Overall, my perception is that Gorakhpur is steadily seeking much desired integration: integration in terms of firmness of purpose, smoothness, cleanliness, delivery and inclusiveness
The past has revealed to me how the future is built and preoccupation with the future tends to sweep everything else aside.
— Pierre Teilhard de Chardinin Letters from a Traveller
In my almost two years of stay in Delhi, I have developed a fad for Shankar Market in Connaught place. The reasons are not legion but a single one that binds me to that market. It has a book shop with its uniqueness. One can find rare and very old books not available in other book shops. On my third or fourth visit, two things happened. One I met a Sardar Ji, aging seventy or so. Curiosity brought me closer to him as on my earlier forays, I hardly saw anyone except a man, incharge of the book store, lackadaisical enough to generate any interest in a visitor. To my question as to number of visitors and books sold, his gaze comes as a befitting reply. Turning to Sardar Ji, my efforts to engage him in some conversation yielded a tiny output. He told me he lived in Noida and was a regular visitor to this book shop. He admitted he liked to interact with the man present in the shop and particularly the smell of old books attracted him. I asked him about the future of books, old books in particular. His otherwise thoughtful face became a bit more grimed as he uttered, “It is not about books. The power of contemplation. The power of collective contemplation is dying; it will vanish soon.” Good enough, I chose to buy a book of an author I have never heard of. It is: Letters from a Traveller(1962 edition) by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Chardin was a leading paleontologist and a wide traveler. He exhibited keen interest in general problems of evolution of human beings and societies. In this book, he describes his experiences of his travels to China, South Africa, Rome and America but also devotes about ten pages to India (undivided) where he travelled during 1935 to 1936. One of his remarks needs a look: “The people (in Central India) are very gentle. In Lahore and Calcutta, I saw something of the Hindu upper classes (highly civilised)... As individuals, Indians are charming, but taken as a whole the country seems to be just as incapable of self-government as China or Malaya.”
The story harped on from time to time and from time immemorial. History bears it out. This, of course, is in passing.
In my earlier article published in this newspaper titled, Gorakhpur waiting for a new dawn (May 20, 2017), I,epitomising my experiences of that place, expressed a hope that things would brighten up in times to come laying particular stress on Paul Streeten’s economic stipulation that economic growth must “transform human beings.” My short visit to Gorakhpur in November 2018, afforded me with an opportunity to estimate how things had moved forward.
An airport, a railway station or a bus stand, providing one an entry into a city acts as the face of the body. It gives one a sense of what is likely to ensue. During my student days, it was common for prospective young boys to hear a sagacious refrain from older, married ones —Ghar Dekha Pichchware Se, Mehararu Dekha Sale Se (See a house from its backyard, and “would be wife” from “would be brother-in-law”.) Analogous it is to say an airport, a railway station or a bus station lets one know the kind of city one is going to enter. “Fantastic and fabulous.” This was what occurred to me on seeing the condition of Gorakhpur airport. The very perception convinces that under dynamic supervision and control how the ugliness of past can be washed out very fast and how newness can help in disinfecting the past. My enthusiasm has acquired the freshness it has always aspired for. At this time of the year, winter had just started setting in and the looming shadows of the evening were gaining in strength. Winds had been smooth and so were movements inside the airport. New baggage handling system was working excellently and baggage came in no time and no long waiting was involved as in the past. Airport staff without losing their radiance were quick to help and a serene atmosphere assured me of an invading change. It took me about fifteen minutes to be out on the road to be welcome by relatives. A logical time at any airport.
Outside scene did not bemuse but there was a justification. My relatives told me crossing a distance of one kilometre near Mohaddipur, near which new AIIMS campus at Kunraghat is coming up, would take almost an hour and advised that I should take a longer bypass route (Deoria bypass): almost five times longer than the usual Mohaddipur route. With hardly any choices on the table, we moved along the longer route. The excitement in the car was more about the incoming AIIMS campus and the “big changes” Gorakhpur was witnessing. The longer route irked none. A delay of forty five minutes is hardly a price for serene grandeur likely to emerge in near future. The bypass i. e the highway, was very wide and clean; easy and fast movement of vehicles was visible. The driver driving the car took pride in claiming he could now drive car at a speed of more than hundred kilometre per hour. “Gorakhpur Dilli ban ker rahega,” (Gorakhpur will become Delhi), his visionary qualities were remarkable. He hardly knew road congestion in Delhi. Nor did he knew traffic wildness among people crowding the roads. This time I found traffic on the move and not constant. Perhaps gone are the days to come face to face with hideously overloaded lorries always running the risk of overturn. In my childhood, such overturns were matter of routine, easily absorbed by public.
Next day, I undertook a two- hour long journey towards Padri Bazar and the construction works like road widening and sanitation were in full swing. Illegal occupation of Government land by residents using it for construction of illegally covered portions of houses were earmarked for demolition or had already been demolished. Old Gorakhpur i.e Sumer Sagar, Golghar, Dharamshala Bazar, Ali Nagar, Betiahata, Daudpur, Ghosh Company, etc, are areas which are really hard nut to crack. Many inhabitants have both houses and businesses there. These cannot be separated out. There is hardly any space, congestion is startling defying any solution. Still, identification of illegally occupied land, especially for boundaries of houses, is seen to have been done and with possible demolition of these in future, old city may emerge more specious. As for affected people, to the extant I could gather, there were no demur nor any agitation against any demolition. Rather people realised it was bad on their part to illegally grab Government land. Change in their attitude was noteworthy and welcome. It speaks volumes of firm leadership and close monitoring.
My acquaintances with whom I had detailed conversation about the way city was moving were candid with their expression: “Yes, things are improving fast; medical facilities have improved and quality of services delivered is nearing excellence.” A maid living in village Pipiganj but working in Gorakhpur had this to say, “Now electricity comes 18 to 20 hours a day in the village and in my house, there is a latrine.” Her face exudes genuine gesture. She knows she is being cared and looked after. Her world has started growing and expanding. It will never be as gloomy as it used to be.
Turning to first paragraph of this piece detailing my brief conversation with Sardar Ji, let us spend some time on “contemplation” or more importantly “collective contemplation”. During my stay, one evening, I invited a gentleman who had associations as a editor with local Hindi newspapers a decade back but is leading a quiet life now. He was a frequent visitor to my house during 1978-83 when my uncle late Ganesh Prasad Srivastava, a teacher of English in DAV Inter College, Gorakhpur, was alive and entertained a very limited number of poets for evening rendezvous. One was Gauhar Saheb, and the other this gentleman. I told him of my desire to host a literary gathering where poets/writers could exchange literary views and where I could also share my writings. Knowing that my writings and books are in English, a sense of despondency seemed to have overtaken him. He narrated the saddening literary scenario in the city and lamented lack of serious literary and artistic gatherings. “A few Hindi and Urdu poets are there and occasionally they meet in anyone’s house. But certainly there is none writing in English. And if you still want to go ahead, I am afraid if it could raise any curiosity. Bekar hai (It is worthless),” he concluded. My gusto started waning and by the time the gentleman left, I surrendered to his arguments. Any matured society should evolve the power of contemplation. Thinking is not only a great job but also more importantly a greater art and this art emanates from proper studies and peaceful atmosphere in colleges and universities. Gorakhpur is required to pay due attention to this art by properly harnessing the educational potential efficiently, economically and effectively. It is an immutable element vital for “transforming human beings”.
Overall, my perception is that Gorakhpur is steadily seeking much desired integration: integration (See the relevance of the line by Pierre Teilhard de Chardincited in the beginning) in terms of firmness of purpose, smoothness, cleanliness, delivery and inclusiveness. Police personnel deployed in different places in the city were alert, helping and strict. I was told by whoever I had interacted with and they had admitted that, “Crimes have been decreasing fast and the very thought of committing any sort of crime sends chills rushing down the spine of criminals, even hard-core ones. This is most significant achievement.” It is becoming a society where the rule of law has started reigning supreme. Humanitarianism has no spoilt face any longer and is seen to be sponsoring itself adequately. The process of “clean-up” has set in and is becoming more firm.
Oldness has a charm of its own in as much as its loss means loss of identity and action but Gorakhpur ought to turn out to be a picturesque place allowing its inhabitants to have time to ponder and wonder over higher facets of culture and literature that give qualitative propellant to life of the people. Numbness has started vanishing and a sense of accommodation visible. The initiated process of getting rid of the mess and gruesomeness, I, like many of my fellow-travelers, was privy to during my childhood and early adolescence, reflects on Gorakhpur’s determination to detach itself from insensitiveness of the past. People carry a hope that a transformed Gorakhpur will certainly have “transformed human beings” a la Paul Streeten.
The announcement of winner of Jnanpith award, the highest literary award in India, for 2018 for Amitav Ghosh is yet another feather in his cap. In my earlier article published in this newspaper (21 October 2018), this is what I wrote about Amitav Ghosh.
“Amitav Ghosh is a highly rated writer. Amtiav Ghosh stands head and shoulders above his peers in as much as he shuns literary festivals, never raring to showcase his face before a crowd a majority of which hardly understand what literary books are all about. His articulated views are well expressed in his essay Festivals and Freedom. The essence of this essay is: Books are important; not their authors. “Public spectacles are a sideshow.” Great. The relationship between writers, their books and readers gets evolved not in such places of public rendezvous but in private, in isolation where only the book and the reader exist.
It comes as a great pleasure for all those who believe in the power of books rather than in the power of faces of authors illumining literary festivals and elite TV channels that highest literary award in India by Bharatiya Jnanpith will be given to Ghosh. All kudos to him.
(The writer was born in Gorakhpur in 1960. He did his Masters in Economics from Gorakhpur University in 1980 and joined Indian Audit & Accounts Service in 1983. Currently he is Director General in the Office of Comptroller & Auditor General of India. He is a poet writing in English with three poetry collections. His third book Shadows of the Real has been translated into Hindi and Russian.He is literary reviewer and columnist for the newspapers The Pioneer and The Daily Star. His fourth book: a semi-autobiographical, literary non-fiction, will be released in March 2019. The views expressed in this article are his personal views.