Always a new thing creates jealousy in some like-minded people. However it gathers good wishes, praises & blessings if there are some noble & selfless cause behind it.
SAMAKALA got the first negative comment on its inaugural issue.
Mr. Manu Dash(an Odia translator) has sent a sms yesterday- “Dear Subhransu, I was disheartened to read ur periodical Samakala with reproducing stuffs & stale interview defeating the very name of mag. Sorry to tell d feelings. regards, manu dash.” Again he wrote a small write-up elaborating his feelings about SAMAKALA in his own blog.
Before coming to his blog, let me say few lines about the inaugural issue of SAMAKALA. It is a little magazine of 44 pages including cover. There are 14 articles out of which 4 are old but rare intellect stuffs. In 1955 Sradhakar Supakar had published a short story collection in which most of his stories were written in the backdrop of Hirakud displacement. I have taken one from them in SAMAKALA February issue. There is another old story by Bijay Prasad Mohapatra written some 3 decades ago. The third one is a rare criticism by Surendra Mohanty on Odia criticism. And the last one is a part of an essay written on Odia fiction by Jenamani Narendra Kumar in which you will find comments on from Fakir Mohan, Akhila Mohan, Surendra Mohanty, Manoj Das to the then young Bibhuti Patnaik, new but promising Haraprasad Das & Davadas Chhotray etc. Apart from these there are 3 fresh poems by Bharat Majhi with an introduction from Ramakanta Rath, an unpublished interview of Rajendra Kishor Panda, Ajay Swain’s estimation on young author, some small fiction ideas by Asish Gadanayak, two articles by Saroj Bal & Subhasis Panigrahi, an feature on reproduction of Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosha, a letter from Debraz Lenka and an editorial.
All these stuffs seem trashes to Manu Dash as he named his blog on it “IS THE READER NAKED & EATING TRASH IN ODIA LITERATURE?” Most of the contents in SAMAKALA disappointed him. I doubt whether he has gone through at least two short stories. I am sure he had not read those old stuffs earlier. Leave away reading, had he even heard about them? If I would not mention in its introduction no one would know that the never-published-before interview was an old one. Mr. Dash wrote that the vision & objectives were not reflected in its editorial at all. I wonder, why always the visions & objectives should be reflected in editorials as in another page I have mentioned those clearly. Rather I wrote the editorial on poor fellow-feelings in Odia literary circle. Is it a crime not to write visions & objectives in editorials?
Though in a few days of publication SAMAKALA has witnessed a good response in sells counters & I have received massive applause from readers from many parts of Odisha, Mr. Manu Dash wrote that the silly and dull questions asked to Rajendra Panda also embarrasses readers.(Does he think himself the representative to Odia readers?) The interview was taken some 5 years back & I have mentioned clearly there that it was not an interview, rather Rajendra Panda responded to the curiosities of a young poet. There are 31 questions answered by Mr. Panda out of which many are critical & few are basic. Sometimes basic questions are interesting if the answerer will take them seriously. What’s wrong if out of 31 there were some questions like “What do you want to write in your poem? Do you feel your poems have any social relevance? etc.” What’s wrong with these questions? Why always we expect critical & conflicting questions? And after all, whatever a young poet felt in 2007 about Rajendra Panda’s poetry he asked. Why Mr. Dash expects all magazines having interviews with Rajendra Panda should ask the same questions as he wishes? I think basic questions about poetry like "What is poetry" & "What you want to write in your poems?" are very much critical & most of our poets want to avoid these things. They only want to say superficial answers, which doesn't have any meaning.
Again Manu Dash wrote that SAMAKALA gave a wrong signal that contemporary Odia Literature is dearth of good stuffs. And according to him as the name denotes, SAMAKALA should publish only contemporary stuffs. who cares about past? But we care, we do. I think Sradhakar Supakar's story is relevant & contemporary at present, even more than when it was written. I wonder why Manu Dash translated old poems of Kedarnath Singh & others? I don't think everything written only in Hindi or English are timeless stuffs. There are 10 rules in SAMAKALA for writers & readers. In one rule I have mentioned it clearly that it will give emphasis on publishing old & rare stuffs. This blog is nothing but Manu Dash’s jealousy.
To Manu Dash SAMAKALA is a trash one and this is only the tip of an iceberg. Odia literature is full of such trash writings & inferior editing acumen. To this self-styled critic the readers in Odia language are now in the receiving end and in helpless situation & they have no other option than to eating such trash fed by self-styled editors. But my question is who forces them to eat trash things? I can proudly say that in recent years the style of editing in Odisha has developed a lot & so there are an increasing number of readers. The new editors have done a much to attract readers. Only man like Manu Dash can show a finger towards contemporary Odia editing as he never reads Odia magazines.
Manu Dash has done some good stuffs as far as translation is concerned. He always claims himself very close to some veteran Indian authors as he has translated Uday Prakash, Udayan Vajpeyi, Kedarnath Singh, Gulzar from Hindi & Namita Gokhle from English into Odia. May this closeness help him & Odia literature a much.
I see, there are some people who own a few Hindi or Bengali books project themselves as Maha-Critic in Odia literature. They have zero contribution to Odia literature, but are always critical of it. They never buy a Odia book, but are first to spit on it. I would have happy, had Manu Dash criticized SAMAKALA constructively.
As a person Manu Dash is kind & cool enough. After all he is a good friend of mine. Our rented houses are very close to each other in Bhubaneswar & we have telephonic chat almost every second day. We have shared many evenings together. Sometimes we pay a visit to film festivals together. I take all his comments as complements. And I hope these virtual differences will not affect our friendship.
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