Revolt against time

Ek Udas Saanjh by Pramod Pradhan, 

Published by Bibek Sirjansheel Prakashan Pvt. Ldt., Price NPR 175

There are very few people who live by writing and never tired of it. They write many sorts of things, edit volumes and document history of literature. Pramod Pradhan is among those few writers who need no introduction. With about 30 titles having his name as writer and editor, Pradhan is one of the most active writers of our age. What makes him different than others is his efforts to document the history of literature – he has documented the development of Nepalese essays and encyclopedia of Nepali Child Literature. A former board member of the Rastriya Samachar Samiti and News Editor of Aarthik Abhiyan Daily, Pradhan is also famous for his literature for children. He has authored about a dozen storybooks, poem collections for children.

Recently Pradhan has come up with the anthology of poems, Ek Udas Saanjh which includes 55 poems he penned down in different periods from Panchayat regime to democracy and republic. The poet himself has said that the poems were the voice of those periods. In his poems he express his revolt against the time, restriction and suppression which is well expressed in his poem 'Prashnaharuko Kahataroma' (In a bowl of questions) where a prisoner demands either freedom or death.

Kebal ujyaalo bihan deo

Saktainau bhane –

Andhyaaro chihan deo .

(Give me just a bright morning

If you can't –

Give me dark grave.)

In another poem titled 'Ek Kanti Salaiko Khojma' (In search of a matchstick), he says:

Malai ek kanti salai deo

Maile aankha tirmiraune gadha rangharu jalaunu chha .

Maile ragatamya aksharharu jalaunu chha.

(Give me a matchstick

For I need to burn those letters that dazzle eyes

I need to burn down the bloody letters.)

The Panchayat era was the age of oppression and suppression where the voice against the regime or monarchy would be suppressed brutally. Same rebellion can be found in the creations during 1960s and 70s when there was no freedom of expression and the youth were fighting against the tyrannical Panchayat regime. Pradhan entered into the foray of writing in the same period.

Pradhan has criticised the history through his poems as it has just become the chronology of rulers and the elites. His poems are full of metaphor and imagery. In a poem he compares a cock in a cage with an imprisoned youth who is jailed just because he wanted an egalitarian society. In another poem, he presents the rebellion in the minds of people as fire which might gut the oppressors some day. He urges the people to write their own history from their sweat and blood.

But, Pradhan's poems are not just limited to the boundary of Nepal, they fly as far as Luvre museum in France where he praises 'Monalisa'. The book has some poems on nature, love, humanity and loneliness. The title poem portrays a heart of a defeated youth who says he is alone and sad like the candle in the evening.

'Ek udas saanjh' is Pradhan's fourth poetry collection after 'Raatbharika Suskeraharu', 'Bibhajit Manchhe' and 'Ekantageet', and includes some poems from all the three books.