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Man of nature and poetry

Farida Shaikh
His prose style was intermingled with vastness of nature, poetry and philosophy of life. The mystery and origin of life and death for Syed Mustafa Siraj were found in nature. Even so he harbored no compassionate stance toward life, nor was he mournful towards death. He viewed all human beings as helpless creatures.
Siraj was an unparalleled creative genius of Bengali society and culture. The eulogy comes from the eminent poet-journalist of Pashimbongo, Syed Hasmat Jalal.
Sunil Gangopadhya informs us that the writings of Syed Mustafa Siraj were immortal in the Bengali literary world. He was able to create life in rural Bengal 'with far more authenticity than writers like me who live in the city.' Siraj was able to portray the 'realities of rural Bengal1. He could do this because he was deeply connected with life in the village. Siraj had a 'very strong command of the language'. Siraj was strongly against all communal divides. He strongly protested against communal politics wherever it raised its head.
'As the president of Satiya Academy I had commissioned a documentary on the life and works of Syed Mustafa. Fortunately it was completed in time 2011 so that he could see it in his life time. He had been satisfied with the effort.' Thus Gangopadhya.
Aleek Manush is a gripping novel from the very start; the book cannot be put down until the end. One enjoys every page of it. Such is the reading experience!
The narrative is situated in pre-partition Bengal, Murshidabad district, peopled by the Muslim community, divided on account of variation in beliefs and practices. Embedded in this rural panorama is the love story of two ill-fated souls.
Some readers wonder why the writer has labeled the principle character 'aleek', 'unreal', when he, the main character in the novel, is portrayed as very much a man of flesh and blood, and feels passionately for the woman he loves. Who, then, is the real man?
Siraj essentially explores man's relationship with nature. The trees, the rivers and the rainfall live out their own course of life. Man tries to control nature; as for example building a dam across a river.
Through his writing Siraj makes obvious his belief that the state is a kind of torture machine, and those in administration are complicit in torture. The military and the police are mostly state-owned hooligans. He has delved deep into rural Bengal. His sharp observations provide details on the
typical 'gaon and taun', the typical fight and the faith of the village people; the futility of their living and longing. He carefully records the rural responses to modernity.
Siraj affirms: "One of my chief convictions has been that of not believing in any particular religion. I am free of religious belief. But I also understand that most people are religious and I am, therefore, tolerant towards anybody's religion. I would consider to have succeeded in my role as a writer if I have been able to spread this message."
On the power of man vis-a-vis nature, Siraj speaks thus:
“Many of my stories have rural settings that juxtapose the quotidian problems of men against nature's inexhaustible potential. Nature always brought to me a sense of limitless freedom, a taste of infinite liberty. I spent my childhood in the village
in Khosbaspur and Birbhum to the extreme west of the Ganga, they are a recurring landscape in my fiction. Although the region is romanticised as Ranga Matir Desh, the land of reddish, ruddy earth, its soil is arid, unyielding and hostile. In trying to make a living out of that earth, the people there are tough and capable of much hardship. This is reflected especially in the women of that region who possess reservoirs of courage, strength and the resilience necessary to survive in a hostile environment.
Earlier, Siraj remarks:
“Like Colonel Niladri Sarkar, although I have become more of an urban dweller over the years, I am still a nature lover. I periodically retreat to my house in the village to find the solace and peace of mind that the city cannot give me."
Siraj created the detective character 'Goenda Colonel’. The former Colonel Niladri Sarkar is the hero who finds the culprit or killer on every occasion. Sarkar is the eccentric sleuth in the stories, narrated by a lazy journalist, Jayanta, who accompanies him on his investigation tour. The colonel is a butterfly collector and orni-
thologist, smokes pipes and has a Santa beard. He is also jovial and likes quoting Bengali proverbs and nursery rhymes.
And though he vehemently opposed communal politics, he, very strangely was affected by this poison. 'He was a master of unsaid words.' His publisher knew him since 1972-73. He was described as possessing 'a heart of gold, unique person with unpretentious way of reviewing the world... a knowledgeable person.’
Syed Mustafa Siraj's writing career spanned over forty years. He penned over 300 short stories and 150 novels, with the 'scent of the soil,' a literary giant comparable to Naguib Mahfuz of Egypt. Nearer home he comes close to Polli Kobi Jasimuddin. There is also a close affinity between the writer's work on rural religious beliefs and practices and Syed Walliullah's Lal Shalu about a poor man in a remote village wanting to establish his religious beliefs and fighting down others in the rural area. Abul Mansur Ahmed’s Aiyna also comes to mind.
In his column,' Je kotha bola hoe ni' for the magazine Kashtipathar he wrote on why he believed that the Mughals ruled badly, the etymology of the name Sri Lanka, some anecdotes of his personal life. In his opinion these writings together could be shaped into a Writer's Memoir.
In 2004 Nivedita Sen translated into English popular children's stories involving Colonel Niladri Sarkar, 'The Colonel Investigates', and more recently, 'Die, said the Trees and other stories.' The National Book Trust is still in the process of getting 'Aleek Manush' translated into Urdu, Tamil and Dogri. His first ever translated work was in Hindi for the paper Sarika, edited by Khushwant Singh, in 1965. His first novel is 'Neel Gharer Nati.' Thereafter, many short stories 'MrityurGhora,' 'Rakter Pratyasha' and 'Goghna' have appeared in Hindi, Urdu and Tamil newspapers and some novels have been translated into Malayalam.
Film maker Raja Sen describes Siraj thus: "Ekdom matir maunsh chhillen uni.” Mayamridanga, a semi-autobiographical classic, is about Siraj's experience of bohemian days and his association with Alkaap, a dying folk culture of Poschimbongo. As funds were not available then a documentary on Alkaap was made that won the best documentary award.
Not much of Siraj's work has been translated into English. But that was hardly a subject of concern for the writer.
FARIDA SHAIKH IS A SOCIAL ANALYST AND CRITIC.