(A Brief Note on My Participation in the recent Dibrugarh University
International Literature Festival, Dibrugarh University, Assam, India,
March 19-21, 2024)
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India looks at me with
both the stony, relentless stare of some local men from the poor neighbourhood along
the Brahmaputra river and the open-hearted, pristine smiles of Dibrugarh
University students. Each of the few days I spent here in this ‘remote’ part of
India, I felt myself hanging along the spider web-thin, razor blade-sharp, clear-cut
and yet ever-shifting line that separates forces that weigh India down from
those that pull her forward and upward.
Me staying at the luxurious
HM Resort had on one hand served as a superb protective shield against the
notorious Indian social violence and, on the other hand, encased me in a rigid
etiquette framework out of which I always felt want to break free. I always
felt drawn to the ‘real’ India behind these thick, transparent, impenetrable
walls of the luxury offered to me, the ‘real’ India that I felt both
intimidating and wonderful.
Mr. Krishnan
Srinivasan, former State Secretary of India, told me he does not believe that
India has a future, the dire poverty and lack of education that ravage the
great majority of its population being to be blamed. “It’s so sad”, he said. He
has every reason to make this conclusion, of course, having been tormented by
this problem all his life. And yet, looking at the radiant faces of Dibrugarh University
students and scholars turning toward us panelists and trying to answer their
well-informed, ‘thorny’, highly inquisitive questions and having the honour to
get to know their dreams, I’d want to be and remain a stubborn idealist who,
despite all those bleakest signs and depressing indicators, keeps on believing
that this enormous country has every reason to believe she has a bright future.
A bright future, not
only for India but also for the whole world.
A lonely ‘old’ wolf
who would always prefer the harsh solitude within the privacy of his vast
jungle of literature, I was not that ready to be in the company of such
wonderful representatives of my kind from around the world. I’m always aware,
of course, of the fact that quite a few of members of my ‘tribe’ are scattered
all around the world. And yet, meeting them in their ‘real’ version, conversing
with them in the same physical room, and giving them the occasional tap on
their shoulders, is something radically different from nurturing the company of
their ‘incorporeal’ souls. Here I am, among them, and I feel that yes, I belong
to a tribe, one of the not-that-numerous humans who see what many others don’t
see, think what many others don’t think, feel what many others don’t feel, and
try to do things that many others don’t do, out of a seemingly futile desire to
make the world a better, safer, and more tolerant place to live.
The mere fact that
we’re all speaking about literature and spiritual values is ‘unusual’ in
itself: How could ever people like us, normally without any power, strive to
oppose quite a large array of utterly real and huge powers that are doing
nothing better than spoiling human souls and destroying Mother Earth? And yet
we go on speaking about how we can strive, about our paths, our efforts, our
dreams, our hopes: in a way, we are fighters who dedicate themselves to the
case of preserving humanity.
For this reason, no
amount of gratitude would be enough to FOCAL and Dibrugarh University for
creating such an unforgettable event in my life, in our lives. May this spirit
live on forever.
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| Me speaking at the session, "The East European Tale", March 20, 2024, at Dibrugarh University, together with Halina Kruk (to the right) and Irena Karpa (to the left), both from Ukraine, and Ashes Gupta (far right) as the moderator. |
