Midnight Flash

When thunder rolls

night tightens into 

a tough knot of blindness,

I open my hair and wait

for the sky wind

to bring messages -

I don't know from where.

I seem to hear words

endearing and full of

perhaps -love.

When the sky clears

the knot melts away

in the sunshine I listen

to a loud range of

disconsolate rubbish

and then I love the world.

I love the world for -

its mysteries,

its drum shot riddles

and then I discover -

Love.

I rush out with my

flowing hair, coughing,

sneezing and panting

to catch the fleeting words

the sounds and the  silences

of the bygone centuries.

when flowers bloom,

birds  fly in sky,

everyone moves  their way

to be rooted somewhere

I never bother and ignore

all that men and women

loved and hated- I realize

no I was never in love.

Sabita Sahu

The World Of A Woman Writer

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

The first consciousness of woman was that she was made out of a supernumerary bone of Adam's ribs; she was the other without any authenticity of her own. This  definitely  has caused a silent psychic rebellion in woman. When she referred to herself, after the title of Simone de Beauvoir's path breaking book Second Sex, she became more conscious of her secondary status  in nature's scheme of things. The reproductory process makes the woman more conscious of her place which is, if not, subservient or secondary, at least that of a  vassal to carry someone's seed and give birth to a child without having the right of ownership. In the Indian context the woman was given a separate role, the role of what we call today, a homemaker. But the idea behind it was definitely quite imaginative. When men and women moved from nature to culture, the woman was given a role of a grihalaxmi, the deity of the house- home, she would make it beautiful, hospitable and a self-sustaining world. But in practice she was  a womb, a slave without any say in decision making. She should be obedient and responsible for the  order in the home. Only in those rare cases where love enriched life she had at least the identity of a sweet life -partner, a separate person who could absorb the man in body and mind. But this was rare, few and far between .

But the rigour of patriarchy became somewhat soft when Bernard Shaw ( Candida) and Ibsen ( A Doll's House) and other writers gave  the woman a separate thinking mind. Candida and Nora had to fight for identity although the losses were irreparable. Education and the suffragette movement gave the woman a sense of liberation. She sub-consciously adhered to the idea that   a woman is not born, she becomes a woman, a Beauvoir assertion which gained currency. The European theatre had some changes in the backdrop and wings. But liberation came around the 30s of the 20th century.

But in India the scene began to change only after the Independence. The rigidity of religious rituals , superstitions, the gender bias and suppression gradually slackened after education at par with the West began in Urban Centres. Woman started speaking in public and also started writing in English. Toru Dutta, Sarojini Naidu and others were the pioneers. The local languages too got a big boost when English masterpieces were available even to the middle class readers. But till date a large population in India is tradition bound and superstitious as the light of modern education has not yet dispelled the darker regions of Indian mind. Women are still repressed and do not have their voice to speak and write. The local languages have a few women writers but no one dares to write her true feelings. Yes many talented writers  are now openly voicing their feelings.  Mahasweta Devi, Kamala Das, de Souza and Silgardo and many others have led the foundation of women writing in India not to speak of Booker winner Arundhati Roy.

In the context of Odisha the women writers are now getting into prominence. After Kuntala Kumari Sabata who for the first time made us aware of a feminine psyche, today we have Prativa Ray whose novels and stories have  retouched the mythic past with a modern brush. Prativa transforms  Draupadi and Ahalya into contemporary  women of substance. Her women do not transgress the accepted norms of inherited culture  but they are sophisticated and refined. They are not feminist rebels  but are more humanistic with an ethical core. Prativa Satapathy in her poetry gives free rein to her native passions without sacrificing  the essential feminine. There are more than 50  women writers in Odisha who are now following feministic footprints but they have not yet established  the humane kind of feminism. But occasionally there are sparks in their poems and stories which may turn into viable conflagration.

But seldom we find in them a  cosmic vision of pure womanhood. They project woman as suave, spirited and free agents of the society. Archana Nayak, Mamata Das, Sanghamitra and Aparna Mohanty are quite bold voices in Odia literature. Aparna Mohanty, Prabasini Mahakuda, Ranjita Nayak try to project  women as free and flamboyant in self- pursuit. Aparna Mohanty even writes freely about feminine sexuality. Paramita Satapathy in her long and short stories tries to combine the mystic  with diabolic in a fair way. But we are yet to see a woman's vision. The mystery of sex, the mystic of relationship and the larger feminine reality are still half revealed. Only in Prativa Ray's latest novel 'Praptesu Prithivi' we get a glimpse of today's reality in all its lucid details without, however, the much needed redemption. Adventure, heroic passion of the feminine kind are yet to be visualized  by the woman writers . Yet they have now created a language without phallocentrism, leaning more towards the poetic, the delicate and even the sublime. But the goal, purpose and the cool serenity of the feminine essence are still illusory.

Guilt Consciousness

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Logicians and intellectuals distinguish between guilt and crime. I don't know whether guilt is less bloodletting than crime, but crime they say, is an offence punishable by law  and guilt is an offence. Choicelessely I have to accept this distinction. If a man kills his wife for adultery, it is a crime but if a man cheats on his wife it is guiltiness! Nietzsche calls guilt, 'bad conscience', and by way of illustration suggests a debtor's promise conveniently forgotten over time. He knows that he has to pay back but he does not. This part of his memory is internalised. He moves in the society, meets his creditor often with a sheepish smile, if confronted repeats his promise to reply but doesn't. This man has definitely a bad conscience but the recognition of his guilt is below the surface. He deliberately forgets his social moral responsibility. All those who are in politics make tall promises to people. For instance Modi promised 'Good Days' ( Acche Din) but he himself knows that his own definition of Acche Din is a mysterious self deception. But in his monthly Radio broadcast to the nation- Mann Ki Baat- he has never confessed his guilt. But does it mean he has a clean conscience? The atrocities  committed by the East India Company have never been publicly admitted : Does it mean the British do not have guilt conscience? A guilty mind whispers his guilt to his lifeless pillow while fidgeting in the bed at night. But is it ever redeemed?

Instances, however, are aplenty, of people who never realize that they have done immense harm to people while trying to further  their ambitions. One of the most "sinful", illustrations of guilt is in the Mahabharata: Dronacharaya, the Guru, the Teacher of the  Kaurabs and Pandavas, who never taught Ekalavya demands Gurudakshina of him when he saw his brilliance as an archer. Ekalabya was of a low caste tribal community and could not get access to any  Guru of Drone's calibre. But he had an earthen image of Drona and worshipped it as his guru. By demanding the left thumb of Ekalabya without any rights, with a view to incapacitating him as an archer for the rest of his life the guilt which Drona  committed borders on crime. Guilt is not  a mistake, it is a bloodless crime which ought to weigh on the mind. But no man who is not publicly condemned or judicially punished ever realizes that he has done  immense harm to a human being. Bhisma in the same Mahabharat took the vow of celibacy only to facilitate marriage between his father Santanu and Satyabati. Was it not a betrayal of the kingdom? When he did not use his moral authority as the most respected in the family to avoid the Draupadi denuding scene in the open durbar, was  he not guilty of inhumanity against the daughter-in-law of his clan? I take these instances from our ancient epic only to avoid known examples of our times. But what I intend to prove is that guilt is more criminal as it betrays a Being's worth in life. The wonder, however is that such guilty persons never suffer from self-flagellation of the soul or psyche or innate moral sense.

The dalits complain of repression and torture by the so called higher castes over long centuries. But does this guilt  ever shame the higher castes? Manu and other social scientists who classified the society by creating  hierarchies cannot be faulted for God has created human beings alike but has given different mindsets to people. Manu's class and caste system created a social organism which operated as a cohesive unit. One part of the Organism must think and plan, another must protect the Organism, a third must earn and feed  and another must do the execution of things  by physical leg work. Otherwise if all parts do the same  function the organism will lose all dynamism and could become effete. By merely faulting the  social thinkers  who created a system of social dynamism we are irrationally blaming a group that sustained life systems. And to remedy an imaginary law we create a sense of guilt artificially in a section of society that was more capable, agile and intellectually alert.  Moreover the 'accused' are no more available, so are the victims. By reservation we create  a new order where the capable are  deprived of their rightful place: and by placing the undeserving above the deserving we create a new anomalous system where suppressed anger  surfaces pushing away the unconscious guilt of remote generations. Those who have reversed the order of the system are they not guilty  of the new class system of bureaucracy, judiciary, management gurus and the labour class?  The same system of the old Masters operates in the present day world with new nomenclature. And there are guilt ridden smiles which turn violent in no time.

We are all guilty of being born for we have to do many things harsh, cruel and sinister to survive. Love is betrayed , trust is belied, promises are broken, facts are violated every moment in our reality: If we feel guilty the human race cannot survive.

Tribute

Am I a tourist here

alone aimless and lost

in the crowd of homes,

hotels and exotic temples!

 

I searched for a friend

who glanced at me  and moved on,

I searched for a partner to share

the gloomy destiny of the earth

but lo! 

He hopped on to commandeer me

to live in his nest for good!

 

But I am now free, 

no more tourist 

in search of curiosities,

come and visit my cottage

join me in my song

my celebration of life's afternoon

my cottage is home and temple, 

a poetic tribute to the Maker.

 

Sabita Sahu

 

The New Flute

He walks alone

on the wavy hills

playing the flute

golden and melodious

dispelling dry clouds

beyond the sky,

Who is he ?

Is he the waylost Krishna!

wandering aimless

after Kurukshetra

with the blood of mankind

spating his senses.

His guilty mind repenting

in golden music or is he

a pathfinder walking for

his magic discovery.

Is he immune from hunger

and thirst?

Does he sleep

in the thorny forest

lonely and wild?

Is he searching for me,

for my arms to lull

him to sleep in my lap.

He must have lost his way

waiting to sing another

Gita for Man.

I'll walk rising up

from my seat of worries

new and old,

without me he is incomplete

He cannot create another Gita

nor create the rhythm of life,

Let me rush I am late

wasting time in idle talk.

Sabita Sahu

Knowledge

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

What was Adam's fault or guilt or if you prefer, his 'transgression' of God's command? He simply, innocently wanted to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree! The tree of knowledge, named by God personally before he took the Sabbath. Had he eaten the Apple God's creation would not have collapsed. He would have gained knowledge about God's creation, could have participated in God's wonderful creativity, even could have assisted him in creating a larger, more beautiful symmetry of God's nature. Why was man punished? Why do we name man's first curiosity the Original Sin? Is it a sin to taste a new 'fruit' - be it knowledge or poison? Did Adam know that it was a sin to defy God's command ? Why couldn't God pardon man's first sin? Those who evangelize should pause and think whether God's first human creation was a victim of Satan's provocation or God's first man was a defective product and hence could be provoked to transgress his creator's decree! Why didn't God create a provocation proof, manipulation- proof, persuasion proof man? Adam was asked to obey, the Master's word was supreme, the first creation of God didn't have any freedom, did not have any choice. What was God's purpose in creating a yesman, one who didn't have the ability to ask questions or to live life as per his own desires. Eve was carved out of his rib cage  to beguile his loneliness (and perhaps sex drive) but in truth to be a partner of  his ignorance and live in the closed contours of a sequestered mind. But if Eve could be tempted by Satan to defy God and Adam acquiesced in the first humans definitely had some choice whether to accept the temptation ; and if she exercised her choice and could prevail upon Adam how is she or he to blame? And if God  felt insulted why didn't he  kill Satan? He alone made the Archangel the Archdevil and He alone created Adam perhaps out of his  own loneliness and boredom. He punished Adam because he could not kill the Serpent who Chameleon like changes shapes and disharmonises God's arcane enchantment. But what has been the result?  

    

The result is Adam has multiplied. Today man has grown into a 70 billion force. The apple he ate has given him such powers that he challenges God everywhere on all fronts. To counter the unfriendly and uncomfortable elements this Apple fed Adam has mastered the earth. He invades the space. Today in the outer space thousands of satellites explore all the multilevel vastness of the universe.  He has conquered, at least controlled the three major enemies of life- hunger, sickness and 'death'. The primal hunger for more knowledge which man calls information,  grows but the hunger of the belly is almost gone. Medicines are invented every  moment to keep him fit for long years. Yes, mortality has not been conquered but he now goes beyond a century. He has created weapons of  mass  destruction and also anti- missile weapons. His knowledge is so potent  that sitting in a remote corner of the world he can bring  a vast  prosperous country to a stand still.  Pentagon sedrets could be hacked, countries could be at war  by misinformation, diseases  can be spread. Artificial intelligence can simulate almost everything. He can dry up a river, vanish a mountain, spy on a country without creating  honeytraps or Vishkanya.  He has now reached the Moon and Mars, getting ready to face the sun from zero distance. If there is news fakery also comes to create confusion hate and wars. He creates laws, breaks them; he makes law courts and disrespects them, goes back on his words, stabs from behind-  All with his knowledge which God had denied him in the Garden.

Did God deny knowledge to Adam for he knew  its true potential? Knowledge could have made Adam rival God. He can do and undo. He creates religion to spread the message of Love of man but  the same religion kills for supremacy. He creates truths, scientific, poetic, social, religious and philosophical truths. And he fights the same truths by a  perverse sense of logic. Political Parties create ideologies and come to ideological clashes much to the detriment  of human welfare. Is the opposite of knowledge a better option for man today, which god desired  but could not enforce thanks to his own judgement vitiated by his Anger? If ignorance is the contrapuntal note to knowledge did God want man to be less curious, less inquisitive, less intelligent and more statusquoeist  in his bearing? Those who say ignorance is Bliss, do they mean Bliss to be a sort of stasis which endures and accepts the given frame of things? But I think , better to be in conflict than in agreement with everything. Knowledge makes us suffer but the nuances of suffering alone enlighten us.

Man's Power- Push

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

That man is not a bread-alone creature is a given in history. The first humans ran everywhere, dug up every surface and fought mentally and physically to douse the fire in the belly. They moved and   lived together in groups to find food and water but if the food was insufficient they fought with each other. The powerful among them subdued  the others and monopolized things. He distributed what the submissive weak needed. The weak utilized their intelligence to plot and plan to eliminate the strong and mighty. The rat race began like musical chairs. The strong had their advisors, mostly from priestly class, and suppressed mutinies  and rebellions. Man became strong by suppressing men; wanted to expand land for land and water, invented weapons, laid traps for enemies. Chanakyas and Machiavellies  came up to fortify kingdoms. Rules regulations, laws and strategies were crafted by intelligent men for man's power push.

Man essentially needs power and authority, to lord over all that he encounters. He domesticated the cow for milk, the horse for his transport and other beasts of burden for his comfort. He cut down trees, mountains; killed  and subjugated  animals. He could  not, however,  domesticate the lion and tiger hence trapped them in cages or drove them away to distant forests; made exhibits of them showing to other men how he is the most powerful on earth. He kept the woman behind closed doors. Did not educate them, never treated  them  as free humans capable of all feats he is master of. Women were sexual  toys, mothers of his children. He framed laws for them, gave them rule books seldom treated them as humans. As civilization grew technology advanced, he bound nature  to serve his interests.  He became the head of the family, head of  a city or village, king of the state, President, Primeminister- that is the Prime Mover. He created gods and temples for them. Be it family, society, kingdom, state he was  the master wielding power: for power is what man has gained over the march of centuries.

When politics, ethics, administration and bureaucracy were established in a systematic manner he became more powerful. The lathis and swords of early  times were replaced by guns and bombs. Science and technology gave him Atomic bombs, Ballistic missiles and he terrorised other men. The Second World War ended with the stilled nerves of Nagasaki. Man proved that he can wipe off man from the surface of the earth. Wow what power!! Then he vowed for peace and market economy. The rich exploited the poor and became richer. Rivers were bridged, courses diverted for his economic growth. He became also charitable thereby showing his moral power and authority. You are hungry  take food and sing our praise. You want money to grow  take money and be loyal to us. Man's power grew over man.

The world today is divided by two groups: The powerful and the meek. But the meek too have come up with a new power push - terror. The Satanic energy of man  rises in the dark to destroy the powerful. The  innocuous are the  collateral victims. The power tussle is ceaseless. Power is meant to kill, destroy and harm the others who could not become powerful. In the human society today the corporate are the  refined substitutes of Timur and Aurangzeb. The East India Company perhaps is the best illustration of  the refined powerpush which loots ( the first Indian word to have  entered the English dictionaries) with bowed head and silken words. The modern day democratic representatives of people also are powerful. Modestly dressed they seek votes with folded hands but once they are elected they can slap you publicly and abuse your power by trickery.

The entire march of the Homo Sapiens is a march towards power and more power. Power over nature, birds and beasts and ultimately man. But  Power for what? To be immortal ? To be wealthy? To  be famous?   For what really? All your love, compassion, sympathy, knowledge wisdom are used only for power. Vasistha by his spiritual powers will shame Vishwamitra. England  will flaunt Shakespeare and India  Kalidas to shame Jinping; China will flaunt I Ching and Confucius, Russia the first Sputnik, America the Triumphant Dollar, for what and for whose shame or  glory? Man has killed Christ, Gandhi; man has destroyed nature, caused this climate  change poverty and fear:  For what?

Power games are now seen in Maharastra; in Hong Kong, Pakistan and almost everywhere. Veer Savarkar is a freedom fighter, Shivaji  is 'Lord Vishnu' ( in Kaviraja Paramananda's Sivabharata). Hitler is the best German  for the millennials in Germany and so on- the power push of man has invaded all spheres of life in history. Power prides itself everywhere notwithstanding the generosity of the human heart. But power ultimately is futile, meaningless like an abandoned cadaver. The much hated Mougal emperor Aurangzeb's last letter to his son perhaps will awaken Man to shun his powerpush:

              I came alone and go as a stranger. The instant which has passed in power has left only                          sorrow behind it. I have not been the guardian and protector of the  Empire. Life , so                             valuable,  has been squandered in vain. ( Death bed letter to his son Azam).