Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No 3: CLRI August 2019
Book Review on Khurshid Alam’s Investigative Poetry & Other Poems
Khurshid Alam, sees his own simplicity of complexity, but also expells with poetic reminiscences, as a compound of simple directions. Towards human, first and foremost. In order to understand exactly what makes him .... human. | Sabahudin Hadžialić, Editor in Chief, DIOGEN pro culture magazine
Kanchan Bhattacharya picks three poems from Khurshid Alam’s debut poetry anthology titled Investigative Poetry & Other Poems and makes an exploration.
Sacrilege: The Babri Mosque
The Babri Masjid events have induced anguish in all intellectual and right thinking Indians ─ it was an event that should not have happened. It is largely viewed as a political non-entity’s quest for power, and a compounding of the national sense of shame and hopeless anger at the political leadership’s ability to make capital out of non-issues.
Set against this background, Khurshid Alam analyses the event in a very detached manner ─ as an observer, distancing himself from rancor and ill feelings. He has added an explanatory note:
This poem expresses anguish on the demolition of the Babri Mosque, Ayodhya (UP) on December 6, 1992. The poem depicts also the condition of a people who are pushed to a corner of uncertainty and fear.
India has seen political and religious upheavals and pogroms throughout its history. Never united as a nation in the past, the Hindu collective memory has seen Muslim invasions, demolitions of its own icons like Somnath and other places of worship ─ all within the conqueror’s sense of being right! And yes, the invader’s successors have become Indians.
Khurshid brings out a simple agony felt by those Indians whom the majority
feels are aliens through no fault of their own. A misdeed of the past cannot
be representative of the present inequalities. This is the essence of his
poem, xenophobia in people
The hatred bared one people to come near To save the edifice or beat the heart They must scream in some corner in the dark They must not memorize the Day And if they do they risk their patriotism They should be kept away at a distance They are strangers, they are from other nation.
In India, we of the majority, are wary of Abrahamic religions, especially those sects that owe spiritual allegiance beyond the borders. Yet to say that they are aliens, not Indians is a very harsh judgment, as they have contributed to the country’s progress in the times past.
The basic question is very relevant… A nation within a nation, a dual nation Can’t work for a great nation Who are patriotic? Who are nationalists? Those who create nations of a nation Those who create alienation Among the people of their own nation?
Khurshid feels for the country as much the others do. His poem is a statement ─ awake, India, rid of biases.
I wish he had spoken more of the anguish in his poem, a little more of the fear.
His is a call to rational nationalism…I do not seek the meaning of “investigative” poetry ─ the poem narrates a fact in a mildly but admirably restrained interpretative manner. The questions are raised in narrative, in a prose verse format. The flow is there, and a stark simple way of speaking the truth.
Demolition: The Bamiyam Buddha
Khurshid Alam has made an interesting protest against the Aniconic Wahabi method ─ the meaningless and wanton destruction of the priceless treasures of the Bamiyan Buddha, in his poem, Demolition: The Bamiyan Buddha. In a fanatic attack at the turn of the millennium, Taliban troops blasted the Bamiyan Buddha caves that had sheltered intellectual coexistence for centuries along the Silk Route:
The first cultural melting pot on earth That united the West with the East And stood a resort for all – Tourists, schools and connoisseurs of arts
Islamic fanaticism is twofold ─ a perception of persecution and therefore revenge, and the propagation of Islam at any cost, even elimination of the faithful, despite the teachings of the benign kind: the religions that preceded the arrival of the Prophet.
Oh heaven! Cease to exist there. And fall on them…the abbot of unreason! But there is a silver line that shines From under the dust clouds. He’ll reincarnate And the hands will rise for blessing again For he who grew wide ears to lend ear To people’s misery, and brooded on to ease People from grief. He had the heart That did no harm to any and professed No Godism and no atheism.
Much beyond the narrow thoughts of the Taliban that seeks to propagate Islam through the gun as its Prophet, Khurshid asks them to note that the resurrection of the becalming Messiah, Buddha will happen eventually, a hope and a prayer for the Sakya Muni to return…
He’ll live through the Turkish and Afghan folktales Forever in the form of male Salsal or female Shamama characters People will remember him as Sakyamuni, or Dipankara munis.
Khurshid adds in his epilog note, “the abbot of unreason” expresses the strongest opposition to those who claim to guard one’s own culture but destroy others for mean logics.
This poem is again an appeal to rational thought!
House Arrest: The Mumbai Attack
It was an event that shook India in November 2008. The killers, except one, were killed. There was an immense “collateral damage” and a few martyrs too laid down their lives. The invasion of a goofed up Pakistan, and an incredibly inadequate juggernaut called the security forces became highlighted.
Khurshid speaks of this event exactly as the Indian felt… helpless but not without hope.
A sea of emotion, commotion, and anguish The people have suffered a lot They can’t forget the burns they’ve got at their back For what fault they are to buy the pains.
Fanaticism has a color, the color of lead… Each bullet shouted the name of God Before tearing the dreams of the victims They killed in the name of religion!
And it seeks its prey, the perceived persecutors… The terrorists looked for British and American tourists. But can you see? They took people of all religions Hostage. There were Khans, Singhs, and Williams The death toll was immense, three days of carnage in the name of religion… gently, he reminds ‘What religion do you follow, can you tell? ‘What faith do you have, can you spell? ‘Which religion can be as senseless? ‘To preach killing of all innocent people.’
If each religion wages war against others What a world of hatred we can have Each person with a sword in a hand And the Holy Book in another to say This can be the only book that you can have
There are many who have written of this. A general peace loving Indian would seek this poem too, as a way to wade out of the tragic events of November 2008.
In these three poems, we see a poet who seeks reason to end the irrationality of human hatred. This poem is a big one by way of understated agony. The more we have poems of this genre, the better.
About the Author
Khurshid Alam, (MA in English literature), is a professional writer, editor, publisher, and technocrat. He has been working as technical author for over 13 years and currently he is working as a team lead in technical documentation department with an IT company based in Pune, Maharashtra (India).
Khurshid writes poems, stories, and on literature and culture. More than 100 poems, several stories and critical essays have been published in various journals and anthologies in India and abroad. He has three books including Learn Markdown (ISBN-13: 978-8193554319) and Investigative Poetry & Other Poems (ISBN-13: 978-1499755718) to his credit until now.
About the Reviewer
Kanchan Bhattacharya, a prolific poet, served in the Army for thirty years before becoming a teacher of electronics, and settled in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. An incurable romantic, he writes poems, sonnets and haiku, almost all day. He dabbles in solar energy and engineering, and is fond of teaching children. With two books of poetry - Arrival and Opus (2013), a book of cartoons (1990), his poetry has been anthologized in India and abroad.
Get Your Book Reviewed: If you have got any book published and are looking for a book review, contact us. We provide book review writing service for a fee. We (1) write book review (2) publish review in CLRI (3) conduct an interview with the author (4) publish interview in CLRI. https://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/rev
Contemporary Literary Review India: Contemporary Literary Review India (CLRI) is a literary journal in English and publishes a wide variety of creative pieces including poems, stories, research papers (literary criticism), book reviews, film reviews, essays, arts, and photography of the best quality of the time. CLRI is an internationally referred journal and publishes authors from around the world. https://literaryjournal.in
Leaf Press: Leaf Press publishes books, anthologies and academic books with ISBN. We bring out books in paperback, digital and PDF formats. We specialize in publishing English literary books including fiction, story and poetry anthologies, PhD thesis papers and critical analysis. We welcome new authors. Visit our website http://leafpress.in.
Authors & Books: We publish book releases, Press Release about books and authors, book reviews, blurbs, author interviews, and any news related to authors and books for free. We welcomes authors, publishers, and literary agents to send their press releases. Visit our website https://authornbook.com
.