Abubakar
Siddique’s Novels
Abubakar Siddique (b 1936) is one of the most prominent
poets of Bangladesh. More than ten volumes of verses
have been added to his credit. The books of poetry that
brought him acquaintance and wide spread honour are Binidra Kaler Bhela (1976), Hai Lokasabhyota (1984), Shyamal Jajabar (1997) and so on. During
the eighties he began to produce fictional works also.
Storybooks like Bhumihin Desh (1985), Char
Binash Kaal (1987), More Banchar Swadhinota (1987), Kuo Theke Berie (1994) have established
his position as a short story writer. In the mean time
his novels began to come out. His debut novel Jalarakshas (The Water-Demon), published in 1985,
emerged as a tremendous piece of writing which was
followed by another novel Kharadaha (Flame of
Drought, 1987), having the similar serious tone and
unconventional narratology. Both these two novels deal
in the two common natural disasters of the country –
flood and draught respectively. Later on Siddique
published two more novels: Barudpora Prohor (Gun-Powder Time, 1996) and Ekatturer Hridoybhashma (The Heart-Ash of 1971, 1997) which have taken the
socio-political milieu of the contemporary Bangladesh
society as their themes. In our article we will try to
look deep into the earlier two novels of Abubakar
Siddique and try to analyse how he portrays the pangs of
the disaster-hit people.
In the riverine Bangladesh, floods and cyclones are the
common visitors. Every year hundreds of thousands of
people suffer from these natural calamities people lose
their homes and all belongings and thus try to survive
even through the cruel clutch of nature. The author has
taken the Khulna-Bagerhat area for his setting where
upsurge of water submerges the lowland people every
year. The minute detail of the setting and its people
prove the keen observation of the writer of such a
situation.
The main characters of the novel are Gonjorali and his
wife Jorin. Gonjorali is the muscleman of Chowdhury, the
feudal lord of the village. For Chowdhury Gonjorali has
changed into such a present devilish character and
helped Chowdhury make a moneyed person. On the other
hand Gonjorali’s wife Jorin is a barren woman. Chowdhury
gave Gonjorali all hopes to save his life but when the
disaster hits he cannot conceal his real attitude. Thus
Gonjorali represents the downtrodden society opposite to
Chowdhury’s.
During the famine of three months, the downtrodden
people have lost everything. Aainasundari, whose present
position always makes an irony on her name Sundari i.e.
beauty, has nothing to use as a robe after using a mat
for covering for twenty-two days. She now longs only for
going to the town where people give food in exchange of
sex. To get monetary tips, Gonjorali takes his wife to
the health centre for cutting off her birth tube. In
such a situation the flood comes.
All the poor people of the locality take shelter on the
embankment near which a relief camp has been set up,
though Gonjorali gets no relief from there. But the
officer of the camp induces Jorin to come being cleaned
at night – the reality is their tragedy never ends.
During his water tour to Chowdhury’s Gonjorali discover
all people of that family dead. He chops the fingers of
Chowdhury and takes off the precious rings. Abubakar
Siddique has narrated this scene very impassionately.
After Chowdhury, Gonjorali finds the other dead bodies
of the family having much ornament on their ears, noses,
necks, wrists, arms etc and like a devil Gonjorali chops
these dead bodies to collect the jewellery. In the
language of the poet:
He attains the power of a demon as their teeth and nails
get empowered during hunger. He begins to cut off the
limbs with a chopper.
He won’t let anything pass by whether it is worthy of
one hundred or one thousand. He draws a dead body by a
hook near to his small boat and put the separated
fingers, ears,
nose cut by his
chopper… .
The boat gets swallowed eating up gold and silver.
(Translation)
Thus Jalarakshas turns as the narration of the
agony of want and hunger. Sometimes, the human soul
comes up, as Gonjorali meets a tender boy on his way
back and takes it with him. The presence of the boy
originates the mother in Jorin. But expectedly the boy
becomes a victim of diarrohea and to collect some
medication, Jorin goes to the relief officer at night –
the inhuman creature rapes her, but does not give any
medicine. Fired up in anger Jorin set the camp on fire.
In Jalarakshas Abubakar Siddique has demonstrated
water as a demon. The other demon of the book is
Gonjorali himself. As water itself does not dominate,
neither does Gonjorali. Like water, he himself also
wants to engulf everything to continue his existence.
The desire of his survival dose not diminish though he
has enemy chasing behind – for the riches he has
collected from the dead bodies, and for the misdeeds his
wife has done to the relief camp. In reply to Jorin’s
question ‘where’re we going?’ He only utters: ‘where?
Let’s go to another Char. Or to some other place. We
must survive.’
In the novel the novelist has used the dialect of the
southwestern part of the country. The description of
everything of the novel goes beyond the normalcy and we
can realise that it has been possible only because of
the deeper insight of the writer. Abubakar Siddique is
more conscious about the true pictures of our society;
class distinction of the society takes a penetrating
portrayal from his pen. If we look into the language and
narration of his second novel Kharadaha, we will
meet the similar sincerity and skill.
The story of Kharadaha is set in the northern
region of the country where drought, opposite to flood,
visits frequently. As in Jalarakshas, we get
representative of two classes – Chowdhury and Gonjorali,
similarly in Kharadaha we get two models –
Bahauddin representing the uprising higher class and
Mosid Khan representing the age old feudal society, and
opposite to them Chekondashi and Volla, the
representatives of the oppressed. It seems noteworthy
that the characters and their activities of both the
novels are very obnoxious – all of them create a nausea
feeling in any reader.
The very opening of Kharadaha creates such a
feeling. At the outset we learn that Bahauddin is
leading a bridegroom party in which Daliluddin is
dressed as the groom. Bahauddin marries Dalil whenever
he can manage a bride and introduces himself as the
father of Dalil. Dalil mimics everything as per his
master Bahauddin’s direction. Afterwards begins that
ugly part – impotent Dalil only laughs; Bahauddin
molests the newly married bride and later on sends her
to the brothel.
This time the bride is Chekandari, daughter of Kesmat
Patwari, though the fact is Chekan was born due to the
illegal relationship of Mosid Khan and Torudasi,
Chekan’s mother. The marriage originates a rebellion
among the farm labourers of Mosid Khan, because Volla
cherishes an affinity towards Chekan though he does not
expose it. But last of all Volla cannot help revolting –
because he now understands all the plots made by Mosid
and Bahauddin. Resultantly, Volla attacks the bride
party and rescues Chekon. In the same time his entire
fellow mates rouse against Mosid Khan and thus we
observe the fall of Mosid Khan. The language Abubakar
Siddique uses mostly for this novel is the dialect of
the northern zone. Thus he has portrayed the real
picture of society.
Abubakar Siddique is a artist of life – he picturises it
from its crude form, because he knows well where the
truth of life lies. In his other two novels Barudpora
Prohor and Ekattorer Hridoybhashma he has
also examined human life from experimental and analytic
outlook, but his first two novels have been something
unique. For the in-depth realisation in our disaster–hit
life and the representation of it have been unique for
which poet Abubakar Siddique has attained the same fame
as a fiction writer.
