Baisakhi 2003 -“Ashitechhe Neere” ( Returning to the Nest)




‘Ashitechhe Neere’

One of the most startling posthumous literary revelations of Jibanananda Das, the maverick poet whose verse generally echoed with the precariousness of modern existence, is ‘Rupashee Bangla’ ( Bengal the Beauty) . This is a sequence of sonnet that reinvents the genre of time and place. Through the manifestations of the flowing environment of rural Bengal, they supplement and reinforce one another for the poet’s yearning for an idyllic world – whose sounds have image and image has odour and this eternal yearning gradually sneaks in and settles within one’s soul whoever shuffles through those words; conecting to that time and place so seamlessly that is overpowering.

Captured on this sentiment, “Ashitechhe Neere” ( Returning to the Nest) can at best be described as a collage – collage of lyrics and poem, a proportioned concoction of sounds and tunes, a storyboard of snapshots composing frames after frames with the language – that is ours, with the pastoral settings - that is ours ,with the tunes and songs – that is only ours.