Narrative pluralities
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RANJANA NARAYAN attends the Katha Utsav held in the capital recently and comes away impressed with the free flow of ideas and the animated discussions on identity she found there.
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SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Historian Kapila Vatsyayan with Sundara Ramaswamy.
IT was a fair gathering of like minds. Minds which thought alike, which met to forge identities despite being geographically distanced by vast seas. At the Katha Utsav 2004, held at New Delhi's India International Centre from January 2-7, creative minds from India and Europe interacted to discuss that which connect them to each other: emotions, mythology and the desire for peace.
"Interesting ideas were thrown up on forging identities," said Geetha Dharmarajan, with obvious satisfaction at the success of the festival, which marked 15 years of Katha's work in the field of publishing and education. "Our country has plurality of ideas and culture. How to keep languages alive is what concerns us," said she. Katha is thinking of ways to publish books by well-known European authors. Italian author Roberto Calasso's fable Ka is being translated into Bengali and Malayalam by Katha and possibly into Tamil too. "We are flooded with books from Britain and the United States. It is time we brought in works by good writers from other countries too. With translations of works from Asia and Europe, we shall be able to bring in a balance," said Geetha, the force behind Katha.
Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi, who made a hurried visit to India to attend the Utsav, said such meets were necessary to bridge the gap between writers and filmmakers. Zanussi, who writes his own scripts and publishes them as novels after the films are made, also contributes a column for a prominent Polish publication. The filmmaker was chairperson of the jury at the India International Film Festival held in October. He is working on a film on diplomats. "It will be an international film," said the director, who always keeps in touch with India. India gives him this "feeling of continuity... the spiritualism is palpable despite the vulgar greed of the rich." Zanussi views the current upsurge of clamouring for identity by fundamentalists in India, as a "deficit" in spiritualism. "Fundamentalism creeps in when there is not enough spiritualism," said the sensitive filmmaker.
Pakistani delegation to the Katha Utsav.
This year's Katha Chudamani Award winner Sundara Ramaswamy, is a happy man. The writer of serious Tamil literature feels vindicated. "It feels wonderful. This is the first all-India award I am receiving." He has been at the forefront of criticising "commercial writing" in Tamil Nadu for many years. "I am against all commercial literature, the pulp that is thrown at people in the name of literature. It prevents their intellect from growing. It stops them from growing as human beings."
Ramaswamy has stuck to writing in small magazines like Kalachuvadu (Footprints of Time) and Kollippavi, magazines that publish Tamil writers who feel unhappy with the spawning of "pulp literature". "Today the scene in Tamil Nadu is much better than it was earlier," said Ramaswamy. "Earlier, if a good writer's work sold 500 copies over two years, today over a thousand copies are picked up at the opening. The crowds at the book fairs in Tamil Nadu are a good indication of the interest of the people in good literature."
The first award Ramaswamy got was the Kumaran Asan Award for Poetry for Malayalam writers when he was 23. The next award came years later in 1999, from Toronto, for Lifetime Achievement given by the Tamil Department of the University. Ramaswamy, who hails from Nagercoil, was the only son, after three daughters. "I was an unhappy child and poor in studies," he reminisces. It was only after he turned 18 that he started learning his mother tongue properly. He was drawn into the Communist movement as a youth, but in 1956 he left the party after serious ideological differences. He started writing poetry, short stories and essay. He feels there is no more role left for the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu. "It has played enough through speeches, oratory and ideas. It's time is over. Now, people want their own ways."
Robert Calasso, Italian author, is deeply into Indian mythology and the Upanishads. He has read the translations and also studied Sanskrit to read the originals. He brings out the Indian influence in Ka, which has been received extremely well in his country. Chennai-based Bharatanatyam dancers V.P. Dhananjayan and his wife Shanta enacted the Garuda episode of his work at the Festival.
K.G. SANTHOSH
Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi.
Continuing the Indian angle, writer Stephanos Stephanides, who teaches at the University of Cyprus, has been profoundly influenced by the worship of Kali that he witnessed in Caribbean temples. "The Indian migrant workers there would chant the ancient scriptures and then chant in the local dialect. I have never seen anything like it." Stephanos remembers the tulsi seen outside temples whenever he sees the basil in Cyprus. He is planning a book on his experiences.
George Szirtes, an English poet who belongs to Hungary, found his trip to India a valuable learning experience. "The audience was very receptive and attentive," he said. He left Hungary when he was eight in 1956 and returned to his native country in 1984. He picked up his mother tongue and started translating Hungarian poetry and other writings into English. He is a recipient of the Faber Prize and the European Poetry Translation Prize. Though he writes poetry, George feels "it has been a long time since poetry was popular" in the West. "People are afraid of poetry. It is because poetry is badly taught in schools and colleges."
With several other notable writers and artistes participating in the Katha Utsav, the theme of the festival, "Linking Diversities, Forging Identities" became a reality with the free flow of ideas and animated discussions. The festival was held in collaboration with the India International Centre.
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