Of mountain, man and mother tongue

In an exclusive interview with HP, Namita Gokhale talks about things that are close to her heart...

Anjali Nauriyal

Namita Gokhale is a well-known name in the literary firmament. Her first novel Paro: Dreams of Passion created quite a stir by its bold theme and is said to have "pioneered the sexually frank genre which made Shobha De famous." This book is a satire on Delhi's upper class and has been described as witty and genuinely irreverent by none other than the master of wit, Khushwant Singh. Her other popular books include the names of Gods Graves and Grand Mother and A Himalayan Love Story. In Doon to be part of the literary festival, she is the main force behind this initiative that is earning a place in the heart of the city's intelligentsia. In an exclusive confab with TOD, she talks about things that are dear to her heart.

"Through this festival, I want to go back and look and relook at the trans-Himalayan identity. I may be a Kumaoni. But it's just not my Kumaon, but it's my Nepal, my Bhutan, and so on. The entire Himalayan range has huge energies and we have to look at them. Personally I just love the landscape of this mighty mountain range," states Gokhale.

Despite the love that she professes, she says that she cannot help but feel a sense of great shock when she looks at the Himalayas. "We have degraded the mountains so much! Recently I went to Bhutan and was pleasantly surprised to see that the land is not degraded. It has remained just as it should have remained. But this is not the case elsewhere. And this should be an important issue with any Uttarakhandi and any environmentalist. Our air, water, quality of life, etc., have been all defiled, especially the environment that can sustain pure thought," she avers.

Gokhale says that like Blake she believes that great things are done when men and mountains meet and not by jostling in the streets. "This festival is also about language and how language is being flattened in particular places. All these need to be looked at by all of us. All said and done, there is very high rate of literary activity in Uttarakhand that I feel very proud of. And one purpose behind this festivity is the gut feeling that we can all do something that can change the life of the people for the better," says the author.

Gokhale, who was the force behind the highly successful Jaipur Literary Festival, pronounces, "We are organizing the Bhutan Literary Festival in May. All these mountains emanate real voices and the idea is to listen and let people speak in their dialect. The oral tradition is in real danger in a society that has been essentially oral. When we lose something that has been an integral part of our heritage, we lose infinite riches. Our mother tongue is endangered and if we lose our roots, we lose all accumulated heritage. Problem with oral is that it has to be transmitted and I hope this festival is a step in that direction," she concludes on a positive note.