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Articles /Interviews
The Poetry of Kolkata, Its hidden expanse
Dr. Amitabh Mitra talks to Prasenjit Maiti about
The Romance that is Kolkata
1.
Pritish Nandy was once declared as the poet who touched the heart of Kolkata
Calcutta if you must exile me, destroy my sanity before I go
Your poems
go far beyond, Kolkata a beautiful woman whom you have romanced, Tell us
about the poetry that is Kolkata.
 I
started experimenting with the prose poetry form a few years back when I
first tried my hand in writing continuous prose lines that run (almost
tumble on one another!) to form a brief yet tight paragraph (justified)
while maintaining an idea, a movement all along the body poetic
There
is no real poetry in Kolkata but for those moments of madness that
compel someone like myself to toy occasionally with a few words that
make precious little sense!!
2. Kolkata
has poets in every lane, every street, poets writing in Bengali about love,
life and the politics that is embedded in the very fabric encompassing the
vibrancy. Do you write poetry in Bengali and English and what do you feel
about contemporary Bengali poets, their versatility? Did any one of those
poets influence you?
My Bengali
writings never did see the light of day so I gave away those exercise
books where I used to draft a few silly lines here and there
Among
post-Tagore writers I must express my gratitude to Jibanananda Das,
Shakti Chattopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Tarapada Roy, Sudhindranath
Dutta and a host of others whom I cannot recall off hand but whose
contribution to Bengali literature is nevertheless outstanding.
3. I use to
sit at KC Dass sweet shop in Esplanade and hear poems from sex workers and
students, The Coffee House was another such rendezvous which I use to
frequent, I loved these lines of yours!
"The
morning tram droops an early, hopeless return while the winter wraps
around our windshield in and out the vanishing green . . . I walk back
home in the company of mists and memories of battles and happen to wag
my tail and my tongue when I run into my god ..."
Did you write
instant poetry while sipping coffee?
Not really
nowadays I do not even write
but I must admit that poetry like any
other serious art form gets better and better as one spends more and
more time practicing ones craft and identifying emotions and
experiences with a genre and a style that is comfortable in its
expressions and evolution.
4. The
Times of India declared the film Hathat Nirar Janye All of a
sudden for Nira as a contemporary poetry in film based on the work of
popular novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay. That was love poetry in film. Do you
see your prose poems being filmed a feature or perhaps a documentary?
May be
at
least that may mean some easy money to a penurious writer!!!
5. Tagore
remains the poet that every Bengali reveres. How do you see his poetry in
present circumstances in Bengal?
I am too
ignorant to comment on Tagore
but the fact remains that even if Tagore
is not directly in the backdrop he is always there as a constant
reference point for all the generations to come.
6. You
studied in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, a place that can stir
your innards and spill out creativity to its extreme limit. I used to be an
addict of JNU during the days when Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury ruled
the student union, trying my best to relate Medicine, Marxism, Poetry and
Love. What was the influence your poetry had during your JNU days?
In fact I
started writing in English after I returned from JNU but the University
influenced my writings in a major way
7.
Professor Purushottam Lal, Pritish Nandy, and Mukul Sharma wrote about the
heady days that once was Kolkata. Can you relate your poetry to the poetry
of the seventies?
I cannot but
one must admit that it is fun reading the great stuff that was written
around that time my prose poems written in the recent past perhaps
best express my failings as a human being and a writer
Writing is a dog's life but is the only life worth living said Balzac
who used to chain himself to his chair while writing his masterpieces.
Well I don't really go to such incredible extremes and nobody would
believe me if I claimed anything on the contrary but I am at least
certain that writing is a great way to converse with yourself and let
your emotions of sin, righteousness, indignation, hopelessness, lack of
purpose, prudery, sadness and nothingness wash over your mortal frame of
reference comprising your pen, paper, laptop, printer and an assortment
of goodies that you may prefer to refer to as your very own ideas ...
Jokes apart I feel in my occasional lucid moments when I am not quite
horny, hungry, sad, afraid or gloomy for no apparent reason that writing
is at least an excuse to go on struggling in this meaningless charade of
life that more often than not strips you of your essence and leaves you
in a sorry state to pick up your shattered egg shells of lost memories
and defeated battles ... And I try to write in English while nourishing
a distant and impossible dream to earn easy money if I happen to catch
the frightful fancy of an expensive publishing house!!!
March 26, 2006
The Poetry of Prasenjit Maiti
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