amit's DIARY: 2016

Saturday, December 31, 2016

* Virtual Reality!

At the launch of the poetry anthology Virtual Reality I spoke on the topic "Virtual Reality: The Literature of Suspending Disbelief."The text of the speech has been published in Different Truths. Visit to read -

http://www.differenttruths.com/reviews/events/virtual-reality-the-literature-of-suspending-disbelief/

Friday, November 18, 2016

* Different Moods of a Poet!

Thursday, October 27, 2016

* My Bonobology Article!

Is loving more than one person wrong or just different?

http://www.bonobology.com/relationships/open-relationship/498-is-loving-more-than-one-person-wrong-or-just-different

Since I have been a contributor to a couple of Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul series books, I have often been forwarded questionnaire on couple compatibility or sought response to whether or not mobile phones have made partners come closer or how does one see PDAor do people need closure with their ex. Sometimes I have posted my response and sometimes I have not answered saying that I don’t have a partner. So, when I was asked this question, “You don’t have a partner?” I replied, “Yes, I am single.” And then the obvious question to follow was,“Why?”

Looking back at my thirty eight years of life and still being single I realize I have to address this question in public at some point in time and not escape with a smile like I have done so many other times. So, I answered, “Never found any. Actually, however utopian it may sound, I am married to literature. It is very difficult to find someone who will be my second wife.” And then I added, “But I love many and that too without any guilt. If one eschews the family structure then one can avoid the guilt. I believe the traditional family structure was formed as a safeguard against the irresponsible behavior of human beings on the path of civilization but as we have progressed we have seen newer family structures. Being single is also a family structure. It is a single person family structure and though it may not have certain advantages, it gives precedence of the individual over a group. In fact we do want diversity in society with different lifestyles co-existing harmoniously and no one gets stifled into a herd mentality.

I have been facing the argument from friends and family that one needs someone with whom one can share things with and someone who will care for each other especially in old age. But does marriage guarantee that, especially an arranged marriage? A person like me who jealously guards his literary space and is not willing to compromise on that front will require someone equally immersed in that space to be compatible. I have not exactly come across such a person so far. A person, who is married, has his/her spouse and kids as first priority before he/she can indulge in any literary activity. Here comes the question of responsibility. I would not like to marry and end up being an irresponsible husband and father. Often I feel that living a different kind of life itself adds literariness to that life. I try to bring that literariness in my life as an aspect that makes it pregnant with possibilities, even though never actualized. The society often indulges in a kind of duplicity where a literary character is appreciated in a text but such a character in real life is not appreciated. Haven’t we appreciated characters like Florentina Ariza, Anna Karenina, Yuri Zhivago, Madam Bovary, and even Paul Morel and Maggie Tulliver. Why can’t I live my life as literature?For me living a life as literature is a creative challenge because it demands on me to create an intellectual and emotional utopia. It goes beyond the binaries of right and wrong and is rather amoral for it is the only space where life as art survives and thrives.

“So, you believe in polyamory. I could sense that,”came the rejoinder. Immediately I felt the need to explain a bit and said that I enjoy the state of being in love. To do something for someone when one is not duty-bound to do anything gives such a high. To care for someone just out of love and not because one is n any relationship is so much better and selfless. From the people I love I don’t expect anything more than friendship. Living a life with the chronic symptoms of falling in love every now and then and being in love with more than one person at the same time can be seen as aberrations in social behavior pattern in any individual. But I realized that facet in me without any guilty conscience and have been living with the sense of being in love most of the time in a controlled manner without letting my feelings to reach its logical conclusion. I do this because I cannot find an answer to the question why I should sacrifice one love for the sake of another and not have it all. For me love should make me liberal, magnanimous and all-encompassing. I believe that love should make one love more rather than put restrictions, unless one is willing to commit to a single person. The former case of polyamory is natural and the latter case of commitment is social, born out of the need to protect the family structure.

The next question that followed was, “But the others with whom you are in relationships, do they understand it too?” I answered that earlier I have had crushes and infatuations when I was really young but I found no single individual had everything I wanted and I did not have everything they probably expected. Some have called me commitment phobic. Perhaps I am that because if I commit I have to guarantee steady income, proper attention and mental fidelity pertaining to love, all of which I cannot guarantee. But very lately I have expressed myself to a few. To those whom I have confessed my love I have also confessed the multiplicity of my love. And I am glad that they could understand my point of view. But here I must clarify one thing. Loving someone can be platonic too whereas being in a relationship has a sexual side to it. That is why I say I don’t have a partner and I am single because, even though I am in love with a few, I am not in a relationship with any. I choose not to have a family in favour of having multiple loves. This can also be seen as living in a utopia but at least it does not make me miserable with longings.

And then my inquirer said that she too felt this way except that she plunged into marriage before she realized that she feels this way. I replied that I believe many married people think this way. In fact most often if someone follows a different value system it is misinterpreted as a wrong value system or no value system. We must not forget that we belong to a society where polygamy, polyandry, monogamy, monoandry, matriarchal households, patriarchal households, single-parent families, joint families have all existed. So, there is nothing wrong in being single or loving more than one person at a time. Those who do so with a sense of responsibility are not wrong but just different and society has to accept it.

Monday, September 26, 2016

* At The Beats and Metamorphosis!

The Beats at the American Center

Metamorphosis at Soul Cafe

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

* Two Book Reviews and a Poem!

Two book reviews and a poem published.

“The Disorder of Things: A Review of Kushal Poddar’s A Place for Your Ghost Animals and Understanding the Neighborhood,” Asian Signature, ISSN No: 2456-1584, Vol. 2, No. 3, August 2016. <http://asiansignature.com/book-reviews/a-place-for-kpyour-ghost-animals/>

A Review of Igniting Key: A Collection of Poems by Pramila Khadun, Ampat Koshy and Bina Biswas,Vanya's Notebook, 9th August, 2016. <https://vanyasnotebook.blogspot.in/2016/08/igniting-key-collection-of-poems-by.html>

My poem "Reconciliation"published in the Semeen Ali edited "Dissent" Issue (No. 68, Jul-Aug 2016) of Muse India <http://museindia.com/featurecontent.asp?issid=68&id=6725>

Monday, July 25, 2016

* RD at Infi Gaming (LeOFa)

Rhythm Divine Poets performed at League of Fandoms event at Infi Gaming (Salt Lake). Glimpses from the event.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

* At the International Music Day Festival!

Poetry Recitations

Inox, City Centre, Salt Lake

Doodle Room

Yamaha Music Square

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

* At the 7th National Poets Meet

At the 7th National Poets Meet held in Kolkata (Pan Asia Continental Hotel) on 14th May, 2016.

Being awarded the Poiesis Award of Excellence in Literature
by Gopakumar Rashakrishnan and Swapna Behera

On being shortlisted for the Reuel Prize 2016

Saturday, April 30, 2016

* Report of the seminar on “Towards Classical status for Bengali Language”

Shoptodina Foundation, the brain child of Dr. Tamal Dasgupta, has been doing pioneering work related to Bengal and Bengalis especially through their academic mouthpiece The Journal of Bengali Studies. Under the aegis of this foundation on 15^th April, 2016, a seminar was held in Mahabodhi Society Auditorium, Kolkata, titled “Towards Classical Status for Bengali Language”. In the sweltering heat of an April day the heritage structure saw intellectuals from different fields engage in a discussion that at some point in time will prove decisive in gaining the classical status for a language that is a heritage of Bengal. It is not only a matter of pride for the Bengalis that this initiative is being taken; it also opens up logistical and infrastructural facilities for the upliftment and spread of the language which is being compromised in usage due to the constraints of not being the language of currency on a global platform in more sense than one.

L-R: Subodh Sarkar, Tamal Dasgupta and Arjundeb Sensharma

The seminar, divided into two sessions on both sides of lunch, saw speakers express their thoughts on the issue in hand from their angles of vocation and research interests. The seminar began with a very interesting paper presentation with audio-visual aids by Dr. Swarup Bhattacharya on the topic depicting the transition through the ages of the boat of Bengal. Bengal being a major coastal area from where river and sea navigations have taken place since time immemorial has seen boats as central to the livelihood of its people and at a metaphoric level it symbolizes the spirit of Bengal and its classical anteriority. Language is as intrinsically linked with livelihood as nothing else can be. After this presentation Tapoban Bhattacharyya spoke on Bengal’s so-called first monarch Sasanka. He pointed out that at school and college level history books the space dedicated to the rule of Sasanka is being shrunk and given just a cursory mention and thereby a sort of elision is happening that is detrimental to the glory of Bengal.

Raibatak Sengupta followed it up with a speech on the status of Bopdev, who is seen variously as Bengali and Marathi due to lack of any well-researched evidence. The speaker iterated that time demands an appropriation of this legendary figure of history so that the grayness disappears. It was then that Dr. Arjundeb Sensharma made his crucial presentation detailing how proto-Bengali language developed since Sasanka’s time and has directly descended into the modern form that is prevalent now. He gave arguments on why Bengali language should be accorded the status of classical language. Later Dr. Piya Biswas discussed Charyapadas and how they are part of the development of Bengali language from its proto origins (and not exclusively precursors of Oriya language). Anirban Das too argued for the classical status for the Bengali language and presented evidence of the antiquity of this language. Rituparno Chattopadhyay’s speech with the help of a Powerpoint Presentation was on the trade of Bengal and how the seals of Bengal prove the prevalence of a proto language that is the antecedent of present-day Bengali.

The penultimate speaker of the seminar was the Chief Guest himself, the noted poet and academic Subodh Sarkar. He regretted the facts that we live in a country where a language like Sanskrit gets the classical status after Tamil, where there are no speakers to argue for the classical status of an ancient language like Pali, and where Oriya gets classical status but not Bengali yet. He zeroed on the cause that the lack of unity amongst Bengali-speaking people has led to this state of affairs. He blamed the upper-middle class Bengalis who give little importance to their mother tongue and favour English instead. He promised all help if the demand is made to grant the classical status to Bengali language. Dr. Tamal Dasgupta summarized the proceedings and presented his own view point at the end of the seminar. He argued for the need of classical status for Bengali language, and elaborated the stakes that the Bengalis have in this battle, and what they stand to lose if they do not engage into this struggle for classical status. Extensively referencing Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay's magnum opus ODBL (Origin and Development of Bengali Language) Dr Dasgupta offered a cogent case for the language of Charyapadas being identical with old Bengali. He cautioned against the continuous poaching of Bengal's heritage at the hands of various vested interests, mentioning Jayadeva as a case in point. He further said that everything that stands for the pride and glory of Bengal is gradually getting eroded and it is time that Bengalis realize the precariousness of the situation and take proactive measures to address the issues that are at stake. His speech made it apparent that if the alarm is not sounded today then it might be too late.

Monday, March 28, 2016

* Rhythm Divine Poets' Anniversary and Woman Scream!

Rhythm Divine Poets group celebrates it first birthday on 12th March at Cocoa Bakery (New Alipore) organized by Kushal Poddar, Sana Mohammed and Swasti Jaiswal.

Rhythm Divine Poets organizes the Kolkata chapter of 6th Woman Scream International Poetry and Arts Festival at Mandeville Gardens on 26th March, 2016 coordinated by Women Poets International -
http://womanscream.blogspot.in/