 This lecture is titled Mosaic Patterns, module 2, in which we would offer concluding remarks in terms of various layers of discussion we have conducted in the last few lectures. The lecture itself is divided into three parts. First we would offer concluding remarks by establishing connections between various lectures. Part 2 will deal with post-colonial Bildungsroman and beyond, part 3 would offer new voices. Let us first of all look at the outline of module 2 in order to have clarity about our attempt to bring various strands of writers on writing. This particular module, as we had stated right at the outset, was actually centered on the writer's vocation and also the cultural demands, changing cultural demands on the writer. The rationale behind that open-ended starting point was related to our attempt to let you explore many possibilities. They may be mythic, historical or cinematic, but various images of the writer were evoked and the idea was again to let you really freely explore your own viewpoint. The teacher's personal connection to the writing process was also shared to establish better dialogue because as we acknowledge right at the outset that the kind of course that we have presented to you, there is not too much of that tradition of offering creative writing courses within the university setup and therefore I wanted to establish the rationale for offering such a course both in academic terms and in terms of the creative impulse of the teacher concerned also. The next lecture in which we talked about creativity and writing, etc. This sort of was meant to enlarge the framework of our discussion regarding creativity issues because there is constant research in this area and we wanted you to be familiar with the research and some of the practice in different countries so that you can choose the ideas that appeal to you most. You are also aware of how different people conduct these activities and finally you are able to arrive at your own point of view. Again I emphasize that time and again because there is certainly no desire to develop any imitative mold but it is important to see what is happening in the rest of the world. So the third lecture in this part actually also carried forward the same idea but what we did is to evaluate various famous manuals on writing and we offered you insights from these manuals and in the process we evaluated and critiqued them so that again you have some idea about what we value and what we do not value. But we also encouraged you to read these manuals on your own so that you can decide whether what we left out was indeed what you also wanted to leave out. The fourth lecture of this module it revolved around writers on writing and in the next four lectures what we tried to do is to share the classroom work that was done while teaching this elective in IIT Bombay. The elective was offered at the fourth year level as I have indicated earlier and it also actually was more of a spontaneous process because I had a structure and I definitely had a plan of action but very often the students also had questions which I added on. So all these are shared and the two writers that I have presented in this segment are writers whose work we studied in the kind of framework I have provided here which is somewhat different from the traditional way of teaching literature because here we actually started with the writers on writing and we looked at Camus literary notebook where he separates it from autobiographical writing. So it was felt that you know this offered a way of helping the student understand the demands of the literary process which is not purely an autobiographical process it of course has elements of the autobiographical aspects of our lives but at the same time writers undertake an imaginative journey where distancing is also a very important part and of course this is generalization but I think for people who are beginning to write this is a very important consideration and therefore we looked at the literary notebook and also we encouraged interrelated reading that is reading of the literary notebook along with the creative work of that particular writer. Similarly, we went on to look at Atwood and her notion of the writer's self in the case of Camus the notion of the self offered by Camus was somewhat different because he was interested in looking at the self looking at oneself and also he did not have a sense of split that Atwood talks about whereas Atwood feels that the writer has the other self and of course we looked at couple of essays and we also tried to unpack her allusive essays so that we could respond to the content in a deeper manner. So this was an exercise in reading but reading which is targeted towards the writing process and we also gave you samples from the work that the students had undertaken so that you can yourself see that none of these are really out of reach because sometimes when you are not exposed to literary discourses you can feel very daunted by the material that is presented before you. I have really tried very hard to demystify and also take care of let us say conceptual and theoretical issues but at the same time I have tried to offer it in a way that they become comprehensible to people who may not have in-depth awareness of the discourses. It may therefore then happen that those who have in-depth awareness of these discourses they may feel that many of the issues are missing but I think I tried very hard not to even allow that kind of feeling to slip in. So it is a blend of sometimes intellectually sharper theoretical analysis but often the whole attempt is to make the material accessible and encourage you to read, enjoy and learn from these deep insights offered by great professional writers of our time. The other aspect that is actually very close to my heart is related to our presentations on Indian writing and very consciously we started with writers and narrators because often times in our oral tradition which has its own political dimensions we find that there are such capable and sophisticated narrators who are really not designated as writers but it also has another side to it which is related to the fact that there is this collective sharing of stories, myths, legends and that also enriches our context a great deal. So I sort of felt a strong need to make sure that the notion of the narrator is also placed before you for your own assessment and therefore we started with this notion of the writer and the narrator but of course we have pitched it within the framework of folk plays and folk tales. It does not mean that a novelist is not a narrator or a writer whose writing is not a narrator. The writer is also a narrator but a narrator within the oral tradition has a very different dynamics and I think there are issues that need to be addressed here also and I leave it to you to do so. The other aspect of this presentation is related to the take, our take on contemporary Indian writers and their search for creativity in the post-colonial perspective. So what has been done here is to look at the number of great examples and of course you know I would not go into these examples very much but we have emphasized this element of search which I will also briefly describe later on but what I have also tried to do is to place it within the historical context so that we can see the differences between the nationalist period and writers and thinkers of that period and what writers are doing today and this is not to build any hierarchy but to try and understand the historical dynamics of change and also the resultant you know forms and themes that have developed. So two lectures are devoted to that and of course the final lecture is the lecture where I am trying to tie everything together but what I have done is to advance some of our ideas from this post-colonial period which is a very very rich period and so let me talk about that in some detail. I have placed the notion of the Bildung's Roman here once again primarily because we are interested in these young writers for also dealing with their evolving sense of the self and Bildung's Roman from that point of view is a very very useful framework for discussion but I certainly do not want to stay with Bildung's Roman but it has influenced the choice of material in terms of at least the initial post-colonial period, the memoirs that we have chosen, the essays that we have chosen but at the same time we will also see what this Bildung's Roman is so that once again you are clear about it. The reason I placed Bildung's Roman within post-colonial is because as I said it has structurally this element of search which you find not only within the post-colonial Bildung's Roman but also Bildung's Roman in the European context. It is a form with close formal connections to biography, memorial, cinematic form. There are other similar genres which right now we won't look at but you can later on dip into it in order to pick and choose. What again is fascinating about this form is the fact that it deals with the protagonist's development from childhood to use and the quest for identity is a dominant theme and it is often shaped by overcoming various audience and therefore you know you begin to understand the kind of changes that are internalized by the character. So in that sense it's a fascinating form and therefore you will see once again that we picked up the memorials of thinkers and writers like Tegor, Gandhi and Nehru although that was an ambitious exercise considering we you know club them together for just one lecture. But the idea is that you would begin to think about these writers and their viewpoint, their writing and also read them in depth. But what we added here is the issue of post-colonial period which is defined by the introduction of English language, western science and democracy and the kind of tussles that ensued because India is a pluralistic society and there are number of indigenous systems of thought that coexist. So the kind of tussles that ensued this is what we have focused on but we have also confined ourselves to these three great thinkers and writers of the nationalist period. What we would like you to do is to move on to another notable period which we have not touched on except briefly in module one is the period of 1980s and 1990s especially for fiction. Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children I think in that sense is also seen as a post-colonial building's roman but it is not just that it is much more than that but I have given that key idea here so that you have an entry point for that very complicated fantasy. It is a comic epic you can start with that key point and also you can contrast it with Arun Dutty Roy's God of small things which is seen as a tragic epic. As I said these are not the labels that define the work completely but in terms of Bildung's roman and in terms of construction of identity under pluralistic systems I think it does give you very deep insight which is the role of fiction it really engages with spaces that are left out from analytical framework. We would also actually like to develop better understanding of what the writers of this particular period have to say about scientific issues because we notice that Tagore engaged with scientific issues because English language science and democracy these were three ideas that gripped the imagination and it was these three were seen as important elements of decolonization process. So we would like you to look at Grimus which is a book which he of course doesn't think very highly of himself but I think we should need to look at it all over again especially because of his SF nature. Arun Dutty Roy's of course book I have already mentioned the novel but also political essays such as the end of imagination. What we notice here is that some of the writers have actually not necessarily you know engaged with scientific issues in terms of their fiction but I think it's interesting to note that all three of these important writers have handled the issues of science and technology in their own way by critiquing our society our country and our national policies related to science and technology. Amitabh Ghosh is the Calcutta chromosome the Hungry Tide I think both need to be also looked at very carefully both for their you know aesthetic value their significance but also for science and nature related ideas that have been internalized and expressed and explored and also the essay on nuclear science policy title countdown. So this is by enlarge more of a reading list but we definitely want you to carry forward whatever arguments we have presented before you by connecting it to a recent framework and then bring it to your own immediate surroundings. We also actually have been fascinated by the kind of impact that popular fiction like Chaitan Bhagat's 5 point someone has had on a large number of our students many many students who actually were not readers of fiction in English have started reading it after Chaitan Bhagat's 5 point someone which is rather interesting phenomenon because Chaitan Bhagat does look at the underbelly of this highly idolized engineering education system and the syndrome that is that it represents and also we have discussed it earlier in relationship to the film 3 idiots although this is in the realm of popular fiction and you know popular cinema but I think both deserve a careful look and as also social phenomenon we would like you to contrast Chaitan Bhagat's piece especially a small segment in terms of what Gandhiji said about machines while in conversation with Mahadev Desai this particular part where there is a parody of the teacher is extremely popular amongst the students and I suppose I know why but I think I'd like you to have a look at it and also enjoy the contrast but also think about the kind of contrast where Chaitan Bhagat's teacher Mr. Professor Dubey in the novel he is interested in celebrating machines is teaching mechanical engineering and he says fall in love with the world around you Mr. Professor Dubey smiled for the first time and I am reading from the text for you will become the masters of machines so certainly a very very different point point of view from the one that Gandhiji raised in terms of a sort of sense of philosophical investigation or what it means to think of machines and I think both from biological systems that is biological human destiny to the destiny of the nation I think Gandhiji had a seamless sense of connection whereas here the language is entirely different and unfortunately this doesn't really work out as you will discover in the novel so I think we need to look at popular fiction of this kind also with you know great seriousness and also see why more and more people are reading this because this is not a simple case of acceptance of a given system but a way of actually also trying to critique it and understand its complications finally I want to let you know that we are also searching for new writers when we talk about our interest in how the whole issue of English language and scientific western scientific knowledge versus indigenous models etc. became a key element of decolonization we have also been searching for writers and one of the writers who gripped our attention is actually Isar Asar whose actually obituary introduced us ironically to his work and I won't sort of read this whole thing but you know he died a writer whose work was hardly noticed and it is very much sadly in the Pyaasa Mold where the writer in the garret struggled against the world because although he was full of talent and also you know great deal of intellectual curiosity but somehow despite his participation in the you know progressive writers association and also his prolific writing career I think somehow except those who read Urdu I think the work has not reached us so let me place the work that was actually mentioned as I said this was in the obituary that Seema Chishti wrote and I am very thankful for you know for this write up because it woke me up to what different people have been doing I've been investigating this science and literature connection for a very long time and it was very touching to read this whole profile but in terms of the work that he published the first science fiction novel that he published was Adhi Zindagi then he went on to publish a landmark collection of science stories and poems called La Shariq which means the non-participant and then his other novel is called Masheenoki Bhagavat written in 1953 I just want to place these remarks here from again Chishti's interview where I think Mumtaz Rizvi one of the commentators recall that Assar was so far ahead of his time and so sure of being so that when he wrote a poem called Dinosaur 50 years ago he noted that people wouldn't understand it just then and again you know in terms of this lack of recognition that I just talked about his family was very sort of I think very passive in some ways and also in some ways reconciled to the fact that he had such a tough life where his work was never recognized he wanted to be read he published he was not in Kafka mold he was more in the Camus mold and he wanted to be read but after his death his family talked about his marginality and this is what they had to say and as I said it really moves me each time I read this he says being the people acquainted with facts and fiction we know how people in India treat their writers not just in Urdu but also those who write in Hindi Punjabi and any other language but English so it is all right said a member of the family Riley finally our interest is in generating discussion and creative work on the ways science and technology has pervaded our lives this is one of the themes that runs through our attempt and not because we are placed in the IIT setup but because we are placed in a world where science and technology has really begun to make very deep inroads in our lives and in our consciousness and therefore we want to see this pervasive and powerful impact of science as an ambiguous sign of rationality and progress we want to deliberate on or discuss contrasting views and ideologies of science technology and social value also continuities and discontinuities of the discourse that actually during the Swadeshi period when Gandhi ji wrote Hint Swaraj posited the indigenous verses the non-indigenous in a very sharp manner we want to see the continuities and discontinuities of that discourse and we want you to arrive at your own conclusions we don't really have set conclusions to offer you finally we are committed to new voices and new themes and therefore I would like to say that our emphasis is on you and your voices we are really not confining ourselves to only one single possibility although we have our own choices and our own interest in different kinds of voices but I think we would like you to explore your own voice as clearly as possible in that connection I think it is very very important to place Rob Pope's quotation of E. M. Foster at the centre of your attempts and this is really a very problematic area because as I said often when you become a reader you are daunted by the reading process but writing process is a different kind of activity so the separation has to be worked out by you this is what Rob Pope has mentioned look before you leap is criticism's motto leap before you look is creativity's so I think when I was looking at this and looking at the demands that it places I was reminded of Kabir's words where when he says So basically take a plunge and in fact we encourage some of our students to take this plunge and we offer some of the new voices in terms of what our students have been writing on their own they've not been coached or schooled but they agreed to share their writing we are very thankful for that and that's a section where I think I'll leave it to the students to present their work to you I'd like to introduce Smita Pindharkar you have seen her in lecture one of the second module when she read out the part of Simone de Beauvoir I would say so very well in this sort of segment I have asked her coaxed her rather to read her creative piece after her interaction with her last time I slowly discovered many aspects of her research and creative work both in her own words she wants to be described as a student of sociology or social activist and a poet who writes primarily on the travails and boons of her diasporic identity a life passed between three countries Tanzania the United States and India has been and continues to be the central subject of her poetry and prose so here is Smita a feminist in pieces I am a feminist in pieces with a thousand grains of life scattered over three continents I have no real home nor a sense of belonging the voices around me often say that I am living in three diasporas breathing in three cultures communicating in three distinct idioms I often feel less like a citizen of the world and more like a nomad of the imaginary traversing a terrain and incessant borders that exist only for me with roots that barely grip the earth I stand on and a voice that seldom resonates with the souls around me I am a walking contradiction belonging to no particular world to no particular continental womb I am a feminist in pieces born of a black mother miles and miles away birthed of a culture that celebrates color rhythm and unity I am weaved into a brilliant quilt of reds blacks golds and greens I have stood with my fist clenched in revolution against police brutality for taking back the night and towards building a stronger nation but in the end I have always stood alone at the crossroads of this deeply matrixed life and wondered about which one leads home I am a feminist in pieces fighting for the rights of my sisters with a head wrap as my crown and a body studied with symbols of my history I have taken more than one journey towards the light towards the freedom that my sisters and I sought in honor of sojourner truth Harriet Tubman, Asata Shakur and Angela Davis still tied to my mother's umbilical cord I walked all knowing that I was black African beautiful and destined to fulfill the dream I walked all black African and beautiful or did I struggling to hold myself together bursting at the seams with black pride American patriotism and an indescribable Indianness I'm a cocktail for which there is no recipe the voices inside me say that I am less a routed revolutionary and more the seasonal pollen that floats above the fields settling wherever the gentle and furious winds take me I belong to no one place no one culture no one ideology I am an alien wherever I go simply because the soil that I hover above never takes my roots never beckons to me never embraces me I am a feminist in pieces asking questions for which there are no real answers breathing movements of which I am never really a part of because they say I am seated by birth at the top of the social hierarchy a heathen of sorts because of my Brahminism an oppressor because I have light skin and arianesque features a perpetrator of violence against the invisible masses because I own much more than a shack situated on the banks of a polluted city a feminist in pieces my voice suffers a spiritual and moral laryngitis consumed by a guilt that I understand but will not own bothered by the social infection of poverty and oppression I have cared for and cared about those who have laid blame squarely on the shoulders of my ancestors and I my sense of conviction and pride rickety from accusations tremulous under the rage of the benighted beasts of my castocracy and erratic in the presence of contention are reduced to that guilt that I understand but will not own will not wear that guilt I understand but cannot feel the broken people all over the world in sync with their hatred of everything I embody rebel against the permanency of their untouchability reviling everything that reminds them of centuries of collective humiliation dehumanization and a life entrenched in suffering but I too have suffered my gender my feminine mystique my voice from the lips that cannot speak have also been exploited battered and forced into a deep slumber of silence so now I often wonder am I not broken to I am a feminist in pieces seeking to deconstruct that which I am to reconstruct that which I think I should be willing to rage against the winds of resistance I'm a feminist carrying my pieces with heart and passion for cause which I cannot even call my own for cause that they will not allow to be my own cast aside raced aside all this engendering has collapsed me unraveled me crippled me left me as nebulous as I was before the union of my parents spirits but still I rise with my pieces in tow because I see how feminine feminism replenishes me I look forward to the day when my black mother draws me into the strength of her breast when I am no longer just an alien buffalo soldier trudging forth past the red rock giants and when this country of my skull accepts me as a woman without deference and reverence of pativrata a feminist in pieces no more will I be I will have transcended the chaos of three diasporas three lives in three distinct women my holy trinity will meld into one and I will finally be a feminist in peace in one whole piece thank you ever so much smitha for this very gripping and moving piece I'm sure you know we can talk about it endlessly and we will later on thank you very much thank you the student who will present her literary work is Rashmi Chaudhary I had discovered her voice and her expressiveness in number of different sessions in IIT where she presented her poetry I think you yourself will discover it and see the kind of candor and power her voice has I have requested her to introduce herself in Hindi although I just do want to point out that she is equally comfortable with English but that's a second language very clearly a second language which she gradually picked up through textbooks and through college education and now for her research is a vital part of her education and she considers this second relationship as a vital element of her critical and creative awareness so she doesn't really have an uncomfortable relationship with English language though in Hindi flows from her heart so her context so Rashmi she will introduce herself that I am very influenced by the literature of Prakriti, which is unique in the Indian language and from my personal view. In the second language which I will say that when you talk about between a person you sometimes have the presence of words in your language You lose it somewhere when you go towards the other language from one language to the other. But when you try to understand the other language or try to self-identify it, the same language starts giving you a new understanding of different things. And even if we talk about any language, even if we talk about any culture, every new language, every new culture, every new understanding of each and every new language gives a deeper understanding of its identity. This is my opinion. Today, I am presenting some of my favourite songs to you. I hope you all will like them. At the beginning of my songs, I would like to start with Triveni. Before I present my song to you, I would like to tell you that Triveni is a unique form of Hulsar. Hulsar is written in three languages. The speciality of this language is that its three languages are independent. If you don't see any Taratamini in the first and second languages, the third languages make you understand it. For example, I will present a Triveni written by your friend Hulsar. Sometimes it happens like this in the market. Sometimes it happens like this in the market. It was fine. I didn't have so much money in my pocket. At the same time, I had lost to you. In this Triveni, you will see that when you say the first language, sometimes it happens like this in the market. The second language, it was fine. I didn't have so much money in my pocket. The third language, it makes you understand it. You are talking about a relationship, the feelings, the duality or jealousy in it. Here are some of my own writings. My first Triveni, itala. Keep the word of my words safe. Keep the word of my words safe. This is not a stranger. This is not a stranger, but your true self, the illegitimate child. My second Triveni, hadsa. Anthas ki ghairai me jo bhi upjha. Anthas ki ghairai me jo bhi upjha. Sari nami khar patwar ne sokh li. Zameen banzar na thi. Magar bheej baaj ho gaye. Apni likhi wei kavita aapke samuk prasut kar rahi hoon. Diska sheershak hai aapki ek talafwar. Yeh kavita mukhi rub se, kisi kavi ya kisi lekha kya kisi kalakar ki abhiyakti pe honi wale vahad vivaadon ya, kahan ki bahas ko juh hai, ek abhiyakti ek swar deti hai. Meri aakhe tasfeeron ko sarf dekh ke ruk nahi sakti. Meri aakhe tasfeeron ko sarf dekh ke ruk nahi sakti. Meri umliyon ke liye unhe chhukar mehsoos karna beihat saruri hai. Rang, shayad issi meri hasat kahan. Muche berkuf kahne ki galti bhi ki ja sakti hain. Mager meri liye tasfeeron ka sarf aakho me atak ke rahe jaana hawas hai chande lam hoon ki. Meri liye zaroori hain ki unhe lamz ke ahsaas se zinda rakha jaye. Meri umliya unhe sarf chhuti bahar rahi hain. Meri umliya unhe sarf chhuti bahar nahi hain. Unhe unke hone ka ahsaas dilati hain. Ke bhi tar ug rahi thimi thimi dharkano ko raftaar deti hain. Kabhi kabhi mujhe yuhmi lagta hain. Musavir inhe mehazik frame deta hain. Kabhi kabhi mujhe yuhmi lagta hain ki musavir inhe mehazik frame deta hain. Wo to bas mai hoon jo un sabko apni koh mehpale khoom rahi hoon. Iss par bahas mubahise hain. Iss par kahi sawaalu jawab hain. Iss par kahi jhagde fasad hain. Iss par kahi zindagiye hoon sawaal attke hoon hain. Aur mai haran ho ke bas yeh sush rahi hoon ki tumhe yeh sab hak diye kiste hain. Aur aakhir mai rige pesh hain meri apni likhiwe ghazal. Umir hain aap sabko pasanna hain. Basahi hain jab se shahri rafta rafta Basahi hain jab se shahri rafta rafta Bikhar ne lagi hain yeh ghar rafta rafta Bikhar ne lagi hain yeh ghar rafta rafta Basahi hain jab se shahri rafta rafta Bikhar ne lagi hain yeh ghar rafta rafta Yaro sharafat burarog hain pal Yaro sharafat burarog hain pal Yaro sharafat burarog hain pal kyu hauta hainlerin asr rafta rafta kyu hauta hain asr rafta rafta Wododh hain chune phalak nila nila Wododh hain chune phalak nila nila Wododh hain phalak nila nila Udaude hai chune phalak nila nila Simatne lagi hai shazaraftarafta Simatne lagi hai shazaraftarafta Khabardaar jis din se hum hongi aro Khabardaar jis din se hum hongi aro Khabardaar jis din se hum hongi aro Wuhu jaingi be asaraftarafta Wuhu jaingi be asaraftarafta Hesa jish naidaur ke dushmano ki Hesa jish naidaur ke dushmano ki Utaareenge khanzar magarafta rafta Utaareenge khanzar magarafta rafta Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara Wuhu bachi thi kaltak jo akhbara You have made me stay in this house for a long time I have made this house for a long time I have started to build this house I have started to build this house Thank you Thank you very much, Reshmi You have shared your experience with us We would like for you to reach your needs And we are listening to you in the same way Thank you