Balkrishna Sama’s ‘Expression after Death’

By Raju Chitrakar

Balkrishna Sama captures the images of after-death in the following lines:

I become one with its colour.
Such is my condition,
Finer than the flying dust,
Thinner than vapour
More slender than the streaks of light
Softer than the air itself!
A drop of water there was,
It dropped into the lake and became the lake,
And I became the sky.

The stage after-death is a metaphorical state of realization rather than a particular physical situation, and the expression is a stage of poetic desire that the poet wants to think in non-material way. It is not an expression in a literal sense but a desire merely to express.

"Expression after Death" is one of the most talked about poems of Sama. The poet imagines himself to be dead and is consoling his lamenting wife. He conceives death as a simple change and does not see it from a mundane perspective. The poet creates a situation

which alters the definition of a particular existence: death is something else for a dead. On the one hand, the speaker consoles his wife, and on the other hand, the poem raises two interesting situations: conceiving death from a physical perspective and conceiving it from an imaginary situation.

The death is an imaginary situation, it is a fantasy that Sama creates. Despite the fact that there are traditional meanings related with soul, spirituality and about transient mundane existence, Sama plays with the word death in his poems. He is basically a playwright and he loves to create dramatic situations. The drama in the poem is the "poet personae’s" conversation with his wife, who are in two different planes. These two contrasting situations, that of the speaker and of the addressee, present a state where the speaker is calm and controlled and the woman is all loaded with feelings of separation, loss and pain of this world of appearance.

The privileged part of the speaker is to be in "a knowing poetic spirit" where agonies vanish and one can look at the world from a strange stage of freedom. To be "a knowing poetic spirit" is a state of writing poetry and which seems to be an innocent job. He can easily detach himself from the sufferings, from "a knowing mundane spirit," from the physical pangs, from the burden of knowing pleasure and pain. He can simply write and disassociate himself from the knowledge of the world to the innocence of not knowing all that is worldly.

He writes about death and poetry in "Fearlessness:"

I again say Death is nowhere,
Life is nowhere,
What is, is something different from Life and Death,
Something greater than joy-
And that is fearless-that is poetry-
That is the direct experience of Absolute Enlightenment,
The direct manifestation of "OM",
The inseparable merger with the Ultimate Truth,
The liberation from the vicious circle of Birth and Death!

To be "a knowing poetic spirit" is to be beyond death, and ultimate truth beyond life and death, a state of fearlessness. This fearlessness is that "knowing poetic spirit". It is a blessed mood that creates poetry of after-death for the world of living. He has immense confidence in this poetic spirit, he says in "Poetry and Painting:"

When I want a shapeful dream I write poetry,
And when I want a dreamlike shape I paint,
When I want you to speak to me I write poetry
And when I want you to smile with me I paint.

Sama mostly used blank verses (chanda bhanga kabita or gadya kabita) in short and long poems. Along with Swarga ra Devata (Heaven and God) and in the epic Chiso Chulo (Cold Oven) he has successfully used blank verse style. In western literary tradition, the style is widely favoured by dramatists, though Nepali blank verse style is slightly different.

The poet, playwright and artist, Sama was born in 1902 and died in 1971. He was honoured with Prithvi Pragya Award and was appointed the Vice-chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy. Sama wrote poems in English, some of which he translated himself.. Laxmi Prasad Devkota translated Sama’s "You are not dead." The poem is a lamentation on the dead of the speaker’s beloved. These are some opening lines from the poem:

The shapes of the clouds in the East,
Suffused with the first flush of sun-rise, are the silences and the smiles
Of your own heart alternately dancing.
You are not dead.

Death has been one of Sama’s favourite abodes as a poetic stage of expression and hence in his poems, death is not used in the literal connotations. Reading his poems is like sitting by the side of a calm lake, waiting for the evening to play with the last rays of the sun.

(Essay on Nepali literature appears in the first week of every month and is coordinated by Literary Association of Nepal)

Culture and communication

By Ram Dayal Yadav

The link between culture and communication is crucial to understanding intercultural communication because it is through the influence of culture that people learn to communicate. A Japanese, Egyptian or American learns to communicate like other Japanese, Egyptians, or Americans. Their behaviour can convey meanings because it is learned and shared; it is cultural. People view their world through categories, concepts, and labels that are product of their culture.

Cultural similarity in perception makes the sharing of meaning possible. The ways in which we communicate, the circumstances of our communication, the language and language style we use and our nonverbal behaviours are all, primarily, a response to and a function of our culture. Communication is cultural. And, as cultures differ from one another, the communication practices and behaviours of the individuals reared in those culture will also vary.

Culture, as the concept has been presented, is an all encompassing form or pattern for living. It is complex, abstract, and pervasive. Numerous aspects of culture help to determine communicative behaviour. These influences on communication, called socio-cultural elements, are diverse and cover a wide range of human social activity. Hence, in examining the socio-cultural elements, it is necessary to understand a perception.

Perception and culture:

In its simplest sense, perception is the process by which an individual selects, evaluates and organizes stimuli from the external world. In other words, perception is an internal process whereby we convert the physical energies of our environment into meaningful experiences. A number of corollary issues arise out of this definition that helps in explaining relationship between perception and culture. For example, many students of intercultural communication maintain that people behave as they do because of the ways in which they perceive the world, and that these behaviours are learned as a part of their cultural experiences. Whether it be a judgement of beauty or a description of river, we respond to stimuli as we do primarily because our culture has taught us to do so. We tend to notice, reflect on, and respond to those elements in our environment that is important to us.

Problems of intercultural communication:

Because culture lacks a distinct crystalline structure, it is riddled with contradictions and extremes. Culture is learned at both cognitive and effective levels. We are told what our culture is, but most of the time we simply absorb without being aware of it. Culture is vague and it is specific; it is all of an individual. Due to the lack of consistencies and clear distinctions between individual traits or cultural characteristics, we sometimes tend to oversimplify and overgeneralize.

Another problem of intercultural communication is that culture cannot be manipulated. Unlike scientific experiments where a researcher controls and manipulates variables, culture cannot be controlled or made to cease evolving. Thus, what we know about intercultural communication is not only somewhat tentative rather it comes from a variety of sources.

Finally, in understanding other cultures and in making cultural comparisons, we do so from the perspective of our own culture. Our observations and our conclusions are coloured by the specific orientation of our culture. For example, in the Western culture a man and woman kissing each other while walking on a street can be a style of greeting each other, while for us it may have a sexual connotation. It is because of the fact that we are socially brought up in that way. It is difficult to
see and to give meaning to words and movements we are not familiar with. Similarly, we can find many evidence of conflict created by cultural differences.

In resolving the problems of intercultural communication, the study of culture does help explain much of what takes place between people. The important consideration at this point is that we have to be mindful of oversimplification and remember that there are many exceptions.

Quality : Great academic challenge

By Dr Radhaber D Khati

There was a time, not quite long ago, when education or even higher education, was something which could hardly be craved for by the general public in our country. Only a very few socio-politically privileged groups close to the courts could have that opportunity. That notion of education or higher education still persists, but in a different shape and colour. People look for education, because that brings them status, wealth and a glorious future. At this time of competition, the race is not just for a degree, diploma or certificate, somehow made available by the institutions of education to the students at the end of the course attended, but something more than that. In this age of expertise, it is important to make sure that the credentials that are obtained are not just a piece of paper. They should really support to effectively assist the candidate for a prosperous future.

In our system of present higher education , there is an institution, within which various Institutes and Faculties are organized and run, that decides who gets what kind of credentials after the completion of a course designed for a particular level of study. This they do by employing measures like formal examination systems. But what or who determines as to who really deserves the credentials? Who decides what should be the examining/judging factors for evaluating the institution? Who decides what should be the criteria for judgement? Who evaluates the performance of institutions, financially supported by the same funding agency under one and the same criteria, run under one and the same academic management support system, but have produced disturbingly wide varieties of performance outcome? The ultimate sufferers of this divergent and low educational outcome are the students. Actually, it is the students, who, wish for themselves a very bright future, see their future blurred; and parents, who cherish big hopes for the future of their wards, see their hopes shattered. Therefore, the question, in front of an education institution is how to organize classes and examinations, award some kind of diploma, traditionally, impart quality knowledge.

This does not happen without any serious efforts and dedication towards meeting this challenge. Internal, and self-imposed bindings and external guidance and control, to a great extent, are what are exactly needed. This leads us to assume that the task of our educational establishment is not just to engage the Nepalese students in normal educational activities. The task of educationists was never so tough and challenging as it is now, because it requires in them a strong sense of commitment and confidence so that their expertise gained through exposure and experience will help them to make their students succeed in meeting challenges that they encounter in order to brighten their future.

This is so, mainly because of an ever changing and ever widening purpose of education. In our national perspective, the purpose, first, was to prove educational or training opportunities to the youth within the country, and, then, to link them with jobs and the equipment to work. Thus, education became attached to the goals of national development. Our educational system claims to have produced able and skilled manpower to successfully compete with the national manpower market. But that is gradually becoming a conservative claim. Our educationists and education planners are not just supposed to take care of local and national needs in working-out education plans and programs, they also need to be abreast of demands of the job markets.

The need of the hour is not just to provide our students with opportunities for education, but also to ensure the quality of what we offer. We have been hearing demands for quality from almost all socio-economic sectors. When we talk of the quality in education, we tend to mean education as something which is to be examined and judged in terms of its quality, marketable capacity and competitiveness. However, there are certain unanswered questions. How should be the quality of education be judged? How to see where the quality is and where it is not?

We need to ask ourselves, whether we are going to evaluate teachers’ performance just in a manner as that of the students? Are we going to examine the quality of the educational support system or its operational mechanism or even the management system of a certain educational organisation, in order to judge the quality in education? We tend to involve these and many other relevant components to judge the quality in education, because we believe that the term quality in education is something like the quality of a consumable item. Low quality item means low quality materials are used, inefficient manpower employed and low quality manufacture and management systems are involved, to produce it. Therefore, it is up to us to decide as to which aspect of quality deterioration needs to be dealt with first.

Middle class families in America and Nepal : Brief reflection

By Dilli R Dahal

Imagine my surprise when my colleague at the University of Michigan, USA, Dr Tom Fricke, invited me to join him in his research study in "Middle Class American Families" in the United States.

We have worked together on Nepali research topics since 1980 and have been close collaborators on later projects such as his Tamang Family Research Project (TFRP) since 1987. Despite our close relationship, it is rare for ethnographers from developing countries to be invited to the US to pose their questions on American culture itself. I, nevertheless, accepted Dr Fricke’s invitation with an enthusiasm.

After all, if anthropology is to be the study of the human condition, then the comparative perspective of research in many cultures gives the needed leverage for self-criticism. But even further, I feel a responsibility to bring my Nepali perspective to America to study those very themes I have been working on at home. It is our obligation to study America as we have been studied. Not only will we understand ourselves better, but our understanding of America will enhance our own dealings with this powerful world giant. These days, I work out of an office at the Centre for the Ethnography of Everyday Life (CEEL), a part of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.

This newly established Center directed by Dr Tom Fricke is devoted to bringing the tools of ethnography to the American mainstream. Its 27 faculties and students explore contemporary changes in work and family life among Middle Class Americans. Their starting assumption is that the late twentieth century changes in the underlying cultural have profound implications on American life.

The behavioural changes in American family and work life are extraordinary and rapid. We might ask ourselves what they imply for us in Nepal. Let me begin by summarizing some of the research studies I have done with the existing literature where we see the rise of dual career families and new child care issues. Family and work are, of course, central to any culture, including in Nepal. I will take up these implications after a brief tour of the American landscape.

* According to the US government statistics the percentage of married women in the work force who have children under 6 in the households increased from 11 per cent in 1968 to 63 per cent in 1996.

* The percentage of children spending time in day care centres increased dramatically over part of the period, from 6 per cent in 1965 to 30 per cent today.

* In 1997, only about 35 per cent of all households in the US had children under age 18 residing at home; 26.1 per cent of married couples have no kids and 25 per cent of adults live alone.

* Labour force participation statistics for people aged 25-54 show that the percentage of women in the labour force increased from 35 per cent in 1950 to 75 per cent in 1997.

* The percentage of married couples in which both husband and wife worked at wage paying jobs increased from 18 per cent in 1963 to 40 per cent in 1997. These changes are a part of a larger transformation in the US.

They are both cause and effect of the kinds of things that cause Nepalis to think of that country as the pre-eminent Ram Rajya. Consider economic factors alone. The average per capita GNP for the US is close to US $34,000 compared to US $225 for Nepal. Meanwhile, the poverty cut-off for a family of four in the US is $17,404. Income-based definitions of what it means to be Middle Class in that country fluctuate between US $44,000 and US $57,000. These are mind-boggling numbers for most Nepalis.

But are things really that good in the Ram Rajya? There is more to the story than merely economics. Consider the reconfiguration of the American family. Because of increases in divorce, single parenthood, and remarriage, Americans have created an entirely new category, the "blended family," to describe their own family system. The blended family consists of the new kind of family that emerges when a previously married woman and a previously married man move in together as husband and wife, bringing their children with them. Its complexity grows as the new couple go on to have their own children. Such changes do not pass gently. Along with other anxieties, they are the source of huge debates in the American press. The issue of sex just won’t go away. But in Nepal the case is different. The image of Nepali parents is that they are uncomfortable discussing this topic with their children. But this discomfort is true in America also. And this, in a country where 31 per cent of people reported having their first intercourse by age 15, up from 25 per cent in 1980.

The November 14 issue of my local paper, the Ann Arbor News, included a front page story on the reluctance of American parents to discuss sexual matters with their teen-aged children. Yet, with the risks of sexual encounters at younger ages, it is increasingly important that they do so. Professionals even say that these conversations must occur in middle schools. Americans are anxious people. Like Nepalis, they are deeply concerned about the education and careers of their children. Like Nepalis, they are concerned about the too early involvement of their children in sexual matters. Yet, in spite of all their concern, they find it difficult to direct their own children into careers and healthy family lives. To speak of economics is to invite stark contrasts. Nevertheless, the emergence of a Nepali middle class is an undeniable feature in our country. The trend seems to have taken off, in particular, with the tidal wave of NGOs/INGOs after the 1980s and the 1990 onset of democracy. Not only have many thousands of Nepalis become richer within the country as a result of these happenings, but an increasing number of Nepali migrants has been sending their remittances back to their homeland.

As in America, traditional family life is changing throughout our country. Especially in urban areas, we are more and more likely to find both husband and wife employed at wage paying jobs. Although not so dramatically as in the US, our children have greater freedom to associate with the opposite sex.

And our previous comfort in the regularities of our culture have given way to a new kind of anxiety. Think of how much we toil to ensure that our children will have access to the best English medium schools in Kathmandu or India. Think of our hopes for their futures. And as in America, we have a new kind of child in our hands. Our daughters and sons are becoming more and more independent in their thinking. There is a shift in our values, in our culture, that we are barely prepared to define. With our own changing work patterns, the rise of a distinctly Nepali middle class, and a growing culture of anxiety, it is certainly time for us to turn our attention to these issues. As an anthropologist, a believer in comparison, I believe we need to look more critically at America and to bring those lessons home.

(The author is currently conducting research among middle class American families through the Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life at the University of Michigan)