I decided to end my chapbook with two poems on Kiranmala, the heroine of the story Arun-Barun-Kiranmala from Thakumar Jhuli. Kiran had been bothering me for a while, but I was thinking of working on her as part of a totally different project, something that will keep me busy in my post-dissertation days. But then, I recognized that I don't have much from Bengali folklore/myth in my present chapbook collection, and decided to include some Kiranmala as concluding poems. I think, it will also create a nice conversation between this chapbook-project and the subsequent longer project for which I hope to use Kiranmala. But I also couldn't help re-mixing the story of Kiran-mala with some elements of Irish folktales that I have been reading recently.What does one do when one's "own" narrative tradition does not provide one with all the tools/solutions? One reaches out, I would say. That reaching out, itself, is "innovation." And innovation doesn't happen unless one learns to extend one's gaze beyond one's own narrow cultural box of symbols, stories and allegories.
In the last poem, Kiran is reaching out. Of course, not without certain caveats, her own terms and conditions. But she is reaching out. And so am I, the writer who imagined Kiran's reaching out.
The result? I don't know, that's for my readers to say!
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