Kalahandi

Akhil Nayak

Translated by Sailen Routray

Chhatar Jatra of Goddess Manikeswari
Photo Credit - Wikimedia Commons

 

I was covered in a patchwork quilt of a sari inside the confines of my home. 

 

The one who dragged me away and made me stand in the middle of the hat, who shoved his thick fingers in the eyes of the crowd of spectators, and declared my nakedness, he was called a journalist; and now, he owns a two-storied building in the capital.

 

The one who searched dusty pages of thick tomes for the causes of my nakedness, who investigated the proportion of salt and sugar in my tears, was called a researcher; his waist size increased by a few inches on the fellowship of the University Grants Commission.

 

The one who cried pages and pages grieving over  my nakedness, stitched words and made stanzas, was called a poet; he was applauded, felicitations and awards in the auditoria of five-star hotels.

The one who growled that he would cut the hands of those who had disrobed me, who swore that he would, with his own fingers, weave me a beautiful sari was called a leader of men; he received the throne and the crown.

 

I, blinded and mute, still stand at the centre of this haat, with my hanging head wearing the same patchwork quilt of a sari.

Note: Akhila Naik works as faculty in Odia in Kalahandi University in Bhawanipatna, Orissa. This poem was originally published in his collection titled 'Gadhua Bela' - 'Time for a Bath'. The original poem is in free verse, although here I have attempted the translation as a prose poem. 

Akhila Naik's work has been at the forefront of a process of transformation of Odia poetry over the last three decades where the language and concerns of the common people have come to the fore. Although he is primarily known as a poet in his home state, with multiple collections published to wide acclaim, to the wider literary field in India he is known as the writer of the the first Odia Dalit novel 'Bheda' (originally published in 2010) that was translated by the Delhi based academic Raj Kumar and published by OUP in 2017.