Review of ' Tasvir Zindagi ke' by Kamlesh Pandey

“ Bhawuk” literally means outright emotional. There is no dearth of emotions in his poetry. In fact, Bhawuk approaches the hard realities of life through the emotional route. Choosing Ghazal as the way of his expression of feelings is quite natural, as this form of Poetry is appreciated all over the Hindi-Urdu belt for its soft feelings, deep impact and romantic aura. Its format allows the poet to reflect his emotional and intellectual depth in just a couplet.

Ghazal in Bhojpuri language has its own charm. A language of the eastern part of India, bhojpuri is a sweet, lyrical sounding language with enormous tradition of folklore. Bhojpuri tunes and songs have always been an integral part of Indian cinema and performing arts and are tremendously popular all over India. The modern bhojpuri ghazal follows a strict poetical discipline and has given a new dimension to the bhojpuri geet(song) tradition. Manoj is a representative figure of the this new trend of modern Bhojpuri poetry, who has made the Bhojpuri literature proud by winning “Bharatiya Bhaasha Parishad”( Indian Languages council) award. This poet has achieved this distinction at a time when the literature of the language itself is struggling for survival due to onslaught of cheap and vulgar cinema and music-videos.

The title of the book “ Tasveer Zindgi ke”( Glimpses of life) speaks of itself. The portrait of life is brightly visible in the sixty ghazals. The content of the ghazals are simple, straight forward and largely indebted to the typical idioms of bhojpuri culture, yet having a distinct modern sensibility, which ic capable of expressing dilemmas of simple souls in these complex times. The ghazals of Bhawuk bear a thorough positive tone with a clear vision for a bright future for humanity. He talks about affection, brotherhood, enormous love for mother, his village and its surroundings and many social dogmas, A few couplets are also about dual faces of politics, while in some, he just puts before us some deep-rooted philosophy in very simple words:

“None could write the story of life..”

“The destiny of a person’s dream is that if it comes alive, it is life, but if dies remains a dream..”

And his undying optimism is reflected in these words-“… a lamp of hope fighting the blows of wind has been placed on the door-steps of heart..”

In one couplet, Manoj sides with a person who snatches food to fill-up his empty stomach. In another, he comments on the modern ways that a cow is sent to a butchers house, which a dog(bitch) lives in AC room. It is difficult to translate Bhawuk’s shairee in any language due to it’s peculiar Bhojpuri idiomatic styles. The essence of the subject goes waste in the process, as the undercurrents of these words are from a life which keeps oscillating between deep-rooted love for the native culture and traditions and a modern life adopted through migration. Still, the ghazal titled “mother” has that universal appeal where Bhawuk says that ‘Hiyaraa me khudaa ke jaisan rahele maaee” (my mother lives in my heart like God.) In this particular ghazal Bhwuk become completely bhawuk and goes down the memory lane to remember moments like mother organizing his cloths, pen, books and also that how she comes to his mind instantly when he is sad.

Manoj Bhawuk has ignited the hope that the neglected languages like Bhojpuri, with rich traditional flavors can be revived through using them for expression of modern sensibilities in the common and popular formats. The people who tend to refrain from speaking these languages/dialects can be attracted to this language only by writing such quality literature. This is also the only way to fight the tendency of making cheap stuff in native languages to gain market.


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