Young litterateur from Assam, Dhiman Barman, gets Kabya Kanan Award for poetry.
Idea of self-transcendence in the selected poems of Assam’s Dhiman Barman: A Critical Reading
Dhiman Barman, a young face of Assamese literature, gets Kabya Kanan Award for his poetry book entitled Romonyasbador Antim Drishyat. His poems are published n reputed journals of Assam as well as in other renowned journals of India. The winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Harekrishna Deka, already critiques that a subtle mind can only understand the poems of the concerned poet due to his juxtaposition of reality with ensuing reality.
Self- transcendence is a philosophical term in a sense, which reflects individuals mingle with some celestial elements. Dhiman Barman’s newly published book Mori Jabooto Paro ( We May Even Die) lights the poet’s excessive mental stress for fulfilling something. It also makes a conflict between the life that is full of amazement and hackneyed struggles for which the perception of life becomes tainted. His poetry collection We May Even Die is chiefly irradiation of a journey towards eternity through which the poet wants to locate himself in the same society. Some poems question the existence of people in this hurly-burly society. His most notable poem, ‘We May Even Die’ is an elaboration of the inevitability of death; which is universal and inexorable. The poem also depicts the poet’s elation to survive on this earth. It galvanizes the demolition of death, which sweeps away the vibrant dream of people. On the other hand, it also establishes that death raises to bestow a space for another man.
Death means an empty place
Another will come to fill
Left out places.
This poem consoles the readers that death means the arrival of a new one. No one can keep death in his/her hand. But the poet superimposes that the concept of death is indispensable for the growth of new roots in society. Another poem of the poet i.e. ‘Flowing water’ illustrates the debasement of society. The poet mentions the bizarre condition of society. This poem mainly irradiates the acceleration of time and how time destroys the humanity and generosity from people that is perspicuously illuminated. The poet states in this poem that people are unable to see their faces in this tumultuous world. This statement seems to assert the poet’s inability to unite with the people of the same society. The poet uses the metaphor of the mirror to showcase the materialistic tendency of people wherein people are unable to see themselves from the core of their heart in a mirror. This conception asserts the poet’s transcendence from a normal human being into a critic. He criticizes himself in most of his poems. Virtually, Barman’s poems are a critique upon himself and expose the behaviours of human society by keeping himself away in his poems at the same time.
Dhiman Barman’s poems are self-reflective. His other poem entitled ‘Destiny is a thief’ delineates that people inhabit this mortal land to merge with the earth. The poet wants to disclose the cruelty of the creator. In the middle of the poem, the poet acknowledges that no one can hide from death. But, people must enjoy their lives instead of knowing the terror of death. The poems of Dhiman Barman are too simple but the meaning of those poems are very depth like that of Rainer Maria Rilke. In ‘poem of Love’, the concerned poet resembles his beloved into a sip of a cup of tea, which emphasizes the poet’s, unfulfilled love. The poem also declares the deterioration of human bonding with time.
Wait for your kiss
Freezing with time
I am a cup of cheap tea.
Some of his poems also mirror the abundant beauty of nature. His poems go beyond and make a relationship between beauty with the ugliness of society. Another notable poet of Assamese Literature, Nilamoni Phookan also showcases the same incidences in some of his poems by using natural objects. It creates a kind of tussle in the minds of readers to understand because it resembles nature with the cruelty of people.
Dhiman Barman’s poems are also based upon the truth incidences and above all, his writings are the contemplation of the vices in society. It is ratified that Dhiman Barman’s usage of literary devices and techniques conveys his meaning of acquiring spirituality and the dichotomy of beauty versus redemption.
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