I, very faintly though, remember a day, sixty years back when the first time I was allowed to go with my father to "The Ramayana Ganer Asar", a village stage, where folk performances are held. A tall man, peculiarly dressed up , half bold , but having a long pigtail on the back of his head, was chanting , very melodiously poems which were narrating stories. He was moving round and round the stage dancing, making some strange, yet beautiful postures. Instruments were being played by some players on various musical instruments. Of and on they, too ,were loudly singing refrains left out by the leading singer. A mass of listeners, sitting just outside the stage, I could see, were listening to the orchestrated performance spellbound. I could see the women were ,as if ,weeping -- putting edges of their pieces of cloth on their eyes.
On the way back home I asked my father what had there been all about and why those aunties were weeping. Father replied that it was all about the stories about Ram, Sita and Lakshman who were sent to exile for fourteen years. I persisted him to tell me those stories. He kept silent for a while and said.
"That is why I always tell you to learn and you will be able to go through all the stories of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and many other books. (My father was very soft-spoken and soft-hearted).
The next day, to every one's surprise, I started collecting books, slate, chalk pencils that had been bought and brought by my father and kept scattered almost in every corner of our two-storeyed mud-walled house. I felt an irresistible inquisitiveness and thought I would read through and through those books, for I must have to know why those listeners had been so engrossed and emotional. And there from my love for literature began.
Now, when we come to a conclusion that students are not interested in literature we forget the old, secluded, rustic atmosphere and surroundings to which we were belonging, wondering at and which we were abiding in. Before stepping into the discussion on the topic -- students' reluctance to literature -- I want to present before the readers a succinct account of what I have gained from studying literature that, though as meager a portion of it as the tiniest bubble of the ocean. Now, that innocent phase of my rural life ended abruptly when, almost suddenly, my father, initiated by my maternal uncle decided to root out his family from that remote village to his working place. It was colliery belt , but there were schools and educational atmosphere, particularly inside the Babu colonies, was comparatively more congenial than that of the labourers' slums. In a school, four miles away from our quarters, I was put into and my academic journey began.
Then followed the years, closing of the colliery where my father was in service, returning back to the village. Life came to standstill and I had to find a way to survive by searching for a job that could be of some financial aid for our family. ultimately with a low academic certificate I have got admitted in a technical training school. Here, apart from my industrial training and industry related study I got the long cherished chance to avail the facility of a very rich library. And adjacent to our hostel , in that vast Railway colony there was another public library packed with books in shelves.
There, as if, I found the oasis which I had been in quest of. I spent no time restricting myself strictly from activities suitable for hostel life. That old but unforgettable thirst of knowing what the stories all about written in those great epics --the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other great books that are so famous and that people tirelessly mention about .
The syllabus of our technical school, three years apprenticeship course, for being not vast baring practical operations, I could manage a fairly handy time to visit libraries and pick up books. Deep love for books gradually turned into an addiction, and that never ever I have come out of.
This story of my life is a prologue to the theme of the topic I am going to say something on.
That time and the times that followed were not conducive to mass education as there were scarcity of schools, communications and the common hinderance was poverty which would deprive the majority of children of pursuing education. Yet the children, from affluent families, who had opportunities to get into schools and colleges, were devoted to studying as there were less options for diversion and here is the clue why students, now-a-days, are not interested in literature. They are having, apart from literature, ample and myriad curricula that are directly related to life in reality as well as a solvent livelihood. Again, literature is a subject which fills the vacuum of times when people are at leisure , of course there are exceptions, but with the advent of television added to android phone education scenarios and educational atmosphere have been going through a revolutionary change. And Information Technology, we fear, in near future will devour the existence of books.
(To be continued)
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