A friend of mine calls his Oxomor Kobi (Assam's Poet).
I am talking about Megan Kachari aka Mithingga Daimari, known to the world as the former publicity secretary of the banned militant outfit, the United Liberation Front of Asom, ULFA, who is currently serving his sentence in Guwahati jail as we read his poems.
He called himself Megan since the early 1990s when he turned a poet. A life led in deprivation and disparity in Barama, a hamlet in Nalbari district of Assam, though, had named him Jatin Das, way back, on May 17, 1967.
With many names, with many memories of his entire family being wiped off in secret killings, with many episodes of a life led in hiding, with hopes of living one day in an idyllic `janambhoomi' (motherland), Megan's poetry has that blend of guns and roses, of aches and joys, of belief and distrust, of loss and gain.
"Melodies and Guns", a book of poems edited by Indira Goswami was originally published in Assamese as "Memsahib Prithibi” written by Daimari. It reflects the mind of a man with a gun, and with a throbbing heart. His poetry catches the eye for its fearlessness and spontaneity.
The Down Stream Song
The bank, in the dawn
And far away, in the horizon
Was the glow of my rising red sun.
But where have I lost all?
Those fragile memories
Of my childhood and youth.
But how to see them, once again
Those treasures, dreamy and young?
The morning, and the noon
The afternoon, and now
It’s midnight.
Drifting…
Above me, this dark, black sky
Ahead of me, lie unknown waters
And around me, is an unknown voice.
Drifting…
In my own voice?
Manjeet Barua writes more about Magan’s poems
2 comments:
hi Sanchayita,
Thanks a lot for your nice words. I guess the book is being received well in the country, if the sales are anything to go by. To me, what is also important is that this genre of militant poetry in Assam seems rather different from Naxalite militant poetry seen in the rest of India. Megan's poetry is not merely about violence alone. Its more wide. Interestingly, it can also be self-critical. Somehow it seems a unique thing about literature in Assam because even tea plantation poetry in Assam does not have that acidic hatred against the system as found in Dalit poetry from rest of the country. What makes it so?
Re:Tea plantation poetry VS Dalit’s poetry:
The British might have introduced them to work for the plantation but its the people of Assam they live with. I am not saying that they haven’t been through the ugliness that the Dalits have sadly but by nature people of Assam are less harsh than what the Dalits might have faced in the rest of India and I think after a certain period of time your surroundings rubs on you. It boils down to the saying- every action/motion has an emotion. The stronger the motion, the larger the emotion. That's how I would analyse it.I may be wrong thou but I feel there is more soul to the people of NE. I hope I could express myself.
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