www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal Research Innovator

ISSN 2395 – 4744 (Print); 2348 – 7674 (Online) A Peer-Reviewed Refereed and Indexed Multidisciplinary International Research Journal Volume III Issue I: February – 2016 Editor-In-Chief

Prof. K.N. Shelke Head, Department of English, Barns College of Arts, Science & Commerce, New Panvel (M.S.) India

Editorial Board

Dr. A.P. Pandey, Mumbai, India Dr. Patricia Castelli, Southfield, USA Dr. S.D Sargar, Navi Mumbai, India Christina Alegria, Long Beach, USA Prin. H.V. Jadhav, Navi Mumbai, India Dr. Adrianne Santina, McMinnville, USA Prof. C.V. Borle, Mumbai, India Dr. Nirbhay Mishra, Mathura, India

Advisory Board

Dr. S.T. Gadade Principal, C.K. Thakur College, New Panvel, India

Dr. R.M. Badode Professor & Head, Department of English, University of Mumbai, India

Dr. G.T. Sangale Principal, Veer Wajekar College, Phunde, India

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal Research Innovator is peer-reviewed refereed and indexed multidisciplinary international research journal. It is published bi-monthly in both online and print form. The Research Innovator aims to provide a much-needed forum to the researchers who believe that research can transform the world in positive manner and make it habitable to all irrespective of their social, national, cultural, religious or racial background. With this aim Research Innovator, Multidisciplinary International Research Journal (RIMIRJ) welcomes research articles from the areas like Literatures in English, Hindi and Marathi, literary translations in English from different languages of the world, arts, education, social sciences, cultural studies, pure and applied Sciences, and trade and commerce. The space will also be provided for book reviews, interviews, commentaries, poems and short fiction.

-:Subscription:-

Indian Foreign Individual / Individual / Institution Institution Single Copy 600 $40 Annual 3000 $200

Three Years 8000 $550

-:Contact:- Prof. K.N. Shelke

Flat No. 01, Nirman Sagar Coop. Housing Society, Thana Naka, Panvel, Navi Mumbai. (MS), India. [email protected] Cell: +91-7588058508

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal Research Innovator

A Peer-Reviewed Refereed and Indexed International Multidisciplinary Research Journal Volume III Issue I: February – 2016 CONTENTS

Sr. Author Title of the Paper Page No. No. 1 Prof. Mahmoud Qudah Diglossia: A Linguistic Phenomenon of Arabic 1 in Jordan 2 Dr. Raja Ram Singh Globalization: Myth and Reality 9 3 T. Avinash The Discourse of Meaning, Truth and Reality: 15 Postmodern interpretation of Two Texts 4 Sachin Ramesh Labade Motion pictures in English teacher education in 20 India 5 Ms. Mansi D. Chauhan Transcending Geographical Borders and 26 Gender Boundaries: A Focus on The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi 6 Dr. Shivaji Sargar & A Study of Fate and Irony in Salman Rushdie’s 31 Shaikh Aashiq Arshad The Prophet’s Hair 7 Dr. Gagan Bihari Purohit Poetry of Possession: A Study of C.L. Khatri’s 36 Poetry 8 Zinat Aboli Postmodernist Themes and Techniques in 51 Cinema 9 ;sysuk bZxksjsOuk #nsadks Hkkjr vkSj dt+kfdLrku esa i;kZoj.k fLFkrh rFkk 56 lqj{kk 10 lkS- izkph iz’kkar ’ksB egkM e/khy lkekftd ftoukr pgkps LFkku o 67 izk- MkW- lehj cqVkyk egRo

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

Poetry of Possession: A Study of C.L. Khatri’s Poetry Dr. Gagan Bihari Purohit

Abstract Khatri‘s poetry, like his peers, is trying to solve the riddle of the contradictory claim of representing indigenous insights against western hegemony by using English language as his main tool. The spirit of the East is vindicated against the western notion of representation. Khatri has done well to preserve and sustain the spirit of unity and its essential ingredients in its quintessential form. The paper argues that Khatri‘s poetry of possession helps him preserve the essentialism of India against the backdrop of western bias. In doing so, it also foregrounds the inherent contradictions present within our own indigenous ideology, and Khatri has tried hard to reconcile such contradictions through analysis and criticism of the mistakes committed by his countrymen by failing to live up to an accountability of sorts. Key Words: Poetry of possession, indigenous tropes, national identity, cultural nationalism, colonial disposition

All poets dovetail between personal heritage of India to voyage his war against experiences and turbulent past history to contemporary nepotism, political come to terms with their individual as well chauvinism and jingoism. The paper as national identity. It is Saidean undertakes the argument that Khatri‘s ―discourse of dispossession‖ (Singh 99) poetry permeates a patriotic ambience in that directs the course of a postcolonial his maiden collection Kargil (2000) where poet‘s double plight of fighting with and he seems to form a paradigm of explaining in defense of the colonial nationalistic opinion on our soldiers hegemony. That is, they have to fight achievement in adverse situations which is against the out of proportion distortion of found wanting in civilians. In contrast to their glorious historical and cultural past at colonial dispossession of indigenous the hands of the colonizers, the tool of their cultural identities, Khatri has been fight, however, being the English bedeviled by problems of accommodation language, for everything they write to and acquisition in an ambience not represent their personal as well as national befitting to the mass. I argue through this identity is in English to write off the essay how a uniformly evolving pattern consciousness of exile in their own characterizes the poetry of Khatri, the other courtyard. Poetry of C.L. Khatri, the most two volumes Ripples in the Lake (2006) accomplished contemporary poet from and Two Minutes Silence (2014) are also Bihar, is pitied against this sense of included in the purview so as to come out ―dispossession‖ to assert his sense of firm with the similarities and contrasting strand possession over the cultural and historical

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (36) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal points of possession that I predominantly provide the staple of your lines ? presuppose in the course of the essay. Turn inward, scrape the bottom of Before we take on to the business of your past. ( ―Homecoming 2‖ ) textual citations in support of our Mahapatra recognizes the ―myth of sleep argument, I plan to have a sound and action‖ in him. Ramanujan‘s probing theoretical base, taking the Indian and mind harps on the origin and scope of his westerns epistemological offerings in Hindu heritage, Ezekiel handles the theme support of our stand point. The Indian of superstition and folk belief in ―Night Of English Poetry is based on a sound The Scorpion― deftly, and Bhatnagar‘s platform, laid down by phenomenal poets firm belief that the Indian intellectuals, like Jayanta Mahapatra, , who prefer to stay abroad, deserting their and A.K. Ramanujan, Parthasarathy, mother land are worse than the migratory Daruwalla, and Kamala Das, among birds who return back to their native land others. All these poets tried to use the at the end of the cold season, has lot more English language to their advantage from to do with the theme of possession. Derek the vintage point of indigenous idiom and Walcott‘s validation of African ancestral panacea for subscribing to native tradition authenticity over the acquired American and culture in total retaliation to the status in his poem ―A Far Cry from Africa‖ colonial hegemony. No wonder, Mahapatra which gives an optimistic conclusion, tried to write about the theme of ―sleep and ―How can I turn from Africa and Live?‖, is action‖ in exploring the ―theme song of my an idea about assertive nationalism further life‖ in his masterpiece reinforced in his much acclaimed novel Relationship(1980). A sense of urgency is Omeros, ―either I‘m nobody or I‘m noticed to rearrange the world in disarray Nation‖; lays bare the notion of nationality which culminates in some sort of skeptical, very much in keeping with the possessive compromising, ironic, ambivalent and identity of the nation. Sri Aurobindo also inward vision based on indigenous idiom gives vent to such an opinion in The and experiences. Ezekiel, Ramanujan, Future of Poetry which augurs well for our Jayanta Mahapatra, Kamala Das, purpose: ―The work of the poet depends Bhatanagar, Shiv K. Kumar and not only on himself and his age but on the Parthasarathy have recognized this urge for mentality of the nation to which he belongs Indianness that would stand them in good and the spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic steeds for their very survival as poets, and tradition and environment which it creates they have become successful in creating a for him‖ (38). This dual representation of a critical acclaim both in and outside the poet is also looked forward to by Eliot‘s country. They pursued every possible foresight when he talks about ―the avenue to explore the indigenous elements empirical personality‖ (personality of the for a global representation. Parthasarthy is poet) and an ―implied personality‖ ( the hard at it when he says in Rough Passage : poetic persona) where the normal man and a visionary‘s insight go together to define How long can foreign poets

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (37) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal his poetic soul. Eliot‘s exercise of ―a nothing but distort. This whole particular medium‖ in his essay question of colonial distortion has ―Traditional and Individual Talent‖ in been formulated in English. It confirmation with Heideggar‘s requires a dialogue with English. philosophical claim that ―language writes English has been the other through the man‖ also finds echoes of resemblance which we have returned to ourselves. in Aurobindo: English has become a part of us. To A poet or artist may be a medium for say we want to return to a state of creative force which uses him as pre-English is chimerical. The anti- channel and is concerned only with colonial discourse is all done in expression in art and not with the English. Nobody is writing this in Kannada. In India, there is a man‘s personality or his inner or outer life. He is a medium for the wonderfully group of new historians called the Subalterns, who are creative force which acts through him; it uses or picks up anything looking at all the distortions of the stored up in his mind from his inner colonial intellectual practices. But all life or his memories and impressions their work is done in English. Isn‘t of outer life and things, anything it the English in which they are writing can and cares to make use of and this distorting what they are writing is molded and turns to its purpose about? English has made us self- (328). critical and made us critical of English itself (Daniels—Ramanujan Ramanujan has also given some theoretical and Keith Harrison 79). input where he tries to maintain the delicate balance between the English Ramanujan explores the prevalent trend of language and the imperial hegemony. storytelling that becomes the forte of the Ramanujan‘s view on the status of English Indian English poet by resorting to the in shaping up our sensibility gives a glorious epic Indian tradition of the balanced view amidst the claims and Mahabharata and the Ramayana. counter claims of colonial hegemony. It Continuity rather than discreteness, as posits case for a native context in an advocated by colonial regime, is seen as internationally acclaimed language even the strongest point of the Indian culture though it happens to be the language of the and tradition. He describes the tradition of continuity as follows: colonizers: It might be good that English is so The Ramayana and the Mahabharata open with episodes that tell you why widespread as second language. English has distorted our traditions and under what circumstances they but it has also made us look at our were composed. Every such story is traditions. It‘s not enough to say that encased in a meta -story. And within the text, one tale is the context for it is all colonialism and has done another within it; not only does the

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (38) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal outer frame- story motivate the inner the past. This amnesia, which has affected sub –story; the inner story our awareness of native traditions which illuminates the outer as well. It often are still alive, perhaps is the central factor acts as a microcosmic replica for the of the crisis in Indian criticism‖ (After whole text. In the forest when the Amnesia 55). Pandava brothers are in exile, the The claims made by Devy sounds pompous at eldest, Yudhistira, is in the very times because the people who are averse to slough of despondency: he has English as language of colonizers gambled away a kingdom, and is in paradoxically use the different ―Englishes‖ exile. In the depth of his despair, a (which are translated into English) so that our sage visits him and tells him the regional or ―Bhasa literature‖(G N Devy‘s story of Nala. As the story unfolds, term) gets critical attention abroad. we see Nala too gamble away a kingdom, lose his wife, wander in ‘s award winning book the forest, and finally, win his wager, (won the Sahitya defeat his brother, reunite with his Akademi Award for the year 2011) argues wife and return to his kingdom. in favour of the relevance of the English Yudhistira, following the full curve language in our day to day lives and, as a of Nala‘s adventures, sees that he is sort of mythical implication of indigenous only halfway through of his own, acclimatization of the English language as and sees his present in perspective, follows: himself as a story yet to be finished. In British times the intelligentsia and Very often the Nala story is professional classes communicated excerpted and read by itself, but its with one another in English. So did the poignancy is partly in its frame, its nationalist elite, Patel, Bose, Nehru, meaning for the hearer within the Gandhi and Ambedkar- all spoke and fiction and for the listener of the wrote in their native tongue, and also in whole epic. The tale within is English… context-sensitive—getting its After Independence, among the most meaning from the tale without, and articulate advocates for English was C. giving it further meanings Rajgopalchari. The colonial rulers, he (Dharawadhakar 42). wrote, ‗for certain accidental reasons, In his seminal book, After Amnesia, G.N. causes and purposes…left behind [in Devy goes on to elaborate the nature of India] a vast body of English Amnesia of Indian literary tradition and language.‘ But now it had come there blames the western literary canon for the was no need for it to go away. For inertia of the Indian literary criticism: ―The English ‗is ours .We need not send it worst part of the colonial impact was that it back to Britain along with the English snatched away India‘s living cultural men.‘ He humorously added that, heritage and replaced it with a fantasy of according to the Indian tradition it was

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (39) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal a Hindu Goddess Saraswati, who had East India Company has robbed India not given birth to all the languages of the only of its material wealth but also of the world. Thus English belonged to us by cultural, spiritual and historical values origin, the originator being Swaraswati, which has not gone well with the patriotic and also by acquisition‘ (762). poets like Khatri. The physical seizure of imperial power is concomitant with the As a postcolonial critic, Ramanujan advocates a rewriting of an indigenous intellectual eviction which becomes the alternative history to cope with the central aspect of Khatri‘s poetry. Khatri is challenges posed by the colonizers. Like also critical of the spurious sense of Jawaharlal Nehru, Ramanujan also speaks possession of the Indians forgetful of in support of English as a second language. values; they show false allegiance to our longstanding value system by shedding But he does not stop at that, he makes his point of view clear when he stands up crocodile tears on significant issues like showing respect to elders. boldly for the national culture and myth to cross swords with colonial hegemony. No wonder ―Poet‘s Commitment‖ begins Ramanujan adheres to the principle of with his overburdened responsibility to alternative history, in a way current arouse the country men to cater to the cultural critic Satya P. Mohanty stresses needs of their motherland. He evokes sense upon unearthing our glorious cultural and of urgency in the mind of the readers by historical significance to match with taking an image from indigenous western canon. Edward Said‘s mythology. How else do we consider lines ―Orientalism‖, Bhabha‘s ―hybridity‖, like: Gayatri Chakravarthy Spivak‘s My nails of Narsimha ―catachreism‖ have successfully kept the will tear the veils colonialism at bay. Ramanujan‘s until they know their real shelves alternative history, a new-historicist but my soul will wait until they are approach of tracing the text in the purged of all dross contextual roots, will go a long way in and emerge like phoenix (1) combating the colonial threat to indigenous culture. What Bipin Pal Singh cites Sure he does not want to give in to the Theodor Adorno‘s dictum, ―The task to be increasing pressure all around him rather accomplished is not the conservation of the he makes it a point to purge the society past, but the redemption of the hopes of the and motherland out of all evils. The past‖ (99) to describe Said‘s plight of strenuous and arduous task of changing the ―dispossession‖ seems to be covertly true course of ―the destiny of their destiny – in case of Kahtri‘s poetry. makers‖ (1) makes the task of the poet all the more difficult. Khatri‘s maiden One of the chief motifs of Khatri‘s poetry volume, it seems, is replete with the is possession of indigenous culture and existential crisis of his countrymen where history, duly disturbed and distorted by the the poetic personae is busy finding out a colonial intervention. The establishment of

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (40) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal long term solution to the problem at hand. New modalities replacing The pain and agony, the callousness and the old moralities entire. (6) irresponsibility of the law makers and its Social commentary of such magnitude is adherent attendants informs the poetry of more effective and penetrating in Khatri Khatri. ―Walking Alone‖(2) is a case in than the high seriousness of a Ramanujan point where the poet musters courage to or Mahapatra. Social criticism is at its peak ―walking alone on a hard and pinching in ―Waiting for the Sun-Rise‖, ―Dark road‖ (2) in the company of natural descends on Bihar / prospects of light to elements where human beings have drawn mar‖ (11), a bitter commentary on the flak. He puts a brave front amid the loss of Jungle raj of Bihar is picked out with face on all fronts. ―Gun-Fire‖ keeps us on savage humour. In ―Garden of Gods‖ our toes to come to terms with the loss of Khatri makes a vain attempt to explain our culture and tradition with the advent of away the depleted moral plain of the civic modernity and westernization. The amenities. Moral depravity, if misplaced yearning for ―Indianness‖ is always there savagery of his locality and in but what is more significant here is the contemporary India is described with pain explicitness and the ever increasing and agony: ―I am searching for the song of urgency: ―We have lost our chopal, kirtan silence / a solitary sight / to sow seeds of mandali / age-old family bond, birds like strength / soulful self esteem‖ (13). To get freedom / hermit like peace and sound rid of ―boasting bullets‖ and ―boys wearing sleep‖ (4). The quest for roots is nothing bangles‖(13) being his motto, the poet new in which fits well into gives his best efforts to change the the postcolonial scheme of things, but what prevalent unruly scenes. The youth has is special about Khatri is the working of taken a wrong direction and it his duty to the underlying theme of soul searching at duly authenticate such a misplacement or physical, metaphysical, spiritual and dispossession with either a bang or a philosophical levels. The accessible not the humble attempt, of which the poet prefers esoteric is the target of the poet. Wit, the latter. He even does not care taking a humour and satire play their part in life risk for bringing the misunderstood informing the poetry of Khatri: so are youth back into the right track: ― I‘ll freshness, agility, courage and vigour, and graduate them in grammar of God / with a willing ear to stay positive to criticism. love and care of a gardener / watch them The underlying sarcasm of Khatri‘s ―pain‖ grow into garden of gods / before I am at the increasingly eroding value base of buried into its breast‖ (13). Such a moral our culture is interesting here. Khatri does lesson is the need of the time and Khatri not mind to explain in detail the emptiness loses no time in reminding the youth about in the present mode of operation: their disturbing draw backs. But Khatri‘s I feel no pain even in pyre; claim seems to be an exercise in futility my eyes shade no tears, sprout no fire where the blunt denial from the mass to the at the killings, rapings, flaming. clarion call of the poet seems to be the only

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (41) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal answer. That is, the poet‘s purpose fails to perfect communion with heart and mind; it bring in any practical import. In ―I am is not a commodity to be sold out in the Burning‖(15) a clarion call is depicted, market. The poet is critical of and providing the reader with mystic aura answering to cheap hype of peace in the when the narrator is willing to take up the modern world. What is significant here is challenge ―to spread the light of Christ‖ he never shies away from pointing out the (15) in total dispensation of his individual pitfalls prevalent in our present day self. Perhaps the poet is convinced that society. He is annoyed to learn that cheap through agony and sacrifice the road of items are in place to replace our long ecstasy is paved. The subtle imagery that standing value system. pervades the atmosphere of the poem The poem Kargil-1‖ gives the valour and makes the tone even graver. The deep courage of our soldiers against an all-out scars, memories and cultural past combine onslaught of the enemy camp. The together to culminate in personal sacrifice. contrasting style of employing images Khatri‘s evocative lines reveal his weakens the enemy soldiers as if they are intensions clearly: ―I am digging my grave/ searching after a needle in a haystack. On in the bottom of the candle/ I fear neither the other hand our soldiers have come out your bell nor hell / I will burnout to light successful reducing ―enemy‘s pride to nil‖ again‖ (15). His personal agony mixes up (19). Implicit though his claims, Khatri with a universal anguish haunts the poet gives our national heroes an epic welcome time and again. Khatri does not hesitate to by employing natural images to enhance mobilize his narrators take risks if the pride their firmness of mind and strength of and respect of the country is at stake. The character. The kind of immediacy and patriotic intent of the poet goes hand in close-knit structure the poet employs hand with the title of the collection. heightens the intensity of the purpose: With the poet the shift from physical to Neither the freezing wind nor the spiritual plane seems to be safe passage. defiant sea His philosophical bent of mind is best neither the Himalayas odds nor foe‘s exhibited in ―Peace‖ where he harps on the fraud theme of death-rebirth cycle. For Khatri, can come in your march forward to the completion of one cycle is not an end victory, but a means to entry into another world. He can touch the apron of your mother makes no qualms while dealing with the proud. (19) most solemn fact of life, death. For him, or for any poet hailing from India, death is The resolution of the poem comes with not discrete but continuity into another life: snail-eagle analogy, when the enemy ―For ultimate peace we turn to death / but soldiers strain their every nerve to score it is haunted by the cycle of rebirth‖ (16). victory over the opponents. ―Kargil-2‖ The poet wants to be possessive about the adds another important facet to Khatri‘s Indian notion of peace which believes in poetry, the story element, which, without

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (42) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal being politically biased, gives a balanced make a mess of the long standing values of account of the Kargil war and its love and affection that is a characteristic background. The nascent design or foul feature of indigenous family framework. play by the enemy troops put the political Against the natural backdrop of the tribal correct Indian state of affairs in jeopardy. girls who are destined to serve as maid But our soldiers fight tooth and nail and servants, the so-called civic society fails to ―thrashed out the betrayers / who were treat its daughters with equality and forced to eat the humble pie‖ (21). All his respect. Humour and sarcasm saves the day life the great man is animated for a passion for the poet who is engrossed with an of truth and justice, but failed miserably in otherwise pessimistic thought. However, convincing his political rival next door. mythical Draupadi in the poem of same The opponents have a narrow squeak, both title come to the poet‘s aid when he the poet and his country men are convinced invokes Her to rescue the world out of of the strength and vigour with which our danger. She has never bowed to national army stood ground. What is necessities, rather her symbolic victory and alarming here is even our victory in the glorious history provides the poet with the battle field leads to failure in putting up a much needed thrust to fight with gripping strong fight against the internal ―Kargils‖ problems at hand. Khatri tries hard to that posed a many sided challenge to our strike out a balance between the glorious country‘s security and progress. He has no past and the nebulous present by invoking knit answer to the probing problem of cosmic power of the mythical character rising up to expectations, because the from the celebrated epic, the public accountability in the country comes Mahabharata: next to nothing. In a desperate bid, the poet Come down from heaven Draupadi cannot but pleads the hypocritical people regain your dignity, awake the Pandavs to live for our country‘s pride: ―Let‘s be reenact your historical swear Jawans of Kargil / Arise, Awake, Ascend / redeem the dignity of your sisters(24). and fight to the end‖ (22). Poems like ―Unfortunate Country‖, Politics and The myth and culture of our country Temples‖, ―Hiroshima Fog‖, ―Sorry assumes an indigenous overtone in poems Mother‖ and ―Elephant Tusk‖ attempt a like ―Generation Gap‖, the poet is best similar exhibition of contemporary squalor assured of security from both internal and that has plagued our nation. Here Khatri‘s external threat, ―tri-colour‖ gives firmness tryst with destiny seems to be a failure and strength to nationalism in the face of because they are related to, either explicitly warring elements. The principal weapon of or implicitly, the present follies of the the mankind, according to the Gita, ―the public to come true to the national needs. Sudarshan of Krishna‖ (25) is also there as the chief custodian of the possessive values Poems like ―A Tribal Girl‖ provides of our culture and tradition. These cultural criticism of the so-called elite, who, mores are India‘s pride and envy of every despite their strong financial back up, other western nation, which could never

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (43) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal have avoided the closely guarded attention well as the public to be sensitive to the of Khatri. To this category belongs poems issues happening around them. like ―Old Home‖ where positive values Khatri‘s second volume also continues like, ―benevolence, kindness, nationalism, with the theme of possession in a calm and and humanity‖ (29) are fast disappearing, composed way. Unlike the aggressive the world has turned out to be ―a contempt stand he adopts in the first volume, Kargil , Square‖ where negative values like ―hate, the second one seems to be more mature malevolence, cruelty, communalism, and mild in its criticism of and thrust on carnality and their pals‖ (29) have taken the indigenous strands. In a poignant control. ―Hiroshima Fog‖ has the same poem, ―Pitririn‖ ( The Debt of Father on theme to explore where the ―Mother of Son), he takes on the so-called elite who do Liberty‖ (32) is in trouble of celebrating not hesitate to desert their own parents the fleeting ―winning spree of which speaks of terrible loss to our long Aswamedha‖ (32) on account of the standing family values. The people start lingering shadow of ―Hiroshima fog‖ surreptitiously eroding the longstanding which compels the people ―to live with family values of the Indian soil following rolling fire‖ (32). On the whole, the sense the western model. The history and culture of the possession of the poet is threatened of the land is distorted by the colonial by the external factors which are elusive, hegemony and in their place the western and out of reach of the poet. The poem model of nucleus family system is put in ―Devaki‖ draws on a mythical background place where we forget our primary duty to to point at the ills of a contemporary our elderly ailing father, denying him the society. The mother- son relationship in basic needs of comfort. Khatri writes: India is something sacred which is cherished by our culture. In ―Tandav‖, the He who would not offer poet seeks explanation from the almighty a glass of water to the old rag so as to stop atrocities being unleashed now pours the redeeming dose of upon the society. His inquisitive mind is Ganga-jal . restless making frequent queries to the He who has never fed God: ―Tell me, For God‘s sake tell me/ his ailing, paling pa with his hand when will the earth‘s stupor end? (41) gives mukhagni to the dead. (Ripples in the Lake 3) The volume as a whole marks a departure from the accepted norms of poetry writing In the vein of Ramanujan, who is sarcastic in India as it has taken the indigenous about the traditional Tamil eulogy of the undercurrent as its main thrust. That is river Baikei to point out its pitfalls in ―A when Khatri‘s possessive poetry comes River‖ and Ezekiel‘s ―Night of the into limelight. The reader‘s attention is not Scorpion‖ which castigates the traditional distracted even for a moment from the superstitious bent of mind of the village indigenous cultural mores, through out folk, Khatri also directs bitter invective there is series of queries to the reader as against the so-called cultured people who

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (44) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal do not pay heed to their longstanding value ―Who am I? a Conniver or a professor? system where elderly people deserve their /Who is my audience? Vacant hall and dust due, without doubt, owing to western coated / benches? (15). No wonder, the influence. This is one possible means of poet is worried about the eroding values of attempting to annihilate our cultural mores the teacher- student relationship in the thereby dispossessing us from our own modern times. He judges the distinction history, memory, language and culture. between the present educational set up and The stand out quality of Khatri‘s poetry our ancient ideal guru-sishya custom to a here is what Promod Kumar Nayar calls nicety. The insipid insouciance of the ―the tongue-in-cheek humour‖ (99). He is students has put the future of education in at pains to bring the essence of India into a deadlock. The poem ―Metaphor of his poems. Like his illustrious Honesty‖ (17) takes seemingly elite culture predecessors, Khatri also tries to assimilate down a peg when the innocent tribal men an ―Indianness‖ possessively into his refuse the city culture in a blunt denial. It poetry. is high time, feels the poet, we took a peep Khatri weaves a stranger-in-own- land idea at ―… what we plunder / under the carpet that makes him a sorry spectacle of things of development‘ (17). Nicety of criticism, happening around him and tries his best to humour and veiled sarcasm give vent to the make the malicious man mind his own poet‘s intense efforts to bring the human business, saving what G.N. Devy would being into his senses. call, the cultural amnesia. National issues Khatri‘s role is cut out in poems like like crisis in food in flood affected areas do ―Poetry‖ and ―Quest‖, where he is perturb the poet which surfaces as the main prepared to take on the insurmountable theme of the poem ―Water‖. Since India problems that surround his indigenous has got independence, though the real insightfulness. He is bent on giving a good independence is a few and far between send off to his motherland as her worthy options, the leaders are themselves to and accountable son: blame for an answer to the gripping I fathom the deep bed contemporary issues that stare them at of my of conscience in it, face. Poems in similar vein are ―Brahm- to discover nature‘s treasure Bhoja‖, ―Brindawan‖, ―Professor Sahib‖ to fill the void at inner level where contemporary evil, sordidness and to redefine my role squalor come to the fore. Deception and on the stage of the world (26). hypocrisy steal the show, leaving the poet stranded on the way. The real purpose of The poet is even more persuasive in the each of the assignments and poem ―Quest‖, he does not want to desert accountabilities thereof has been amiss. his mother land against a sea of odds, Bound by necessities, the professor is ―lost something of Jayanta Mahapatra comes into whirlpool of thought‖(15) to ask into play here (he is not overtaken by the probing questions to his inquisitive mind: idea of living abroad deserting his native

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (45) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal place, in ). Living on the between loss of value system and the world of necessities, he wants to keep his contemporary mismatching explains away value system in-tact. Thus the sonorous Khatri‘s overt insistence on an indigenous style of questions follow: ―Does education catch-all concept to fight with western means taking away / the child from his hegemony on the face of it. mother‘s lap? Why can‘t I fly high and still Khatri commits himself to certain / be in mother‘s lap like a bird? (27). indigenous conscience in his third poetry Bereft of all possibilities to rise up to the volume Two-Minute Silence (2014). He wakeup call of the country, Khatri invokes has shared valuable opinion of many of his the spirit of Bapu in an imploring tone, in illustrious predecessors in his deft handling the poem of same name. That he tries to of humour and satire. These two devices hold on to the rare and scare indigenous feather Khatri‘s poetic nest with sharp value system, without grinding his parables and cultural allusions. The cosy ideological axes to a point of no return, collection is a brilliant feat of muse which subscribes to Khatri‘s commitment and supports the cause of Khatri‘s zest for sensitivity to national cause: ―Bapu come, indigenous tropes, sometimes his witty and come once again, / for my sake, for my pithy remarks do add to this indigenous country‘s sake / it‘s more difficult to fight flavor helping in turn to take it to a against own people (30). The disparate different plane altogether. He is not a man value system has taken its toll on Khatri‘s to count the conspiracies before they are mind. He feels the urgency of preserving hatched which is exhibited in the very first the value based culture exhibited brilliantly poem ―Peaceful Soul‖. What stands here is by Gandhiji, which is out and out a delicate his down-to-earth approach. What keeps issue to be just lamented and soon to be him at the cutting edge of creativity is forgotten again. knack of finding solutions to difficult The volume is replete with scores of such issues out of nowhere. The good –for- instances where Khatri tries hard to regain nothing modern man finds him at the the lost ground to cultural erosion. receiving end with no obvious positive Redrawing the borders of the squeezed outings. Mark the witty statement from the indigenous culture being his niche area, the poem under discussion: ―Situations poet does not mind leaving out the minds impotent / potent the man / in realization / I of those so-called elite who continue in the am a peaceful soul / I am a blissful soul‖ vein of colonial hangover. An enlightened (14). Khatri‘s poetic persona is in search of poet that Khatri is, he is firm in his mind, a longstanding solution to the present crisis not keeping his disapproval of the faulty and the synthesis comes with the caption system a secret, he opens up new avenues ―Om shanti om‖. Khatri‘s assertions are in in the indigenous cultural paradigms to keeping with Levi Strauss‘s long develop a fascination for strong moral established finding that myths pave the back-up and hatred of the contemporary way for our easy access to cultural evils simultaneously. To my mind, this rift paradigms. The myth of ―Shanti‖ would go

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (46) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal a long way to provide a readymade Mary / feeding me her breast /Alas! I could solution to the warring elements that not be her Christ / she bore the Cross all contributes to the burden of our stress through her life / I slept in peace, bloomed account. The fecund company of in spring‖ (20). The use local imagery like indigenous spiritual strength, the poet the traditional earthen stove for preparation believes, would be an ideal staple of of food and the use of cow dung to savour postcolonial answer to clinging on to our it; the dishes like noodles, pickles etcetera moral strength. This mystic sense of and above all, the alluring ―…aroma of indigenous cultural praxis is a potent frying grains in the sand‖ (21) speaks weapon for us to fight western hegemony about Khatri‘s fondness for indigenous away from our soil and it would be a faux tropes surging ahead with full swing. The pas if we do not realize this potentiality, or celebrations of festivals at will and ignore it, adhering to a western bias. The drawing from the myth of Ganesh, who has discourse of shanti has deep rooted appeal considered circling round his parents to our cultural nuances which strikes a would be more than travelling the whole degree of coherence in this discrete and world, attaches immense importance to the diverse field of interest. The poem ―River‖ vital role of a mother in shaping up both serves the very purpose of the poetic self in our character and career. The flight of search of a peaceful solution to an Khatri‘s imagination is taken to a new high otherwise stressful mind: ―Heaven lies when he is all set to pick out the holes in ahead / infinite peace, infinite bliss/ sound our out of place cultural paradigms. sleep, selfless work/ and salvation at the Nostalgia becomes the mainstay when the end‖ (15). Use of local phrases like ―Ram poetic personae considers his mother as a nam satya hai‖ (16) is painted in the living soul whose blessings and advices universal colour, it captures the agile would prove more than handy in her imagination of the readers to reach at the absence. In the same token poems like final truth of their life. Similar in intension ―The Falgu Myth‖, ―Mother‖, ―Poetic and insight are the poems ―Hell on the Justice‖ and ―New Year 2014‖ are Hill‖, drawing upon the myth of Lord representations of Khatri‘s riposte for Shiva and his outrageous outings, it consideration of indigenous idealism. The foregrounds acute lack of accountability rip–off of the indigenous culture has not among the Indians. gone well with Khatri. Poems like ―Bull‘s Khatri‘s possessive intent becomes is Reaction‖, Baffolo Ride‖ and ―Reversal explicit in the poem ―Homage to Maa‖ Syndrome‖ project Khatri‘s down-to-earth work ethic, displaying his equality agenda (20). He is at odds with capricious sons who can easily dispense with their which blurs the age-old distinction responsibility towards their motherland, between the rich and poor. Elsewhere a cherishing a spurious ideology; they very pithy statement is infused with subtle wit, ―land, sand and empty hand‖ (46) and often waylay their own cultural parameters: ―She was standing like mother takes a peg down the reader‘s mind about

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (47) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal the Bihari fortitude against a sea of odds. eye of the poet observes the loss of life and The Bull-cow parable also undermines the value based culture keenly, but humour of weak and strong hierarchy, the final the poet remains the stand out quality in resolution bringing much needed respite to the conclusion: ―Someone whispered in my both the parties; ―the earth equally ear / can‘t we do with one minute‖ (68). belonged to us‖(48) being the conclusion. Poems like ―National Consciousness‖, A poem like ―I Am a Bird‖ speaks out the ―Chastity‖ and ―Fire‖ also follow the suit mind of the poet when the poet persists of the title poem in their attempt to put the with ―the land I love‖(49) despite the disarray things in order. While the poems inadequacies being felt acutely. The local ―I and They‖ and ―New Invention‖ point to merges with universal in poems like ―Holi‖ the perverse moral standards, the Haikus, and ―Jogiji‖ giving a global perspective to on the other hand, find the poet in Khatri‘s poetic trajectory. Love turns out to humorous and witty mood. Humour is the be the universal healer transcending the poet‘s forte in the haiku on Sonia Gandhi‘s local and global issues into perfect Dandi March contributing to the harmony. Sometimes natural agents like introduction of value added tax in sharp the crane become the poet‘s spokes person contrast to Gandhiji‘s march which was an for exploring the world of contemporary agitation in favour of release from tax. On paucity. He pursues a poetic truth of revelation of the true colour of a human sticking to his roots but lack of being at death bed, the haiku takes us into opportunities hurts the poet very much. a philosophical sojourn: ―Smile on the face There is not a single moment in the poem / death reveals more than his life / man and when the indigenous impulse is being his mask‖ (72). And the one on scorching either reduced or lost. Add to this, the heat as the eastern woe, deserves particular indigenous intoxication bhang enhances mention:―Wide cracks in the field / the fervor and gaiety of this ancient myth peeping for water inside / sky conceals the which takes the country men in its stride, hope‖ (73). On the whole, fifty five haikus irrespective their caste, creed and religion. on different subjects, both current and The Hindi accent is prominent though, the ancient themes, point to rich repertory of poem invites the readers live participation Khatri‘s oeuvre. in the festival of colour carrying out clarity Khatri excels in two things: possession and and crispness of our cultural high point. patriotism or nationalism. His reliance on The title poem, ―Two Minutes Silence‖ cultural, national and cultural myths only depicts contemporary squalor and serve the postcolonial thrust on indigenous sordidness and the behavior of our so- tropes as an efficient write-up for the long- called representatives in the parliament and due out-of-possession native the state Assemblies. It also focuses on the representation. It is this dispossession that impotence of the modern men in the face has been a niche talking point in Edward of technology, and the loss of value system Said‘s Orientalism. Khatri‘s elite education has been given attention to. The sensitive does not write off the ineluctably colonial

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (48) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal influence on his mind that has led to a sort strongest strand running through my life: of what would GN Devy call, ―cultural The fact that I‘m always in and out of amnesia‖. Khatri‘s plight, Like that of things and never really of anything for long Said‘s who wavers between the Arab (Said, Power, Politics and Culture 70). consciousness and one that imposed on Khatri‘s laudable efforts to form a single him, the western consciousness of elite cogent and bias free identity of possession representation, led to an obvious spilt in serve the cause of cultural nationalism his sense of identity. Although Khatri well. The complexity and difficulty to form adheres to a strict indigenous regimen, the a uniform opinion on diverse India is all fact that he writes and is educated in the more difficult. His critical English leads to an oblique reference to his consciousness, and sharp wit and humour fascination with and hate for the colonialist only support his will, representing the hegemony. One is reminded of Said‘s nationalist ethos. There lies the greatness statement in course of an interview to Imre of Khatri, searching for an alternative Salunsky in this context: ―…The sense of modernity to represent indigenous insights being between cultures has been very, very that Satya P. Mohanty has ardently strong for me. I would say that the single advocated.

Works Cited: 1. Adorno, Theodor W, and Max Horkheimer. Dialectic of Enlightenment. [etc: Verso, 1997. Print. 2. Devy, G. N. After Amnesia: Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism. Mumbai: Orient Longman,1992 rpt 1995. Print. 3. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched Earth. London: Penguin Books, 1961.rpt.2001. 4. Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi .London: Pan Macmillan Ltd.2007 rpt2012. Print. 5. Innes, C. L. The Cambridge Introduction to Post Colonial Literature in English. : Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. 6. Khatri, C.L. Kargil, Patna: Cyber Publication House, 2000. Print. 7. ------, Ripples in the Lake, Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2006. Print. 8. ------, Two- Minute Silence, New Delhi: Authorspress, 2014. Print rudimentary 9. Mohanty Satya P. Interview with Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar and Rajender Kaur. Frontline.29:6 (March24-April 6, 2012): 85-94.Print. 10. Nayar Pramod K. ―Poetry of the Nineties‖, Chandrabhaga No1, 2000. 95— 118.Prin Ramanujan, A. K. Interview with A. L. Becker and Keith Taylor. ―The Poet Scholar‖. Gentleman(March 2001):18-28. Print. 11. Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays In Criticism 1981. 1991. London: Granata Books, 1991rpt1992. Vintage Books, London 2010. Print.

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (49) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke www.research-innovator.com Research Innovator ISSN 2348 - 7674 International Multidisciplinary Research Journal 12. Said, Edward Wand Gauri Viswanathan, Power, Politics and Culture: Interview with Edward W Said, New York: Pantheon Books, 2001. Print. 13. Singh, Vipin Pal. ―Edward Said‘s Discourse of Dispossession‖ Journal of Contemporary Thought, 38 (Winter 2014). Print. 14. Sri Aurobindo, The Future of Poetry, New Delhi: Poetry Society of India, 1986. Print. 15. ------16. Dr Gagan Bihari Purohit has been a Senior Lecturer in English at R N College, Dura, Behrampur, Odisha since 1992. He writes articles, poems and short stories.

Volume III Issue I: February 2016 (50) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke