Ramji Babu didn t call my skill panauti but grahan (eclipse). He said all this in jest, and I, too, laughed with him. But think of the damage such an assertion could do to a boy who was more sensitive than me. How could I have carried the burden of this ailment, this curse, like a shadow all my life?
Even the nights after her death
(translated from Alok Dhanwa’s poem “Bhagee Huyee Ladkiyan”)
These lines by Alok Dhanwa are a merciless attack on the patriarchal grip on the institution of marriage in our society.
Solemn desires articulated through literature and art are considered immortal but do they have any impact on society? I am not aware of any research on how literature has influenced society in the Hindi belt. But what I know is that there are some individuals who not only take the written word seriously but also have the courage of translating it into action.
‘Intellectual’ wedding ceremony
‘Manglesh Dabral was not free of his past’
Manglesh Dabral hailed from Kafalpaani village in Tehri Garhwal. No wonder, mountains have a larger-than-life presence in his poems, which talk about local legends, mother, father, grandfather, rains and dreams. Doms also live in the mountains but they never drift into his poetry. How could they have? He had no connection with them. Kanwal Bharti re-reads Manglesh Dabral
Those other than Dalit poets also figure in my personal collection of anthologies, and I find their work quite impressive. They include Pash, Gadar, Gorakh Pande, Varavara Rao, Gauhar Raza, Bhagwat Rawat, Alok Dhanwa and Anshu Malviya. Their expressions are distinct from the others. I have more than 100 collections of poems of four-dozen-odd such poets. Some of them are famous names such as Ashok Vajpayee, Kedarnath Singh, Arun Kamal, Kumar Vikal and Ritu Raj. But I am not adequately intellectually equipped to understand their poetry. Manglesh Dabral’s collection of