such a long journey...

posting a translation of my recent article in maharashtra times on the issue of "such a long journey" being dropped from university syllabus.

I didn't want to add to the recent debate about the way in which Rohinton Mistry's Such A Long Journey was taken off the University of Mumbai's BA (English Literature) syllabus. It's an extremely important issue and I'm not an expert. But I am a student of literature, and as such, I feel compelled to write. I started feeling the pinch of this ban as I remembered how my course books opened up a whole new world for me.

I completed my graduation in English literature from St.Xavier’s college and those were some of the best years of my student life – where knowledge, thought processes, emotions, opinions were adequately tested. I read whatever I could. Liked some, understood some, agreed with a few and forgot a lot of it as well.

Thousands of students study this course every year. Depending on their nature, personality, and preferences, they accept or plainly discard opinions of writers, political leaders, parents and friends. What I cannot fathom is what one hopes to achieve by prohibiting the students from reading any critical or satirical or disapproving fiction/non-fiction about a political party? (What the book says about the Shiv Sena and the Congress is a matter of another debate altogether. Let’s not go that way!)

Literature, poetry, books are an experience. Each book will takes you to a different world. Be it post-war literature, Wilfred Owen’s “pity of war”, Shakepeare’s magic, George Orwell’s 1984, R K Narayan’s Guide, Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate, or Amitav Ghosh’s Shadow Lines. At the same time there is Dalit Literature, Vijay Tendulkar, Jaywant Dalvi, G A Kulkarni, Pu La Deshpande, Meghna Pethe, poetry by Grace – and that’s just to name a few.

When I first met Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, I could not sleep. I got nightmares about T S Eliot’s The Wasteland. In the hostel, we used to discuss a particular character, poem, historical and the sociological context of books for hours. These books gently transported me to a world where I did not come from, made me familiar with human emotions and conditions I wasn’t acquainted with.

These writers expressed their views – through journalistic writing, fiction, poetry. They criticised and took sides. They held a mirror to a very beautiful as well as miserable side of human life. I started to get involved because it was part of the university syllabus.

If my well-educated and cultured parents gave me the freedom to read whatever the hell I wanted as an adolescent – which is when I discovered powerful and controversial Dalvi, G A and Tendulkar – why won’t 18, 19 year olds not get/understand the meaning, implications and experience of Such a Long Journey? If these students can elect a government, get married, then won’t they understand what a certain book is trying to say? Why won’t they?

When I read Such A Long Journey, what I felt mostly vividly was the Bombay or Mumbai of 1971 – which I had never known, and I met in this book.When I read how Gustad stays up all night because of mosquitoes I (have mosquitoes ever tortured you all night?), I could not help laughing. The book deals with human nature, relationships through Sohrab’s restlessness, Dilnawaz’s love for children, understanding – it brings alive the Parsi way of life, the common man’s struggles and sorrows so vividly that the book becomes an experience. Not just a beautiful one but an essential one, I’d say. And please allow me to decide what I should take away from this book.

I don’t think that the Sena will gain or lose any members or supporters by banning this book. However, many students who would have read it only because it was on the syllabus will miss out.

To form political opinions, to believe in an ideology, one must read and read a lot. Not just about the ideology you incline towards but also every dissenting voice. The University syllabus only emphasises gaining maximum knowledge. How one uses it and applies it and is up to the individual. And the repercussions too are for him/her to deal with.

As it is, it has become hard for students to read – television, internet, mobile, games, ipad, ipod, career, future, entrance exams, summer internships and much more conspire against it. Should one encourage students to read with all these distractions or push them to drop a book after a controversy? This is worsening an already messy situation.

Eliot said that the human being’s first 20 years are the most important. The rest of your life takes its course depending on the experiences of those first 20 years. Implying the impact of bitter-sweet memories and experiences of childhood and adolescence are pretty much permanent, at least long-lasting. If that’s true, shouldn’t we all live our lives to the fullest? In that case why are we giving the students a pungent memory instead of a fulfilling one?

I have seen people traverse the trajectory of Sena, BJP, Congress, Communists, anyone who does repairs the roads, or the other way round. So how many books will you ban? Anyway, the issue is not about politics but about education. We, the lesser mortals, can confusingly oscillate between two truths - knowledge is power and ignorance is bliss. But not The University of Mumbai!

It is important to respect the student. It is every student’s right to gain maximum knowledge and quality education, become a better person through studies. And it is the duty and responsibility of our education system. So the decision and choice must rest with teachers and students.

http://maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6800555.cms

Bol bol ki lab aazaad hai.n tere

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

bol ki lab aazaad hai.n tere

bol zabaa.N ab tak terii hai

teraa sutawaa.N jism hai teraa

bol ki jaa.N ab tak terii hai

dekh ke aaha.ngar kii dukaa.N me.n

tu.nd hai.n shole surKh hai aahan

khulane lage quffalo.n ke dahaane

phailaa har ek zanjiir kaa daaman

bol ye tho.Daa waqt bahot hai

jism-o-zabaa.N kii maut se pahale

bol ki sach zi.ndaa hai ab tak

bol jo kuchh kahane hai kah le
[sutawaa.N=well built; aaha.ngar=blacksmith; tu.nd=sharp (here it means bright);] [aahan=iron; quffalo.n ke dahaane=keyhole]