Vattacharja Chandan

Vattacharja Chandan, (also known as Chandan Kumar Bhattacharya), is a bilingual ( Bengali and English ) writer, composer of music in his poetry and mail artist. He was born in 1944 in a small town Tamluk, now in Purba Medinipur District in West Bengal, which was once the great ancient Indian port of Tamralipta. He came to Kolkata after finishing his high school studies from Hamilton High School, to pursue higher studies, at the beginning of the sixties of the last century. After graduating from Asutosh College, he obtained his masters of arts degree in Political Science from the University of Calcutta, but with a very ordinary result, as the conventional syllabi did not interest him at all, because he dreamed to be a scientist, an experimenter perhaps like Jagadish Chandra Basu, Newton or Edison, which he could not accomplish. But perhaps this little contemplation in his subconscious mind had always chased him above the average conventionalism, towards the creative experimentation and invention in the fields of art and literature. Ending his academic studies he was employed in a bank, when in 1968 he was taking part in performance of his poetry regularly in the weekend open air MuktaMela (open fare) each Saturday in Kolkata Maidan ground for several years with poet Tushar Roy, Rabindra Bhattacharya, Bablu Roy Choudhury, Satya Ranjan Biswas, Samar Bandyopadhyay and others. Among others who visited the fare then infrequently, were famous writers and artists like Premendra Mitra, Samaresh Basu, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Prakash Karmakar et al. Actually Muktamela was the place where he could automatically learn how to perform before the non-literary common crowd and directly face to face attend their questions about poetry and literature, which have always helped him in his innumerable performances of poetry in his latter life. And it was the launching pad where he could mobilize his associates, at the time when, after editing a few hand-written magazines, he was trying to kickstart some new kind of literature. And there he could find Dilip Gupta and Asish Deb with whom he launched the Prakalpana Movement in 1969 in Bengali literature by publishing the anti-magazine Swatotsar.

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Prakalpana and Chetanavyas

At first Chandan coined the word prakalpana amalgamating PRA from Prabandha (essay), KA from Kabita (poetry), LPA from Galpa (story), NA from Natak (drama), meaning proper imagination. But later with his world vision catalog, to expand its global horizon for making it acceptable to more and more different people and languages, he extended the definition of this new kind of compositon Prakalpana as the ensemble of : P for Prose, Poetry, graPhics + R for stoRy + A for Art, ChetAnAvyAs, essAy + K for Kinema + L for noveL, cuLture, pLay + N for soNg.... Though the word prakalpana can be found in use in certain Indian languages, Chandan copmpiled the word entirely from a different approach to select the word as the name of the new form of composition and movement, which ultimately means the universal creation discernible only through imagination. That eventually led him to start the composition his own magnum opus on going project Atiprithibi (Cosmosphere)--the first part of the Bengali version has already been published. And the English version Cosmosphere is being published serially in different places.

He was also the Author of the first prakalpana book Porimandal, also published on a Prakalpana Day, 6 September 1975. Back in the beginning of seventies, being the ideologue of Prakalpana Movement and its counterpart Sarbangin Poetry Movement, he was haunted by the common question : what is the philosophy behind their contemplated new form of literature and art? That urge prompted him to think out the new philosophy of life and macrocosm Chetanavyas. According to Chandan what is connoted everywhere in vicissitude, in the outer world of matter and in the inner world of sense and consciousness is Chetanavyas, which is the conflux and interaction of chetana (sense) and abvyas (wont). Sense has been imbibed in the widest conceivable meaning here, as the feature that differentiates a living object with a lifeless object, including various forms of conscious and subconscious world of mind. Wont in the broadest presumable course is inherent in every lively or lifeless object as both work and change with time, naturally in their respective habitual way though differently. As the smallest unit in a living object works faster and perishes faster than that of the nonliving object like a granite stone. Thus the universe, which is perceivable only through the higher form of sense that is consciousness, is composed of sense-full and senseless matters acting reacting and interacting internally and externally in their wonted ways in their respective time span. After which they are degenerated, decomposed and dwindled again to dust or particle, to be regenerated and recomposed again in some form or other. Apart from Chetanavyasism and Prakalpana, his other doctrines which are practised by the Prakalpana Movement are mainly : Sarbangin Poetry, Flow Verse, Visual Effect, Golden Language, Proverse, Mathematical Dimension, Sonorous Effect, Musical Effect, Repetition Effect....and several others. Now let us examine a few independent reactions on his prakalpana:

" The bizarre but compelling language is given an enhanced weirdness by the slightly awkward obviousness of its trans from Bengali sometimes resulting in an enjoyable ...effect."

" I enjoyed the most....the experimental fiction piece Aurora On The River Gour, which bordered on inaccessible at times but was interesting nonetheless..."

Sarbangin Poetry and Poetics

Some critics label his writings as concrete or visual poetry because he uses his drawings and symbols in his writings, as if foot found in brain. Regarding this delusion Steve LeBlank, who interviewed Vattacharja Chandan at the beginning of ninety’s from Alston, USA, commented:

“The visual element is important but not crucial. Chandan, for example, has developed his own key of signs and symbols which he routinely uses in writing. Symbols which, he says, help distinguish Prakalpana from other forms of writing……Chandan takes care to distinguish his symbols, and the way they are used from other types of writing and poetry which also rely on symbols, including visual and concrete poetry.”

“……he is the inventor and propagator of a separate, distinctive genre of literary forms.….Chandan says that it’s quite needless to knock on the head and pain it, it’s equally needless to read the stony book of prosody — prepare your ear’s ability and do not stop the flow of words coming ahead in your mind, let those come spontaneously. Then the inner inspiration will bestow a particular form, a particular meter, which suits you and the poem most, in which the theme of the poem will come out in a very easy and spontaneous style and meter— this is Flow Verse, verse that flows without having any pressure made by the poet’s intellect.….All these poems demands listening, not only reading — and these should be hearkened from Chandan’s voice— it’s a fantastic experience! I can say it with affirmation, as I have myself heard it. When Chandan from a stage recite these poems with music or modulation of tones, we don’t know what a game he then plays, whole audience becomes undulating…..he does it with the help of many objects and symbols— symbols may be in rhymes, may be in pictures, may be in music, the word-symbols or rhythmic orchestra, may also be mathematical— Chandan extends the dimension of the poem, its inner substance with the help of those scattered elements—scene-touch-taste-scent, every emotion coming out of those sensuousness suggested in a poem— and the poem becomes a Sarbangin Poetry (total poetry), which is the sole quest and attainment of Chandan”.

"You get the impression that Chandan is just having fun with language - chasing it around in the hope that it will lead him somewhere significant. As always, of course, significance resides in the chase itself.... His writing brightened up my day considerably."

Writing career

He was awarded Alpha Beta Honorary Mention Award for his first Book of Poetry Byabiloner Shunya Baagaane in 1971. His literature and mail art have been published in many magazines and online new media communications in India, USA, Italy, Bangladesh and Brazil. He has been indexed in: Who’s Who of Indian Writers (Published by Sahitya Akademi), Asian Writers Who’s Who, The International Authors and Writers Who’s Who, Reference Asia: Asia’s Who’s Who of Men & Women of Achievement, Asia/Pacific Who’s Who, Asia-Men & Women of Achievement (Published in Malaysia), Asian/American Who’s Who, Who’s Who in Asia, Who’s Who in the World (published by Marquis, USA) and other who’s who. As the Indian delegate with Sunil Gangopadhyay and a few other writers in the Asian Literary Leaders Conference in Washington DC, USA in 1997, he met the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott and many renowned poets and writers. He was felicitated by World Bengali Personality Conference Bangladesh, in 2000 and 2004 in Dhaka, and by Madhusudan Academy and Bangladesh Poets Foundation in 2004 at Sagardanri, Bangladesh. He also visited many parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been a frequent Performer of poetry with or without his own song of poetry, called Chandan Gaan (Chandan Songs). The album of self-composed songs of his poetry Jug Jug Jio (Music Millennia, Kolkata) was released in 1999. His Poetry has been included in The Sound of Poetry, a CD of recital published by The International Library of Poetry, USA in 2002. He has also introduced the concept of Prakalpana art as well as the western idea of Mail Art in India through the long-drawn vehicles of Prakalpana Movement, bilingual (Bengali-English) magazines Kobisena and Prakalpana Sahitya: Prakalpana Literature, edited and nurtured by him, which have always attracted readers, writers, mail artists and critics from around the world like the well-known international avant garde writers and mail artists Richard Kostelanetz, Sheila Murphy, John Light, John M. Bennett, Don Webb, Brett K. Fletcher, Carla Bertola, Norman J. Olson, Jose Roberto Sechi and many more, which was lauded by his interviewer Steve LeBlanc as:

“…a revelation, a fragile literary missive lovingly produced, a message from one human being to another.”

Sample Poems

Shadow Of Liberty

You want everything in your hold
Why should one dragged to it who is the sky?
Build as many worlds you like in the world

You say eachbody is free
But want others under your shadow like dry ice
Countless hollow bellies O you’ve nothing to do
Countless hollow minds O you’ve nothing to do
A detouched statue in mass-wood you gift liberty
Build as many worlds you like in the world

You think what god brothers & sisters wink
To the tune of big bosses & idols you dance
You trek the track of autocracy in toto
Advancing oars like a crab you glance
and quickly retreat to your hole-fold
Build as many worlds you like in the world

In self-purge to white wash futility
the east introxicates you with spirituality
the west showers wine of techno-fruitility
You timely blossom from bud
Nature reflects or not your body precasts spring
From time to time you change your crust
,, time to time you change your depot + spot
,, time to time you change your bedmate
Distancing one another [sealed] in [separate] [boxes]
you can’t quit you can’t sit in the perch !
If you sit can’t leave, can’t you join & combine?
Having aroma or not in un/time you end
Why should one stop anywhere who is the wind?

You want everything in your hold
Why should one dragged to it who is the sky?
Build as many worlds you like in the world


Kite

<>
.
…The kite drifts away severing its thread cut to infinity
Afar rushing kids vie for the crashlanding pie outcry:
Cutting lo kite cutting ho… cutting lo kite cutting ho…

Dawning amber sun
Raw smell of fresh green crops in the erratic wind
At wee hours in the jute field after a brawl over land
the unanimated jostling bodies of youths lie
their bellies cut by one another’s sharp sickles
Afar glide the unsin children’s fie:
Cutting lo kite cutting ho… cutting lo kite cutting ho…

Yet the gypsy wind or the playing brisk kids
do not cognize such much hostile killture
They do not agnize the fierce tactricks of the sly
So they jeer to cut to trail after the kite to cheer
Afar veer & fly their sheer hue & cry:
…Cutting lo kite cutting ho… cutting lo kite cutting ho…


Howzzat

On introception gloom of November evenings loom
Across a lone hamlet thousands of birds on giant trees
How birds twitter at dusk loads of lingo leaving me?
Debarrened land demarked by narrow snaky footway
Sprinkled stars in currently black sky ***
How stars ***** bloom while I haven’t come?

After the long flight customs immigration various jolt
decked receptionist swanking ID on nipple docked me
Mistraced at airport how ‘d you skip my trip to you!
Things I’ve seen yet unreified unseen yet reified
If I’ve flown car on photoway you sent?
Did I track a deer in the Appalachian green?
Near Brooklyn span did I scan you but met?
Did we date to seabath library or dance?
With your catwalk friends did I flirt?
Did such hap or not but how these matter?

1 time everything recedes to be unwritten
Seen remains unseen unseen is cliché seen
On posh streets whisper beggars prosper mafias
Angelic kid relentlessly slips from parent’s grip
Advantech wo/men vie fast food fast love joint pie
I hadn’t seen ago yet how pot bellied Potomac
pours rivers of water in the Atlantic?

How glam dolls bare their body to other than me?
,, Niagara hangs on dreadly from the high?
,, cherry narcissus flood jungle & garden?
,, so many skyscrapers so fasttrack trap sky?

Alwhere I’ve + haven’t seen things ↔ resume
(°!°) Have I seen you (*!*)
How do you blossom without me?


Lie Down The Maidenhair Tree

In this world none loves me anymore I too love nomore
When there’s none to seek me none to hear me
none to bear me none to care me
so come on Hiya, you sleep dip in my heart
Let’s lie down the maidenhair tree for myriad times

Let’s be latent seeds frozen in underground pain
or float as particles in the air soil sky green conclave
cornfield grass on mountain ice rivers jovial ocean
or rove in the waves of ether nucleus electron
until & unless we form as fetus in dreamatic cavum
and blossom into blood of life till then

( moon
O sun rise. let them. let them rise
*stars *** rise and doom. let them. let them doom
Let flowers bloom let them play flute let them sing
,, the fountains of joy shower funtastic blondes fizzle
,, there be war dance & delight of guns & bombs boom
,, millions of hyenas clap let them clap
,, the time of endless waitage sweep let it sweep

In this world none loves me anymore I too love nomore
When there’s none to seek me none to hear me
none to bear me none to care me
so come on Hiya, you sleep dip in my heart
Let’s lie down the maidenhair tree for myriad times


What’s Our Concern

What’s our concern with bitter heart?
Even being aware of the end = 0 we aren’t alert
We darn any yes + no
or logical prohibition
We want to change the junction of closed life
Though to change we need strength to steer & unite

We want but

If junction = blind lane
,, union = not concord but clash of knee XX knee
,, union = filthy emulsion
,, union = vehement boundage to freedom
Then in discord let the life better be a discard desert
Still what is our concern with bitter heart?


I Can’t Say

What day will you go?
I can’t say
Where will you go??
I can’t sayy
When will you go???
I can’t sayyy
Why will you go????
I can’t sayyyy
How will you go?????
I can’t sayyyyy

Only when you’ll not find me
realize I’m gone

Epilogue

Being a pioneer in the field of avant garde and experimental literature and mail art scene in India at this moment, Vattacharja Chandan has orbited his brainchild Prakalpana Movement into the literary movement of the global literary trail. And depleting all the best part of his life more than four decenniums on it, still he has no quam for not receiving any restitution from any where in return. It is particularly more tough for him as there are acute constraints and polemics that are always glued to it like that of a cat on hot tin roof, as he has never sided with and not trapped by the conventional dogma of pro-establishment and anti-establishment and spearheaded Prakalpana Movement quite independently. His prime pursuit now is to culminate his new forms of Prakalpana, Sarbangin Poetry and Chetanavyasist philosophy, somehow staying afloat on and on for some more time in the twilight. Side by side in Chandan's most wanted list is also to complete the composition of his own life time far-reaching bilingual epical project of Prakalpana : Atiprithibi / Cosmosphere with his drawings and songs of poetry, just as he murmurs to his own self in his poem Let Me Tide Over:

If you don’t give me sunny days ever in life don’t give
don’t give never give
never give don’t give don’t give ever
Only let me tide over the ocean of experiments of time

Works Published

Byabiloner Shunnya Bagane, (poetry). Alpha Beta Publications, Kolkata, 1971.
Saral Karo: Vaalobashaa, (poetry). Kolkata, 1974.
Posha Paakhi Hobonaa : I Won’t be a Pet Bird, (poetry). Kolkata, 1998.
Swaadhikar Sanad, (essay). Kolkata, 1974.
Prakalpana Andoloner Ishtahar, (Manifesto of Prakalpana Movement - essay). Kolkata, 1974.
Porimandal, (prakalpana). Kolkata, 1975.
Atiprithibi 1, (prakalpana). Quark, Kolkata, 2009.

E Book

Aurora On The River Gour, (prakalpana). Bunhill Fields Press, London, 2009.

Selected Anthology

Udvinna Prakalpana : Upsurging Prakalpana, (prakalpana anthology edited by Vattacharja Chandan). Kolkata, 1975.
Sarbangin Kobita 1, Sarbangin Poetry 1, (sarbangin poetry). Kolkata, 1978.
Akhon Kobita Porchhen, (poetry ) Kanthaswar, Kolkata, 1973.
Samabeto Kanthaswar,(poetry), Kanthaswar, Kolkata, 1976.
Sampadak Somipeshu, (short story). Kanthaswar, Kolkata, 1976.
Kobita: Shat Shottor, (poetry). Mohadiganta, Baruipur. 1982.
Shreshtha Shottor (poetry). Bishoy Kobita, Kolkata, 1999.
Bharatbarsha-86, (poetry). Great Bengal, Kolkata, 1 Boishak , 1390.
Ekaaler Bangla Kobita 3. (poetry). Rotnakar Prokaashon, Kolkata, 1978.
Flying Petrels, (poetry). Progressive Writers’ Guild, Kolkata, 1991.
Under a Quicksilver Moon, (poetry). The International Library of Poetry, USA. 2002.