There is a chink in the armour of Sarala Puraskar

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There is a chink in the armour of Sarala Puraskar

Tuesday, 13 November 2018 | Sugyan Choudhary

He is not confined to the four walls of a classroom being contented with the dull dispensation of a pedantic scholar, nay a professor. He is a poet speaking to others in the language of a common man and reigns supreme in the hearts and minds of his avid readers in today’s literary firmament of Odisha. Picking up the voice and vocabulary of his poetry from paddy fields or from the golden plums of mango birds, he explores himself occupying a broad swath of contemporary Odia literary spectrum. His poetry that fathoms the range of his empathy for the poor and the meek, and the outcast enjoys a wide fan base. Poet and professor, critic and editor rolled into one makes Dr Hrushikesh Mallick ,who owns a grand ensemble of poetic compositions like Dhan Saunta Jhia (The Girl Picking up Corn Ears of Paddy), Ujuda Khetara Geeta (The Song of Ravaged Field), Dharmapatni (Wife), Sakhi Chandra Surya (The Moon and The Sun Witnessing), Jeje Dekhinathiba Bharat (Grandfather Has Never Seen That India), children’s literature like Ka Aakare Kaa, Mo Kundhei Kain, short-story collections like Andhajugar Kahani and Nishabde Jibanshrota, essays and critical writings like Odia Jatra and Lokanatya Parikrama and Biswayana O Purba Bharatiya Kabitare Tara Prabhab, anthologies and journals edited by him such as Uttarakhand, Viswabasu (fiction), Galpajhar, Istahar and Sishulekha and translation of Geetanjali from original Bengali. Hailing from a nondescript village of Banitia in Bhadrak district, he has won many awards. In an interview to The Pioneer, Mallick spokes to Sugyan Choudhury about creativity, immortality of poetry, lack of critical literary opinion and about the literary colossus Dr Ramesh Prasad Panigrahi being deprived of Sarala Puraskar.

How do you describe the creative urge that ever dawned on you today?

Taken soul as immortal, creativity as its shadow keeps haunting the man  over several births. I started sensing the same eerie stirring inside me! Since I started understanding the ways of the world, I suddenly found myself very fond of loneliness, more leaning to keeping away from crowds and friends. The mango bird, chilled to the bone in the storm, sitting hurdled in the branches of a faraway tree began fascinating me. I would sit listening to the recitation of scriptures by a Purohit for hours. The fragrance of paddy flowers thrilled me while on my way to school.

All these wonders moulded into a fertile soil where the seed of creativity was sprouting in me then. Journeying along long risky and rocky road with heartache of being rejected and happiness of being felicitated I have at last stood here. While listening light songs on radio, watching swarms of fishes swimming in pond, lying on a mat in the street amazed me how stars weaving filigree artworks in the sky.  Yes, poetry is as much an art of endeavour as empathy for me.

What’s your take on the premise that poetry as a literary genre no more appeals to mass and has become subculture?

A genuine poetry is a perennial source of joy for the aesthetes and wise men sitting on the high pedestals or the illiterate and sorrowful folks living in a far-flung village. The classics like Bhagabat, Ramayana, Laxmi Puran have been enlightening and entertaining the masses for generations. Radhanath Ray and Satchi Routray are timeless models. These days, the market abounding in bad poetry or nonstandard poetry does make it appear so. Those having power or money fashion themselves as poets. Advertisement sponsors are posing as muses.

There is little space for works of excellence in magazines. You can publish anthologies if you can afford. You can also get it released by celebrity poets and critics with high recommendations. That is ruining the grandeur of the perception of good verses. The fog shrouds the trees and bushes, but when it fades the trees dazzle as usual. Ultimately, works of excellence comes out and lasts.

Does contemporary Odia literature lack robust critical opinions?

I agree. There are few honest astute literary critics in the realm of Odia literature. Bias, prejudice, and eye on gain guides them. Where critics are on sale, you can hardly tell good poetry apart from bad ones. Almost all critics active now are sycophants or cynics or illiterate about canons of critical attitude. The lure of gift from authors lets loose this chaos. We no more have judicious constructive critics like Pandit Nilakantha Das and Mayadhar Mansingh.

What is your  view on the controversy concerning selection of  recipients of Sarala Puraskar, in which eminent litterateur Ramesh Prasad Panigrahi has unceremoniously been ignored for last two consecutive years? Is not it making a mockery of Panigrahi, probably a second  Sarala in Odia literary and cultural tradition? Are the literary awards being fixed today?

Where there is smoke, there is fire! There are fundamental errors ensnaring the procedure of short-listing the awardees. So, it is no wonder that unqualified authors sometimes sneak into the scenario and snatch away the trophy! Dr Ramesh Prasad Panigrahi is nationally acknowledged as the forerunner of an age in the Odia dramatic tradition.

Last year, truly, he  was deprived of Sarala Puraskar despite obtaining the same marks as the one that bagged it. This is a slur on Sarala Purskar. It could have been conferred on both. At times, the agencies instituting the award choose to be parochial; and sometimes, the authors adorned with authority and power make it befall on them.

The grave error in case of Sarala Award is that there is a chink in its armour through which the competing authors, if they endeavoured, can steal the names of other competitors in advance. That prompts them to do lobbying. In the panel of juries are members who loath reading books. The proposers are rarely men of letters. In such a sorry system, the good books and entitled authors are easily nudged to a side. If ever an worthy and accomplished author is shortlisted for it, it is just accidental. We confront this  dismal state everywhere, be it State Sahitya Akademi or Kendra Sahitya Akademi. The Kendra Sahitya Akademi so stipulates it that the convenor of a provincial advisory committee can confer the award on author of his choice without consulting anybody. Nobody lends you ear if you yell ever.

Hasn’t discontinuation of publication of “Shisulekha” deprived our children of a good journal?

I joined as the editor of “Shisulekha” way back in 1991 and continued for four long years. We were able to raise its circulation from 2,000 to 15,000 per month. Later on, editors failed miserably in their tasks and could not continue its publication. Odia Bhhasha Pratisthan, OPEPA and Sahitya Academy took up the responsibility but ended in stupendous failure. As per my own experience, if you are more enthusiastic in your endeavour, that too in a government organisation, the more you go ahead, the more you are hit back. You are surely left to languish under the cult of red-tapism. The discontinuations of “Shisulekha” for over the last three decades is a total lack of concern for generations of children.

It is alleged that celebrity Odia authors keep mum when Odia language, literature, and culture confronts crisis. What’s your comment?

I never dispute it. It is because most of the frontline litterateurs of Odisha have leashes on their neck, the government jobs. They will never  risk that at any cost. And on their superannuation, they secretly keep busy grabbing an award or honour  for themselves.

A senior Odia writer now faces allegation of sexual harassment to women writers. In the Odia chapter of “Me Too”, several women are coming out with distasteful stories of being sexually exploited by the same author. How do you react to it?

No matter how mighty and influential he may be, if all the aggrieved women unite and fight in solidarity for their honour, they will rip apart the mask from this pervert.

The predator should be kept away from all literary meets until he is given a clean chit. But we witness opposite symptoms in our Odisha. Those who are sex-perverts are being recommended for Jnanapeeth and Saraswati Samman.

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