IJML 3.1 JANUARY 2013 CONTENTS AND EDITORIAL

From Editor’s Desk

Esteemed Contributors, Subscribers and Readers across the World,

Greetings from IJML’s Office!

It’s with a dispirited, aching mind I am addressing you. The 23 year old female physiotherapy intern who travelled with her male friend in a bus in India’s capital city, New Delhi at the night on 16^th December was raped by a gang of six joy riders—nay, beaten her and her friend with an iron rod, dragged her to the rear of the bus and raped her while the bus ran. She suffered fatal injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitals caused by penetration of the iron rod. Later after the rape the perpetrators threw her and her friend out, both unconscious and almost naked, from the moving bus. A passerby found them on the road and reported the matter to the police, who took them to the hospital. She was given emergency treatment and mechanical ventilation. The government provided the maximum treatment possible and even took her to Singapore hospital for further care. Public protests of young and old, women and men, burst out in Delhi, and like hurricanes, then spread to every nook and corner of the country and abroad. The devilish culprits were arrested immediately and the protesters, including press and channel media, politicians, celebrities and writers cried for capital punishments to the criminals at the earliest.  The entire nation prayed for the recovery of the most unfortunate victim, but to the wail of 1.22 billions of people of India and millions of sympathizers abroad, she bade goodbye yesterday to her thirteen days fight with pain. She has thus become a martyr now. Her endurance and tragic death has triggered a sense of protest among the masses, irrespective of differences of gender, age, class, race, caste, religion, language, culture and even nation. Kudos to social networking sites, Facebook and WhatsApp for consolidating millions of minds for a noble cause!

This untoward, immoral, obnoxious, criminal attitude of the culprits tempts one to analyse the emotion and reason of the contemporary man. No doubt as man progresses—his physical, material wealth increases; his necessities give way to comforts and luxuries--his spirit degenerates and human values drown to mean, contemptuous emotions. One can’t find such abominable feelings in irrational animals. Sexual urge is a biological necessity and is bound to find in all beings including humans. Being a social being, man has to abide by rules and laws. Females are better loved, honoured and treated in animal world than human. The Delhi incident and several other cases being reported everyday from different parts of India and other underdeveloped countries proclaim the fact that women—from infant age to sinking old age—are never safe in public places, buses, trains, working places, educational institutions and even their own homes. Molesters include even one’s own brother and father. Mother acts as agent of immoral trafficing!

Now the question comes—is there any way opened before us to bring the modern, materialistic man back to eternal human values? The answer is, yes. It’s not a new way but the age-old way of educating man through letters. The rocket like growth of web and electronic media causes terrible havoc to print media. The noble values and aesthetics of life imparted through literature—both creative and critical—on printed sheets of paper are seldom taught or read now. Visual, web and multimedia have devoured the print media and as a result the production of books has decreased considerably. Hundreds of publishing houses are being closed now as the industry succumbs to irredeemable loss. Recently, world renowned Penguin Books—popular for high quality, inexpensive paper backs—has been merged with Random House. The web and electronic media—substitute for younger generations’ print media—teach little value, rather promote base feelings of violence, lust, superstitions, etc. Instead of portraying innocent common man’s way of life and noble values they present before us wealthy man’s posh and luxurious life, full of sensual pleasures, and how he amasses wealth through illegal, immoral means. Naturally the younger generation is enticed to such a life and the result is the widespread violence, murder, robbery, rape and all such crimes found now in our society. The remedy for it is to induce our youth to printed books bearing value based literature, from the tender lower primary school stage itself. Let’s hope and pray for a bright new year in which the print industry survives the influx of web and electronic industry and thus the production of value based literature multiplies.

In this New Year issue there are eight research articles, four review articles, two interviews, two short stories, one tribute, eighteen poems of twelve poets and two book reviews. Before penning down let me express my sincere most gratitude to all our esteemed contributors. The credit of the book goes to each and every one of you. I am much grateful to my Associate Editor, Dr. S. Kumaran who has been helping me almost every day. Wishing all our readers a very happy and prosperous New Year,

Thodupuzha,                                                               Love,

30.12.12.                                                                    

Prof. K. V. Dominic

Contents

Diasporic Concerns in Vera Sharma’s “The Invaders” and Amitav Ghosh’s “The Diaspora in Indian Culture”

--Bibhudutt Dash
Peripherality and Gendered Spaces in De's Sisters, Gokhale's Paro and Desai's Clear Light of Day

--Lata Mishra

Sense of Loss and Alienation: Gender and Identity in Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills

--Mahboobeh Khaleghi

Mohit Chattopadhyay: A Thespian with a Difference (Tribute)

--Ketaki Datta

Interview with Penn Kemp (Interview)

--Sujatha Rao

Recovery (Short Story)

--Pronab Kumar Majumder

Treatment of Change in Ernest Gaines’s A Gathering of Old Men

--P. Premchandar

Problems of Cultural Plurality in Amitav Ghosh’s Fiction

--S. Sujatha           

Interview with Sue Wootton (Interview)

--Jaydeep Sarangi

Sita (Short Story)

--Jayanti M. Dalal (Trans. Rajshree Parthivv Trivedi)

The Black as the ‘Other’: A Critique of Toni Morrison’s Novels

--Swati Samantaray

Narrating Identity, Gendered Violence and Abduction: Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man

--K. Yeshoda Nanjappa

Brutal Reality of Sexual Politics in Margaret Atwood’s Bodily Harm

--Zeinab Yazdani & Devika Rani L

A New Religion (Poem)

--Ann Stephen

Kasab Speaks (Poem)

--Ann Stephen

Mother Paves the Way for All (Poem)

--S. Ayyappa Raja

India Is Shining (Poem)

--Hazara Singh

A Girl Child (Poem)

--Hazara Singh

Multiple Rooms of Life (Poem)

--Pronab Kumar Majumder

A Process That Works out in Life (Poem)

--Manas Bakshi

21^st Century Love (Poem)

--Manas Bakshi

Mountains can be Moved (Poem)

--N. P. Singh

The Heart of Community (Poem)

--Penn Kemp

Facing the Epicentre (Poem)

--Penn Kemp

The Genesis of Corruption (Poem)

-- S. V. Rama Rao

Fly High in the Boundless Sky (Poem)

--Sangeeta Mahesh

Love Is Essence of Life (Poem)

--Turlapati Rajeswari

Rain Canvas (Poem)

--Yajnaseni Mukherjee
Arranged Marriage (Poem)

--Yajnaseni Mukherjee
Addiction (Poem)

--Yajnaseni Mukherjee
Fruit of Labour (Poem)

--K. V. Dominic

Poetic   Flavour of K. V. Dominic (Review Article)

--Arbind Kumar Choudhary

Stylistics in Dr Chambial’s Poetry (Review Article)

--B. C. Dwivedy

Drops of Honeydew: A Critical Analysis of T. Vasudeva Reddy’s Gliding Ripples (Review Article)

--K. V. Dominic

Najama as Serpent in Ramesh K.  Srivastava’s Coils of the Serpent (Review Article)

--Smita Das

Manas Bakshi’s Between Flower and Flame (Book Review)

--Patricia Prime

Jacob Isaac’s Sense of Enigma (Book review)

--S. V. Rama Rao

Our Esteemed Contributors

Prof. K. V. Dominic's four books of 2012 released at International Poetry Festival at JKC College. Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

Prof. K. V. Dominic’s Books Published in 2012

1.     Changing Face of Women in Literature: The Flaming Spirit. New Delhi: Gnosis, 2012.

The female protagonists in most of the novels, plays and short stories in Indian literature—both vernacular and English—are characteristic, representative Indian women—passive, submissive, slavish preys of patriarchy. The plight of women in Indian society is very pathetic and hence it is the duty of the entire people—the rulers and the ruled—to bring women forward to the mainstream of the society including homes. This edited book by Prof. K. V. Dominic is in fact a search for ideal women characters in novels, plays and short stories. There are twenty six research articles in this book written by university/college professors, teachers, research scholars and professional writers

2.     Multicultural Consciousness in the Novels of R. K. Narayan. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2012.

R. K. Narayan is considered by many critics in India and abroad as the best Indian novelist in English. He is the only great Indian writer in English who spent the whole of his life in India and portrayed the life and society around him. Many of Narayan’s novels have pre-independent India in the background or settings.  They bring out the influence of Western values on the East, and conversely, the influence of Eastern values on the West. There are several occasions of confrontation between theses values but at the same time one finds assimilation, absorption and amalgamation of these cultural values throughout the novels. Prof. K. V. Dominic substantiates this multicultural consciousness analyzing several novels of Narayan in this book.

3.     Critical Evaluation of Contemporary Indian Poetry in English.  New Delhi: Access, 2012.

Contemporary Indian Poetry in English exhibits much depth, richness and diversity of themes. India being the richest soil of multiculturalism, we find innumerable cultural topics and themes, besides universal issues, in this poetry. Urban and rural themes, Nature and environmental problems, sexism, ageism, child labour, poverty, unemployment, ethics, devaluation, myths, ethos, feminism, casteism, communalism, superstitions, patriotism, nationalism, regionalism, terrorism, religion, spirituality, politics, science, globalization, love, peace, sex, multiculturalism etc. are the major themes portrayed in the poems of Indian poets in English. In this book edited by Prof. K. V. Dominic there are twenty eight critical and research articles written by university/college professors, research scholars and professional writers on twenty five contemporary poets, of whom four have left us forever,  immortalizing their names.

4.      African and Afro-American Literature: Insights and Interpretations. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2012.

African and Afro-American Literatures tell primarily the tales of colonization, hegemony, oppression, slavery, exploitation, resistance, inequality, pride in the past indigenous culture, identity crisis etc. In this multicultural world it is the duty of the pilots of the world—political, religious and intellectual—to give special care and attention to the less fortunate people of the Dark Continent; help them redeem their self respect and thus bring them to the mainstream of the global family. Thus understanding the need of the day, Prof. K. V. Dominic has edited this book consisting of thirty research articles written by university/college professors, research scholars and professional writers.