Bilingual poet Gopal Lahiri became the first author to be conferred the Jayanta Mahapatra National Award for Literature (JMNAfL) on February 3. The Bhubaneswar-based Udaygiri Foundation honoured 66-year-old Lahiri with the award during the second edition of the Toshali Literature Festival at Ranch Resort, Mangalpur (on the Bhubaneswar-Puri highway). The award itself has been instituted by the Udaygiri Foundation in memory of the late Jayanata Mahapatra, the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. The prize, which carries a citation and a cash reward of Rs 50,000, honours “an eminent writer, writing in English, above the age of 50 having significant contribution to Indian English writing”.
Lahiri, a poet, critic, editor and translator with 29 books to his name, is based in Kolkata’s New Town and was chosen for the first JMNAfL after a rigorous selection procedure consisting of two stages. He has also been nominated for the Pushcart Award for Poetry in 2021 and was a recipient of the Setu Excellence Awards, USA for Poetry in 2020.
Lahiri remembers Mahapatra
Lahiri had met Mahapatra at the Toshari Literature Festival last year
“Apart from feeling happy and humble, I feel very emotional, because Jayanta Mahapatra had attended the Toshali Literature Festival last year. And now I’m accepting the prize named after him at the same event. During his time at the festival, he encouraged all of us, spoke to every poet and gave suggestions to the younger ones. It was a memorable occasion, but sadly, he expired a few days after that,” described Lahiri. At another lit fest in Chandrabhaga, Odisha, Mahapatra had launched Lahiri’s recent book, Crossing the Shoreline. “This book is very close to my heart and consists mainly of poetry like the Japanese haiku, sonnets and short poems. I adopted these forms particularly for this book because it needs to be read in between the lines,” explained Lahiri.
Lahiri first started writing poetry in Bengali in Kolkata during the 1980s, when he worked as a geologist at ONGC. “For the first 15 to 20 years, I wrote mainly in Bengali. It was after my transfer from Kolkata to Delhi that I started writing in English more frequently, since it is a more common language for communication outside,” said Lahiri, who is back to living in Kolkata after three decades following retirement from his day job.
‘In times of distress, poetry can trigger conversations and heal your wounds’
Lahiri uses satire and sarcasm in his eco-critical poetry
“Poetry has been a passion for me, but I believe that poetry, like bread, should be for everyone. All kinds of people should understand it, because in times of distress, poetry can trigger conversations and heal your wounds by finding words to express your emotions,” noted Lahiri.
As an earth scientist, Lahiri worked closely with nature, exploring scores of geological fields in remote areas. Exposure to those environments as well as the people there left a mark on his outlook and style. According to Lahiri, admiring and glamourising nature is not enough, at a time when climate change is rampant. What, then, is the answer? “Eco-critical poetry,” believes Lahiri, which underlines the human responsibility to protect nature. For his part, Lahiri writes eco-critical poetry using satire and sarcasm to draw more attention to the urgent issues in the natural world.
