A Strange Love Affair

#14 by Roshan on April 26, 2003 5:18pm PT


the other reason could be that karima has been in 11th grade for a long time!!

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That was nice.To a Bengali,it brings back memories of paddy fields and pukurs.Time to go home!Btw,where can I fing the Probashi anandabazar?

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In Bangla the word ``Laxmi`` is pronounced as ``Lokkhi``. It is originally the name of Hindu Goddess of wealth. In Bengal and in the Seven Sisters ( Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal, Sikkim) however the general connotation of the word is ``the dainty little one`` or sweatheart. Very interestingly, it is used in a gender independant way. It has attained a secular meaning too. Kids, and loving ones in houses belonging to any religion do enjoy being called as ``lokkhi Sona``. This fact is not quite comprehensible to anyone from the rest of India.

In the reportage from Probashi Anandabazar, I never found any bit about the sex of the pachyderm. The general wisdom of Bangla writings do give little importance to the sexual identity of a kid or a household loved one. If I would have continued with ``she`` by just assuming that the pachyderm is a female, I might have been proved wrong. The change from ``she`` to ``he``, has thus been a little deliberate intrusion just to bring this point above-board. There was no other way, I could have made clear this subtle difference in the culture, other than explicitly writing so. I did not want to add, one single sentence of my own. In the loose and rapid translation, I wanted to keep the structure of the phrases as it is and in the same voice . I wanted to keep the positioning of the subject and object same , as I found in the reportage.

I am glad that the readers pointed out the ``mistake``. This has given me the opportunity to explain in details the reason for ``changing she to he``.It would have been outside the scope of the translated reportage.

I admit I did it in this way, to bring out the flavour of the reportage as it appeared in the original. Languages do not only differ in words and phrase constructions, but do so in the flow and style too. I wanted to keep the Bangla character of the article un-disturbed. The reason of the belated reply was to find out if the ``deviation`` from norm was well-noted.

I love the music and lilt of the unedited version. Transalations and editing can kill that. Thank you for a great story Ms Bose.

Dear Reader,

Following is the authors note:

I discovered a number of syntactic mistakes, which might confuse the readers. This is a correct version. I thought, I should tell you that this may not be treated as an article, but as a true anecdote instead.

Some readers might take it to be some kind of a wish masquerading as an article or a statement masquerading as a story. I do not have any such intention. It is plain and simple translation of a reportage by a news magazine [Probashi Anandabazar]in Bangla.

Following is an edited version:


Laxmi is her name. She is the ``custodian`` of a village on the foothills of Duars - Himalayas. When the Political parties are busy breaking their
heads dealing with communalism, a problem or otherwise, Laxmi maintains a silent but strict regime of communal harmony - all by herself. The atmosphere in this village is still pure, pristine and venom-less. This forlorn rural district of Duars has Hindus, Muslims and Christians living all together. The love-potion of Laxmi has kept the communal-binding intact.

RajDanga is a village, off six Kilometers from the Kranti-Hat of MalBazar block of Duars. This village has a household run by the Alam family. Laxmi is their resident. The name Laxmi was given by Nizamuddin - the pioneer of the family. He found Laxmi as a toddler in the deep forest of Duars. That was 1923. Laxmi was rescued with her brothers and sisters, but Nizamuddin could only manage to keep her, thanks to family feud. Nizamuddin found this toddler very loving and quiet, he named her Laxmi. In Bengal the name Laxmi means a quiet, loving, obedient but responsible child. After Nizamuddin`s death, Kausar was entrusted upon the wellbeing of Laxmi. Kausar grew up with Laxmi and thus Laxmi was very fond of him. ``After his death in 1985 when dad was buried, Laxmi stood there for hours and wept``- said Aftabul Alam the son and present caretaker of the Alam family

Laxmi detests hunting. She would carry on her back any body for a tour in the forest. She however would pull up her front legs and throw off the driver, if she finds the driver intends to hunt, she dislikes firearms in the hands of the passengers. No one in her 75 years of age has been able to cajole, coax or goad her to hunting.

A grand milky white Masjid stands near the Alam house. Laxmi`s quarter is just beside that. Every morning Laxmi wakes up, takes a bath in the nearby lake and circles the Masjid twice. The Maulavi thinks Laxmi does her Namaz every day like that. Before doing the Namaz, she never eats -says Abdul- the 60ish mahut of Laxmi. During the Id, the villagers take Laxmi for a stroll around the village. During Muharram, Laxmi puts on many kinds of colorful attires. To the Muslims Laxmi is Allah`s chosen Fereshta (angel).

To the Christians Laxmi is God`s messenger. Come every Christmas, Laxmi is offered a grand Cake. She then visits the Church and is the chief guest in the ensuing celebration till the New Year.

To the Hindus, She is Mahakal- the incarnation of Sentinel of Time and Fate. During the Autumn festival Laxmi is called from the Jalpaiguri City in the various pandals as a cause-celebre. Umesh Sarkar feels -``Laxmi puts on a victory smile, decked, garlanded and spruced up with flowers``.
She gets special obeisance during the Shiva-haturdashi - the festival of Shiva on the 14th day of a particular month.

The villagers of Rajadanga, Barogharia, Hanskhali and North-Mid-village- around 21,000 in number- consider Laxmi to be their savior against wild elephant-bands.

Aftabul does not recall the early years of Laxmi, Laxmi was there before Aftabul was born. Aftabul too grew up with him, for all that matters there is hardly any kid who did not. Laxmi likes the kids a lot. Every-day around noon Laxmi visits the local lake. She plays around with all kinds of kids in the water for at least 3 hours. The kids tease her a lot and prank around more. They hang on, play around with Laxmi`s giant sized ears.

Laxmi does not mind, she loves this kind of frolicking. She carries the kids on her trunk and tosses them around and gives them showers, but keeps a strict vigil so that no one is endangered. Not a kid ever reported any problem of drowning or otherwise when Laxmi is around.

Every morning after the Namaz at the Mosque, Laxmi takes a stroll around the village visiting every household, saluting every family while passing. The villagers rush to the door. They bow to her with folded hands, pay their respect and offers food for Laxmi. Abdul is witnessing this scene for forty long years without any break.

Laxmi needs Ten banana trees every day. That is not quite affordable by the Alam family. Once they decided to sell her off, but the villagers teamed up, felt insulted, protested and decided to feed Laxmi -in turn. Every household now produces banana trees for Laxmi`s service.

The Wild Animal reservation officials do not have any problem in allowing Laxmi live in a civilian atmosphere like that. Though it is not allowed legally to tame wild animals, yet the chief officer opines ``She seems to be doing fine there, why should we disturb her``

She has occasional dissatisfaction too, she went off to the forest once in 1993, as she was hurt for some odd reason, but did not like it there in the forest, she might not be that welcome in the forest by her likes or she missed the neighborhood too much. She returned after 7 days.

The forest Department takes her to Mongpu to entertain the tourists. The money she earns for the service keeps Abdul- the Mahut(Laxmi`s navigator) for the whole year.

Abdul is attached to her. Even when he cannot have two square meals a day, he never thought of leaving Laxmi- a life long companion. ``My days are numbered, just for the left over days let me carry along with her, she is all I have in this world`` - a strange love affair.

I thought the broken English lent it a peculiarly South Asian rural character, so Laxmi like.
After all, rules are made to be broken. Plus the story was very good. Written by someone with a beautiful story/idea but innocent of traditional technique.

The above is a purely personal opinion. The comment has not been made to invalidate anyone`s criticism.

Shandana: I agree with Karima. This does NOT come across as a competent writer stretching the bounds of ``acceptable`` grammar/style/usage/diction in a bold and exciting creative experiment. Unfortunately, it is more than a little embarrassing...

a moving story.

re karima:

laxmi was not a boy or a girl, laxmi was an elephant.
if you judged every piece on whether it followed certain grammatical rules or not you`d be depriving yourself.
the comment about how even you, being an eleventh grader, could produce better essays was totally unneccesary.

shandana

Does any of this work go through some sort of editing? I am in eleventh grade and the papers that i push out at least show minimal understanding of the english language. Not only did i not understand this story, but the tenses changed every second and words were used out of context. Is Laxmi a girl or a boy? How could you risk the web site`s credibility by publishing such a sloppy piece of work?

Very touching story which I am sure sounds
and reads better in Bengali/Bangla.

Thanks Soumitra.

American Poet Agha Shahid Ali comes to mind with his masterful translations of Urdu`s Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He had (in my opinion) done incredibly well translating ``The Dew``, but ``Mujh Se Pehli Si Mohabbat`` failed to convey the true message even at the hands of such a good English Poet. The ``Khushboo`` of Urdu was missing.

Similarly this story has a great message but the flavor and aroma got lost in the conversion to English.

I hope to see more from Bengal and Bangladesh
on CHOWK. Bengali and Urdu literary traditions
are difficult to match. With Tagore and Nazrul,
Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz who can argue otherwise.

Ras

FYI
(``Agha Shahid Ali is a Kashmir-born
American poet who teaches in
Amherst, Mass. His newest book, ``The
Country Without a Post Office``, has as
its main subject the violence in Kashmir``)

Could be an interesting article, but the translation wasnt very readable to me. I wonder why my articles never get published on chowk..hmm...

This is what Banerjee probably wrote when he did not know anything. God man! Please learn the finer points of English narrative before you translate anything. And the story is mundane to the point of disaster. You are not working with Tasleema Nasreen, are you? She is also this bad.

Faisal

Annogul: I think you`re right.

Something`s wrong here. This was BAD. Maybe it was the translation, but this was like my 9 year old trying to imitate Salman Rushdie or something.

Simply a beautiful portrayal of peace, harmony and love...

Very moving story.. Perhaps this pachyderm can teach all us a few lessons at being responsible, peaceful, tolerant, and diplomatic.....

Perhaps that is still too much to ask...not from the likes of Laxmi, but from us...

Regards

Asim