Human Jibanananda

'When will there be such a boy in our land,
Who grows great not in words but in deeds?'

Speaking little, growing great in deeds, the son Jibanananda went on to give his mother's poetry recognition in this world. The renowned woman poet Kusumkumari Dash and the educator Satyananda Dasgupta were Jibanananda's mother and father. His father's meditative gravity and his mother's boundless patience—from this blend was formed the character of the poet Jibanananda Dash. What wonder is it that a child whose sleep was broken from before he could comprehend by his father's recitation of the Upanishads and his mother's songs, would grow up to become Jibanananda!

The Jibanananda who is considered the foremost poet after Rabindranath—we readers of today, turning through his gleaming books, can hardly believe how cruel and star-crossed his personal life was. Fighting battles with unemployment and poverty, he kept writing in his own way, enriching Bengali literature.

He was never one to promote his own writing. Even with his own work, he harbored deep doubts and dissatisfaction. Is this even possible? The Jibanananda whose writing many celebrated authors have used and continue to use as a dictionary of literary practice, and will continue to do so for life—that same Jibanananda had doubts and uncertainty about his own writing!

In fact, those great writers who think that if only the book could be published before the writing was finished, they could breathe easy—those masters who, even if it means bothering people, thrust their books into others' hands and beg them to read and promote it—let them know that Jibanananda's much-discussed "Malyaban" was published nineteen years after his death. Many believe the novel is actually the poet's autobiography in subtle disguise. He may have wanted to publish this novel under a pseudonym. This is known from a letter he wrote to the poet Sanjay Bhattacharya in 1950. He had written,

'My dear friend,

I hope you are well. I am in great trouble, so I have to bother you. I need four or five hundred rupees right away, please arrange for it.

I am sending five poems with this. Later I will send essays and such (I have nothing written now). I have a novel (not in my own name, but under a pseudonym) that you could publish in Purbasha; I can send it if you think it necessary. I will write my life memories from Ashwin or Kartik month by month. All this is for the future, but I need money right now—you have long shown the consideration to accept such demands from two or four troubled literary people like us—deep thanks for that.

I will repay all your money with my writing—or in cash. If I have to repay in cash, it might be delayed six or seven months (no more than that)…'

It can be assumed he wrote this about "Malyaban." Because its subject matter is autobiographical. To avoid revealing this to readers, he wanted to use a pseudonym.

Think, learn to think! Don't go mad being intoxicated with dreams of becoming a writer!

The poet was greatly beloved by his maternal uncle Priyanath Dasgupta. He was the one who taught the poet to swim in the pond water, taught him to become acquainted with the stars in the sky. Whenever he went somewhere by boat, he would take the poet along. So from childhood the poet was familiar with the villages, nature, and rivers of Barisal. Perhaps the poet's poetic initiation began from that very time.

Jibanananda's love for his students was sky-high. Every day crowds of students would come to him and return with smiling faces. When anyone mentioned this, the poet would reply, 'These are our hopes for the future. It is through them that I will live on. How can I turn them away?'

I don't know if they kept the poet alive, but I do know that in the poet's days of hardship, none of them particularly stood by the poet's side to help him survive. Such is the child of a Bengali household!

Not only was Jibanananda Dash's talent unrecognized, he spent most of his life in severe financial distress. He received neglect and scorn from his wife. To endure such intense neglect from his life companion and still become Jibanananda—perhaps no one else could have managed it. Perhaps it's because he could keep writing despite ignoring everything else that the man became Jibanananda.

It seems to me that anyone else in his place would surely have been lost. A man of infinite talent, who was unemployed most of his life, was not particularly handsome to look at, and couldn't even speak very beautifully. And then that same unfortunate man dies crushed under a tram!

Though many people from that time insist that Jibanananda actually committed suicide.

Let me give some examples of the neglect Jibanananda faced from his wife and relatives.

Jibanananda always neglected his wife, and his wife neglected him too. Jibanananda Dash was not an excellent husband, nor was he an excellent father. He failed to provide his wife financial security. So his wife loved to demonstrate that Jibanananda was incapable of running a household.

Judging by talent, let us think once how much more our wives accept us worthless husbands than his did him!

About his wife's reaction immediately after Jibanananda's death, Bhumendra Guha wrote in "Visva-Bharati" magazine—

'At one point Jibanananda's wife Labanya Dash called me near the hanging balcony. She said, Achianta-babu has come, Buddho-babu has come, Sajanikanta has come, so surely your brother-in-law must have been a writer of great stature; he may have left much for Bengali literature, but tell me what he left for me!'

After Jibanananda's death, not even a decent photograph of him could be found among any relatives for the memorial service, not even from his sister. (Today's poets, floating in an ocean of photographs, have of course carefully arranged their escape from this post-mortem hassle.) When Labanya Dash was asked about a photograph, she told Bhumendra Guha with a tone of contempt, 'I seem to remember, I don't have any at least, besides I was never particularly bothered about all this photograph-taking business. Your brother-in-law wasn't exactly a prince to look at either.'

Many people have curiosity about Jibanananda's personal life, which is natural. Various aspects of Jibanananda Dash's personal life have emerged in a book called "The Man Jibanananda"; those interested can read it.