Dr. B. L.Khamdak poetry "Sister's Voice"

 

                  Reading "Sister's Voice"

 

 

                                       Pempa Tamang

 

Dr. Buddhi L. Khamdak has come out with his latest collection of poems titled "Sister's Voices". Originally written in Limbu language, this collection has come out  now in Nepali translation with an introduction by the doyen of modern Nepali poet Bairagi Kainla. Limbu language is a major language in Sikkim  and over the period of time it  has been  enriched by addition of  many literary works like novels, poems, essays, and other forms of genre. Limbu have rich oral tradition of mundhum or ritual songs which is also the principal source of inspirations for creative writings. This collection of poems in "Sister's Voices" draws its inspirations from mundhum. But the poems are modern and they show concerns of modern man and its anxiety.

The collection itself is small as there are only eleven poems but all of them have distinct voices and concerns. Themes of these poems cover ethnicity, feminine concern, dilemma of tradition and modernity, creativity and poetry as fountain of revolutions.

As a poet and activist of Limbu tradition and culture he is concerned with the decay in his society and he think this will bring about  degradation of culture which would deprive of its identity.  He says that the aboriginal people have been lagged behind with their inability to move ahead with time and they are no longer appear what they were supposed to be

. (समयले विछोडेका आदिवासी )।

As the month has come back again

As  the year has has come back again

Over the villages

Flowers have started blooming of broom grasses

Ghunnging flowers have started blooming

Banana fruits are ripening

In the kitchen garden flowers in sugarcane plant has sprouted

.....................

Conscious and unconscious with half wakefulness

Waiting for welcoming in the early morning of arrival of sibhak yanu tumbu

Some are keeping awake with the hope

 

On the other hand

These tribals are running haywire like a goat in a game of bagchal being chased by the tiger "

The tribal are normally taken as one with static attitude and have an idealistic belief that life is a cycle of recurrence and past always comes back in future. Nothing changes and life death is just a cycle. Hindu philosophy or for that matter any idealistic philosophy is based on this plane. It is deterministic and a human has very little role in this cycle of birth and death. Contrary to this philosophy Khamdak indites here that that the time past is non recurring as they won’t come back and is left behind. One who doesn’t move with the time he lags behind . And this has what happened to the tribals, laments the poet Khamdak in the poem. He rues that as the tribals didn’t move with age and now they’re trying to catch up, but they don’t know the direction to which to take.

"Dogs at the crossroad" poem continues the theme of tribal people loosing their direction.

"That the aboroginal and genuine  animal

That unique species dog

Confused at the crossroad.

Running like flow of water

Getting lost in the crowded street

That dog, how did he reach there

In the polluted market

Getting lost its path?

Sometime going up above

And sometime going down

Sometime running straight shouting

Searching  for wayout

But neither he finds his destination

Nor he finds his way home

That destination less dog."

The poet is describing here the plight of tribal people who came out of their secure environment to be with the highway of civilization and modernity. But since they were not prepared to face the challenges of the changes they got lost. Now that they have left their home and burnt their path of return they cannot go back to live their life but the audacity of changes they have to put up with in this different environment it becomes impossible for them to find any sanctuary. Poet likens this painful situation of the tribal people with  the dog who has lost direction at the crossroad.

The poet Khamdak himself is a member of the tribal community of which he is writing poetry about. His sensibility and affection and devotion is effected by the fate of his people. He isn’t different and cannot alienate himself to be safe from the calamities that he foresee of his people. He knows that his identity and survival is dependant on the sanctity and preservation of his culture and tradition. In the poem titled "Imagination : of death " he finds that the world is full of sin, desire, ego, anger and he has no desire to live with  all these vices. He says it is better to die than to live as lifeless being devoid of heart, lungs and livers. This is his deep conviction for his identity and culture and tradition in the absence of which he would be unrecognizable and unknown.

Sister's Voice poem is most memorable in the collection. Patriarchy is the disease of oppression of woman folk in the society. Woman suffers because of pat normally taken for granted that tribal society is egalitarian and male female hierarchy doesn’t exist. Indian Tribal academician and critic Dr. Bandana Tete has written that as there is no patriarchy in tribal society there is no feminism .( Aadibasi darshan aur sahitya) ( p-42). She further adds that except the natural differences no man made hierarchy exists. Indeed some restrictions are there but its not like cruel feudalistic and hypocritical religious rules which imprisons woman. However Bir Bharat Talwar, renowned tribal activist and intellectual, believes that Indian tribal society is also patriarchal though woman suppression is comparatively tolerable than in hindu orthodox society. (Adibasi and the concept of adibasi literature) (Tadbhav)(2016)(Issue-34). He also says that once the tribal people came into contact with brahminacal hindu society and others much of their traits have undergone changes for the sake of integration and civilization. This has resulted in the decay and disintegration of their cohesive and mutually supportive behaviour. This development shows that the traditional security and freedom of woman in tribal society have been impacted. It is this concern which has come into fore in the poem "Sister's Voice" with poignance  and sensibility.

Its not only  while she is awake but even in her dreams

I hear her weeping and crying

Though she is from  the same society and the culture

Poet Khamdak rues that woman in his society is still chained with burden of traditions. Unlike men who are free woman are still bound to shackles of archaic conventions. They haven’t gained their freedom.

To Be with the sister

To sing in harmony with her

Come my brothers

Lets exchange shawl with hat

Trousers with gunyu

Sickle with khukuri

My neck and nose  cannot bear anymore

Heavy burdens (of jwellery)

Cannot hold weight of share

Hide  them in the museum

This will be your history, this will preserve your culture

Saying this I hear her crying

In the dreams and also she’s awake

Jwellery that a woman wear has been applied here as a metaphor of oppression. It is sn enticement of niceties and allurement to bring woman under subjugation. Jwellery is an ornament and a woman is considered as an ornament for men. She is only worth as an ornament. These are showpiece only. The woman here therefore despises her jewellery and she doesn’t wish  possession of them. She says they would be worth only for the museum where all antiquated objects are maintained as a piece of history and culture. It is a very strong statement and condemnation of patriarchy.

"Poem: My unwritten story" continues the theme of feminism emphasising  what generally haven’t been brought into discourse. This is what the poet make us to believe and guide the readers that women whether in myth or in reality their plight remains the same. Poet invokes series of images of godesses and semi godesses who are powerful women but when in the form of human, they are only indentified in their relationship to the male member as sisters, wives, mothers, sister in laws and so on. They do not have their own unique identity.

Poet maintains that woman are still in prison of patriarchal order

"Till date I feel I have been covered with thunse

In my house

Feel like covered by a shawl "

Woman are under subjugation and their happiness and freedom are far away. Unlike men they do not enjoy freedom.   These two poems raise issues which are feministic and as such it goes beyond the idea of culture tradition which form primary motif of tribalism. This makes these poems relatively modern in its values. Poet calls it a story yet not told as gender issues in tribal culture doesn’t form the basis of contention.

In a society of sparing literacy, the power of writing is substituted by oral knowledge and mundhum. Knowledge itself is substituted by legends and myths. Reality and imagination looses their difference. Khamdak knows this fallacy and, therefore, realizing that there can be no alternative for education and writing, he exhorts the power of pen or writing against which sharpest of weapons falls short of its strength.

 

"My pen advocates truth

Exposes falsity

Indites  judicious things

Searches  lost objects

Tells unheard things "

"For generation to generation

Opposing Injustice and tyranny

My pen will speak and survive

Against  exploitation and harrasment

Will rest only after (winning) the war

My pen isn’t meaningless."

Power of pen is beautifully described in much quoted saying  of Nobel Peace Prize winner Activist Yousafzai Malala that "One child, One teacher, one book , one pen can change the world ." The realization that a pen can be a vehicle of revolutionary changes and the power that it can have is well emphasised in this poem.

Life is a cycle of birth and death. One sect of Buddhism namely Lamaism theorises that life itself is a preparation of death. This is called Bardo doctrine. Happy would be one who realises this early in his life and prepares himself accordingly. Life as preparation of better afterlife is also belief prevalent in tribal tradion like in Yumaism of Limbu community . It is therefore no surprise that a poem on wishful thinking in aftelife finds a place here. "Imagination : Of death" concerns with the theme of his wishes of afterlife.

" My dead body

Be taken to graveyard

Immediately

My life need to take

Another rebirth "

" From the coffin

Keep it on pyre

Rising from heat and flame of the fire

Need to reach heaven at the earliest"

 

Poet finds the world as an unworthy place to live.

"Because

Sin, greed-enchantment, anger-envy and ego

Has filled the  material world

I being a lifeless man

"Doesn’t behove living on this earth"

 

The protagonist believes of the life beyond the life or other life. He thinks just as in this world dead people too would have other world where once dead he would meet them

" Heaven or hell

If I could reach early

That greedy one

Narcisistic ,egoistic selfisness,

Mind with full of sin, followers of untruth,

Accost  and dream to look at  their faces."

This stanza reminds the journey in Dante's Inferno (Divine Comedy) where the protagonist meets all those dead persons in hell who had committed sin while they were alive.

"House after my death: the dream" is another poem which has death as leitmotif. For every being born on earth death is inevitable. Death is the ultimate truth of all human as it is embedded in the consciousness of every individual. It is the end and means which guides an individual in his adult life. Dreaming about death and one’s life about it comes naturally to everyone concerned. House is where a man gets respite and security from the vagaries of nature and also from unwanted elements. One cannot imagine a life without a house. It this feeling which makes the protaginist here to think of his house for afterlife also. Although soul is without his material or physical being and he doesn’t occupy space but the mind which makes him think of afterlife makes him  feel the necessity of a house even when he needs no such covering.

As mentioned earlier these poems were originally written in Limbu language and for connoisseurs of Limbu aesthetics, they come with resplendence of images, symbols and myths from Yumaism. Notes and interpretations introduced here  enriches responses of the readers. Linguistic variation that brings about in the structure of poems enhances its readability and make them enjoyable. As they say "history is then but myth is now", the poet has been able to employ the myths from Yumaism with contemporary meanings and interpretations.