Golden Voice of New India

Golden Voice of New India

                                           - Prof. Irina Burova*

The history of the Indian literature began about 4,000 years ago. Anglo-Indian literature is far more younger, having started to form only in the second half of the 19th century.

It is worth mentioning that before the World War I two great men of letters whose creative work was inseparably connected with India had been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), an English prose writer, poet and journalist got it in 1907, and in 1913 it was presented to Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1841), an Indian writer, poet, artist, composer and public figure. Kipling spent the first six years of his life in India and later, in 1882-1889, worked there as a journalist. He was the first to tell the world about the real life of the British India, sighing deeply over “the White Man’s burden”, the one that was making him propagate European civilization in distant lands with marked cultural traditions of their own. Knowing India much better than most of his contemporaries, Kipling was pessimistic with respect to the perspective of achieving mutual understanding between the representatives of the two worlds, having coined his skepticism in his famous “East is East, and West is West”.

The Young Voice And The Poetry Of Eternity

                                                  By Guzel Strelkova*

I met the poet and diplomat Abhay Kumar on 7th of May – a very significant day for Indian literature, Rabindranath Tagore's birthday. Even though Rabindranath Tagore was born over a hundred years ago, in 1861, all the lovers and admirers of the Indian literature consider this day to be very special. So special in fact that festivals and conferences are held, on this day not only in India, but all over the world, where people read and love Indian literature. Moreover, this day can be an opening or a culmination for some novel. On 7th May 2006 this festival of literature was celebrated at the Cultural Centre of the Indian Embassy in Moscow. There were a number of speakers that day and I was invited to talk about the connections between the Indian and Russian literature. This is a vast, captivating and varied subject, and among multiple examples of the close bond and intertwining of our literatures I remembered «The Namesake», an English novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. The main hero of the novel, a Bengali, is called Gogol. He lives in a modern globalized world with his wonderful name, the name that was given to him for the time being by his parents, but instead became his destiny. And I mentioned that in my view one of the main goals of this literary namesake of Gogol is to remain faithful to one's national roots, when by the will of fate you were born and live far away from the native lands of your forefathers. Paradoxical, but the best way to save this faith and understand your own national identity is through the name of the Great Russian writer. And this was how I came to know Abhay Kumar. Indians call such meetings «Samyog», a lucky coincidence. It turned out that Abhay knew and loved this novel, besides he was a JNU alumnus. Not long before thisliterary meeting with the young diplomat, I had returned from Delhi, where I was researching the latest modern Hindi literature in JNU under an international exchange program. I was even more surprised when I found out, what the talented poet and writer, Abhay, who is not much older than my students studying Hindi and Indian literature, was writing about. During that time he was finishing his novel «From River Valley to Silicon Valley». The problems of connections and intertwining and the attraction and repulsion of various cultures and characters interested him greatly.

In the book «Fallen Leaves of Autumn» the love of the spoken word and the admiration for the marvellous and unfathomable nature coexist with the urge to capture the moment harmoniously be it through word , brush, digital camera or internet. But the most valuable thing about this book, in my view, is the higher feeling of human dignity before the incomprehensible universe and the aspiration to share with the near and dear ones, what you cherish the most.