XII ENGLISH

2.8
Small towns and rivers

Prepared By
pRAMOD pOGALE
vIDYA NIKETAN JR. COLLEGE, CHANDRAPUR
 MAMANG DAI


Mamang Dai is a poet and novelist. She lives in Itanagar in the North-
east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. She has one collection of
poetry, River Poems, to her credit. Her next collection, Midsummer-
Survival Lyrics, is due for publication in 2011. She writes in English.

 A former member of the Indian Administrative Service, Dai left the service to
pursue a career in journalism and writing. She has been correspondent for
various newspapers, including The Telegraph, Hindustan Times and The
Sentinel, and has also written for television and radio. In addition to two
novels, she has written prose and stories for young readers. Her non-fiction
work, Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land, received the State Verrier Elwin
Award in 2003. She is currently the General Secretary of the Arunachal
Pradesh Literary Society, a member of the North East Writers’ Forum and a
General Council member of the Sahitya and Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Dai’s poetic world is one of river, forest and mountain, a limpid and lyrical
reflection of the terrain of her home state. Nature here is mysterious, verdant
with myth, dense with sacred memory. There is magic to be found
everywhere: in the way lilies “navigating on a heartbeat . . . are shooting up
like swordfish”, in the quiet equipoise of “cool bamboo,/ restored in sunlight”,
in the “speechless ardour” of mountains. And there is no doubt whatsoever
that “the river has a soul”.

.
 You might be inclined to wonder initially if this is a somewhat facile
lyricism. But as you read closer, you sense a more sinister undertow: you
realize this paradisiacal landscape is also one of “guns and gulls”, punctuated
by “the footfall of soldiers”. You also realize that the simplicity of Dai’s verse
is not without guile. It possesses a gentle persuasive riverine tug that can
lead you to moments of heart-stopping surprise. Consider the poem ‘Small
Towns and the River’, where the reiteration of the river’s soul coexists with a
mounting sense of human anxiety, leading you to the unexpected close: “In
small towns by the river/ we all want to walk with the gods.”

For all its simplicity, Dai’s poetry does not arrive at easy conclusions. There is
no dishonest sense of anchor here, no blissful pastoral idyll. The poet
describes her people as “foragers for a destiny” and her work is pervaded by a
deep unease about erased histories and an uncertain future. And yet,
implicit in Dai’s poetics is the refusal to divorce protest from love. (An
interview with her in which she eloquently articulates this view,
accompanies this edition.) This seems to translate into a commitment to a
poetry of quiet surges and eddies rather than gritty textures and edges. It
also translates into a voice that is never raised in rage or indignation; a tone
that is hushed, wondering, thoughtful, reflective. The strength of this poetry
is its unforced clarity, its ability to steer clear of easy flamboyance.
 So when she describes herself as a member of a tribe of “ten thousand
messengers/ carrying the whispers of the world”, you realise you have a pretty
succinct definition of what being a poet means to Mamang Dai. You also
realize what makes Dai such an effective messenger.


Poetry
River Poems, Writers Workshop Kolkata, 2004.

Fiction
Stupid Cupid (novel), Penguin Books India, 2009. ISBN: 978-0143100331.
The Legends of Pensam (novel), Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2006, ISBN:
0-143062-11-5.
The Sky Queen (stories for young readers), KATHA, New Delhi, 2005, ISBN:
81-89020-32-3.
Once upon a Moontime (stories for young readers), KATHA, New Delhi, 2005,
ISBN: 81-89020-32-3.

Non-Fiction
Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land, Sky Prints, New Delhi, 2002. (Reprinted
by Penguin India, New Delhi, 2009, ISBN: 978-0670083312.)
Mountain Harvest: The Food of Arunachal Pradesh, Anwesha, Guwahati, 2005.
ISBN: 81-
Small Towns and the River
Small towns always
remind me of death.
My hometown lies
calmly amidst the trees,
it is always the same,
in summer or winter,
with the dust flying,
or the wind howling
down the gorge.
Just the other day someone
died.
In the dreadful silence we
wept
looking at the sad wreath
of tuberoses.
Life and death, life and
death,
only the rituals are
permanent.
The river has a soul.
In the summer it cuts
through the land
like a torrent of grief.
Sometimes,
sometimes, I think it
holds its breath
seeking a land of fish
and stars
The river has a soul.
It knows, stretching past
the town,
from the first drop of
rain to dry earth
and mist on the
mountaintops,
the river knows
the immortality of water.
A shrine of happy pictures
marks the days of childhood.
Small towns grow with
anxiety
for the future.
The dead are placed pointing
west.
When the soul rises
it will walk into the golden
east,
into the house of the sun.

In the cool bamboo,
restored in sunlight,
life matters, like this.

In small towns by the river

we all want to walk with
the gods.

© 2004, Mamang Dai

From: River Poems