You can not find your favorite pen or
Your key or book
When for that thing
You desperately look.
You can cry like mad
And can roam about
And can turn your table upside down
And can look miserable.
But,
When you leave your search,
In a day or two
Forget the thing
You were pining for,
You find that devil
In front of you
Smiling,
With its luster lost.
That’s the reason dear,
I can not but fear
I can never find your love
As never will I quit my hope
As never can I forget you.
umesh patra
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
creative solitude
Loneliness is often condemned. Especially poets and ditched lovers(who always become poets) are often seen castigating their loneliness which, according to them, is known to them only. Rather I have found hardly any lover not complaining his loneliness and not vindicating his claim to crown of the loneliest person of the world. So loneliness is more used in a negative and derogatory sense .But if we contemplate upon the merits and demerits of society then we may not find loneliness that ugly.
The poets who frown upon this and fill scores of pages and bottles of ink on explaining how lonely they are must not forget that whatever success they got in their fields was owing to the time and space they could provide to themselves. If that time and space is called loneliness, I won’t think it to be such a bad term as it is regarded generally.
Accumulate Samson Agonistes, Areopagatica, Lycidas, sonnets and all the pamphlets, but minus paradise Lost, Milton could not have accessed that majestic height below which all the lovers of literature bow their heads. This is well known that had Milton not been left marooned in the restoration era, bereft of the company of Cromwell and his comrades, he could not have engaged himself on such an enterprise which needed unthinkable amount of labour and devotion. Rather at that time of utter loneliness he was deprived of his eye sight also. Thus this loneliness was a blessing in disguise which illumined what was dark in him.
When Yeats was awarded Nobel Prize, the media ran to Maud Gonne and thought now she would accept the love of his Nobel Laureate lover. But she humbly said (what none would disbelieve), that had W.B.Yeats not been left alone by denial of her love, he could never have been able to get the accomplishment which eternalized him.
Goutam Buddha left his palace, spousal pleasures and son, went for meditation to the dense forests. At the final moments of his enlightenment even his five disciples had deserted him as they disapproved of his pursuing the middle path and taking food. After gaining the enlightenment the first thing he did was to find those five disciples and they now accepted the person they had left alone and popularized his doctrine.
The ancient Indian sages left their houses and pursued the probe of truth in silent caves of Himalaya and other lonely places. After staying alone for years and forgetting the rest of the world, being bearded in carelessness and letting even the heap of leaves gather on them, letting serpents crawl over them, letting the water level mount on their heads, completely concentrated on their meditation, they would eventually succeed in getting the glimpse of their gods and getting their desired wishes granted. It’s a kind of allegorical representation of the fact that if you have to materialize any wish of yours you have to be determined and act with full concentration singularly without the least interest in the other happenings in the rest of the world and in complete loneliness.
If we turn the wheel of history we shall find all great men who have achieved anything significant in their lives have most often stayed alone at least in the moment of their achieving the illumination which religious people call enlightenment. The society always rewards the virtue of loneliness. Everyone knew Shakespeare after his being coroneted to the throne of the greatest dramatist of the world but no one knows where he was in the two mysterious years before his coming to London. I bet it was in these two years that he flourished the genius in his mind by giving complete attention to himself.
The approval of society is regarded as the immediate yardstick of the measurement of success which one has got in loneliness though sometimes the society takes time to recognize true merits (as in the case of Galileo). Still society is always pleasurable as it evaluates the talent of individuals sooner or later. One can’t see himself or herself except the help of mirror. Society acts as a mirror. That’s why party, congregation and all sorts of social gatherings are arranged. Getting well dressed, bathed with perfume people go to attend them. In these social gathering we show our fashionable attire, fashionable thinking and every thing else that we think will amuse the society. As a poet, in a gathering, recites his poem composed in loneliness, he gets the applause of the listeners. The preacher throws light on the secret shortcut which he has found (in his lonely contemplation on the matters of divinity) to attain salvation and expects the listeners to follow the same. The scholar puts forth in the society his unique profound view which he has attained by licking thousands of pages of voluminous books in his lonely cubicle. So, in all kinds of gatherings people go with the stuff they have prepared in their lonely kitchen. In the society they give the people the chance to taste their cookery and get appreciated for their culinary skills. Obviously one can prepare cake where as the other prepares sandwich. In other words everyone is a seller eager to show his merchandise to the buyer. Even in kitty party where ladies go with apparently no serious intentions in their heads show the piece of beauty they have converted themselves into after endless hours of make up, dressing etc in their private rooms. Thus it’s no more to be proved that people desire the society to show their accomplishments achieved in utter loneliness. That loneliness is never ugly.
Time passes like “a winged chariot” when you are in company of friends, lover, beloved and whoever important in or your life. People even go to the extent of comparing a moment of loneliness with years of normal time. But we forget that time is the most important possession we have with us. So, its desirable that one should deliberately try o multiply his time in loneliness and if a second passes like a year in loneliness one should try to get the year’s job done in that very precious second.
Neither am I neither condemning society nor supporting individualism. Man is a social animal and every Robinson will cherish the company of even a dog in the uninhabited island. But I am simply trying to access the value of loneliness. Rather man of talent should be left alone (not for their entire life of course) so that they can contemplate and carry out their ingenious plans coolly “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife” and he can be more beneficial to society.
Otherwise you can conjecture how perilous society can be. Suppose commonwealth of Cromwell had continued , Wordsworth had been engrossed in his French revolution, Bacon had never been left alone even to continue what he called his “dispersed meditation” then we would have inherited an irrevocable loss.
All great works of the world are done in loneliness. John Logie Baird, when he invented television, was all alone. Even to experiment his success he had difficulty to find a security guard to stand in front of the screen for test. Now television unites the world and makes it a global village. So this loneliness which has helped in so much progress of the world is to be admired and given the due status it has always deserved but never achieved. I would call this loneliness creative solitude as it helps in creating, innovating and one can see his own soul and have a intra-soul chat.
umesh patra
The poets who frown upon this and fill scores of pages and bottles of ink on explaining how lonely they are must not forget that whatever success they got in their fields was owing to the time and space they could provide to themselves. If that time and space is called loneliness, I won’t think it to be such a bad term as it is regarded generally.
Accumulate Samson Agonistes, Areopagatica, Lycidas, sonnets and all the pamphlets, but minus paradise Lost, Milton could not have accessed that majestic height below which all the lovers of literature bow their heads. This is well known that had Milton not been left marooned in the restoration era, bereft of the company of Cromwell and his comrades, he could not have engaged himself on such an enterprise which needed unthinkable amount of labour and devotion. Rather at that time of utter loneliness he was deprived of his eye sight also. Thus this loneliness was a blessing in disguise which illumined what was dark in him.
When Yeats was awarded Nobel Prize, the media ran to Maud Gonne and thought now she would accept the love of his Nobel Laureate lover. But she humbly said (what none would disbelieve), that had W.B.Yeats not been left alone by denial of her love, he could never have been able to get the accomplishment which eternalized him.
Goutam Buddha left his palace, spousal pleasures and son, went for meditation to the dense forests. At the final moments of his enlightenment even his five disciples had deserted him as they disapproved of his pursuing the middle path and taking food. After gaining the enlightenment the first thing he did was to find those five disciples and they now accepted the person they had left alone and popularized his doctrine.
The ancient Indian sages left their houses and pursued the probe of truth in silent caves of Himalaya and other lonely places. After staying alone for years and forgetting the rest of the world, being bearded in carelessness and letting even the heap of leaves gather on them, letting serpents crawl over them, letting the water level mount on their heads, completely concentrated on their meditation, they would eventually succeed in getting the glimpse of their gods and getting their desired wishes granted. It’s a kind of allegorical representation of the fact that if you have to materialize any wish of yours you have to be determined and act with full concentration singularly without the least interest in the other happenings in the rest of the world and in complete loneliness.
If we turn the wheel of history we shall find all great men who have achieved anything significant in their lives have most often stayed alone at least in the moment of their achieving the illumination which religious people call enlightenment. The society always rewards the virtue of loneliness. Everyone knew Shakespeare after his being coroneted to the throne of the greatest dramatist of the world but no one knows where he was in the two mysterious years before his coming to London. I bet it was in these two years that he flourished the genius in his mind by giving complete attention to himself.
The approval of society is regarded as the immediate yardstick of the measurement of success which one has got in loneliness though sometimes the society takes time to recognize true merits (as in the case of Galileo). Still society is always pleasurable as it evaluates the talent of individuals sooner or later. One can’t see himself or herself except the help of mirror. Society acts as a mirror. That’s why party, congregation and all sorts of social gatherings are arranged. Getting well dressed, bathed with perfume people go to attend them. In these social gathering we show our fashionable attire, fashionable thinking and every thing else that we think will amuse the society. As a poet, in a gathering, recites his poem composed in loneliness, he gets the applause of the listeners. The preacher throws light on the secret shortcut which he has found (in his lonely contemplation on the matters of divinity) to attain salvation and expects the listeners to follow the same. The scholar puts forth in the society his unique profound view which he has attained by licking thousands of pages of voluminous books in his lonely cubicle. So, in all kinds of gatherings people go with the stuff they have prepared in their lonely kitchen. In the society they give the people the chance to taste their cookery and get appreciated for their culinary skills. Obviously one can prepare cake where as the other prepares sandwich. In other words everyone is a seller eager to show his merchandise to the buyer. Even in kitty party where ladies go with apparently no serious intentions in their heads show the piece of beauty they have converted themselves into after endless hours of make up, dressing etc in their private rooms. Thus it’s no more to be proved that people desire the society to show their accomplishments achieved in utter loneliness. That loneliness is never ugly.
Time passes like “a winged chariot” when you are in company of friends, lover, beloved and whoever important in or your life. People even go to the extent of comparing a moment of loneliness with years of normal time. But we forget that time is the most important possession we have with us. So, its desirable that one should deliberately try o multiply his time in loneliness and if a second passes like a year in loneliness one should try to get the year’s job done in that very precious second.
Neither am I neither condemning society nor supporting individualism. Man is a social animal and every Robinson will cherish the company of even a dog in the uninhabited island. But I am simply trying to access the value of loneliness. Rather man of talent should be left alone (not for their entire life of course) so that they can contemplate and carry out their ingenious plans coolly “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife” and he can be more beneficial to society.
Otherwise you can conjecture how perilous society can be. Suppose commonwealth of Cromwell had continued , Wordsworth had been engrossed in his French revolution, Bacon had never been left alone even to continue what he called his “dispersed meditation” then we would have inherited an irrevocable loss.
All great works of the world are done in loneliness. John Logie Baird, when he invented television, was all alone. Even to experiment his success he had difficulty to find a security guard to stand in front of the screen for test. Now television unites the world and makes it a global village. So this loneliness which has helped in so much progress of the world is to be admired and given the due status it has always deserved but never achieved. I would call this loneliness creative solitude as it helps in creating, innovating and one can see his own soul and have a intra-soul chat.
umesh patra
Thursday, May 27, 2010
I WON'T DRINK
Kingfisher. No. Not at all. I am a man and a man takes whisky"
"Ok Arun. It’s your treat. Its up to you. We are at the receiving ends. Right!"
"Its not my father's marriage party that I will give you a treat. We will do contro."
“I can't pay a single penny. I had already made it clear to you."
"Then come, let’s leave. No point in sitting in a bar and fighting over he bill. It really wont bother you much as the bill will be trivided."
"No trivision” exclaimed Devesh “Babu can pay the total bill alone. Say : Babu bhai jindabad, Babu bhai jindabad"
"Stop your mouth" said I "I am not gonna drink"
"Really" said both of them.
"How many times will I repeat it?”
"We thought you were joking “said Arun
"Am I a joker?"
"No. Jokers are not that ugly” laughed Devesh.
"Shut up. I will take only soft drinks. You enjoy yourself. I have no objection"
Both of them looked at me puzzled .Then Arun mimicked me “I have no objection" and both broke into a terrible kind of laughter that disconcerted the lady at the next table.
"Why the hell are you laughing like that? I am really truthful this time. I won't even touch alcohol."
"No need to touch. We can pour it onto your mouth dear” said Devesh and stretched his right palm towards Arun who clapped it and they both broke into another fit of laughter causing more disapproval of the lady at the next table.
“Need I tell you again that I won't...won't and won't drink.” My voice rose step by step at every WON’T I uttered.
They feigned mock seriousness. Arun said" Ok Mr. Mahatma Gandhi, you don't drink and only see how we drink"
They ordered a Royal Stag for them and a coke for me. Manchurian was brought as accompaniment which I greedily used to satisfy my appetite.
“Dilution, distribution and diet”. That is the 3d formula of drinks. Arun made the pegs he’s the most dexterous in the art of peg-making..
“Why did you serve 3 glasses? I told you I won’t drink” said I.
“Chill man. You don’t drink. if the 3rd glass remains filled till the end, any of we two will take it” said Arun.
Devesh lifted a glass, stretched toward me and sad “Babu! Enough is enough. Take it man and be a man if you are really a man.”
Though I could not understand his pun with the word man, I repeated the sentence “Enough is enough. I won’t drink means I won’t drink”
I could not drink as I had made a promise.” Be a good man my boy” my father had said on the departing day of my home town. That day my mother had prepared mushroom curry, Palau rice and potato-tomato curry.
I had eaten to my heart’s content But the food was accompanied by the preaching of my father.” you know the material condition of your family. You are the first one in your family to cross matriculation. Capitalize your opportunities to the maximum extent. The world is facing a cut-throat competition at all levels. Only the fit ones survive”
I saw the ghost of “Shiv Khera” entering into the body of my father. I used both my ears; one in hearing and the other n passing it off. Then he made me promise to him that I would eschew from cigarette and liquor .I was astonished by the frankness with which he told me all these things. However I took both. There is a rare pleasure in enjoying everything your parents refuse you to do. I am happy that my father didn’t mention to avoid drugs.
When I visited home this time, I reached one day early than my parents ha wished me to see. At home, I found my mot6her taking her lunch. Watered rice, onion, chilly and radish were taken from kitchen garden at the backside. There was no curry no daal. I asked my mother to prepare something for me. But how could she? There was no vegetable at home. My mother’s explanation was who would they keep the vegetable for? The old couple may satisfy their scanty appetite with whatever fond in the kitchen garden. No pomp and luxury required. One tomato or a boiled potato will do. You don’t need to be a student of literature to read between those lines. Somehow I felt guilty. I took an instant oath that I would not spend their hard-earned money on my petty demands like cigarette and alcohol etc which can be bought only at the expense of the plates of curry on my parent’s menu.
Cheers…ok you don’t take but at least lift the glass and say cheers with us Mr “ IWONTDRINK” Arun said sarcastically.
Both finished their glasses and empty glasses were banged on the table while the filled one looked like unravished bride at the first night. My hand twitched. My heart hesitated. One sip… one doesn’t matter much. No… I am firm on my determination. I won’t touch t. I kept my hand in pocket and restrained myself. They poured a second drink.
“Babu! You are really a spoilsport. I hate such morons.” said Devesh
“I hate drunkards” she had said.
“So you hate me” was my reply.
She shrugged and holding my hands said imploringly: “you must leave drinking Babu”
I love to make people beg before me. Vexing others has a heavenly pleasure in it. I don’t feel so” I said sternly. “Everyone must have an intoxication of some sort. Something in which he would forget his sorrows, joys and himself altogether. For some people it is poetry, for some it is music, I am among those for whom its alcohol.”I was telling in a proud way as if I am given the divine duty of drinking. I was thinking that modern girls love bad boys with fashionable habits like drinking, smoking etc. Those who refrain from it would generally be regarded as non-daring fools with medieval good habits.But my rabbit was an exception.
So by alcohol, you can even forget me?
I lacked words
Is its intoxication more powerful than the intoxication of love?
No, nothing is more precious and powerful than you my rabbit.
I tried to glide my hands over her chin and she avoided my fingers.
If for you, intoxication is so much necessary… then…
I have heard that this is called French kiss. But I could not trace its origin or nationality as it was so sudden and so unexpected. It was a storm which came and passed away by its own accord. Later I could find a red glow over my lips.
If your bloody alcohol is more interesting than this… than continue
She said. That day I had made a promise I won’t drink.
It is not done man. You came to a beer bar and go undrunk. It’s like coming to a pond and returning unbathed.said Devesh.
Its like coming to a kothi and returning virgin. Arun’s analogy had more wit.But I outdid him by saying “It’s actually like coming to a battle and returning unscathed.”
“Now seriously, babu, take one sip. For us .Are we friends nothing for you?”After taking the second sip Devesh was already intoxicated a little.
“Babu!”Arun said in a dramatic tone Recognize your talent. You are like that mighty Hanuman who forgot the art of flying. I, the Jambawant remind you of your hidden power. As Hanuman could cover the whole ocean at one jump, you can devour the whole bottle at one gulp. At least, at the very least take one sip veer Hanuman. Remaining sober in an asylum is the greatest madness. Be insane and acclimatize yourself with your environment. Enjoy every fruit of life babu… Enjoy.”
I realised the supreme court had missed an excellent lawyer. But he could not convince me. How can I break the promise made to my dear rabbit?
Though she would never come to know abut this. None is a sinner till he is not caught red handed.. But that’s not the case. Promise is to be kept- its inviolable – its sacrosanct. I WON’T DRINK.
They poured the third glass. The glasses had a mid-air collision. The impatient duo emptied the glass in two sips and attacked on Manchurian. Arun demanded another plate. Devesh made his stance clear. “I am not going to contribute for the second plate. I don’t have enough bucks in my pocket”
“No, I don’t find it in my purse. How” my sister was almost sobbing.
She turned panicky at little disturbances like my mother and it was not that little. Any disturbance concerning money (however little the money may be) is not little
“Look in the almirah” said my mother. I stayed silent in my room.
“I know I had kept it in my purse. How will it go to almirah?”
Money has wings . It can fly reflected I.
“You people never keep anything in their proper places. In time of need, you scream I lost it … I lost it. Search yourself and don’t trouble me” said my unperturbed mother.
I remember, I had kept it in purse. I got 100 rupees from Minu aunty. She took her blouse piece and gave the new piece of cloth. I kept the cloth piece in almirah and 100 rupees in the purse and the purse on the machine. Mama! Give me 100 rupees now. I have to buy a gift for suchitra’s birth day party.
"I don’t have a new paisa with me. There is no money tree planted in our garden” as if in other's garden ripe money fruits are hanging from branches.
She searched but searched in vain.
She entered my room, ascertained that I was the true culprit.
“ Bhaia! Give me my 100 rupees. I have to buy a gift.”
“I don’t know where your hundred rupees are”
"You had seen me keeping the money in the purse. You had also taken 20 rupees earlier”
“Hold your tongue” I was just about to say “and let me love” but I controlled myself. That’s how John Donne’s poem begins. Literature can make you embarrassed any where and any time.
“Bhaia, I know you drink. For your drinking party you had stolen my 100 rupees. I will tell papa”
Slap- a hard – right hand- masculine slap.
Next moment she saw my fingerprints Xeroxed on her cheek. Wept and went.
But I could hear the echoes of my slap multiplied to HUNDREAD on my cheeks; not only slaps .they will transform themselves into various other types of corporal punishments.
My extrovert sister will go and vomit all my secrets in front of my father. My benevolent father hardly beats me. But alas! “Hardly” is not a synonym of “never”. Once he is exasperated beyond limit he forgets the fact that I am a youth past 18 and have voted in general election as a citizen of India already. I felt the scar formed two years ago by his belt-turned-hunter.
I slept in tear and rose in fear but …what… nothing happened. I got up. My mother brought the tea. My father had already departed for office. Every thing was so celestially common. My sister!
That day I took the oath. I WON’T DRINK.
“You son of a swine” said Arun totally lost in wine.
“You don’t know Arun. Our Mr “IWONTDRINK” has been shackled by a promise to a fair sex. He won’t drink as a bitch’s word is more important than his friend” said Devesh in fragments.
“No…no…no. to drink the heart of a tiger is needed. That’s with a man not with a hermaphrodite.”
I wanted to prove my manliness by gulping the glass before me. But I have made promises. I WON’T DRINK
“Arun!” said Devesh , don’t wait for an effeminate. The first served and the last remaining peg is for us as we are Men … Men.
I felt an irresistible impulse of slapping him hard. Damn with your men-men- men. Damn with your bloody friendship. My hand twitched to slap him hard. As hard as I slapped to my sister. No harder than that. I broke loose. I raised my hand which grabbed the only glass remaining .
Gulp-Gulp-Gulp
Down the throat .
UMESH PATRA
"Ok Arun. It’s your treat. Its up to you. We are at the receiving ends. Right!"
"Its not my father's marriage party that I will give you a treat. We will do contro."
“I can't pay a single penny. I had already made it clear to you."
"Then come, let’s leave. No point in sitting in a bar and fighting over he bill. It really wont bother you much as the bill will be trivided."
"No trivision” exclaimed Devesh “Babu can pay the total bill alone. Say : Babu bhai jindabad, Babu bhai jindabad"
"Stop your mouth" said I "I am not gonna drink"
"Really" said both of them.
"How many times will I repeat it?”
"We thought you were joking “said Arun
"Am I a joker?"
"No. Jokers are not that ugly” laughed Devesh.
"Shut up. I will take only soft drinks. You enjoy yourself. I have no objection"
Both of them looked at me puzzled .Then Arun mimicked me “I have no objection" and both broke into a terrible kind of laughter that disconcerted the lady at the next table.
"Why the hell are you laughing like that? I am really truthful this time. I won't even touch alcohol."
"No need to touch. We can pour it onto your mouth dear” said Devesh and stretched his right palm towards Arun who clapped it and they both broke into another fit of laughter causing more disapproval of the lady at the next table.
“Need I tell you again that I won't...won't and won't drink.” My voice rose step by step at every WON’T I uttered.
They feigned mock seriousness. Arun said" Ok Mr. Mahatma Gandhi, you don't drink and only see how we drink"
They ordered a Royal Stag for them and a coke for me. Manchurian was brought as accompaniment which I greedily used to satisfy my appetite.
“Dilution, distribution and diet”. That is the 3d formula of drinks. Arun made the pegs he’s the most dexterous in the art of peg-making..
“Why did you serve 3 glasses? I told you I won’t drink” said I.
“Chill man. You don’t drink. if the 3rd glass remains filled till the end, any of we two will take it” said Arun.
Devesh lifted a glass, stretched toward me and sad “Babu! Enough is enough. Take it man and be a man if you are really a man.”
Though I could not understand his pun with the word man, I repeated the sentence “Enough is enough. I won’t drink means I won’t drink”
I could not drink as I had made a promise.” Be a good man my boy” my father had said on the departing day of my home town. That day my mother had prepared mushroom curry, Palau rice and potato-tomato curry.
I had eaten to my heart’s content But the food was accompanied by the preaching of my father.” you know the material condition of your family. You are the first one in your family to cross matriculation. Capitalize your opportunities to the maximum extent. The world is facing a cut-throat competition at all levels. Only the fit ones survive”
I saw the ghost of “Shiv Khera” entering into the body of my father. I used both my ears; one in hearing and the other n passing it off. Then he made me promise to him that I would eschew from cigarette and liquor .I was astonished by the frankness with which he told me all these things. However I took both. There is a rare pleasure in enjoying everything your parents refuse you to do. I am happy that my father didn’t mention to avoid drugs.
When I visited home this time, I reached one day early than my parents ha wished me to see. At home, I found my mot6her taking her lunch. Watered rice, onion, chilly and radish were taken from kitchen garden at the backside. There was no curry no daal. I asked my mother to prepare something for me. But how could she? There was no vegetable at home. My mother’s explanation was who would they keep the vegetable for? The old couple may satisfy their scanty appetite with whatever fond in the kitchen garden. No pomp and luxury required. One tomato or a boiled potato will do. You don’t need to be a student of literature to read between those lines. Somehow I felt guilty. I took an instant oath that I would not spend their hard-earned money on my petty demands like cigarette and alcohol etc which can be bought only at the expense of the plates of curry on my parent’s menu.
Cheers…ok you don’t take but at least lift the glass and say cheers with us Mr “ IWONTDRINK” Arun said sarcastically.
Both finished their glasses and empty glasses were banged on the table while the filled one looked like unravished bride at the first night. My hand twitched. My heart hesitated. One sip… one doesn’t matter much. No… I am firm on my determination. I won’t touch t. I kept my hand in pocket and restrained myself. They poured a second drink.
“Babu! You are really a spoilsport. I hate such morons.” said Devesh
“I hate drunkards” she had said.
“So you hate me” was my reply.
She shrugged and holding my hands said imploringly: “you must leave drinking Babu”
I love to make people beg before me. Vexing others has a heavenly pleasure in it. I don’t feel so” I said sternly. “Everyone must have an intoxication of some sort. Something in which he would forget his sorrows, joys and himself altogether. For some people it is poetry, for some it is music, I am among those for whom its alcohol.”I was telling in a proud way as if I am given the divine duty of drinking. I was thinking that modern girls love bad boys with fashionable habits like drinking, smoking etc. Those who refrain from it would generally be regarded as non-daring fools with medieval good habits.But my rabbit was an exception.
So by alcohol, you can even forget me?
I lacked words
Is its intoxication more powerful than the intoxication of love?
No, nothing is more precious and powerful than you my rabbit.
I tried to glide my hands over her chin and she avoided my fingers.
If for you, intoxication is so much necessary… then…
I have heard that this is called French kiss. But I could not trace its origin or nationality as it was so sudden and so unexpected. It was a storm which came and passed away by its own accord. Later I could find a red glow over my lips.
If your bloody alcohol is more interesting than this… than continue
She said. That day I had made a promise I won’t drink.
It is not done man. You came to a beer bar and go undrunk. It’s like coming to a pond and returning unbathed.said Devesh.
Its like coming to a kothi and returning virgin. Arun’s analogy had more wit.But I outdid him by saying “It’s actually like coming to a battle and returning unscathed.”
“Now seriously, babu, take one sip. For us .Are we friends nothing for you?”After taking the second sip Devesh was already intoxicated a little.
“Babu!”Arun said in a dramatic tone Recognize your talent. You are like that mighty Hanuman who forgot the art of flying. I, the Jambawant remind you of your hidden power. As Hanuman could cover the whole ocean at one jump, you can devour the whole bottle at one gulp. At least, at the very least take one sip veer Hanuman. Remaining sober in an asylum is the greatest madness. Be insane and acclimatize yourself with your environment. Enjoy every fruit of life babu… Enjoy.”
I realised the supreme court had missed an excellent lawyer. But he could not convince me. How can I break the promise made to my dear rabbit?
Though she would never come to know abut this. None is a sinner till he is not caught red handed.. But that’s not the case. Promise is to be kept- its inviolable – its sacrosanct. I WON’T DRINK.
They poured the third glass. The glasses had a mid-air collision. The impatient duo emptied the glass in two sips and attacked on Manchurian. Arun demanded another plate. Devesh made his stance clear. “I am not going to contribute for the second plate. I don’t have enough bucks in my pocket”
“No, I don’t find it in my purse. How” my sister was almost sobbing.
She turned panicky at little disturbances like my mother and it was not that little. Any disturbance concerning money (however little the money may be) is not little
“Look in the almirah” said my mother. I stayed silent in my room.
“I know I had kept it in my purse. How will it go to almirah?”
Money has wings . It can fly reflected I.
“You people never keep anything in their proper places. In time of need, you scream I lost it … I lost it. Search yourself and don’t trouble me” said my unperturbed mother.
I remember, I had kept it in purse. I got 100 rupees from Minu aunty. She took her blouse piece and gave the new piece of cloth. I kept the cloth piece in almirah and 100 rupees in the purse and the purse on the machine. Mama! Give me 100 rupees now. I have to buy a gift for suchitra’s birth day party.
"I don’t have a new paisa with me. There is no money tree planted in our garden” as if in other's garden ripe money fruits are hanging from branches.
She searched but searched in vain.
She entered my room, ascertained that I was the true culprit.
“ Bhaia! Give me my 100 rupees. I have to buy a gift.”
“I don’t know where your hundred rupees are”
"You had seen me keeping the money in the purse. You had also taken 20 rupees earlier”
“Hold your tongue” I was just about to say “and let me love” but I controlled myself. That’s how John Donne’s poem begins. Literature can make you embarrassed any where and any time.
“Bhaia, I know you drink. For your drinking party you had stolen my 100 rupees. I will tell papa”
Slap- a hard – right hand- masculine slap.
Next moment she saw my fingerprints Xeroxed on her cheek. Wept and went.
But I could hear the echoes of my slap multiplied to HUNDREAD on my cheeks; not only slaps .they will transform themselves into various other types of corporal punishments.
My extrovert sister will go and vomit all my secrets in front of my father. My benevolent father hardly beats me. But alas! “Hardly” is not a synonym of “never”. Once he is exasperated beyond limit he forgets the fact that I am a youth past 18 and have voted in general election as a citizen of India already. I felt the scar formed two years ago by his belt-turned-hunter.
I slept in tear and rose in fear but …what… nothing happened. I got up. My mother brought the tea. My father had already departed for office. Every thing was so celestially common. My sister!
That day I took the oath. I WON’T DRINK.
“You son of a swine” said Arun totally lost in wine.
“You don’t know Arun. Our Mr “IWONTDRINK” has been shackled by a promise to a fair sex. He won’t drink as a bitch’s word is more important than his friend” said Devesh in fragments.
“No…no…no. to drink the heart of a tiger is needed. That’s with a man not with a hermaphrodite.”
I wanted to prove my manliness by gulping the glass before me. But I have made promises. I WON’T DRINK
“Arun!” said Devesh , don’t wait for an effeminate. The first served and the last remaining peg is for us as we are Men … Men.
I felt an irresistible impulse of slapping him hard. Damn with your men-men- men. Damn with your bloody friendship. My hand twitched to slap him hard. As hard as I slapped to my sister. No harder than that. I broke loose. I raised my hand which grabbed the only glass remaining .
Gulp-Gulp-Gulp
Down the throat .
UMESH PATRA
Sunday, March 21, 2010
why fear psychological treatment?
Why fear psychological treatment
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”
So begins one of the immortal songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore’s Gitanjali. He here entreated almighty for converting his country into a kind of utopia where first and foremost, fearlessness of mind from all shackles would be ensured.Human mind is the most complex organism ever contrived by the creator. It is mind by dint of which man has become the supreme dictator of the earth with all its magnitude of flora and fauna. But when this complex organism gets disordered and starts malfunctioning, it paves the way for individual disaster. Here comes the need of a psychologist or psychiatrist or psychotherapist to restabilise a person’s mental mechanism.
Though the emergence of psychology and psychotherapy is not a new phenomenon, but its need is acutely felt in the current era, thanks to the increasing rate of stress and distress on human mind. From the inception of life man now-a-days is burdened by the heavy load of education or to be precise is “nipped from the bud”. In the cut-throat competitive world where Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is the only rule, a man has to undergo a lot of troubles and hardships in order to ensure a secure life. In the young years, the effect of love and infatuation also spells doom for many so-called betrayed lovers. Therefore we find the newspaper everyday abounding in news relating to youth suicide owing to failure in love, academic debacle or incapability to satisfy parents’ expectations. Apart from these, many neurosis or psychological problems are congenital. Autistic or differently able children owe their malaise to abnormal birth or other such conditions. Usage of stimulants (nicotine, cocaine), depressants (opium, heroin, hooch, alcohol) and hallucinogens (hemp, bhang, hashish) etc are also responsible for disturbing normal course of action of mind. Due to all these reasons we find many psychological disorders among people around us like hallucinations, delusions, anxieties, flashbacks, tremors, delirium, insomnia, somnambulism and forgetfulness.
To cure all such maladies psychotherapeutic treatment is required. But the most alarming thing is that people don’t take recourse to such treatments for variety of reasons. Despite the sophistication in the field of psychotherapy in the forms of “group therapy”, “creative therapy”, “psychodrama and “hypnotism” etc, people’s cold attitude towards it is indigestible.
First of all people’s indifference towards it is due to their ignorance. In a country like India, psychological treatment has never been at the forefront. People frequent dispensaries for their physical ailment but mental illness are often underestimated. What’s worse, some even don’t regard psychological diseases like insomnia, delirium, forgetfulness to be diseases at all. Parents turn a deaf ear to their offspring’s incompatibilty in learning blithely unaware of the existence of Dyslexia (dread of letters) as a prominent factor among Asian students. So the unawareness of people aggravates the problem as the old adage runs “a spark neglected burns the house”
Apart from ignorance many rumors also vitiate the notion of psychotherapy. People in general believe that to be treated by psychiatrist validates one’s lunacy. So they show meretricious sound health while feeling the pangs of the diseases. This double dealing takes the better of the persons and ultimately adds more frustration to the existing sum. Some also avoid such treatment in fear of revealing their confidential personal details in front of a stranger. This tendency is to be found among grown ups as well as college students. They try to remain stoical but human endurance has a limit.
The expense of such treatment also aggrandizes people’s procrastination for it. Unlike physical ailments, the symptoms of these problems are hard to trace and elusive. So the treatment is also difficult for doctor which makes the price a little higher. Common people, who access its service, feel as if they waste their hard-earned money on some futile optimistic doctrines and genial talks of the psychologist. They feel this kind of oral interaction is not worth their money without conjecturing the difference it could bring.
In order to liquidate the reluctance among people, awareness is to be created. Print media and electronic media should highlight the pros and cons of psychotherapy. People should be made aware through books in the education system at an early age.
All the cobwebs of misconceptions are to be cleared first. People attending mental doctors should not be treated as mad or insane. The process should not be looked as a medical treatment at all. It must be made popular as counseling, assuring people of their mental well-being.
If middle class people can’t go to psychiatrist’s clinic, clinic has to come to them. Our government should take effort to curb the price of such treatment. Its a good news that the spa culture is gaining ground in India: now in metropolis like Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata etc. Spas can also be regarded as part of psychotherapy which provides their client with serene atmosphere with soft music in sublunary candle light.
But to our utter misfortune these spas are beyond the reach of common mass. They should suit the purse of common mass in order to be popular.
People should also be made aware of the ill effects of neglecting psychotherapy despite ill mental health. In fear of revealing personal matters, they are causing more threat to their mental equilibrium. This fact is to be indoctrinated to them. They should be cited examples of famous men falling victim to psychological stress. Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway succumbed to suicide due to bipolar disorder, Sylvia Plath’s suicidal tendency is quite well known and we have obvious reasons to assume that world literature would have gained more had she taken recourse to any psychological treatment. Anne sexton, a famous American poet, was also a victim of the same problem. Their misfortunes are to be shown to public to acquaint them with the destructive power of the ominous silence.
Lastly many religious preachers like Ramdev, Ravi shankar are also teaching the world at large the “art of living”. Their preaching also to a great extent falls in category of uni-dimensional psychological counseling. They can also help people overcome many disorders and depressions of their lives. In the volatile world now-a-days accidents and blasts have become common occurrences but they have wide range uncommon repercussions. The victims die but the semi-victims can’t forget the nightmarish experience till their last breadth. Psychotherapy has to reach to them and cure their traumatic stress. Our education system should ensure frequent stress released campaigns and institutions for curing youngsters of drug addiction and dipsomania and smoking are to be made popular among people. In a perfectly aware atmosphere only, people can avail this facility with no hesitation what so ever and thereby secure peace of the nation which is fully dependent on the mental peace of its citizens.
umesh patra
m-9208411847
umesh.mla@gmail.com
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”
So begins one of the immortal songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore’s Gitanjali. He here entreated almighty for converting his country into a kind of utopia where first and foremost, fearlessness of mind from all shackles would be ensured.Human mind is the most complex organism ever contrived by the creator. It is mind by dint of which man has become the supreme dictator of the earth with all its magnitude of flora and fauna. But when this complex organism gets disordered and starts malfunctioning, it paves the way for individual disaster. Here comes the need of a psychologist or psychiatrist or psychotherapist to restabilise a person’s mental mechanism.
Though the emergence of psychology and psychotherapy is not a new phenomenon, but its need is acutely felt in the current era, thanks to the increasing rate of stress and distress on human mind. From the inception of life man now-a-days is burdened by the heavy load of education or to be precise is “nipped from the bud”. In the cut-throat competitive world where Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is the only rule, a man has to undergo a lot of troubles and hardships in order to ensure a secure life. In the young years, the effect of love and infatuation also spells doom for many so-called betrayed lovers. Therefore we find the newspaper everyday abounding in news relating to youth suicide owing to failure in love, academic debacle or incapability to satisfy parents’ expectations. Apart from these, many neurosis or psychological problems are congenital. Autistic or differently able children owe their malaise to abnormal birth or other such conditions. Usage of stimulants (nicotine, cocaine), depressants (opium, heroin, hooch, alcohol) and hallucinogens (hemp, bhang, hashish) etc are also responsible for disturbing normal course of action of mind. Due to all these reasons we find many psychological disorders among people around us like hallucinations, delusions, anxieties, flashbacks, tremors, delirium, insomnia, somnambulism and forgetfulness.
To cure all such maladies psychotherapeutic treatment is required. But the most alarming thing is that people don’t take recourse to such treatments for variety of reasons. Despite the sophistication in the field of psychotherapy in the forms of “group therapy”, “creative therapy”, “psychodrama and “hypnotism” etc, people’s cold attitude towards it is indigestible.
First of all people’s indifference towards it is due to their ignorance. In a country like India, psychological treatment has never been at the forefront. People frequent dispensaries for their physical ailment but mental illness are often underestimated. What’s worse, some even don’t regard psychological diseases like insomnia, delirium, forgetfulness to be diseases at all. Parents turn a deaf ear to their offspring’s incompatibilty in learning blithely unaware of the existence of Dyslexia (dread of letters) as a prominent factor among Asian students. So the unawareness of people aggravates the problem as the old adage runs “a spark neglected burns the house”
Apart from ignorance many rumors also vitiate the notion of psychotherapy. People in general believe that to be treated by psychiatrist validates one’s lunacy. So they show meretricious sound health while feeling the pangs of the diseases. This double dealing takes the better of the persons and ultimately adds more frustration to the existing sum. Some also avoid such treatment in fear of revealing their confidential personal details in front of a stranger. This tendency is to be found among grown ups as well as college students. They try to remain stoical but human endurance has a limit.
The expense of such treatment also aggrandizes people’s procrastination for it. Unlike physical ailments, the symptoms of these problems are hard to trace and elusive. So the treatment is also difficult for doctor which makes the price a little higher. Common people, who access its service, feel as if they waste their hard-earned money on some futile optimistic doctrines and genial talks of the psychologist. They feel this kind of oral interaction is not worth their money without conjecturing the difference it could bring.
In order to liquidate the reluctance among people, awareness is to be created. Print media and electronic media should highlight the pros and cons of psychotherapy. People should be made aware through books in the education system at an early age.
All the cobwebs of misconceptions are to be cleared first. People attending mental doctors should not be treated as mad or insane. The process should not be looked as a medical treatment at all. It must be made popular as counseling, assuring people of their mental well-being.
If middle class people can’t go to psychiatrist’s clinic, clinic has to come to them. Our government should take effort to curb the price of such treatment. Its a good news that the spa culture is gaining ground in India: now in metropolis like Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata etc. Spas can also be regarded as part of psychotherapy which provides their client with serene atmosphere with soft music in sublunary candle light.
But to our utter misfortune these spas are beyond the reach of common mass. They should suit the purse of common mass in order to be popular.
People should also be made aware of the ill effects of neglecting psychotherapy despite ill mental health. In fear of revealing personal matters, they are causing more threat to their mental equilibrium. This fact is to be indoctrinated to them. They should be cited examples of famous men falling victim to psychological stress. Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway succumbed to suicide due to bipolar disorder, Sylvia Plath’s suicidal tendency is quite well known and we have obvious reasons to assume that world literature would have gained more had she taken recourse to any psychological treatment. Anne sexton, a famous American poet, was also a victim of the same problem. Their misfortunes are to be shown to public to acquaint them with the destructive power of the ominous silence.
Lastly many religious preachers like Ramdev, Ravi shankar are also teaching the world at large the “art of living”. Their preaching also to a great extent falls in category of uni-dimensional psychological counseling. They can also help people overcome many disorders and depressions of their lives. In the volatile world now-a-days accidents and blasts have become common occurrences but they have wide range uncommon repercussions. The victims die but the semi-victims can’t forget the nightmarish experience till their last breadth. Psychotherapy has to reach to them and cure their traumatic stress. Our education system should ensure frequent stress released campaigns and institutions for curing youngsters of drug addiction and dipsomania and smoking are to be made popular among people. In a perfectly aware atmosphere only, people can avail this facility with no hesitation what so ever and thereby secure peace of the nation which is fully dependent on the mental peace of its citizens.
umesh patra
m-9208411847
umesh.mla@gmail.com
Friday, February 19, 2010
ME AND MY GOLDBERG
A Goldberg lurks within me
Making me sweat and shiver in fear
Lest he snatches my Marigold...my brain child
My spectacles betrays to look
His cigar makes them smoky
Someone told him, he
Screwed up christ, but
I was not among them
Then why me?
My Goldberg cries out
I was unborn when Christ was undone
Then why me?
I gave him my handkerchief
He sobbed, and even did I
And kept thinking
Why we, God?
Tuhin Mazumdar
M.A. Final
Department of English
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi
Making me sweat and shiver in fear
Lest he snatches my Marigold...my brain child
My spectacles betrays to look
His cigar makes them smoky
Someone told him, he
Screwed up christ, but
I was not among them
Then why me?
My Goldberg cries out
I was unborn when Christ was undone
Then why me?
I gave him my handkerchief
He sobbed, and even did I
And kept thinking
Why we, God?
Tuhin Mazumdar
M.A. Final
Department of English
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi
Friday, February 5, 2010
SCHIZOPHRENIC MININOVA: a reverie reviewed
SCHIZOPHRENIC MININOVA: a reverie reviewed
_Do you believe in Spontaneous Human Combustion?
_Yes.
_Can you bear the dazzle of the sizzling light –hours?
_Perhaps yes.
_Do you fear black consumption?
_Not at all.
_Are you willing to run the risk of being nullified?
_Hunnhh....I’m dying for a chance.
..................,...............................
_Then?......am I getting stringed?
......You are......
..................................................
And then came the cloud with a tail that could touch the earth; and it blew over things and me; and I was still as it was ordained...
Fear not; it was only an interview on my views in prospect in a reverie that I lived with one afternoon. And I am to clarify that I am not here to edit a psychological documentary on the Freudian texture. I intent only to incant some of the words of my personal paranormal reverie and corresponding existential strategy (taking you into my confidence).
It’s me, a born effete existence, who eventually got attached to a star. It burnt me all the while and yet I somehow manage to exist but recently it died and I got all the more fascinated with its deathly hallows. A shrinking star, as it was, it caused a mininova; and then got transferred into a blue-hole with all its gravity and mass and energy concentrated upon a convex focus.
And now it is sucking me up. I am not a star, but I am an immagician, a new kind of asteroid in that galaxy; and that dead gravity could not but suck me. In fact it was born to be conceived by me, an alien pollen in this optical galaxy. And now, that I am also going into the same elemental mortality (or centricity!) there would be another bang shortly, though a very trifling one.
I damned god thrice; and thrice there were flashes and, this is true. God granted me. Perhaps, he, too is bored with his satanic existence and evil blessings, and he, quit like me, is desperate to get damned. God had blessed my smuggling my last comfort. The last chance is lost. And now he has cursed me by conferring his crown upon me; and now I am virtually an ape of god, your personal Jesus. Hail me!!!
She caused a mininova, and now I will forge one, and together we will effect a Supernova that you have ever fancied of. And then, we will extract all aesthetics and all love in our blue-hole...
Here we stand---WITH ARMS WIDE OPEN!!
...So be aware
....HA Ha hA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ha!HaHa Ha!!!
...Fear not, fair! It’s only a reverie reviewed...
...ALL IS WELL!!
--- e!iamnot Chatterjee
Tanmay Chatterjee
Department of English,
Banaras Hindu University,
Email Id. e!iamnot@gmail.com
Monday, February 1, 2010
Science And Literature : Some Critical Parameters
This parameters has a double aim : to draw a general outline of the critical reflection on the relationship between science and literature in the past, and to classify the possible modes of inquiry into this subject at present. Our aim here is to offer the widest of panoramic view.
In the field of literary theory and criticism, it is Plato who broaches in an explicit way the question of the relationship between literature and knowledge. As Bacon says 'knowledge is Power', Plato sees ideas at the higher platform and says ideas rule the world. Plato discusses whether " good poets really have sound knowledge of the things on which they are popularly supposed to speak well"(1962:46). The conclusion is emphatic- poets and all artists, are initators and " the imitator knows nothing worth mentioning of what he imitates, but his limitation is a sort of game and not serious".
The Platonic position is challenged by Aristotle with a double arguments :
a) Poetry does not need to borrow technical knowledge from othe deisciplines, since it is relatively indifference to literal truth. It is the internal coherence, or the versimilitude of plot and characters which matters, and not their factual value.
b) Literature is understood as metaphor or as plot- making. Great literature provides "Catharsis". Prof. R.N. Rai compares Aristotle's Catharsis with Bharatmuni's 'theory of Rasa'.
The opposition between the arts and the sciences is now perceived as historical: the arts belong to the past, and the future belongs to the sciences. The eighteenth century Enlighenment is the crucial point where the opposition between the disciplines of knowledge becomes consciously historical.
The historical nature of the opposition between poetry and science is formulated more radically by Hegel. In the Hegelion system the physical or natural sciences belong to an early phase of this development , when the spirit is still alienated from itself: the sciences deal with finite knowledge, while the highest knowledge is the absolute knowledge of philosophy (Hegel, 1990:157). Hegel is among the first to proclaim the death of literature. Art, and poetry among all the arts, represents a higher degree of self-consciousness; the extreme instance is Romantic Poetry.
" A poet in on our times is a semi-barbarian in a civilized community."
(Peacock 1987:209,211)
Peacock's "The four ages of Poetry" signs the triumphant march of science while poetry remains hopelessly superseded.
Charles Darwin, the famous biological researcher and the writer of " Origin of Species"; the propounder of "Theory of Evolution" and "Adaptation" recognized that he had become completely insensitive to literature and art- a far cry indeed from his grandfather Erasmus Darwin, who wrote epic poems on biology and botany using an incongrous mixture of scientific subject matter and Augustan Poetic diction; "Say Muse! how role from elemental strife/organic forms, and kindled into life..."
The opposite claim and the concomitant rejection of the scientific world-view, is voiced by many Romantics, like Blake who sees the advance of science and technology as the harbinger of bleak prospect of mankind. Poetic imagination is then seen as the counterpart of logical and scientific thought. The poet Goethe reinforces the links of man and nature.
The romantic defence of poetry against the imperialism of science continues into the victorian age with the figure of Matthew Arnold. Like Carlyle or Dickens of "Hard Times", Arnold reacted against the utalitarian ideology of industrial bourgeoise; and he diagnosed the central event of his age as the death of religion and growth of mechanical and material civilisation.
Arnold's view is more akin to poetry than science:"In thus making a sweetness and light to be characters of perfection, culture is of like spirit with poetry, follows one law with poetry". Science, which belongs to "machinery", can not occupy the empty place of life by the decay of religion.
For Wordsworth himself, "Poetry is the breadth and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the conuntenance of all scince."
Shelly is ready to go even further, claiming that poetry is at the root of all knoledge and of every deed; he is willing to put in the same bag poetry, science, philosophy and indeed inventive or heroic action. I.A. Richards regards literay studies as pre-scientific studies.
The relationship beetween science and literature is still widely discussed in twentieth century criticism, but the focus has shifted to some extent. Instead of an almost exclusive concern with comparing the different merits of science and literature as models of cognition, now this common grounds and interpretations also become subject of inquiry.
In the field of literary theory and criticism, it is Plato who broaches in an explicit way the question of the relationship between literature and knowledge. As Bacon says 'knowledge is Power', Plato sees ideas at the higher platform and says ideas rule the world. Plato discusses whether " good poets really have sound knowledge of the things on which they are popularly supposed to speak well"(1962:46). The conclusion is emphatic- poets and all artists, are initators and " the imitator knows nothing worth mentioning of what he imitates, but his limitation is a sort of game and not serious".
The Platonic position is challenged by Aristotle with a double arguments :
a) Poetry does not need to borrow technical knowledge from othe deisciplines, since it is relatively indifference to literal truth. It is the internal coherence, or the versimilitude of plot and characters which matters, and not their factual value.
b) Literature is understood as metaphor or as plot- making. Great literature provides "Catharsis". Prof. R.N. Rai compares Aristotle's Catharsis with Bharatmuni's 'theory of Rasa'.
The opposition between the arts and the sciences is now perceived as historical: the arts belong to the past, and the future belongs to the sciences. The eighteenth century Enlighenment is the crucial point where the opposition between the disciplines of knowledge becomes consciously historical.
The historical nature of the opposition between poetry and science is formulated more radically by Hegel. In the Hegelion system the physical or natural sciences belong to an early phase of this development , when the spirit is still alienated from itself: the sciences deal with finite knowledge, while the highest knowledge is the absolute knowledge of philosophy (Hegel, 1990:157). Hegel is among the first to proclaim the death of literature. Art, and poetry among all the arts, represents a higher degree of self-consciousness; the extreme instance is Romantic Poetry.
" A poet in on our times is a semi-barbarian in a civilized community."
(Peacock 1987:209,211)
Peacock's "The four ages of Poetry" signs the triumphant march of science while poetry remains hopelessly superseded.
Charles Darwin, the famous biological researcher and the writer of " Origin of Species"; the propounder of "Theory of Evolution" and "Adaptation" recognized that he had become completely insensitive to literature and art- a far cry indeed from his grandfather Erasmus Darwin, who wrote epic poems on biology and botany using an incongrous mixture of scientific subject matter and Augustan Poetic diction; "Say Muse! how role from elemental strife/organic forms, and kindled into life..."
The opposite claim and the concomitant rejection of the scientific world-view, is voiced by many Romantics, like Blake who sees the advance of science and technology as the harbinger of bleak prospect of mankind. Poetic imagination is then seen as the counterpart of logical and scientific thought. The poet Goethe reinforces the links of man and nature.
The romantic defence of poetry against the imperialism of science continues into the victorian age with the figure of Matthew Arnold. Like Carlyle or Dickens of "Hard Times", Arnold reacted against the utalitarian ideology of industrial bourgeoise; and he diagnosed the central event of his age as the death of religion and growth of mechanical and material civilisation.
Arnold's view is more akin to poetry than science:"In thus making a sweetness and light to be characters of perfection, culture is of like spirit with poetry, follows one law with poetry". Science, which belongs to "machinery", can not occupy the empty place of life by the decay of religion.
For Wordsworth himself, "Poetry is the breadth and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the conuntenance of all scince."
Shelly is ready to go even further, claiming that poetry is at the root of all knoledge and of every deed; he is willing to put in the same bag poetry, science, philosophy and indeed inventive or heroic action. I.A. Richards regards literay studies as pre-scientific studies.
The relationship beetween science and literature is still widely discussed in twentieth century criticism, but the focus has shifted to some extent. Instead of an almost exclusive concern with comparing the different merits of science and literature as models of cognition, now this common grounds and interpretations also become subject of inquiry.
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