On the Passing away of another Stalwart...R.I.P Professor P.Lal

Professor P Lal passes away

4 November 2010

statesman news service 
KOLKATA, 4 NOV: Teacher, poet, translator and publisher ~ P Lal (in picture) died at a city nursing home late yesterday. He was 81.
Born in 1929, he joined St Xavier’s College as Lecturer in the Department of English, immediately after passing M. A. in English Literature from Calcutta University in 1953. He is the recipient of the Padma Shri in 1970. 
Lal was an honorary Professor of English in St Xavier's College after he retired. A short prayer service was held at St Xavier's College today to pay last respects to the departed teacher. 
He was also special Professor of Indian Studies at Hofstra University, New York (1962-63), and lectured widely on Indian Literature in English, American and Australian Universities. He was a delegate from India to the P.E.N. International Writers' Conference in New York in June 1966 and visiting Professor in the University of Illinois for the spring semester of 1968.
He transcreated the Brhadarankaya and Mahanarayana Upanishads on a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship Award in 1969-70. He was a distinguished visiting Professor and Consultant, Albion College, (April to May 1972); Prentiss M. Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor, Albion College (January to May 1973); Robert Norton Visiting Professor, Ohio University (September 1973 to June 1974); visiting Professor of Indian Culture, Hartwick College, (September-October 1975), Eli Lilly Visiting Professor, Berea College (February -May 1977); Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Western Maryland College, 1977.
Lal wrote many books of poetry, over a dozen volumes of literary criticism, a memoir, books of stories for children and possesses several works of transcreation from other languages, mainly from Sanskrit into English. He also edited a number of literary anthologies. He is best known as the transcreator of the English version of the epic  Mahabharata which he did in the 1970s.
He founded a publishing house ~ Writers Workshop in 1958. The conceptual genesis of Writers Workshop was in 1955. Among his students in the 1st year BA at St Xavier's were Kewlian Sio and Deb Kumar Das, both writing poems and stories. Lal decided to form a writers’ group. The plan materialised in 1958 when Pradip Sen, Jai Ratan, Amita Desai and William Hull joined, and a formal ‘constitution’ was drafted by Deb Kumar Das. A next-door Lake Gardens neighbour, PK Aditya, installed a hand-operated treadle printing machine.
Author Ms Nita Vidyarthi, who was also Lal's colleague in St Xavier's College, said that his death was a great loss. He has always been a very dignified person and open to all forms of discussion. “We used to reach college early and often I would ask him to read my article once before I send it for publication. He used to do that most willingly. He would encourage people to write for Writers Workshop,” she said. His body was brought to St Xavier's College at 9.30 a.m. today where a large number of his students gathered to pay him last respects.

Thakumar Jhuli

Eons of Bengali youngsters have been weaned on stories from this definitive treasure trove of fantasia, which translated means "Grandmother's Bag" and we (my sister and I) were no different. For us however, more fertile memories are linked with the teller of these tales, our Thamoni (which is the nick/moniker by which we addressed our grandmother) whose bed time story telling sessions were a great hit with us.

This post is a long due tribute to one of my closest friends.

Dr. Rajlukhsmee Debee Bhattacharya was born in Mymensingh, Bangladesh in 1927. She did her schooling in Mymensingh and then in Calcutta. Being a stellar student and Gold Medallist in B.A and M.A from Calcutta University (which in her times for a woman, was a real big deal!!). She later earned her doctorate from Pune University in philosophy, and taught Philosophy at IIT Kharagpur, Fergusson College, and N.Wadia College,Pune , where she retired as the HOD of the Department of Philosophy. All this while she was also a very active Bengali poet , one of the few pravasi Bengali poets of note (Pravasi being the Bengali term for non-resident Bengalis-She was based out of Pune since 1952). She was a recipient of the Prestigious Bhuban Mohini Dasi Medal from Calcutta University for her contribution to Bengali literature. She was also a noted translator of poetry from Bengali to English and English to Bengali, and had traveled abroad extensively to many conferences where she shared her expertise and experience in the finer nuances of the very difficult but very critical art of translation.

She was tremendously dynamic,phenomenally creative, inspirational,a killer cook, brilliant, open minded, youthful and refreshing to interact with but most of all she was a very loving person. When I was doing my engineering at the College of Engineering Pune (from 1999 -2003), She was my confidante and counsel. Whether it was studies related advice, or guidance on extracurriculars or generally helping me sort out personal issues, from Applied mechanics, engineering drawing and quantum physics to texture of brush strokes in the artwork of certain artistes to heated discussions on whether R.K. Narayan deserved the Nobel prize in literature or not (I thought he did, she thought not), whether "Dil Chahta hai" was really the awesome movie I though it was (She felt that despite the well portrayed urban glitz the movie ultimately lacked substance). That there was almost a 60 year difference in our ages wasn't apparent to me at most times, when it did, it struck me with a mixed sensation of awe that said i-hope-i-have-half-the-energy-she-does-when-i-get-to-her-age.

And while this post is hardly adequate to convey the loss I or indeed most members of my family felt when she passed away on a February morning three years ago, it will serve to underscore that her memory lingers on, as does her legacy.

As I was rummaging through my files the other day I saw some handwritten translations of short children's verses by Thamoni. Interestingly, the illustrations for this work in progress were done by yours truly (and therein lies the weak link) way back during the run up to my Second Semester Exams at COEP. I searched the web to see if I could trace the originals which she translated them from. The source it appears might well be a work by Shel Silverstein dating back to 1964 a work comprising of a collection of illustrated children's verse called " Dr. Shelby's Zoo". Have given below the English originals of the verses along with scanned images of Thamoni's translations. Let me just say that the translations fantastically maintain the edgy humour of the originals as well as the extremely creative names that these beasts have, those of you who can read Bengali won't have to just take my word for it, and, ahem... my illustrations don't hold up too badly either.


The Man-Eating Fullit

Here is The Tail
Of the man-eating Fullit,
Let's not pull it



Gru

Don't pooh-pooh the Gru,
For if you do,
He'll bite you through,
And chomp and chew,
And swallow you.
But if you don't,
Don't Think he won't!



The Long Necked-Preposterious

This is Donald,
A Long-necked Preposterious,
Looking around for a female
Long-necked Preposterious.
but there aren't any



The Graveyark

See the Graveyark in his cage,
His claws are sharp, his teeth are double,
Thank heaven he's locked up safe inside,
Or we'd all be in terrible trouble!


and my personal favourite...

Slithergadee

The Slithergadee has crawled out of the sea,
He may catch all the others, but he won't catch me,
No you won't catch me, old Slithergadee,
you may catch all the others , but you wo--

Sesquicentenaries, in passing...

As a COEPian, I'm often distraught at the necessity to change the name of my alma Mater from COEP to PIET ( yes, my venerable college now goes by this moniker) but, I can see several advantages to this uncomfortable gambit( maybe not for those of us who've grown accustomed to or rather have been steeped in the history of COEP as COEP & not PIET..but for the coming gerations??...hopefully, yes...)

As our college celebrates its sesquicentennary this year, a grand set of events are planned which will shadow our usually grand annual gathering into insignificance...APJ is expected to make an appearance, and..ahem!...I had a small part to play in the invitation process...
Anyways, this reminded me of a poem I'd jotted down last year for the college magazine, as a farewell paean prior to exit..here I (re) present it:

Where do we go from here…?

Shrouded in our secluded microcosm,
Secure in the comfort of past laurels,
Clouded by the mists of complacency,
We only remain kings of a stunted domain,
Safely (?) asleep in the haven of yesterday,
We ignore the threat that is plain to see.

Those who till yesterday measured
Themselves up to us,
Have moved on, leaving us behind,
At this crossroads then, what choice do we make?
Can we afford to stand and stare?
Dare we luxuriate in our glory days past?
Live hereafter in abject denial?
Or is it our cross to bear?

Soul searching introspection, a collective questioning
Of a sesquicentennial legacy is necessary,
The hour of reckoning is near,
Surely, we stand within the bounds of redemption,
But, only, if, someone chooses to ask,
Where do we go from here…?

As we don the mantle of a new name,
Let us solemnly resolve to take it
to unreached and unparalleled heights,
Let us be second to no one, and,
May the brotherhood under the triumvirate
Of Truth, Strength and Endurance,
Reign unchallenged in this, or any, land.
For those of you whose interest in my college has been aroused, lemme add that our college is one of the oldest engineering colleges in India, probably asia, alas! as things stand today, it doesn't count among the very best (though it does come in somewhere in the top 20), but I'm hopeful that things will change for the better..

Here's a link to my college's website...Link

Chiaroscuro

to You I have to ask,
Was light and shade both your task?
Could it perhaps have been but light?
No?...like a blinding aspect of the sun,
You're saying it would be darker than the night
Then,pray tell,why not shade only?
Again, I sense your inward smile,
Comprehension befuddles on thoughts of gloom,
leads not to the One, but merely makes lonely
Onliness!...then, to your Chiaroscuro
I say,if so be it, it be so!!