeshi movement. Baba was blessed with a melodious voice, and was enviably skilled in the art of tune, note, measure, speed, ascend, descend, and such other nittygritties of songs and music. That way, if I say that his name Surasingh or Surachandra is significant enough, it will in no way be an exaggeration.

Northeast
uWhich are the two most important Muslim shrines in Assam?

CLOSE READING

NUGGETS

NEW PRINTS
GRANTHAR PRITHIBI
Parul Choudhury Pratisruti Prakashan, 2011 `50, 48 pages Hardcover/ Non-fiction

Reflecting folk life

Ramlal Sinha takes a close look at DILS Lakshmindra Sinhas collection of folktales that mirrors the communitys life accurately

t The dargah of Ajan Pir is the Samadhi of the legendary Muslim Saint, Shah Milan, also known as Ajan Pir. The Dargah is in Sibsagar district on the banks of the Brahmaputra river. t The Poa Mecca mosque is situated at a place called Hajo. This mosque was built by Pir Giasuddin Aulia. It is said that a visit here is worth one-fourth of a visit to Holy Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Source: Haksar, Nandita (ed.). 2011. Glimpses of North East India. New Delhi: Chicken Neck

HE folklore of a community comprises its traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and the practices of its individuals, being transmitted orally from generation to generation. If one wants to know a community better, the surest and most effective route to that is through understanding its folklore. Folktales are an essential component of folklore, and the oral tales of the Bishnupriya Manipuris are no exception to this. The Bishnupriya Manipuri folktales, called Babeir Yari or Apabopar Yari (the tales of forefathers) by the community members, can be categorised as (1) Apangor Yari (tales about simpletons), (2) Raja-Rani baro Rajkumar-Rajkumarir Yari (tales about royal family members), (3) Bhootor Yari (tales on ghosts), (4) Soralelor Yari (tales about the Rain God, Indra and his seven scions), (5) Pahiyapolei baro Jibojantur Yari (tales of birds and beasts), (6) Porir Yari (fairy tales), (7) Etihasar Yari (tales from history), (8) Myth and Legends, (9) Funny Skits, (10) Thogoar Yari (tales of frauds), (11) Pabitra Yari

RRRRRRT G

WHEN a reader goes through any of these tales, she sees a vivid picture of what the rural Bishnupriya Manipuri life looked like and to some extent, still does
cifulness and sense of humour that Bishnupriya Manipuris are richly endowed with. Poetic justice an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue is rewarded in a peculiarly or ironically appropriate manner is glaring in most of the tales in this collection. This indicates that the Vaishavite Bishnupriya Manipuri community respects justice and disapproves of logical fallacy entirely. This collection comprising 26 folktales in English is the first of its kind among writers from the community. It gives readers the taste of a wide variety of folktales from Bishnupriya Manipuri folk literature, and from this point of view, the collection can be termed an inclusive collection. It is indeed a valuable documentation for posterity. It is worth mentioning here that G A Grierson had collected three Bishnupriya Manipuri folktales from Manipur and included them in his Linguistic Survey of India (Vol. I, part IV, published in 1891) along with their English translations. Sinha has incorporated all the three folktales collected by Grierson. The author has also adopted and translated the folktale The Lawyer and the Merchant that had been collected and published by Upendra Nath Guha in his Kacharer Itibritta (1971). From my personal contact with Sinha, I have come to know the modus operandi followed by him while collecting these folktales. He had to wander from village to village and arrange some sort of story-telling competitions among old women, who got a meagre remuneration for each story told. Often, the same story would vary in its telling

TREASURY OF BISHNUPRIYA MANIPURI FOLK TALES

DILS Lakshmindra Sinha (ed and trans) Pouri, 2011 BD Tk. 200, 115 pages Paperback/Fiction
(sacred tales), (12) mucky tales or mucky jokes and the like. This collection and translation by DILS Lakshmindra Sinha, founder president of the Bishnupriya Manipuri Writers Forum (BMWF), has enough tales that depict the wit, intelligence, fan-

from region to region. Sinha has taken these variations into account while collating the tales. The success that this collection has achieved is obvious from the fact that when a reader goes through any of the tales in it, she sees a vivid picture of what the rural Bishnupriya Manipuri life exactly looked like and to some extent, still does. Characters found in The Idle Woman, The Silly Peasant, Two Brothers, Apang the Thief, The Tale of a Bitu-Titu, The Story of Pani, Gokulsena and His Wife and the like, look no different from rural Bishnupriya Manipuri folk. This collection has added yet another feather to Sinhas cap. He has as many as ten volumes of poetry to his credit already, besides a volume of short stories written in the Bishnupriya Manipuri language. Some of his poems have also been translated into Assamese, Bengali and Hindi. A select number of his short stories have also been published in English translation. Treasury of Bighnupriya Manipuri Folktales only goes to prove the versatility of this noted writer. T

compilation of reviews of selected books by various authors

PORTRAITS FROM AYODHYA: LIVING INDIAS CONTRADICTIONS

Scharada Dubey Tranquebar, 2012 `295, 272 pages Paperback/ Non-fiction

A
THE CHEITHAROL KUMBABA: THE ROYAL CHRONICLE OF MANIPUR
Nepram Bihari (ed. and trans.) Spectrum Publications, 2012 `1695, 555 pages Hardcover/ Non-fiction

book that presents vignettes of an Ayodhya never seen before

HE book covers the history of Manipur and throws light on her relations with the neighbours