Tagore on Bengali Roopkatha - Fairy Tales of Bengal

Bengali version of fairy tales, i.e. Roopkatha is hardly translatable into English, not only due to immense cultural difference between East and West, but also because of the language the tales are told in. The charm and subtle nature of one folk-language cannot be captured in another language. There lies limitation of languages; we are rarely able to enter into the world of the country folks from geography unknown to us.

There is where my childhood dream of translating Dakshinaranjan Mitra-Majumdar’s Thakurmar jhuli (Grandma’s satchel) - collection of fairy tales of Bengal suffered a big jolt after I actually started working as a translator. But I found the preface of this book written by Tagore in 1908 so appropriate to be considered as a message to translators, that I could not resist translating that part.

Queens waiting for the Parrot-faced ship

Tagore on Bengali Roopkatha:

Is there anything else more indigenous than Thakurmar jhuli? Unfortunate is, even this fascinating satchel is being imported as product of Manchester factories these days. The foreign “Fairy tales” have turned out to be the only option for our kids. Our own Grandma Company seems to have gone bankrupt. You may even find Martin’s ethics or Burke’s notebook of French revolution in their satchel, but where are the Prince and the Nobleman’s son? Where did the Byangomaa-Byangomi and the jewel of the seven kings from the land past seven seas and thirteen rivers disappear?

The tradition of folk festivals, plays, storytelling and elucidation of myths is dying like a drying river. Even the Bengal villages, where these streams of folk flavours used to flow in various branches, are converted into dry desert. The adult minds are being twisted to self-centred deformed ones; but why are our children being punished like sinners deprived from savouring joyfulness? Why is their bedtime so silent? Their reading desks lit by kerosene lamp are crammed with buzzing sound of reading scary foreign spellings. How are we fancying keeping our kids alive by feeding them only chickpeas while completely depriving them from their mother’s milk!

Tales are written in the books nowadays. Where did the tales told by our affectionate mothers vanish? Where are the tales from hearts of the ladies of our land? 

The heart of the Bengal mother was the source of our fairy tales – the Roopkatha, which have been continuously flowing through the minds of our children throughout the history marked by many uprisings and changes in the ruling clans here. These tales are born from the deepest eternal affection, which has raised everyone from the wealthiest king to the poorest peasant in this country, enchanted all of them showing the bright moon in the sky, comforted all by singing lullabies.  

That is reason listening to these stories do not only make Bengali children delighted, it makes them absorb themselves in the eternal flow of Bengal’s deepest affection.

I was hesitating to open the “Thakurmar jhuli” written by Dakshinaranjanbabu. I had a doubt if the steel-sharpness of modern Bengali language did sever that tune of affection. It is difficult to sing in that tune while composing in today’s bookish language. I did not dare taking up this task. I have tried to make an educated storyteller write these stories. Even though written by a woman, under the influence of the foreign pen, those fairy tales lost their fairy-spirit in spite of the tale’s remaining intact – thus making the eternal tale very modernistic.

But Dakshinababu’s effort is commendable! He picked up our grandma’s words and planted them in written form; still their leaves remained as fresh and green as ever. He maintained the simplicity of the old language and unique style of our fairy tales with a fine and natural articulation.

I would propose that, a school for modern grandmothers of Bengal should be opened immediately, so that they can adopt the book written by Dakshinababu, which would in turn help them retaining their past glory in the world of our children’s dreams.    

My dealing with a complex topic - feminism

To be honest, I feel little uncomfortable with a word ending in “ism” – this suffix added to a word restricts the realm of the word I think. Take an example of the name – Marx. Who would deny the contribution of the Karl Marx in Western philosophy? But the moment the theory constitutes the area of “Marxism” – it’s for Marxists! Many of us would avoid going close to the fence surrounding the area.

    

Radical thoughts are part of the advancement of civilization. Wasn’t using fire to cook raw meat a radical thought? Wasn’t Copernicus’s idea considered radical in his time? But do these examples encourage us to become followers of “Radicalism”? I doubt!

Almost everyone loves to become patriot, but what about PATRIOT-ISM?  The value of own land and culture is immense to every person. But who defines that one national culture\ interest is so superior to others that its followers should be entitled to impose that standard everywhere in the world? Which route the followers would take to prove that superiority?

I think same happens with the word “Feminine”. We all are comfortable with femininity. But the moment it becomes FEMIN-ISM, we know the topic forces us to look at things conforming to a particular point of view. It excludes people from entering the area of discourse; creates a field for gladiators denying the universal nature of femininity.

One friend suggests me to write for some “feminist” magazine where I have to follow the standard of their style and language. At that very moment, I remembered Chapal Bhaduri – the man who used to transformed himself into a woman representing wonderful women characters from the world of Indian history and mythology. I remembered Kelucharan Mohapatra - his beautiful face of the mythical Radhika I once fell in love with. I remembered the bright pensive face of the male professor, who was going through the painful long process of gender change, sitting beside me and praising my skirt – “I love your dress. Once I become a woman, I will be able to wear dresses like you.” Am I allowed to write about them in the feminist magazine? Or my area of discourse needs to be borderlined by certain physical attributes of persons? Am I supposed to support the causes of the person having a female reproductive system and not hesitating before killing a hundred people in the company to ensure a promotion for herself? Or does the expression of “feminism” also include the subtle face of femininity manifested in persons born with male reproductive system?

 Chapal Bhaduri

Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra

Dictionary meaning of FEMIN-ISM tells reveals this is a “theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” led by the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. How many other than some fringe political groups like ISIS deny that equality? Stopping a women from becoming a political or social leader because of her gender is rare notion these days; the world has seen many of them in different countries – more in so-called underdeveloped countries that in so-called developed ones. Only a few countries prevent a women from being an economist or pilot if she wants to and have the capability to become one.

I stay in a country where Durga and Kali and Lakshmi and Saraswati - all females take significant stature among the worshiped deities. Do Siva, Ganesh or Kartikeya create larger scope of business than that Durga, Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati do every year? I do not have statistics but I have doubt whether the female deities really need to fight against males to establish own equality.

How many of registered Indian companies offer lesser package to their female employees than the males? I do not know of any. Statistics tell IT sector in India hires more women than men at entry level, 51 % as per a recent NASSCOM report. 22% of women applicants get final offers whereas only 15% of male applicants receive offer letter. We cannot deny women laborers face issues in unorganized industry sectors, but male laborers too face lots of troubles there - may be different, but life is not trouble-free for any of the genders.

Right now, when I am writing sitting on my desk – I hear a neighbour couple fighting over some domestic issue. And I hear only the high-pitch voice of the young housewife cursing the man - seems he expected her to cook in the absence of domestic help - not a job for “equal” housewives for sure!

Domestic violence is a hot topic no doubt. If a woman feels that she has been a victim of domestic violence and files a case for separation, the law of the country probably tells that she is entitled to claim a considerable chunk of the man’s earnings. I was wondering if there is a similar law to protect men who are subject to domestic violence. Or it is difficult for a single person to decide how much “equality” is still needed.  

Like most of the favourite topics dominating the discussion of section of academia and accomplished women in Indian drawing rooms, the root of “Feminism” also lies in some other part of the globe. There is no harm in cultural exchange between different geographies. In fact, exchange keeps civilizations alive. But it seems better to go through the social, political and economic status of women in the history of those parts of the globe to understand their context behind starting a movement before finding similarities between them and us – eventually finding examples from my geography which could fit to their context. 

I think we need to go through the history of feminism in the western part of the globe before jumping into their movements. How social, economic and political issues made a section of society feel the necessity to establish own equality with men, make them demand the right to take up same professions as men, change the choice of cloths too  - in turn making them the primary decision-makers for consumer goods in 85% of households. Once a subject of empowerment-advertising campaigns, women are no more "next-emerging" market, but a force controlling the market in all the countries where western economic concepts flourished. Shall we look at feminism through the same glasses we have been using since a hundred years or try to use a different pair of glasses now?