Anindita Bose
Remembering an old dream is precious since that memory has been part of a journey taken by someone whose footprints would forever remain imprinted in the invisible paths of time. The cover photo of SCENT OF RAIN: Remembering Jayanta Mahapatra, Edited by Ashwani Kumar kept urging me to travel to a time when the poet must have been meditating about his own life’s journey, sitting amidst that path which seems to me a land of wonder and solitude. Perhaps a doorway to another dimension that was captured by someone who knew the poet well, and at the same time it would be best to mention here that the photograph is not of youth but of an age that reflects how life flows through and humans grow with it. It is a meaningful tribute to choose this black and white photo as the cover of the book since the poet himself had always been honest and his poems have always connected us with the deeper layers of life’s own stories.
“The tide kept coming in
but couldn’t disturb her
or her resting place—
she was heavy.”
Keki N. Daruwalla
The book has nostalgic poems from the poets from all parts of India, sending love and tribute to the memory of Jayanta Mahapatra. The poet who could delve into the depths of the contours of life and beyond, discovering the essence of living and bondages that the humans need to break before they could reach that shore from where the sea is vast and clear.
The editor Ashwani Kumar writes, “He is not around anymore. Hibiscus blooms in the hills. I am falling into the light sutured with ash-smeared hermit memories… ‘Someone is calling me, a voice faraway but strangely familiar’. I don’t wait for words, just smell and experience ‘Scent of Rain: Remembering Jayanta Mahapatra’; it is when ‘windows of our body open’ and we all become poems!”
“There are days
when every living thing in the garden
breathes with its earth.”
Adil Jussawala
And we know that the universe breathes each time we look for solace; the ones who pass through the cycle of life and death are the ones who can witness the illusions and reality. Poets are blessed souls sent on earth to tell the world that there are doors that could be opened and closed at will; they are sent to show the path of light to the humans, yet at times it is said that poets only play with words – with decades of opening the portals for mankind to reach that sublime zone where the mystic dreams roam to connect and turn into reality, the poets have always been the messengers from the universe.
This edition of the book has a strong sense of longing and images of bonds that poets share with each other; while sending their tributes to Jayanta Mahapatra, the poets from all corners opened the window of their souls and let the vastness of life flow through their words.
“I have your handwritten poems with me
They are the black diamonds of our destiny.
…You recycled your ashes into our life
so that We can write.”
Subodh Sarkar
A poet is a seer, a poet is an angel, a poet can create destiny for thousands of people. Because poets say what they see and they can observe beyond the horizon. They can predict, and guide yet the best thing about this group of souls is that they never preach. They reform the minds, and create dreams of a utopian world that could be a possibility if humans are willing to step into the other dimensions of reality. A poet is a visionary and when an idea takes birth, it is through that part of the brain where the poetic vision exists as a profound intuition; it can be said that humans who cannot write poems are also unconscious poets, and the poems of Jayanta Mahapatra show us that he believed in the essence of human emotions and thereby his words were bare truths.
“I remember him from his last days,
mostly lying on the bed he had slept on
for more than six decades…
… an unavoidable view of places we inhabit,
an inconsolable coffin much before we depart.”
Sonnet Mondal
Poems are shadows of the world that we live in. The words written by a poet are connected and often interwoven. Just like life is: ‘everything in this life is related, we all witness the similar patterns at different time zones’. One poem can reflect the story of a million people: the birth, the wait, the love, the dreams, the desires, the loss, the death…
“The great poet said, ‘Poetry
doesn’t help me live as well
as love does.”
Amit Shankar Saha
And we wonder what is this love that Jayanta Mahapatra has imprinted on our souls, bodies and minds. We will always remember the great poet through his words and our memories. The anthology SCENT OF RAIN, Remembering Jayanta Mahapatra edited by Ashwani Kumar is not only a book of memory but also an album that we will keep in our bookshelves forever. We will cherish the photographs of our poet and hold him in our memories till our last breath on earth.