The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015

Photo: Margarita Kabakova/Ersatz AB

Svetlana Alexievich

Prize share: 1/1

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".

 Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich, known for chronicling the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for literature Thursday "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."

She is only the 14th woman to win the prize, which has been awarded 107 times.

On her website, Alexievich says she records conversations with 500 to 700 people for each book she writes.

"Real people speak in my books about the main events of the age such as the war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the downfall of a great empire," she says. "Together they record verbally the history of the country, their common history, while each person puts into words the story of his/her own life."

Her books are described as a literary chronicle of the emotional history of the Soviet and post-Soviet individual, as told by means of a carefully constructed collage of interviews.^[12] According to Russian writer and critic Dmitry Bykov, her books owe much to the ideas of Belarusian writer Ales Adamovich, who insisted that the only way to describe the horrors of the 20th century was not to create fiction but to document the testimonies of the witnesses.^[13] Belarusian poet Uladzimir Nyaklyayew called Adamovich "her literary godfather". He also named the documentary novel I'm from the Burned Village (Belarusian: Я з вогненнай вёскі) by Ales Adamovich, Janka Bryl and Uladzimir Kalesnik, about the villages burned by the Nazi troops during the occupation of Belarus, as the main single book that has influenced Alexievich's attitude to literature.^[14] Alexievich admitted the influence of Adamovich and added, among others, Belarusian writer Vasil Bykaŭ as another source of impact on her.^[15] Her most notable works in English translation include a collection of first-hand accounts from the war in Afghanistan (Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War)^[16] and a highly praised oral history of the Chernobyl disaster (Voices from Chernobyl).^[17] Alexievich describes the theme of her works this way:

If you look back at the whole of our history, both Soviet and post-Soviet, it is a huge common grave and a blood bath. An eternal dialog of the executioners and the victims. The accursed Russian questions: what is to be done and who is to blame. The revolution, the gulags, the Second World War, the Soviet–Afghan war hidden from the people, the downfall of the great empire, the downfall of the giant socialist land, the land-utopia, and now a challenge of cosmic dimensions – Chernobyl. This is a challenge for all the living things on earth. Such is our history. And this is the theme of my books, this is my path, my circles of hell, from man to man.^[18]

Her first book, War's Unwomanly Face, came out in 1985. It was repeatedly reprinted and sold more than two million copies.^[16] The book was finished in 1983 and published (in short edition) in Oktyabr, a Soviet monthly literary magazine, in February 1984.^[19] In 1985, the book was published by several publishers, and the number of printed copies reached 2,000,000 in the next five years.^[20] This novel is made up of monologues of women in the war speaking about the aspects of World War II that had never been related before.^[16] Another book, The Last Witnesses: the Book of Unchildlike Stories, describes personal memories of children during war time. The war seen through women's and children's eyes revealed a new world of feelings.^[21] In 1993, she published Enchanted with Death, a book about attempted and completed suicides due to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Many people felt inseparable from the Communist ideology and unable to accept the new order surely and the newly interpreted history.^[22]
Her books were not published by Belarusian state-owned publishing houses after 1993, while private publishers in Belarus have only published two of her books: Voices from Chernobyl in 1999 and Second-hand Time in 2013, both translated into Belarusian.^[23] As a result, Alexievich has been better known in the rest of world than in Belarus.^[24]
She has been described as the first journalist to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[25]






http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2015/

Department of English, Payyanur College is very happy with its fifth faulty to have PhD.  Dr A C Sreehari after Dr V V Balakrishanan, Dr K C Muraleedharan, Dr /V M Santhosh and Dr Premachandran Keezhoth has successfully defended his thesis on Masculinities (The Making of the Male: A Study of the Popular Art Films in Malayalam) in front of a quite scholarly audience.  The defence was in the presence of the well-known scholar and bilingual writer Prof. P P Raveendran, Professor Emeritus of MG University and former Dean of  School of Letters, MG University and his guide 'Prof Bhaskaran Nair, Pondichery University and Co-guide, Prof. T Pavithran, Calicut University.    The session was intensely academic and the presentation was followed by a bouquet of  questions raised by the Chairman himself on his own behalf and on behalf of other examiners.   Sreehari maintained the stance he took in the thesis excellently well and then questions came from the audience as well in plenty which also were given proper responses.  Spontaneity was the most apt word to describe the spirit of the situation.  The defence which started at 10.50 went on upto 1.30 without a moment of low spirit.  The following aspects of the thesis needs special mention:
1. A topic of current relevance
2. About an aspect of human (s)existence (masculinity) which creates its binary femininity and urges people to continuous performativity draining off their creative energy.
3. Deals with the subtle politics of films in gendering human realities and evoking a potential space for exploitation.
4. Highly commendable for its attempt at evolving a language to go beyond binaries of modernity and its epistemological base challenged since the time of Nietzsche through Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze and Guttari and also more sharply by ideologues of feminism like Helen Cixous whose polemic writings (for instance, Laugh of Medusa) collapses borders and violates genre rules in the attempt of gong beyond restricting linguistic and epistemological framework. 

 Congratulations, Divya Padmanabhan.

 

 This is the letter from Divya Padmanabhan, our former student who won the Commonwealth Scholarship, joined Cardiff University for research, completed her research work and successfully reached the stage of viva.  Now it is your turn to congratulate her.  To know more about her visit:  

 

 

 

 

http://deptofenglishpayyanurcollege.blogspot.in/2010/09/divya-padmanabhan-interacts-with.html

Dear Sir

I am really excited to inform that I ve passed my viva examination. I wish to thank you for your blessings and help.

 

Once again thanks

Kind Regards

 Human rights violation - Everywhere and here too!

Watch the video given through the link below.  Kavya, Vidhya and Ranjitha are our former students. 

Koppiyam - Pondicherry University Eve Teasing Case | HOD misuses Rights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqzk7Jtmov8&feature=share

 http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/for-safe-campuses/article5744948.ece

 

UGC task force report on campus security out

 

a must:Adequate and well-trained security, including a good balance of women security staff, is necessary in college and university campuses. 

 

 

The report of the University Grants Commission (UGC) task force on reviewing security measures in educational institutions is now out. The 250-page report of the 10-member task force, set up in December 2012 after the gang-rape of a girl in ×New Delhi caused nationwide outrage, was released on February 12. UGC Chairman Ved Prakash, in a letter dated February 18, has written to all UGC-funded and non-funded higher educational institutions to implement the recommendations of the report.

Titled ‘Saksham’, the report suggests basic infrastructure requirements such as lighting and public transport, while also recommending counselling services and gender sensitisation. Significantly, the report also says the ×National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), in its assessment and accreditation procedures, “must build in an essential gender audit component as part of the evaluation process.”

While the ×University of Pune, with 800 affiliated colleges, has already announced that the recommendations will be implemented, Bangalore University (BU), which was in the eye of a storm after a student was allegedly gang-raped on its vast, densely wooded ×Jnanabharathi campus in October 2012, appears to be lagging behind. While the varsity, with over 600 affiliated institutions, had announced soon after the incident that CCTV cameras would be installed on campus, this is yet to see the light of day.

BU Vice-Chancellor B. Thimme Gowda told The Hindu that the delay in installation of CCTVs was due to the delay in laying of optical fibre cables for the control room. “This will cost nearly Rs. 2 crore. We are calling for tenders,” he said.

Among the only concrete steps that the varsity has taken to ensure safety of its students is the ‘Sensitisation, Prevention and ×Redressal of Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination (SPARSH and GD) policy’, which promises action within 30 days from the day of the complaint against the guilty. The policy specifies that the committee to which complaints will be addressed will consist of at least 50 per cent women, and prescribes formation of complaint committees at three levels — affiliated colleges (College Complaints Committee), university (University Units Complaints Committee) and Apex Complaints Committee.

While Prof. Gowda said the UGC report was yet to reach him, the task force’s major recommendations include institutionalising counselling services (the report says regular faculty doubling up as counsellors and part-time arrangements should be replaced with well-trained, full-time counsellors).

Infrastructure-wise, the report says, “According to feedback received, many higher education institutions (HEIs), including large campuses, have a deficit in lighting and are experienced as unsafe by students. Students should be encouraged to undertake a mapping of the spaces in and around their campuses in terms of lighting.”

Another important aspect is of security, which the task force report says should not lead to a ‘securitisation approach to combating sexual harassment.’ “A common complaint from students has to do with security. Adequate and well-trained security including a good balance of women security staff is necessary. Security must receive gender sensitisation training apart from other conditions of service,” the report says.

In a blow to BU, which has announced the withdrawal of its transport for the coming academic year, the report also says, “Many HEIs suffer from lack of reliable public transport. This includes lack of transport within large campuses between different sections of the university, especially hostels, libraries, laboratories and main buildings, and secondly, colleges that do not have good access for day scholars. Lack of safety as well as harassment is exacerbated when students cannot depend on safe public transport. Shuttle buses must be provided to enable students to work late in libraries and laboratories and to attend programmes in the evenings.”

Discriminatory rules

Apart from inadequate toilets for women, insufficient accommodation and crowding are also dealt with. Another major problem tackled in the report is the ‘differential timings and codes of behaviour for women hostellers’. “It has come to the notice of the task force that after the December 2012 rape incident, many HEIs responded by making their timings and rules for women stricter and more discriminatory than before. It must be reiterated that discriminatory timings and other forms of constraining women are not valid or acceptable ways of keeping women safe. Concern for the safety of women should not lead to stricter discriminatory rules in the hostels.”

It may be recalled that there was furore in the ×National Law School of India University when the varsity barred students from going into or out of the campus after 9 p.m. and before 6 a.m.

This poem written by Edward Thomas was his response to Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken"


The Sign Post

The dim sea glints chill. The white sun is shy,
And the skeleton weeds and the never-dry,
Rough, long grasses keep white with frost
At the hilltop by the finger-post;
The smoke of the traveller’s-joy is puffed
Over hawthorn berry and hazel tuft.
I read the sign. Which way shall I go?
A voice says: You would not have doubted so
At twenty. Another voice gentle with scorn
Says: At twenty you wished you had never been born.

One hazel lost a leaf of gold
From a tuft at the tip, when the first voice told
The other he wished to know what ’twould be
To be sixty by this same post. “You shall see,”
He laughed—and I had to join his laughter—
“You shall see; but either before or after,
Whatever happens, it must befall,
A mouthful of earth to remedy all
Regrets and wishes shall freely be given;
And if there be a flaw in that heaven
’Twill be freedom to wish, and your wish may be
To be here or anywhere talking to me,
No matter what the weather, on earth,
At any age between death and birth,
To see what day or night can be,
The sun and the frost, the land and the sea,
Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring,—
With a poor man of any sort, down to a king,
Standing upright out in the air
Wondering where he shall journey, O where?”

സൂര്യനേക്കാള്‍ പൊള്ളിക്കുന്ന ചില മഴക്കാലങ്ങള്‍: Rupesh Kumar, former student of the Department of English, Payyanur College, writes in the online publication AZHIMUKHAM about how the Dalit community negotiated their everyday realities and worked towards a counter subculture. This post follows the ROOPESH DOCUMENTARY DAY: SCREENING AND DISCUSSION at the department of English on 02.01.2014, Saturday as part of the course on FILM STUDIES.  The vibrant discussion that followed the screening, according to notable director and film activist, was one that was politically memorable, thought provoking and more excelling in its depth and sharpness than the ones in his experience including the one at JNU.   

രൂപേഷ് കുമാര്‍

പ്രശസ്ത ഡോക്യൂമെന്ററി ഫിലിം സംവിധായകന്‍. ഇന്ത്യയിലെ ജാതി അനുഭവങ്ങളെ മുന്‍ നിര്‍ത്തി ദളിത് പ്രശ്‌നങ്ങളെ ആഴത്തില്‍ വിശകലനം ചെയ്യുന്നവയാണ് രൂപേഷിന്റെ ഡോക്യൂമെന്ററികള്‍. കണ്ണൂര്‍ ജില്ലയിലെ പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ ജനനം. 

Documentaries

Don’t be our fathers
Don’t be our fathers Music video
Black Board
Twinkle Twinkle Little Caste
Crime and Punishment
3D Stereo Caste
All Indians are…
Sabitha: A Woman and a Day
By the side of a River
Love stories In Black letters
Underworld Memories of Untouchables

ബ്ളാക്ക് ലെറ്റേഴ്‌സ് 

1980-കള്‍ക്കു ശേഷമുള്ള ദളിത് ജീവിതാനുഭവങ്ങളും ദളിത് ഓര്‍മകളും ദളിത് മനോഭാവങ്ങളുമാണ് ഈ എഴുത്തില്‍ വരിക. നിയതവും ചിട്ടപ്പെടുത്തിയതുമായ അവസ്ഥകളിലല്ല ജീവിതം സംഭവിക്കുന്നതെന്നതിനാല്‍ എഴുത്തും ഇതേ രീതി പിന്തുടരുന്നു. എന്നാല്‍ മുറിഞ്ഞുപോകുന്ന ജീവിതാവസ്ഥകളെ വീണ്ടെടുക്കാനുള്ള ശ്രമം കൂടിയാണ് ബ്ളാക്ക് ലെറ്റേഴ്‌സ്. 

Stories

• സൂര്യനേക്കാള്‍ പൊള്ളിക്കുന്ന ചില മഴക്കാലങ്ങള്‍
• തലയില്‍ നക്ഷത്രം തിളയ്ക്കുന്ന കറുത്ത മീനുകള്‍
• ഈ ജാതി തീരത്ത് തരരുത് ഇനിയൊരു ജന്മം കൂടി
• കറുത്ത മാലാഖമാരുടെ പോസ്റ്റ്മെട്രിക് ജീവിതങ്ങള്‍
• ഒരുവട്ടം കൂടിയാ പഴയ വിദ്യാലയ അഥവാ ചിരിച്ചു ചിരിച്ചു മരണം
• പയ്യന്നൂര്‍ കോളേജിലെ ആ പ്രത്യേകതരം ജാതിക്കാറ്റ്
• പെരിങ്ങീലിലെ പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട അച്ചമ്മക്ക്

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ആയിരത്തി തൊള്ളായിരത്തി എണ്‍പത്തി ഒമ്പത് മെയ്‌ മാസം, ഒരു വൈകുന്നേരം. പെരിങ്ങീല്‍ ദേശത്തെ കുട്ടികള്‍ ആയ ഞങ്ങള്‍ കളിച്ചു കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു. സ്ത്രീകള്‍ വിറകൊക്കെ പെറുക്കി കൂട്ടുകയാണ്. ആണുങ്ങള്‍ മറ്റു പണികള്‍ ചെയ്യുന്നു. പെട്ടെന്നാണ് കണ്ടത്തില്‍ കുറച്ചു ദൂരെയായി ഗുണ്ട് പൊട്ടുന്നത് പോലെ വലിയ ശബ്ദം കേട്ടത്. ഇടി വീണതാണ്. കൊടുങ്കാറ്റിന്റെ വരവാണ്. എല്ലാവരും ഓടി വീടിന്റെ ഉള്ളില്‍ കയറി. ചെറിയ ഓടിട്ട വീട് ആണ്. വൈകുന്നേരം തുടങ്ങി അര്‍ദ്ധരാത്രിക്കപ്പുറം നീണ്ട മഴ വീടിന്റെ ഓടു മുഴുവന്‍ പാറിപ്പിച്ചു. ഞങ്ങളെല്ലാവരും നിന്നിരുന്ന ഒരു കുഞ്ഞു സ്ഥലത്തിനുമപ്പുറത്ത് എല്ലായിടങ്ങളിലും ഓടു പാറി. എല്ലാവരും ഗുരുവായൂരപ്പനേയും പറശ്ശിനിക്കടവ് മുത്തപ്പനെയും വിളിച്ചു കരഞ്ഞു. കുട്ടികള്‍ക്ക് മരണവും ജീവിതവും തമ്മില്‍ നേര്‍ത്ത ഒരു അതിര്‍വരമ്പ് മാത്രമേ ഉള്ളു എന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിവുണ്ടായി. അവര്‍ ഭയം അടക്കിപ്പിടിച്ച് വലിയവരെ കെട്ടിപ്പിടിച്ചു നിന്നു. പെരിങ്ങീല്‍ എന്ന ഞങ്ങളുടെ ദേശത്ത് അങ്ങനെ പ്രളയം വന്നു.    പ്രളയം വന്നാല്‍ ചളിയുടെ കൂനയില്‍ കെട്ടി ഉണ്ടാക്കിയ വീടിന്റെ മുറ്റത്ത് വരെ വെള്ളം കേറും. നാല് വശവും വെള്ളത്താല്‍ ചുറ്റപ്പെട്ട പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ പിന്നെ പുഴ ഏതാ വയല്‍ ഏതാ എന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിയാന്‍ പറ്റാതെ കണ്ണെത്താ ദൂരത്തോളം വെള്ളം ആയിരിക്കും. പൈപ്പ് വെള്ളത്തെ മാത്രം ആശ്രയിക്കുന്ന പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ പൈപ്പ് ഒക്കെ പൊട്ടിയിട്ടുണ്ടാകും. ചോറ് വയ്ക്കേണ്ട വെള്ളത്തിനായി രാവിലെ പെരിങ്ങീലിലെ സ്ത്രീകള്‍ കുടവും കയറ്റി വെച്ചു കണ്ണെത്താ ദൂരത്തുള്ള വെള്ളത്തിലൂടെ തോണി തുഴഞ്ഞു കൊട്ടക്കീല്‍ എന്ന അക്കരെക്കടവിലേക്ക് പോകും. പിന്നെ അവിടെ തീയ്യരുടെ വീടുകളില്‍ കാത്തു നിന്ന് വെള്ളവും എടുത്തു തിരിച്ചു വരും. ഓടു പാറിയ വീടിനു താഴെ ചോറ് വെച്ചു ഞങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് തരും.   മഴക്കാലം ആയാല്‍ പിന്നെ പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ നിന്ന് സ്കൂളില്‍ പോവുക എന്നത് ഒരു സാഹസം ആണ്. പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ ഉള്ളവര്‍ക്ക് കൊട്ടില എന്ന സ്ഥലത്തെ സ്കൂളിലാണ് പോകേണ്ടത്. ഏകദേശം ഒരു ഒന്ന് ഒന്നര കിലോമീറ്റരുകളോളം നടക്കണം പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ നിന്ന് കൊട്ടിലയിലെക്ക്. അത് മഴ തീര്‍ന്ന വരമ്പത്തെ ചളിയിലൂടെ വേണം പോകാന്‍. വരമ്പ് എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാല്‍ കൈപ്പാട്ടിലെ ചതുപ്പ് നിറഞ്ഞ ചളി തന്നെ ആയിരിക്കും ഏകദേശം വരമ്പത്തും. ചെരുപ്പൊക്കെ ഊരി കയ്യില്‍ പിടിച്ചിട്ടാണ് നടപ്പ്. പെണ്‍കുട്ടികള്‍ ഉടുപ്പോക്കെ ഊരി കയ്യില്‍ പിടിച്ചു പെറ്റിക്കോട്ട് മാത്രം ഇട്ടു നടക്കും. ചളി തെറിക്കാതിരിക്കാനാണ് ഇത്. ഏകദേശം കൊട്ടില എത്താറാകുമ്പോള്‍ ഉടുപ്പ് ധരിച്ച് സ്കൂളിലേക്ക് പോകും. അങ്ങനെ പ്രളയവും കൊടുങ്കാറ്റും കൈപ്പാട്ടിലെയും വരമ്പത്തെ ചളിയും പൈപ്പ് പൊട്ടലും വെള്ളത്തിനു തീയ്യരുടെ വീടുകളിലേക്ക് ഉള്ള പോക്കും രോഗങ്ങളും ഒക്കെ ചേര്‍ന്ന് മഴക്കാലം ആകെ ഒരു കലാപ കാലം ആയിരിക്കും. അങ്ങനെയുള്ള പെരിങ്ങീലില്‍ ഉള്ളവരോട് "മഴയുടെ നനുത്ത ഓര്‍മകള്‍", "രാത്രി മഴ ചുമ്മാതെ മിന്നിയും കേണും", "പ്രണയമണി തൂവല്‍ കൊഴിയും പവിഴമഴ", "മഴയുള്ള രാത്രിയില്‍ മനസ്സിന്റെ തൂവലാല്‍" ,"മഴ നിലാവിന്റെ ഓര്‍മ്മകള്‍" എന്നൊക്കെ പറഞ്ഞാല്‍ ചെലപ്പോ അവര് "വെറുതെ വെറുപ്പിക്കല്ലേ..." എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞേക്കാം.    

 go to: http://www.azhimukham.com/firstnews-182.html?fb_action_ids=10152161851589334&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[578348465587031]&action_type_map=[%22og.likes%22]&action_ref_map=[]

PREPARED BY FATHIMA R. A SCIENCE STUDENT OF COTTONHILL G.G.H.S.S, TRIVANDRUM FROM THE INSPIRATION DREW OUT OF HER TEACHER SAJEENA SHUKKOOR, H.S.S.T., COTTONHILL G.G.H.S.S.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF AS I GREW OLDER

Langston Hughes, the Afro-American poet, was one among a few who sowed the seeds of Black Literary Renaissance namely Harlem Renaissance in Africa.  His poems present his miserable life in America.

The poem As I Grew Older is the self-expression of a black American who is destined to live under the shadow of whites in America.  Through this poem the poet aims to define the cultural identity of Blacks in America.

The poem is autobiographical in tone and it can be treated as a mirror to the life of Black Americans.  The poet too had gone through the bitter experiences of living as a Black American.

The poem puts across the strong message of social protest against the inequalities of our society.  It is a socially relevant poem as it stands close to social reality.

The poem can be visualized as a transition from infancy, the early phase of life to the stage of late life or the mature stage of life.  The poem begins with the freshness, innocence, optimism and purity of childhood.  When the poet was young, he was not conscious about the world outside him.  He was just starting to take off his wings and fly with his hope and aspirations of future.  But his dreams were crushed.  The repetitive mode of the poem is significant here.  The word ‘slowly’ is repeated several times and it was a gradual realization for him that he was ‘black’ and therefore denied everything in life.  Slowly he succumbs to his fate and accepts his defeat. While admitting his state of helplessness, he commands his hands to break through the wall of prejudices before him.

The poem possesses an ironic tone.  The lines “Break through the wall’ has a hidden protest in it.  He knows that it is inhuman to break the wall of social barriers hence the preposition ‘through’ is used to refer to his nearest attempt to cross the blocks.  He strives hard to evade such negative forces in life within the limited capacity of his situations.

Even though the poem does not follow a definite rhyme scheme the poet attempts a quite different style of writing.  The light shadow contrast and elements of social protest are all characteristics of his verse.

The poet has deliberately been selective in the use of words like ‘whirling dreams’, ‘shatter the darkness’, ‘smash the night’, ‘break through the wall’, ‘bright dream’, ‘dark hands’, ‘I am black’ etc.  The diction is much forceful to create a strong impact on the readers.

The number of lines in each stanza of the poem clearly depicts the transition or the stages of growing up.  The first stanza is composed of simple 6 lines.  He has used a plain and light figure of speech simile to compare his dreams to the bright sun.  Ignorance was a bliss or blessing for him in childhood. Brightness of the sun suggests the purity and freshness of his thoughts when he started his life.  The vitality and exuberance of the dream is carried out in this line.

The second stanza seems more complex with 11 lines.  While he grew up, he became more aware of what was happening around him.  In this stanza he uses complicated figures of speech.  The metaphor of wall symbolizes racism, prejudice and humiliations which he was forced to suffer.  All these impediments made his life more difficult.  Towards the third stanza the language of the poem becomes further complicated.  The stanza starts with a strong line ‘I am black’.  It was the final realization of the poet when he became matured.  Then he becomes hapless, hopeless and helpless before his plight.  He is forced to admit the surrender of his dreams before the white men.  He became a mere shadow which lies under the white people.

He uses typical words like ‘shadow’, which is a metaphor for his black identity.  The light of his dream replaced by a shadow is crumbled by the feet of whites.  He exclaims, “dark hands” and he knew the colour of his skin brought disgrace and humiliation to him.  ‘Dark hands’ is a metaphor of his attempts to cross the barrier or his mere trials to replace it which bore no fruit.  The poet brings in a contrast of night and day or darkness which is despair and the colour of his dreams which inspires him to live.

The title As I Grew Older assumes greater significance in the context of the poem.  As the poet comes of age, he discovers that he is only a shadow destined to live in darkness his social sphere has created forcefully.

In short, the poem stands close to life which is always beautiful with its pains and gains.

POSTAL INTERVIEW WITH A WRITER-Ashokamitran

POSTAL INTERVIEW WITH A WRITER-Ashokamitran

The Curious Reader

Twenty Questions to Ashokamitran

    A postal interview with a writer?!!!

How's that idea? Ya, I was struck by such an idea when i wanted to have more of the writer Ashokamitran who brought the life and people of Gemini Studios before us with such vivid narrative in his book, MY YEARS WITH THE BOSS. I started collecting questions from students, friends and colleagues. I was able to collect Twenty questions for the writer. I knew that flying to Chennai and interviewing the writer has lots of practical and logistic(!!)constraints. So, i wrote a letter to the writer attaching these questions seeking his response. I gave a title to the interview, "THE CURIOUS READER:Twenty questions to Ashokamitran".  

Asokamitran’s response came on 12.12.2010. My jaw dropped when i found the envelope waiting, a shaky hand has penned in hurry his unfaltering thoughts on dull sheets of paper . 

Sir, thank you for taking pains to respond.

Here are the answers from him to the questions asked. He wrote:

Chennai, 04.12.2010

Dear friend,

Here are the answers to all your questions. Writing is best when it is for your own desire to create a cogent, intelligible piece. If it gets to be shared by a few others, well and good. But you can’t set a goal to yourself in writng. To be able to enjoy a well-written, engaging book or story is a piece of good fortune.

Yours sincerely,

Ashokamitran.

I am not well at all.

FOR LEENA MADAN

1)      How did your upbringing/family ties catalyze your writing skills?

Family ties may make one reflect more intensely. But they have no direct link with the skill a child develops. Writing is not a lucrative profession or calling.

2)      At what point of time in the course of your writing did you experience total satisfaction?

Total satisfaction is an abstraction. With my own writing that eludes me. But one is happy that he records certain things to show with an impersonal readership.

3)      A story is normally woven around the yarns of a real life experience. How about your works?

All my stories are woven around either personal or well-known experiences.

4)      What factors in your work made you feel that they constitute the ingredients of a good story?

Credibility and interestingness. Credibility within the confines of your creative piece.

Sri ANANTHAMURTHY

1)      Have you faced identity crisis or writer’s block?

There are moments of depression. But that shouldn’t be called crisis. We are human beings and are vulnerable to many personal or external forces.

2)      What makes you write?

There is a certain joy and sense of freedom when you write.

HARITHA PRASAD

1)      You worked in a film studio for such long years and probably got an opportunity to know about the nuances of film making. How is that you never wanted to be an actor or director or script writer? Or is it that you were never fascinated by these things?

I like watching performances but I have enjoyed the written work from which the performances arise. This can vary from person to person.

2)      The filmdom is a make believe world, an unreal world full of artificialities and illusion. But at the same time film making is a serious affair and the final product the film touches the human heart. What are your feelings when you were in the studio and now? Did the work in the studio make you a philosopher?

There are serious people and frivolous people in every walk of life. Film stars need to be glamorous. Big strain. We have instances of cobblers, potters leaving great philosophers and saints.

3)      What would you like to be if you were to start all over again?

SRI SANTHOSH KUMAR KANA

1)      Do you think that literature must lead (the reader/the writer) to spirituality?

Literature is not a must to spirituality. Great masters have always looked at literary men with reservation.

2)      What do you have to say about god, religion and spirituality?

A holy man is any day a more dependable human being than one who says he is not. Here again, nothing is a must.

3)      Do you think that writing is a way of unburdening oneself?

Writing is not a method of unburdening. That is escapism.

4)      What is the most painful thing about writing?

The physical act of writing. It takes one at least 100 more times than a thought in your head. So you are bound to lose quite a lot.

5)      Are there any stages to writing as far as you are concerned? If so, which is the most exciting stage?

With practice, you write more efficiently. But that may not be better writing. The love writing does in your head without you being aware of it.

6)      What do you have to say about the Indian writers in English like RK Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and Rabindranath Tagore or Indian writing in English?

Good writers. They wrote at a time when reading attitudes were not favourable to colonial creative work.

7) What are your political affiliations (only if you feel like answering)?

 50 years ago I would have joined Congress. Today I find the party making too many compromises, tampers very much with the citizens’ life.

OR

 Why did you choose to write less in English and more in Tamil?

Tamil comes more natural because I live in a Tamil milieu. That much has to be done in Tamil writing. English has had (in prose) a 400 years’ stand and also the vigour of the American writers.

7)      What is the future of literature in the age of technology?

People will continue to write and read. The form may change.

8)      Which actor in Tamil film industry do you like the most? Why?

For the Tamil films, a savage like man is a hero, at least during the last 20 years.

9)      Any recent Tamil film that inspired you the most.

A mass entertainer, is ‘Badsha’ and ‘Tenali’ that weren’t bad at all.

10)  Any message for the budding writers.  

A matter of choice or priorities, writing as a profession is not lucrative. Can’t even support the writer, let alone his family.

__________

സന്തോഷ്‌ കാന ഒരു പൂർവ വിദ്യാർതഥിയും ഇന്ഗ്ലിഷ് ഡിപാർട്ട്‌ ർമെന്റിന്റെ സുഹൃത്തുമാണ് - കവിതയും സിനിമയും ബ്ലോഗ്ഗെഴുത്തും ഇഷ്ടം : ഇപ്പോൾ KV - PG ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് അധ്യാപകൻ - നേപ്പാളിൽ : ബ്ലോഗ്‌ : SOMATMIKA : http://somatmika.blogspot.in/

  സന്തോഷ്‌  കാന ഒരു   പൂർവ വിദ്യാർതഥിയും ഇന്ഗ്ലിഷ്  ഡിപാർട്ട്‌ ർമെന്റിന്റെ സുഹൃത്തുമാണ്  - കവിതയും സിനിമയും ബ്ലോഗ്ഗെഴുത്തും  ഇഷ്ടം : ഇപ്പോൾ KV - PG ഇംഗ്ലീഷ്  അധ്യാപകൻ  - നേപ്പാളിൽ  : ബ്ലോഗ്‌ : SOMATMIKA : http://somatmika.blogspot.in/  

 

കള്ള വണ്ടി

മദിരാശിക്ക് കള്ളവണ്ടി കയറിയത്രേ
പല താരങ്ങള്‍ക്കും രാശി തെളിഞ്ഞത്.
പയ്യന്നൂര്‍ സ്റ്റേഷനില്‍ ഞാനും ചോദിച്ചു:

"മദിരാശിക്ക്   കള്ളവണ്ടി എത്ര മണിക്കാ ?" !!!


ക്ലാസില്‍ വികാരാവേശത്ത്തോടെ ഞാന്‍ നേതാജിയെ ഉദ്ധരിച്ചു:

"എനിക്ക് രക്തം തരൂ . ഞാന്‍ നിങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം നല്‍കാം".

ഒരു കുട്ടി എഴുന്നേറ്റ് എന്നോട് :

" സാര്‍, അദ്ദേഹം രക്ത ഗ്രൂപ്പ് പറഞ്ഞില്ലല്ലോ ?" !!!


തിരുപ്പതി ക്ഷേത്രത്തില്‍
പോക്കറ്റ്‌ അടിക്കപ്പെട്ട ഞാന്‍ പരാതി ക്യൂ കണ്ട് അമ്പരന്നു.
ദര്‍ശനാര്തികളുടെ   ചെറിയ ക്യൂവില്‍ കയറിക്കൂടി!!!


പള്ളിയില്‍ പാതിരിയില്‍ നിന്ന് അനുഗ്രഹത്തിന്റെ മധുരം നുണയാന്‍
ഞാനും കൂടി.
സംശയിച്ച് അച്ചന്‌ :

"ക്രിസ്ത്യാനി ആണോ ?"

അല്ലെന്നറിഞ്ഞ് മാറിപ്പോകാന്‍ ആങ്ങ്യം.
അച്ചന്റെ തിരിച്ചറിവിന്റെ ബുദ്ധി അപാരം !!!



വാരണാസിയില്‍ ദര്‍ശനത്തിന്‍.
ലോകരക്ഷകന്റെ രക്ഷക്ക് കാവല്‍ പട്ടാളം !!!
അതിശയത്തോടെ വേദനിച്ചു .

                                                                               -സന്തോഷ്‌ കുമാര്‍ കാന   

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE OF NARRATION

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE OF NARRATION

There is nothing more deceptive than truth. What truth? Whose truth? It is enticing, painful, bitter, sweet or sour, but is hardly known. To know is to understand it from one’s level of understanding and there comes the unavoidable element of subjectivity. Any opinion therefore, is self-dissective. To be born is to be lost. Art, literature and films have been evolving towards this understanding. In fact, the history of literature or art can be called as an evolution from single perspectives to multiple perspectives. It started with a satisfactory and complacent objectivity. So, in stories and films the speaker or the narrator or the writer gained voice over others and other voices were silenced. The readers or the audience were not allowed or expected to question the authenticity or credibility of the narration. The credible singular voice thus ruled over art and literature for years. And that’s very much in tune with the social and family structure. The conventional text   was like the joint family with more characters and singular perspective.The elder of the house dictating terms and the members of the joint family nodding to it without a frown and “they lived happily forever”! Exactly in tune with the disintegration of the joint family system we could see the emergence of Plural voice. The brothers, sisters-in-law etc. raised their voice against an issue which would have been swallowed or pushed aside for maintaining the “structure” of the family, keeping it intact. Now walls threw gaps often and the singular credible voice found it hard to mend them(the dialogue in Frost's Mending Wall). The structure of the text reflected it. Characters spoken about, pushed to the corners raised their voice and exposed the subjectivity of the narrator. The reader by now evolved brought them to lime light, turned others’ eyes and ears to them and they too felt the conviction in their words. The text that was a singular construct collapsed which was termed as DECONSTRUCTION. The text is bound to collapse; the singular voice is bound to lose its volume when the text fails to reflect what life bares. Then came up multiple narratives to percolate into the issue. RASHOMON was one such attempt and the movie VANTAGE POINT. In Malayalam, the film by Shaji.N.Karun, KUTTY SRANK shows a man from the perspectives of many women. In literature, Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS tried to show how truth is not a monolith. Multiple perspectives can be seen in Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez and The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho.  

Is there an objective truth? Truth is elusive. The moment you see an accident, it becomes an opinion that is quite limited to your perception, common sense, intelligence, sensitivity etc.

At a traffic junction, if the traffic police/the centre is the truth, there are four different roads of riders and drivers watching it from four different angles! Or even more!! Multiple narrative/perspective in art and literature is like the traffic junction perceived from different roads and angles each having its own credibility and conviction.

The growing trend, not surprisingly, therefore, is multiple attempts to analyse a single event and for that very reason we don’t have epics nowadays. Literature and art is growing with life. It can’t be otherwise.

--Santhosh kumar kana

Please read: 

 ON THE DARK CONTOURS OF MY BODY: NIKHILA HENRY:

http://storiesbehindstories.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/on-the-dark-contours-of-my-body/

This is a narrative on my body—its hue and tone, its not so curvy curves and its lines. This is also about a campaign that talks of one aspect which I mentioned above, skin colour. The Dark is Beautiful and live happily ever after campaign.
Should I start with a disclaimer that I do not support the campaign or state that it makes me uncomfortable? A better idea. Let me begin by saying I am a dark skinned person who has not been disadvantaged the way the campaign imagines a dark skinned person to be. Professionally I was not disadvantaged for being dark. And dark/fair/white/black men have found me attractive. But I have used fairness products in the past. My concern with the talk on skin tone is purely based on the reasons that led me to use those products.
Some questions first. Did I use the products purely because of their advertisement campaigns which equate fairness with success? No. Did I use them because people used to taunt me for being dark? Partly, yes. But most importantly, I think what prompted me to do the unthinkable act (as per the campaign) of using fairness products was the fact that I had internalised certain notions associated with darkness of skin tone. I had internalised the ‘logical’ reasons which spelt out why darkness was ugly.
I remember times when my fair skinned grandmother who was married to a coal dark grandfather told me to wash my face and put on talcum powder to look clean (note: not pretty but clean). There were umpteen jokes in my family about why some cousins were dark and others wheatish or fair. I remember times when I was told that I looked like construction workers. I remember times when I was told that the household help was prettier than me. I was also told not to behave or look like some dark skinned classmates of mine. Now, it was only after my adolescence that I realised that the construction workers and the household help in question were beautiful people. And most of my classmates were beautiful too. It was only in my late teens that I realised that there was nothing demeaning about a comparison with any of the above said people.
Cut to a post on the Dark is Beautiful blog. Kavita Emanuel writes, “Have you ever wondered where skin colour bias originated from? I have. And frankly speaking, there is no simple answer.” To say the least this statement scared the hell out of me. The naivety in Emanuel’s words which indicated the presence of an unknown force which had led to the worship of fair skin tone made me cringe. Is our obsession with fairness so apolitical and naive?
Unlike what the above mentioned post on the Dark is Beautiful campaign page claimed, my grandmother’s worries (and the worries of umpteen relatives and friends) about my skin tone stemmed from a specific reason, which I now recognise as caste or a casetist aesthetics. Knowingly, yet subtly these worries othered a certain body type. A Dalit body (generalised as dark, monsterous and undesirable). It was the resentment towards this body which I was made to internalise as a kid and a teenager, even as my body bore the trait darkness, generalised to be the mark of the other. The contradiction which I internalised was very much part of a violent casteist aesthetics which condemned with some hesitation and a patronising forgiveness a ‘flaw’ of the insider even while clearly demarcating the other clearly. “You can trust a Brahman who is dark skinned but never a Dalit who is fair,” says a common ‘upper’ caste belief which finds a mention in Lelle Suresh’s documentary Mahadiga. This statement clearly demarks the contours of a castiest aesthetics and also politics, I believe. While the statement establishes the Brahman or ‘upper’ caste person as a fair skinned being, it acknowledges certain aberrations in this generalization even while assuming that the aberrations were to be looked at with suspicion. Such is the grid of casteism and caste guided aesthetics in the country. The rubric of this aesthetics is guided, its mediated and its bound to be kept intact.
Is the central point now a question of a mindless obsession with fairness? Or is it a question of internalised aesthetics which is prescribed by casteist and racist bigots? What is the real enemy here? The cosmetic industry which capitalises on the obsession with fair skin or the fact that the obsession with fair skin springs from a lucid casteist aesthetics?
Yes, the Dark is Beautiful campaign is right when it says that there is a particular skin tone which is advantaged over the other. But is this aesthetic judgment experienced the same way by all people who are dark? Lets take for instance the flag bearer of the Dark is Beautiful campaign, a celebrity, Nandita Das. Can we forget the fact that calling a dark skinned person, a Nandita Das, Smita Patil or Chitrangada Singh lookalike is considered a compliment in this country? So the dark mass of people which according to the campaign is disadvantaged on the same scale is really a heterogenous entity where some are more discriminated than others. The caste of the person in question matters. There are multiple tones here, believe it or not. There are multiple voices, whether you hear them or not. bell hooks writes of colour caste systems to talk of varying hues of the black body. She explains that black women of a darker complexion are pitted against those of lighter complexion as part of a “politics of representation affirming white beauty standards as the norm.”  In the Indian context the colour caste system is even more complex. While ‘upper’ caste women and men are expected to be fair and their darkness is considered to be a betrayal, fairness among subaltern men and women is construed as a deceiving trait (bringing to notice the Telugu ‘upper’ caste belief mentioned above once more). Now is the politics of fair skin naïve? Isn’t it a result of larger demonising structure established by a brahmanical aesthetics?
I laughed when I heard the campaigner placed dark men and women on the same scale. Is the politics of colour caste gender neutral? I have heard fair skinned friends of mine say that they like dark men. “Fair men just won’t do,” someone had said. I always wondered what about dark skinned women? Will they do? When I was young, I was told that the bride should be at least two tones fairer than the groom. Women have the extra burden of being fair in ‘upper’ caste households, an aunt told me. hooks talks of gender and colour caste: “Dark skin is stereotypically coded in the racist, sexist, or colonized imagination as masculine. Hence, a male’s power is enhanced by dark looks while a female’s dark look diminishes her femininity,” hooks writes. She talks of Michael Jordan who is the symbol of black beauty and Tracy Chapman (singer) whose beauty is devalued.
I had written an ode to a dark man a year ago in this blog. I wonder what the Dark is Beautiful campaigners would have to say about that. Will someone write an ode to a dark woman, I wonder? I have noticed that even those who celebrate the presence of dark heroes in regional films or Bollywood do not find it disturbing that dark skinned women do not get the lead role in these cinemas. Why are our dark actresses (irrespective of their caste) asked to do roles of the vamp, the mistress, the sex worker or the underdog? Here my concern is not about why actresses like Nandita Das do not get lead roles or why they get ‘type’ cast. My question is about why fair skinned women are not considered suitable for these roles? What comes into play in the film industry’s discretion of assigning roles is casteism which cannot think that a dark skinned Dalit woman can become a lead character, be it an upper middle class career woman or an executive of a company. Are we still ‘victims’ of an apolitical skin tone bias? I guess the Dark is Beautiful campaign would want us to believe we are. Why should a campaign which assumes the character of a movement have the people associated with it believe that there are no substantial reasons behind the skin colour bias? Should we grow suspicious of it?
Anyway, when I look at the mirror after going through pages of Dark is Beautiful campaign posters, I laugh to myself. In my mirror, under a dim light I see the dark contours of my body, it’s not so curvy curves and its sometimes smooth sometimes rough texture and I feel the pleasure of feeling it. I am dark, among a lot many other things. That’s it. Take it or leave it.