A Bhojpuri novel in English

Phoolsunghi

Author: Pandey Kapil 

Translator: Gautam Choubey 

Publisher: Penguin – An imprint of Penguin Random House 

Year of publication: 2020 

ISBN: 9780670095193 

Pages: 162 

Price: 399/- 

At the onset I confess that neither have I read Phoolsunghi in its original form nor have I read any other book in Bhojpuri. However, the current place of my stay – also my birth place – allows me to be amidst Bhojpuri. Listening to it flow at one level and discussing it at another. Dr Ganesh Devy’s statement on Bhojpuri, also mentioned in the introduction, also struck. ‘Bhojpuri has not only stayed alive . . in the whole world, Bhojpuri is the most rapidly developing language’. 

Few months ago a colleague had pointed out how Maithili – as a language – has been accorded the status and respect which Bhojpuri, though more than deserving, continues to be deprived of. Reading further about the author and the characters had me wonder on this.

During a brief conversation Arun Kamal – the poet – had pointed out that I was lucky to experience its sweetness. He was on the mark. However, it is not uncommon for luck to be followed by uneasiness. And, it is painful to be regularly reminded that the society has placed Bhojpuri way below Hindi in the hierarchy of languages. Hindi, today, is for Bhojpuri what English is for Hindi!

Amidst all this it is a pleasure to come across ‘the first-ever translation of a Bhojpuri novel into English’. This pleasure was followed by more pleasure. I requested a friend who runs a book-store to procure a copy – and picked the copy with tea and chat as bonus. The very next day I read the book. 

The introduction is long and initially I wondered why that was the case. However, as I read I realized it was crucial to set the tone - for multiple reasons and this the translator does well. He also succinctly sums up the author, ‘It will be apt to say that the career of Pandey Kapil mirrors the carrier of Bhojpuri literature.’ The translator is very much in control.

Like Saba Dewan’s Tawaifnama this book also talks of courtesans, their life, music and more. Also, few characters (people) are common to both books. However, while Tawaifnama is based on extensive research, Phoolsunghi is in a realm where fact and fiction happily co-exist. The author states in the preface, ‘their (characters’) stories remain full of rumours and legends. Emboldened by a bunch of such legends, the plot of this novel has been invented. Nonetheless, its portrayal of a particular period, a certain region and a specific society is indeed correct’. 

That these characters include a celebrated Bhojpuri folk poet sentenced by the court for printing fake currency, a zamindar who renounced his wealth and turned a vagrant mendicant, an Englishman whom locals loved enough to rename their town after him, and others, take the book to another level. The story is based in the Chhapra region that boasts of majestic mansions. It moves to Banaras and Calcutta towards the end. A Banaras where dazzling houseboats on the Ganga played hosts to tawaifs and a Calcutta where gas lamps lit up the streets at night.

A good book many a time makes me greedy for more. I missed knowing more about the life of ‘Phoolsunghi’ especially during her initial years in the ‘cage’. Her looks, her interests, how she spent her days, what she wore, how she carried herself and more. Somehow, in taking the story ahead this aspect appears to have been skipped. I was reminded of Shamsur Rahman Farooqui’s exquisite descriptions of the protagonist in A Mirror of Beauty.

However, to sum up, Sumanyu Sathpathy in his advance praise may well be on the mark when he says, ‘After the iconic Umrao Jaan Ada this is by far the greatest novel around the charisma of a nautch girl’.