Book
Review
Whispering
Words: A Memoir
by Omkar N Koul, Authorspess, New Delhi, Pp viii+319, 2017, Rs 595.
Reviewed
by
Arvind Shah
The
book is a story of scholarship, an academic graph of value addition to a child
from a distant village in Kashmir: Bugam, to grow, and glow as an academic
luminary. He has, by the dent of his desire to learn, commitment to learning
and sincerity in dispensation of his learning found distinguished places in
many institutions to work in different capacities. He has been a teacher, a researcher, an
administrator, and simultaneously a community worker. With all his qualifications that give him
worldwide recognition as a linguist of repute, an administrator of purpose and
a planner of calibre, at the same time he is a common human being unable to
check his tears trickle down the cheeks on finding his ancestral place reduced
to rubble. He may have left his ancestral place as an adolescent, travelled to
institutions all around the globe, but he wanted to settle down in his village,
where his ancestors belonged to. When the author was in Agra as a research
scholar his curiosity to know a fellow Kashmiri drove him to locate and visit
an ‘old’ Kashmiri family (Kashmiri family that had migrated from Kashmir about
100 years earlier). Despite the fact
that the old Kashmiri family was discourteous (I may say insulting) Koul has nurtured
humane feelings of great concern for Kashmiri people. His compassionate
attitude has been the secret of his success.
The
book is an autobiographical work. It begins to open its leaf to peep into the
life of a village in Kashmir. It is a picture of village life, family patterns
and community systems – a portrait of the intertwine of the people belonging to
different religious faiths, beliefs and practices for social good; a
portrayal of human relationships based
on ownership of humane definitions and good for all. The joint family depicted
within the compound of a home and its relationship with the neighbourhood presents
rich bondages of life in a village. The strength of the society was constituted
by human bonds; the ingredients of human sentiments made the mortar to fix the
individual units to give rise to concrete social relations. The village atmosphere was social where
individuals constituted a family, and families constituted the community for
belongingness and dignity towards one another. There were common places like
riverbanks where women folk would often come to do their bit of domestic
routine and at the same time have gossip and interactions. Every day in the
village and the valley at large has seen a commitment to peace.
Reading
through the pages of the book one gets to know about the structure of the
houses, lay out of the roads and lanes most of which were mud drenched on first
shower of the rain. The details of
family living and community living are described by the author not as an
observer but as a component of the process. The author writes, “While living in
Delhi, I dream of my village, tucked in the lap of nature’s choicest offerings.
The colourful images of the morning sun reflected in the ripples of the running
river in front of my home, the blue smoke escaping from the holes in the
thatched roofs of neighbouring houses, the simple village folk endlessly
talking to each other, the old women singing folk tales of Heemal–Naagrai, activities of
children and many more such images float before my eyes and dissolve
into each other to produce a mystifying effect that provides me solace and
peace.”
The
author has keenly discussed the schooling in the village and the dutifulness of
the teachers towards their pupil. There was a sense of fear that every student
had for the teacher. Once to locate a place on a map drawn in air by the
teacher he pointed his finger towards the teacher; the teacher scolded him
saying, “Are you going to gouge my
eyes”. He was a shy and not so mischievous student. He as a school boy was once
taken ill, and when the teacher visited to see him at his home, he was scared
of his teacher and ran out of his bedding to hide himself. His mother brought
him back to be in the bed, and it is here all his fears about the teacher were
cleared away when the teacher gently kept his hand on his forehead and gave him
a packet of almonds.
He provides an account
of his education from village school to a high school away from the village
where he had to spend more than three hours on foot going up and down from his
house to the school. There was a literary atmosphere around him, his father
wrote poetry, and had free access to books and journals. Moreover, when he moved
out of village to undergo college and university education, he had association
of friends with literary taste; one of his friends during his studentship wrote
a romantic novel in Urdu. The author
relates an incident, when he was back home during a vacation and was taking a
bath in river Maav, an elderly Muslim from the village spoke to him “Omkar, if
you become a judge in a court and I enter your court bare headed and insult
you, what would you do?” He replied
immediately, “I’ll fine you Rs. 100 and will pay it myself.” The affection was immense across different
sections of the village community.
There is
interesting sequence of events with a person by the name Ghani. Ghani was a
thief, he was called gani watul (watul a derogative term for sweeper or
cobbler), once he broke his leg in a bid to escapee scaling a wall, he started
to limp and now he was called gani long (one
who limps). He took an oath not to steal; the village celebrated his commitment
by arranging a tea party. Soon he desired to go on the pilgrimage of Haj, the
village community raised money for him to go on Haj pilgrimage, and now he was
called Ghani Haji.
The
author is terribly hurt to find loss of humane dispositions in village
life. He writes, “There was absolute
communal harmony in the two communities. The village experienced a breach of
trust for the first time in the early sixties when the school children in the
village school were instigated by a communal teacher …to desecrate the village
temple and pelt stones at the houses of Hindus. … The incident was reported to
the authorities at Kulgam. The Tehsildar and the Munsif of Kulgam visited the
village with a few constables. …. I saw tears in the eyes of my father for the
first time in my life when he narrated the incident to the officials in our
courtyard. The second breach took place in more planned way in 1986. It was
under the influence of some political party, when quite a few temples in the
whole of Anantnag district were attacked and desecrated. The village temple was
destroyed and idols were damaged. The government failed miserably in taking any
action.
The
third and final blow came with the spread of militancy in the valley, which
exploded to tear the communal tranquillity in 1989 - 90. There was a pathetic incident that took place
in Kharbroor, a neighbouring village, when a Hindu youth was abducted from home
by terrorists and mercilessly beaten up and tied to a vehicle and dragged for a
long distance until he died. This tragic incident was the reason which forced
Hindu families from the village to leave the valley for safer places. The militants
looted and burned down their houses as well as the temple.”
The
feelings of the author for his village are described vividly. He got an opportunity
to visit his village in 2010. He was shattered to see that all houses belonging
to Hindus reduced to a heap of rubble
and trash. He writes, “It was immense pain, though everybody came out from houses to see me, and had a story of
suffering and horror to tell, but my pain was bigger than each of them.” He
continues, “I couldn’t control my emotions, my tears rolled down my cheeks. It
was an embarrassing situation for me...... My grief appeared more than anyone
else’s…. I know, as I have said before, my permanent address is no more there,
but I still feel myself belonging to Bugam and cannot forget my past. No doubt
our ancestral property has been destroyed, our land almost confiscated, our
foot prints defaced, idols of our deities defiled but the ashes of our homes
and the mud of our rice fields still smells of me.”
After
bringing the reader face to face with the real situation in Kashmir, the book takes
its readers into the story of a person, who, from a small village keeps on his
quest for learning as a result of which he carries on to grow in his profession and career. He writes learning
during his first visit at the University of Illinois in USA was interesting;
the hippie-movement was at its peak during the period throughout the USA. There was anger among the youngsters about
the Vietnam War in which many American soldiers were killed. There was a kind
of frustration and rebellion against the faith and value system. It was all
visible in the posters at public places. Writing about the variations in style
of study he says, “I realised the importance of the study of Sanskrit, and also
of Indian grammatical tradition which has attracted a large number of Westerners
lately. It is unfortunate that not much importance is attached to this subject
in the departments of linguistics in Indian universities.”
The
book is full of details of his professional engagements in different parts of
the world; his associations with different scholars in different countries. The
reading of these chapters are highly motivating for a scholar to understand the
pros and ones of scholarship as a student, as a teacher, as a researcher and
then as a guide to researchers. The administrative experiences are vividly
described. The fact that one understands to have emerged from the vast
experience of the author is, that accommodative nature and acceptability to
understand the variation of human temperament helps a person to do his job
efficiently with the support from the associated teams. Koul has worked very
hard with impeccable commitment to the demands of the job. He writes, “Once in
USA, Prof Tikku asked me a specific question, what do I do for myself? I was a
little perplexed for some time. I talked about my academic work but it did not
convince him. That was an important question I kept on asking myself very
often.”
Back
in India his job as a principal at the Northern Regional Language Centre (NRLC)
Patiala (1971-1987), professor in the Faculty of Languages at the LBS National
Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie (1987-1994), Professor-cum Deputy
Director and later as Director of the CIIL was a great time for struggle, and
achievements, the author writes. From LBSNAA to CIIL was a total change in the
working atmosphere. His appointment as director of CIIL provided an opportunity
to set things right and to boost the academic activities of the Institute.
Among other activities, he organised the UNESCO International Conference on
Languages of India and Asia. A large number of scholars from India and
different Asian countries participated in the conference. The conference was a
great success.
The
details of his travels of different countries (both during service and after
retirement) like Australia, Belgium, France, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mauritius,
USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Pakistan, and Nepal for
attending conferences, academic activities and various assignments are
interesting scholastic experiences for a reader. His two travels to Pakistan (and
Muzaffarabad) provides a detailed account of academic as well as socio-cultural
relations between the people of two neighbouring countries.
Koul
has been associated with the Kashmiri Community activities; he has contributed
to the literary, educational and socio-cultural community activities. He has
been the editor of Vaakh the only
Kashmiri literary magazine published in Nagri script.
This
is an important book for young scholars to realise the journey on the track of
career growth and good interventions to transform situations for good. The
strong sentiment is the importance given to righteous of action and virtue of
simplicity and commitment. The book is useful for persons interested to know
about the scholarship of the person and an interesting academic
travelogue. The book emanates the sense
that scholarship is a means of well-being and humane virtue which can only
exist when we live in peace. The book will constitute an important addition to
a library be it, personal or institutional.
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