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Ahluwalia has tried his hand at
writing a long poem, an almost forgotten form in the present
times. Once in a while, some Indo-English poets do come out with
anthologies of long poems. Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri; R.
Parthasarathy’s Rough Passage and Som P. Ranchaan’s Anteros
readily come to mind. Like Wordsworth’s Lucy, the Anthill
Man grows up in the very lap of nature. This castaway is
taken into the protective lap of a lady (his foster mother). He
is always lost in his own self and the surroundings. But unlike
Lucy, the desire to learn somethings worthwhile erupts in him
and he leaves his cave-home in a Siddartha-like quest for
knowledge.
The poet’s
love of English literature intrudes at times without context, or
when he forgets that the Anthill Man is an untutored in the ways
of the world. Through the persona of the Anthill Man, the poet
relives his experiences, his feelings, his sentiments, his
memories, his idea of mythology and a love of the folklore of
Himachal.
Memories
sometimes/come like deluge and try to drown us/and choke us that
way.
The flavour of
the interiors of Himachal and Shimla is writ large in the format
of the long poem, but the focus remains the Anthill Man. He
feels happy in his "golden ignorance" till he meets a
teacher who puts in his mind the idea of a ‘godhead’ and
one day/you’ll be Shankaracharya setting up a school of
philosophy... you’ll be known’.
For a time he
ignores this thought and opts for a family of his own and he
leaves the sanctuary of his foster mother. He takes a wife and a
son is born, but he pines for the love of his mother. Back in
the cave he tries to find his mother. The mythical black bird
points to an anthill, where he finds his mother sitting in a samadhi
under it, oblivious of her physical existence. Unable to
leave the precincts of the cave, he starts staying there for
aeons, till he himself is taken:
And one day/
the earth parted a little/ and he started/ slipping into the
pit."
With the
passage of time he achieves sainthood and is even canonised and
this way he goes past history, past the bonds of family and past
the universe. The poem is a befitting memorial to the memory of
the nameless Anthill Man. This long poem running into 80 pages
has the potential to keep the reader engrossed in the story of
the growth of the Anthill Man by the sheer beauty of the poetic
halo with which the poet surrounds the persona of the Anthill
Man.
All truths are wrapped/ in lies
mists and doubts the real truth has to be sifted-for that one
has to undertake a journey.
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IN
the last two decades an important shift has taken place as far
as Indian poetry in English is concerned. Its readership is no
longer confined to the metros and is now spread almost all
over the country. Indian poetry in English is being written,
read and appreciated in Assam, Orissa, Punjab and Himachal
Pradesh. Even Chandigarh can boast of a few Indo-English poets
who regularly write and contribute to various anthologies of
poetry, published from various places all over the country.
Some local poets have more than four to five collections of
verse to their credit.
