Building House of Sand, with Words
In this week’s ‘Books and Authors’ SAHIL RASGOTRA tries exploring the intriguing personality of famous Dogri writer Nirmal Vikram.
She might not have many books to her name, but her poems and short stories are well known equally among the language enthusiasts as well as the learners of the language. The fact that her only book is still fresh in the minds of every Dogri aficionado out there, despite coming out 10 years ago, speaks of the tremendous respect she holds among the readers fraternity. She is Nirmal Vikram, a multifaceted personality from the land, whose contribution to the literary scenario of the state has been significant in more than one way.
Born in a middle class family, Nirmal was blessed to have found parents who inspite of being illiterate themselves, left no stone unturned in ensuring that their kids get the best possible education. Nirmal doesn’t forget to remember their contribution, “They always motivated us to study hard, right from the beginning and once we reciprocated with our ever-growing interest, they did everything to make sure we get the best education. We had a small library opened in our home only, where kids from neighborhood used to come and study after school hours. Together, we siblings also started taking part in extra-co curricular activities and this is one of the reasons that majority of us, despite of having our professions in different fields, have a common interest towards art and other creative things.”
In school, what got Nirmal’s attention the most were the literary portion of her syllabus. The poems and stories, both in English as well as in Hindi, pulled the strings of her heart in a different way, she confesses. It was in 10th standard that the love for poetry got better of her and she started writing poems herself. Her poems got praises from many renowned poets in the state, encouraging her to delve deeper in this stream and this is when she decided to explore Dogri literature. Her first poem in Dogri came in ‘Adhkhideya Phull’, which she remembers reciting in a seminar of Dogri Mandal.
“Although it was Dogri poetry and story writing which was closest to my heart, the times were such that it wasn’t possible to be financially competent with just writing. That I had interest in other creative streams of art, only helped the cause as I joined Radio Kashmir Jammu right after my school finished,” shares Nirmal, who is a B high grade radio approved drama artist of Radio Kashmir Jammu. Since joining radio in 1975, she has been a part of more than a couple of hundred radio plays as a drama artists as well as co-director and writer also. It is also pertinent to note that she is one of the most popular news readers for Radio Kashmir Jammu after her introduction in this genre in 1983.
She has also had a short but memorable career in drama, as she acted as well as co-directed many stage play before leaving theatre altogether in 1982 due to time constraints. She was the only artist from the Jammu region to attend the very first workshop of National School of Drama to be held in Srinagar. She has no regrets leaving Theatre as she feels that was all a matter of priorities as she had to choose one thing over another.
As her stint in radio was going well, it was the love for writing that saw her regularly taking out time and writing poems, short stories and various articles, published in a score of newspapers and magazines. Some of these publications were Samajh, Shiraza, Navi Chetna, Sadda Sahitya, Samkaleen Bharatiya Sahitya Patrika, Sarita, Daily Kashmir Times and many more. She also worked for the daily Kashmir Times as sub-editor of the Dogri section. “That period was one of the best periods of my life. Many writers, excellent in their art, used to send me their stories and articles for publication. Reading them made me learn a lot myself. I would call that period as the phase of my analytical development,” Nirmal remembers that period with a wide smile across her face.
In the year 1993, Nirmal joined Door Darshan Kendra Jammu as one of the channel’s first announcers. In her position, she did a score of literary programs, many documentaries, tele-films and serials for Door Darshan Kendra Jammu, Srinagar and Delhi, besides producing a couple of documentaries herself. Soon after Door Darshan started their news portal in DD News, Nirmal was promoted as a News Reader, where she worked till last year.
In the year 2006, Nirmal finally took the plunge and came out with her first book “Retu da Kaar” (Dogri for House of Sand). The book, a collection of 16 of Nirmal’s short stories was critically acclaimed and got warm reception from the language aficionados. The book became a sensational hit in no time and is regarded as one of the boldest book in Contemporary Dogri Literature. The popularity of Nirmal’s work can be gauzed by the fact that her book has been included in the syllabus of Post graduation courses in Jammu University. Many scholars have researched on Nirmal’s work for their doctorate degree. In the recently added Dogri section in Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) examination, there were many questions regarding her work asked from candidates.
So what makes her book so special? We ask her, “I have made sure to write on contemporary issues, leading away from the conventional path of Dogri literature. Not only my subjects are very different, but I have not hesitated one bit from expressing my feelings. It is not offensive, but it is not all cozy, all sweet either. That I have given readers something new to read, is what I think the reason for such popularity of my book.” And we couldn’t agree more. Many of the short stories from the book have also been translated in many languages.
But then what holds her from writing more? We asked her how come she has not written another book for almost 10 years now to which smiled before speaking, “You are not the first person to ask me this question. It is all about Quality over Quantity. I believe that one should always focus on writing which affects the reader’s conscience than to merely increase the number of stories or book to one’s credit. People remember me because I could provide them with something of good quality, and not because I wrote a certain number of books. So this is why I have only one book to my name till now.” Nirmal, however, brings respite to her readers by sharing that she has almost finished her next book, again a collection of short stories and is hopeful of releasing the book in coming months.
That Dogri readers are extincting, is a misnomer, feels Nirmal. “Today’s reader needs something that not only catches his attention but also keeps him glued to the book until he finishes it off. We, the Dogri writers, need to understand this thing. Times have changed; we cannot give readers the subjects of yore in this age and time. We need to change and give them the contemporary literature. Only then we can complain about anything,” she tells.
She continues, “A classic case of this is the nursery rhymes we teach kids when they join school. ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ is what they learn, is what we learnt and is what our parents learnt, in our respective times. When things have changed so much, why not change these rhymes.” In her bid to bring a change, Nirmal is planning to prepare a new collection of Nursery rhymes for the kids in Dogri as well as Hindi and English. She is also planning to explore more the field of radio play writing and has already started working on compiling her poems, she had written over the years for various publications, in the form of a book.