Pioneer of Bangla limericks and pure nonsense literature, Sukumar Roy in his Ram Goruder Chhana started with Ram Goruder Chhana haste tader mana (they are forbidden to laugh) only to end Ram Goruder basa dhamak die thasa/ hasir hawa bandha sethai/ nished sethai hasa (the nest of Ram Gorud is brow-beaten to the brim/ no wind of laughter blows there/laughing is totally forbidden there). Had this been simple gibberish, the rhyme alone could not keep the readers of all ages interested and amused. Under the veneer of unreserved humour, the socio-political allegory is unmistakeable.
Yet no one knew that the allegory would be enacted in its realistic form in any dispensation of modern era anywhere on the planet. The representative of the second generation of the highly talented and creative Roy family could not have painted a more realistic picture of today's North Korea under the rule of Kim Jong Un. His latest proclamation is a ban on laughter for 10 days. This is for no ordinary cause! North Korea is in mourning on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of death of Kim Jong Il, Un's father and the former supreme leader of that country.
Whether the number of days to be observed as no laughter period will correspond to the number of anniversary is not known but if this will be the case, no one may be surprised. Public display of deep grief and anguish for the leader's death is mandatory. How much of this is sincere and an outpouring of heart, however, remains to be an unanswered question. But the show must go on and there is no lacking in the effort to showcase the emotion on display.
In a country where seven of its citizens have recently been sentenced to death for listening to South Korea's music, what can happen to people for non-conforming to order and discipline needs no elaboration. Ram Gorud's chhana is too obvious to be missed. The power of imagination and the presentation of the bizarre creature called Ram Gorud in an appropriate set of language are remarkable. Now only more so, because here is a true realistic specimen on this Earth!
That the regime imposes restrictions on almost everything Western is no surprise. Jeans are banned there, stylist haircut forbidden (it has to follow the style of the supreme leader Un) and boys must not have their ears pierced for any ornament. In every sphere of life, do's and dont's guide the life and living of North Korean people. So this latest edict of allowing no laughter only confirms the long reach of the administration.
George Orwell in his political allegory Animal Farm depicted the imperfections of both capitalistic and socialist system ---one for exploitation of the poor and the other for totalitarianism. Aldous Huxley, on the other hand, in his Brave New world, a dystopian social science, tries to show how the rush to create a perfect society goes awfully wrong. Forcible compliance and imposition of diktat from above only make the matter worse. Instead, human beings must, of necessity, be free to make their choices and follow their passions.
Sukumar Roy did not have to write a novella or a fiction in order to drive a message home. He had to invent a creature that has no existence in the real world and yet it is not quite unfamiliar to us. In just 24 measured lines he has captured both the socio-political ills of a regimented society and the atrocity of despotic rule. Notwithstanding the tremendous progress made in many countries today, the same old problems remain to undermine humanity and civilisation. Power is overbearing and also corrupting with the result that the majority suffer and the beneficiaries at the cost of their intellect and conscience keep silence over the persistent injustice and unjust treatment of fellow human beings.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com