Manas Ranjan Mahapatra, Puri, 28 May 2023
I was at Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar in the last week of April for delivering a plenary lecture organised by its International office. It was my first visit to the university after the Covid turmoil.
In my college days, I was a regular visitor to Utkal University, Vani Vihar. My state had only four universities at that time – two at Bhubaneswar and one each at Brahmapur and Sambalpur. Now, there are half a century universities in the state including Post Graduate colleges that are Deemed Universities.
Vani Vihar is not that sweet girl anymore. It took me an hour to locate the New Academic Block. I feel an urge in me to write about this university from nostalgic memories of the past…..
My plenary lecture was liked by all present in the seminar. I spoke at length on Mother Tongue, Multilingualism and Internationalism. My point was:
No language in India is inferior to the other. All Indian languages originated from Sanskrit are classical in nature and are at least 1500 years old. Invariably, each Indian Language has a cultural connotation.
Language and Literature are the basic essence of Indian culture. Literature should show a bright future for humanity. As felt by Ruskin Bond, an eminent Indian English author of the twentieth century, “I can’t really look into the future and I can’t even be certain that I would even have a legacy. So many writers are forgotten. Sometimes even good writers. And sometimes, we writers don’t expect to be remembered, continue to have a sense of existence. I have mostly written to please myself and the few who enjoy my writing. If people continue to read my books in the years to come, that’s fine. And if they don’t, that’s fine too. It’s not really in our hands!”
Many of our language champions don’t know that most of our tribal languages are older than our so called Indian classical languages. I have extensively travelled the whole country to discover this truth. Massive urbanisation has killed most of our tribal languages along with the simplicity of our tribal culture.
In the recent period, science has improved to such an extent that you can decide your own space. But, our authors are not moving out of their limited space. Time has come for discovering a new cultural internationalism.
Having worked as an editor in National Book Trust, India, the largest publishing house in the government sector, editing texts in Odia, English, and Hindi, and as a guest lecturer teaching Editing and Book Publishing courses in Delhi University, I have understood that translation is the only tool to unite languages and literatures for understanding each other’s socio-cultural milieu. My experience was presented based on a plethora of case studies and hands on experience.
I also discussed at length about the language and culture situation in the country with special reference to Odisha vis-a-vis the contemporary world in terms of internationalism.
Many times you realise that what you did when in school or college were either childish acts or because of emotional outbursts. But that was life at that point of time. One such incident was my argument with a senior. I wanted him to become a member of a literary organisation and he refused to. Our argument went to such a level that he caught my shirt collar and it got torn. In those days we were never retaliating against our seniors as a matter of respect and I came back home crying. Later, after many years, that senior married one of the members of that literary organisation and I understood why he avoided becoming a member – he was possibly afraid that others may come to know about their romance. Remembering this incident today, I just laughed. How foolish was I and how childish was my behaviour! So was his. Life makes us experienced and that is knowledge which you can’t find in any book.
The other incident was regarding my learning of English. Our house was near the seashore and I used to meet people from many countries. One day I met a gentleman from England and proudly told all in the family after coming back home that I met an “Englandian”! My uncle just laughed and I argued that if someone from India is an Indian, why someone from England can’t be called an Englandian! Later, while on the Expert Committee of IGNOU for the introduction of American Poetry and Drama at M.Phil and Ph D levels, I remembered the incident and laughed. How much limited was the level of knowledge those days…..
I wish my knowledge and experience would have been better utilised by the Central or the State Government…..
