By: Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee
“We both will make Anurodh live forever through our love.” This single line from Geetima Bhagbati’s novel suggests the positive philosophy in her novels and even in her recent two novels – Nil Dhaturar Phul and Samuk both in 2022. Nil Dhaturar Phul is not the first book that Prof Geetima wrote. Narir Ghar, Prithivir Ghar was published in 2016, Nil Dhaturar Phul was basically a short story entitled ‘Ei Obogunthan – Neel Dhaturar Bishad’ published in Priyo Sokhi. The collection Nil Dhaturar Phul (2022) contains three tales. One is Nil Dhaturar Phul, the second one Hridayat Xewali Subhaxh, and the third one is Akhon Bahal Prithivir Xapon. While one reads the three narratives in Nil Dhaturar Phul, one will feel that with her golden pen Geetima Bhagabati is surely going to carve her name as a promising novelist in Assamese literature. Her novels are sweet romantic capsules with bitter realistic content inside. But in spite of the romantic sensitivity prevailing all over, we find the intense focus on everyday realities in the later happenings in the novelette. Anurag and Nishidgandha too are well delineated round characters and Geetima unmasks deeper truths about life and society including the sufferings of women for unwanted child or broken relationship and smiles in the loneliest moments of an unfortunate woman. These sufferings are a part of life and they justify the very title of the collection. As Lord Shiva saves the universe by consuming poison, man too in facing the reality has to digest the poison of sorrows and sufferings of life. So the title is symbolical and the connotation is related to the Shiva myth.
The second novelette of the present volume Hridayat Xewali Subhaxh, has a romantic title but the content is to some extent feministic in its protest against the patriarchal society. Juroni is a young girl who can go loud even against her own dad to warn him about his activities. She reminds him that his activities made her ashamed as a daughter. The fire in her eyes burned the impurities in the heart of this male patriarch providing us flashes of the fiction of Eunice De Souza. Middle class life is beautifully chronicled in Geetima’s novel. In the third novelette ‘Akhon Bahal Prithivir Xapon’, she depicted middle class sorrows and sufferings from a psychological point of view. She stressed loneliness, dejection and desolation in the mind of the female characters who are destined to struggle in the midst of the vicious circle called ‘Society’. For example in the first novelette of titular significance we find the love story of Aditya and the first person narrator seems to have a shadowy parallel in the story of Arundhati and the lonely Mahapatra Sir. A story within a story is unfolded like peeling of an onion and nothing finally remains for the ending. Save the sorrows and the pensive moment. Sorrow is not a luxury in the writings of Geetima, it is a necessary ingredient in the spices of life as Shelley wrote, “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts.” The two main stories are hyphenated by her all- time companion the seventeen year old Roma who was married to a fifty year old farmer as his third wife. Her stories are the pastime for the author. Obviously the saddest tales. In between the narratives of love and frustration, pains of distance relation and pangs of love and romance, nostalgic flashbacks, there are realistic pictures of the villages stricken by poverty and dirty happenings where people need medical assistance. Juroni -Anurodh love and the tragic death of Anurodh brings a sea of loneliness for her. In the second novelette, life must continue and this positive message is given through the novelette. Interestingly enough, Geetima’s book Nil Dhaturar Phul having the features of a novella but with the length of a novelette which is going to introduce a new genre of fiction in Assamese literature.
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Geetima is a writer of the modern generation writing about women. Though she writes on women more, Geetima does not consider herself as a feminist, quoting herself as “I am a humanist.” Basically an academician, she sees life directly and tries to focus on some significant moments when humans lay bare their pain and pleasure. Geetima was born in 1886 and did double M.A. in Assamese and Education from Gauhati University and got her job as an Assistant Professor in Education at Dhamdhama Anchalik College in the year 2010. She authored books on her field of research but for her busy profession, her creativity did not take a back seat. Since her university life, she proved her flair for writing and was awarded in Guwahati University in 2008 for her story though her writings had been published since 2001. The stories surfaced in magazines and newspapers of Assam like ‘Priyo Sokhi’, ‘Maya’ , Dainik Asam, Asomiya Protidin and the collection of some of them are now included in her other collection of stories Shamuk or (The Snail) and the very titular story of the volume ‘Shamuk’ was awarded by ‘Ardha Akash’ in a commemoration event on Bhabendranath Saikia. In Assamese literature Dr. Birinchi Kumar Baruah, Dr. Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, Syed Abdul Malik, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, Arupa Patangiya, Tilottama Mishra and Anuradha Sharma Pujari created a diverse tradition of fiction writing and very few of the modern writers of fiction have been able to prove themselves as their successors. Geetima’s novelettes have some flashes of these great writers especially in her narrative style and weaving of the multiple plots and her golden pen contains a promise for Assamese fiction.
Geetima is planning a new novel, with a very romantic title Boraxun Kanyar Galpa where a narrative related to Dr Aditya in Vellore hospital where a young girl Nandini went for her father’s treatment and fell in love. After the marriage with Aditya again the romantic story turns realistic with nostalgic recapitulation of unsuccessful love of Chirantan, the tragic death of the unborn baby in the womb, the superstitious behaviour of people around her and the sufferings of a woman as wife, as mother, as a beloved. In Assamese literature modern writers have come out of the over dependence on God and destiny following the renaissance ideals. Her stories have a twist we usually notice in the stories of O. Henry whose stories she loves to read among the foreign writers. In her writings, the characters are at times of victims of tragic destiny. Geetima’s writings focus on human resilience. “I am never a pessimist.” She says. I believe in the positive motivation and encourage all too nourished spiritual and ethical values in life. In fact, for me Character is Destiny and it is humans that can live their own life through their actions something like the Karmayoga of the Bhagavad Gita as emphasized by Swami Vivekananda. Struggle is important, says Geetima, “One must remember that Life is a journey not a destination”. (The author is a Senior Associate Professor and Head Post Graduate Dept. of English Dum Dum Motijheel College & a trilingual poet and writer may be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com)
