Review by Sutanuka Ghosh Roy
Title: Rugged Terrain
Author: Abu Siddik
ISBN: 978-93-89615-54-8
Edition: (2020)
Published by Authors Press. New Delhi India.
Page: 86, Paperback
In the introduction to Rugged Terrain, the poet Abu Siddik writes, “Rugged Terrain emerges from a storm-tossed, broken-winged, caged bard”. “Poems are simple and at the same time realistic, challenging, and thought-provoking. And they are not meant to please the readers. Each poem is nuanced. Broadly each poem is a celebration of the faceless multitudes, the unheard, and the unsung. Each poem attests to their undying sufferings and their charismatic resilience to it.” This is the debutant collection of poetry of the poet. He is a bilingual author, editor, critic, poet, and storyteller and has been widely published in India and abroad. He has three books- Representations of the Marginalized in Indian Writings in English (2015), Misfit Parents in Faulkner’s Select Texts (2015), Banglar Musolman (2018).
Sutanuka Ghosh Roy |
The opening poem “A Winter Day in a
Forest” sets the tune here the poet is an astute witness, testifying to the
authentic social sense of Dooars, and by extension of India ---- galvanizing
the perception of setting in the realistic mood and simultaneously underscoring
the spiritual malaise symbolized by present India. The poet writes, “Couples
left minutes ago, / Beer bottles, plastic cans,/Soiled paper-bundles guarded
the day./Day died,/A madman, four naked children,/Dogs and langurs clashed for
leftovers” (15). We find the same squalor and poverty in “Garopara”, “At
Garopara/I see beauty/And poverty/Walking hand in hand” (17). In “Dooars” the
poet is bold and the imagery is stark “Hands behind scabbard,/ Stomachs empty,/
Eyes tears-strained./Sun-burnt men,/ Sunken cheeks,/Wasted lips”. In the
introduction the poet mentions, “Poems are not flashy and insipid here. They
are bold, cruel, crude and savage in their pluralistic underlying thematic
textures”.
Abu Siddik |
“Bilkis Yakub Rasool” is a long poem
comprising of eleven stanzas. This is one of his few poems that draw attention
to itself for its somewhat unusual poetic technique which is at its subtlest.
Thus this is a mature work of art, with an intricate technique suited to the poem.
The narrative of the poem alternates between the past and the present, swinging
backward and forward like a pendulum. March 3, 2002, when horrifying communal
violence engulfed central Gujarat, a truck carrying seventeen people, including
nineteen-year-old Bilkis who was five-months pregnant then and her family, was
moving to Radhikpur Village in Dohad district to seek refuge. This truck was
attacked by a mob of thirty-five people and soon the attackers descended on it.
Around three hours later, Bilkis woke up to find she was bare amidst the fourteen
dead bodies. Her three-year-old daughter’s head was purportedly crushed on a
stone by an invader. Bilkis stayed at the top of the hillock for a few hours
and later took refuge with an Adivasi family. This was not the only rape case
during the communal violence, but fighting for justice was something other sufferers
never chose. But Bilkis did. In the first stanza, the poet puts it simply, “You
are not Lucrece/ You have no lily hand”. In the second he introduces Bilkis
Yakoob Rasool as “You are a pure woman/ And you are marauded/ Not in feather-bed/
But on a fleeing highway truck,/Not by king Tarquin/ But by a gang of
lecherous, leprous poltroons/And the site of sacrilege is not Ardea/It is
Dahod”(68). Thus the poem/poet questions the freedom of living a life, in the
dark times.
The
poet is conscious that as a citizen of an independent country he should
register his voice of protest when needed, “Am I to raise my voice against the
ills?/Or be a mute spectator and carry the wounds?/ Am I to support the
traitors of my people?/Or smash their wings to the ground?/ Am I to witness to
a hauling of a girl by wolves?/Or cut their secret things and fling them into
dust? (“ I Ask You Friends”, 76). He refuses to remain as a mute spectator to
things that pains him. Long ago Kahil Gibran in “My Countrymen”, had written,
“What do you seek, My Countrymen?/Do you desire that I build for /You gorgeous
palaces, decorated/With words of empty meaning, or/ Do you command me to
destroy what/The liars and tyrants have built?”.
The book is a collector’s pride and evokes
many a question in the mind of the readers.
No comments :
Post a Comment
We welcome your comments related to the article and the topic being discussed. We expect the comments to be courteous, and respectful of the author and other commenters. Setu reserves the right to moderate, remove or reject comments that contain foul language, insult, hatred, personal information or indicate bad intention. The views expressed in comments reflect those of the commenter, not the official views of the Setu editorial board. рдк्рд░рдХाрд╢िрдд рд░рдЪрдиा рд╕े рд╕рдо्рдмंрдзिрдд рд╢ाрд▓ीрди рд╕рдо्рд╡ाрдж рдХा рд╕्рд╡ाрдЧрдд рд╣ै।