THE PUPIL OF LITERATURE

THE BIAS  What do you do to be taken seriously? How do you tackle conscious bias or even more difficult- the subconscious bias? Today, when the virtual world is enmeshed with the real-the social media platforms decide, largely, your presence or relevance with likes, comments, retweets, views, upvotes and what not! To be heard in microcosm is as vital as to be heard in the macrocosm. The freedom of speech and expression is dear to us and so is healthy validation.  Before settling with the dictum of ' not very likeable', one looks for ways to get past rejections. Not more than 200 years ago and very present even today(Catherine Nicols' essay for Jezebel in 2015), to get published and be on the sacred reading list, a few women authors deviated from the conventional wisdom of- patience, faith, playing by the rules or standing one's own ground.  George Lewes, the partner of Mary Anne Evans, who went by George Eliot ( the Victorian novelist who immortalised her place in the l...

Rolling down the window, I see a graveyard of broken dreams. The flaming bookshelf, Combats manifold ice-cold desires.  The tempestuous mind  Murmurs the mutilated spectre, “Rise! Rise! Rise!” The love-sick heart mourns, Congealed in senseless cold. I quiver, Burning in boiling sweat. Do I dare? Not yet dissolved in aflamed desire.  Five summers have passed  In joyless dimmed lonely rooms.  The winds yet again lift the drowsy spirits  Once tameless and swift!  Ashes fly from an unextinguished hearth The light mocks the dark, To survive the joy unravished.  Wake up to the world’s delight Why shrink, my heart?  Why despair over the departed? Nothing walks with aimless feet.  Let not pining visions dim Rekindle forbidden hopes  Complete the dance The floor is waiting to be swept. 

P aula Richman, William H Danforth professor of South Asian Religions at Oberlin, Ohio, specialises in the study of Ramayana and Tamil. In her lecture ' Crossing Boundaries- Narratives and Persons Who Travel' at Delhi-based South Asian University, she spoke on stories travelling across borders over the centuries.    Speaking of the journey of a story or text across borders, she cited how Ramayana has taken "different forms, where stories are not only translated but retold, with each poet retelling it in a local context." She said various cultures have emphasised different "morals" from it.  Richman's 1991 book, ' Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia ', had to face criticism from Hindu activists for including inappropriate interpretations of the holy text. An essay by historian AK Ramanujan titled, ' Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five examples and three thoughts on translations ', which detailed several interpret...