Literature, in the recent times, has become less ethereal and more earthly. To elaborate, literary works are no more considered as creations of people oblivious to their surroundings, locked up in ivory towers and putting impalpable thoughts into words. Instead, what is more revered in the twenty first century are writings that are practically connected to the environment we are living in. Eco-criticism, Hydro-criticism and Critical Animal Theory, to name a few, are some of the efforts of literary theorists in this regard, so that the entire ecosystem of which the human species is just one fragment be attended to while reading a piece of creative writing. It can be argued that the Romantic poets gave as much importance to nature as the literary environmental scholars endeavor to give. But what sets modern environmental literature apart from other nature-oriented writings is the former’s attempt at making the reader realize the gravity of the environmental crisis, which is no more an imminent crisis, but one that has already smitten the world we are living in. By infusing this realization into the reader, such literature also seeks to bring about a practical environmental change.
‘Green Poems’, a collection of poems by Gulzar translated by Pavan K. Varma and published by Penguin Books in 2014 is one such example of environmental literature emerging from South Asia. While Gulzar is someone in whose works nature recurs in the form of moons, mountains, rivers and sunsets, ‘Green Poems’, as a poetry book, emerges as different because of the very motive that lies behind its production; to give a voice to the gradually deteriorating ecosystem and express its pain by making nature a narrator itself. ‘Green Poems’, thus, does not always present a human point of view to describe the catastrophe which has been unleashed on nature, but birds, rivers, mountains and wells come to the fore themselves as narrators to talk about the maltreatment they witness at the hands of humans.
An example would be “The Story of a River”, in which a river seems to have grown fed up of the purposes for which it is used, such as boating and water-migration. It is no more ready to carry “Boats full of people to the other side” but wishes to “remain motionless for” at least “one evening”, so that it can come face to face with its real form, in which it was given birth to before human civilization began. Similarly, in “Trees”, Gulzar refutes the otherwise romantic idea of plucking flowers and presenting them as gifts to beloveds. Instead, he expresses his dissatisfaction at the act by saying, “The moment anything emerges which is fragrant, we chop off its neck!.” The poet goes on to expand the idea by moving from mere flowers to complete trees that are cut in order to make way for construction. “The Tree at the Corner” is being cut by the “municipal authorities” and the poet does not have the courage to go near it, lest he be reminded of the good times he spent under its shade as a child who would climb it up and pluck mangoes from its branches. The poet does not care to replace the term “municipal authorities” by a milder term but says it in a manner as emotionless as the act of authorities itself. As in “The Story of a River”, Gulzar presents the idea of water-usage as painful to water in “Thimpu” as well, for he considers the idea of hydro-electricity as smarting to the rivers. “Sometimes, their waters are whipped to produce electricity,” says the poet, and also goes on to tell what he thinks must be the condition of the rivers when they are used for such purposes so that humans may live in comfort: “The delicate bodies of the rivers must be breaking.”
Trees, once again, receive the poet’s sympathy in “The Fingers of the Sun”, in which the act of using knives to leave marks on trees has been pointed out. Empathizing with a tree the trunk of which has been used in such a manner by humans, the poet makes the tree the narrator itself, which, like an abused child, says, “People do bad things on me, and —/ Gouge out their names with knives on my thighs”. It is interesting how by using phrases like “bad things” and words like “thighs”, the poet conveys the idea that a tree being scraped with knives is no less than a human who is sexually assaulted. There is the sun that comes down to “caress the thighs of the tree” and there are humans who “Gouge out their names with knives” on the tree’s thighs. Both the ideas of love-making, one tender and one forced, make their way into the poem to tell how natural elements complement each other’s existence while humans keep themselves at a superior position. At one point, the plants that are not taken care of are also referred to as “Dalit plants”. In “The Burial of a Well”, the description of a well’s closure using bricks and rods has been given, along with the predicament of the dove who used to bathe in that well. If one were to extract a poem that expresses complete dissatisfaction at human civilization despite all of its efforts to produce incredible creations, it would be “Such a Small Pathway”. The poem tells how none of the metal roads built by humans can reach a mountain top. Instead, a lean pathway emerging naturally between the mountains can do the job quite well and easily.
If Pavan K. Varma’s suggestion that “Green Poems” is a book that should be taught in educational institutions is considered, then it is realized that the book is not only filled with poems that point out nature’s maltreatment being carried out by humans, but also with poems that attempt to understand the natural processes that take place, both inside and above the earth. What Gulzar sees as scenes of wonderment are scientific questions that can be placed before pupils to do research on and seek answers to.
The entire process of rainfall has been presented as a procedure that needs to be understood in “What the Clouds Conceal”. “Where the drops of rain are/Where are the hailstorms hidden? Where do they keep the drums whose resounding startles children?” are the questions the poem is composed of. The mysterious depths of the waters are also made the point of focus in the book, the specific poem on them being “River Mandavi”. The water body’s vastness and its never-ending panoramic view are what keep the poet in a quizzical state, for he is not able to understand whether Mandavi is a “river or an ocean?” and “If a river, then how wide..”? An attempt at understanding what the earth does below its surface to make room for roots has been made in “The Magical Earth”. Be it fruits, flowers or trees, the poet expresses wonder at all of the natural creations, throughout trying to understand the incomprehensible process that takes place when seeds are planted.
It is interesting how Gulzar’s style of penning free-verse and open poems suits all of the themes presented in “Green Poems”, for closures are not possible until and unless all of the questions the book is brimming with are answered: Why are humans doing to nature what they are doing? Will the maltreatment ever come to an end? How does nature work? After all the discoveries the human species has made, are there still some mysteries of mother-nature left to probe into? When, and how, will humans be able to grasp all that is hidden beneath the earth and in the depths of the sea and in the clouds in the sky?
Moreover, the title of the book falls perfectly into the framework of Eco-criticism, which is also referred to as Green Studies by British literary scholars. Gulzar, unlike in “Raat aur Din Kitne Khoobsurat Do Waqt Hain” in which nature comes but as an inspiration for poetic minds, focuses on nature throughout in “Green Poems”, observing and telling what humans give to nature instead of what nature gives to humans.
The sub-continent being a region the major portion of which is composed of rivers and thus wells and streams, ‘Green Poems’ becomes a very important literary work in order to realize the gravity of the crisis we are in as a population indifferent to its eco-system. By describing the state of dried up rivers, buried wells and cut-down trees that bring about the wild side of water instead, the book inculcates a realization that such acts need to be attended to as soon as possible, so that the surrounding environment can be saved from further damage.
