Significance of a birthday—A writer is not understood while he is alive, but his influence and glory are strongly manifested as time passes after his death.
February 12, fiction writer Akhtaruzzaman Ilyas’ birthday. Born in the 20th century and died in the same century, this writer has come to the young age of the 21st century and is deeply rooted in the psyche of the reader. Nowadays, many people read his novels ‘Khwabnama’, ‘Chilekothar Sepai’. Also, short stories are read by almost everyone due to their inclusion in textbooks.
And the rate of work on Ilyas’s text is increasing significantly in the academic study and research of Bengali literature. And in this context, I am not going to make a serious and serious argument about his writings in today’s discussion. Rather, I will say a few words about some personal experiences that I have had while reading Elias’s writings.
First of all let’s talk about ‘Khwabnama’. Scholars have analyzed this novel in various ways. The novel has been, and still is, seen in the light of the pre-partition politics of Bangladesh in the early part of the 20th century, the diverse changes in the society and culture of North Bengal and the strength and potential of the regional language. Some have also drawn comparisons with Marx’s ‘Century of Solitude’. Elijah is said to have successfully applied magical realism in the Book of Revelation. But as far as I felt after reading the novel, it seems that this is a wrong imposition on the readers. Why exactly is this viewed in terms of Marxian magical realism?
If you think about this question, it can be seen that the author has used myths quite strongly and clearly throughout the novel. The author has skilfully mixed the elements of Puranas, folklores, legends or better known folk culture with the daily casual events of the lower class people. At times he tried to create narratives that transcended apparent reality. But I think this is a trap. A conscious attempt by the author to feed the unconscious reader.
I have the novel close at hand. If I drag it a little, I get only one character’s narration.
The use of myths about Munsi Baitullah. For example, ‘Vaikuntha kay, no, that Munsi is the commander of the Bhavani monks. After death, Munsi rests in the palm tree. After a few years, on the night of the new moon of the month of Ashad, the munsi also sent a sacrificial lamb for the katra versea that appeared in the bill. Bill’s fish got the shape of a lamb that day.’
Here, the ghost of the dead Munsi taking up residence in the pakur tree reminds us of the story of Grandmother Jhuli in the boy-forgotten fairy tale book. There it is seen that after the death of a Brahmin, he nestles in the Ashsheora tree as a Brahmadaitya. Scares young boys. That is, the author has advanced the narrative with the help of traditional Bengali mythical elements in the novel. In this case, he did not take the unfettered opportunity to create something completely new or deeply creative imagination. On the other hand, in Marquez’s ‘Century of Solitude’, we see a new town called Macondo, which has no existence beyond the author’s imagination. From the establishment of a family in this Makondo region to the spread of the life course over several generations and the death of almost every one of their members, various real and magical events take place throughout the novel to form a myriad of centers. It has a rich character Remedios. Looks very beautiful. Men die when they come near her. And this woman once floated from earth to heaven on a thin cloth.
Another female character is Rebecca. Since childhood, he licks the walls of the house and eats the soil.
Besides, in this narrative, when a man is shot, the blood from his body moves from one area to another across the floor, walls and long streets of the house like a living being. As if blood flow has two legs. Have own likes and dislikes. Also, after the death of Jose Arcadio Buendia, yellow flowers fell like rain in Macondo.
The city people were once afflicted with severe insomnia. Due to its severity, people lose their memories.
So it appears that the illusion created by the reader for these magical descriptions of small and impossible details is realism or Latin American magic realism. But in the visions we find nothing that twists conventional folklore and creates magic in the narrative. Beliefs passed down from generation to generation by the people of the region described in the novel and unreal events that have occurred. Elias in this respect did not depart much from the manifesto of realist literary composition. The pressure of realism is strong in Bengali literature throughout the 20th century. This obvious expression has given birth to countless clichéd novels. I am not talking about poetry, as poets have experimented a lot in this medium and practiced various styles of writing. But even a strong player like Ilyas entered the field of fiction, he could not play his best in the wide range of novels. If the writer’s work is similar or close to the creator, then I would say that he will be a little behind. Because even though he tried to build and establish the life of many characters in ‘Khwabanama’, I don’t see the full development of at least one of their characters. Tamiz, Tamiz’s father, Kulsoom, Phulmati, Hurmatullah, village poet Keramat Ali, Sharafat Mandal and many other characters are happening throughout more than 300 pages of the novel, but none of them have awakened to the varied and deep fears of their lives. It didn’t seem that, even if the flow of events was cut, at least the depth of character, the multi-voiced actions, the ups and downs, the new feelings emerging from the depths of the psyche—that would keep the reader occupied for a long time—emerged. In this case, if we look at Rashkolnikov in Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ or Fyodor, Dmitri or Ivan in ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, we will understand what it really means to create a character like God. The events of the two novels are not quite magical, or fall-off-the-chair-reading (which Marx did when he read Kafka’s ‘Transformation’), yet Dostoevsky’s novel marches through the centuries into eternity, and we cannot but read it, and have a permanent seat in our minds. I can’t even give it. Here the question may come that Ilyas is like Ilyas, why am I comparing other writers with him? In this case I am reminded of Bakhtin, who compared Dostoyevsky to Tolstoy while explaining the concept of the polyphonic novel, and we know that the writing styles of the two are very different.
It is at this point in the discussion that the direction of comparison may turn to the novels of the same author with his short stories. I think that the depth and variety of personalities, their human development, was more successfully dealt with by Elias in the story than in the novel.
I remember his ‘Niruddes Jatra’, ‘Rain Coat’, ‘Utsav’, ‘Khonari’, ‘Milly Hand Stengun’, ‘Tara Bibi Marad Pola’ – many more such stories. Some of these characters have got full scope even in small scale. He saw the character so vividly that his blood, bones, flesh and sweat, along with semen and menstruation, were not left out. He can effortlessly narrate the story of a man’s masterbation, which brings before us the example of breaking the walls of masonry existing in Bengali literature.
I was impressed by his courage to apply enough fertilizer to allow the characters in the story to grow properly without locking them into a certain pattern. On first reading it seemed that his story demanded multiple readings from the reader. However, in this context, another thing comes to mind that the use of unnecessary English words in the narrative was noticeable in some cases. It is true that because Elias was trying hard to create a new prose language, he may have taken this approach to increase the potential and development area of Bengali language; As a result, some say that Elias wrote smart prose in the short stories, such as the famous first sentence of ‘The Endless Journey’, which goes like this – ‘After a long time in this lovely monotonous town, it rained beautifully today.’
Throughout the novel ‘Khwabnama’, the author’s Marxist literary study beats like a heartbeat, controlling the characters and events – in his short stories, such control and surveillance seemed to be at a very low level in my reading of the small mind.
In the birthday essay, Ilyas’s work was negatively commented upon, not necessarily. However, it is safe to say that this is my personal opinion, which has not been analyzed and researched enough to gain the support of the group, it is not possible to be in this short discussion. However, I have no disagreement with the fact that fiction writer Akhtaruzzaman Ilyas has multiplied the power and boundaries of Bengali prose; To prove the truth of this statement, I am ending today’s article by reading a paragraph from ‘Khwabnama’ – ‘From Battala across the cremation field, the song is now flying in the north west. Song flies over the skinny stream of the Bengali river, casts its shadow on the Bengali stream, in return Kulkul Bol smears song on its wings. The echoes of songs return from Pakurtala to the northern Seethan of the Katlahar bill, the rustling of the pakur trees and the billowing billows and the wet breeze of the Bengali river on its return:
Wake up, Qatar, Qatar, Giridanga, Katlahar
Jot bando see how many enemies you have.
Jot bando break the chains of the hands jhanjhan.
Like the dew in the sun that joins the chain.
This is Munsi’s song, scorched by the sun, wet by the rain, lightened by the wind, falling in the heavy throat of Cherag Ali.
