The Dark Abode

GAMBHIRI GHARA , o que é isto? Na realidade é uma expressão indiana na linguagem oryia, língua falada na região leste da India, mais precisamente no estado de Orissa, utilizada para nomear uma dependência especial da casa, em inglês seria “The Dark Abode ” ou simplesmente “quarto escuro”. Pois é, este quarto é verdadeiramente especial onde é permitido o acesso apenas aos anciãos da família, pois acredita-se que lá está uma divindade da cultura local, além de ser utilizado também de guardar os ativos mais valiosos da família.
Fiz esta intrudução para poder apresentar uma pessoa muito epecial, a Dr. Sarojini Sahoo, renomada escritora da literatura oryia, autora de inúmeros contos e várias novelas, entre elas justamente uma, chamada The Dark Abode. E por que escolheu este nome? Para simbolizar o coração, um lugar também especial onde guardamos coisas valiosas e onde estão nossas divindades pessoais.
The Dark Abode já está traduzida para as línguas mais importantes da India e ultrapassando fronteiras, tendo sido lançada recentemente em Bangladesh, no idioma Bengali. Atualmente foi vertida para o inglês .
The Dark Abode é uma emocionante narrativa que vai do amor à política internacional.
Muito atual, começando com um triângulo amoroso, nascido na internet, envolvendo duas culturas, a indiana e a paquistanesa, expondo os conflitos entre estas culturas e a força maior do amor...
Sarojini Sahoo usa e abusa, com maestria dos cordões dos seus marionetes literários.
Mas, quem é afinal Sarojini Sahoo? Hoje uma das maiores expressões do feminismo na India, com visão diferente de Virgínia Woolf ou Judith Butler, hoje é considerada a Simone de Beauvoir local, verbete da Wikipédia e está entre as 100 maiores feministas de todos os tempos, inclusive tendo sido entrevistada pelo About.com, um site do New York Times!
E porque louvar uma criatura destas? É a minha homenagem a todas as mulheres emergentes, de Nathalie Rogers a dona Maria de qualquer lugar do mundo...
Sarojini Sahoo é um exemplo de superação. Seu pai esperava que seu primeiro filho fosse homem, nasceu uma menina, ficou frustrado mas, esperou que o seguinte viesse de acordo com o seu desejo, satisfazendo seu orgulho cultural (maxismo) e, então veio Sarojini. E agora? Simplesmente radicalizou, não a eliminando mas, criando-a e educando-a a como se fosse um menino. Nome de mulher, apelido de menino, cabelo e roupas de menino, isto até os dias da puberdade, quando ela quebrou a redoma e iniciou a sua saga pessoal. Hoje mãe de um casal de filhos e casada com o veterano escritor Jagadish Mohanti.
É verdadeiramente uma mulher emergente, uma voz para o mundo, tendo sido objeto de documentários e seus textos dramatizados e apresentados no canal oficial da TV indiana.
Destacar-se em um universo de alguns milhões de indivíduos pode parecer fácil, mas em se tratando de India com bem mais de um bilhão de habitantes a coisa é outra...
Parabéns Sarojini Sahoo, você merece ...!!!

GAMBHIRI GHARA [translated from Portugese]

What is ‘gambhiri ghara?’

Actually, it is an Indian expression in the Oryia language, a language spoken in east India in Orissa State. It is used to designate a special place in the house: the ‘dark abode’ or ‘black room.’ Only the eldest members of the family are allowed in this truly special room because they believe that there is a deity of the local culture. Besides, it is used to keep the most precious things of the family.

I did this preface to present a very special person: Dr. Sarojini Sahoo, the famous Oryian author. She has written many books and novels, among them, Gambhiri Ghara. And why? To symbolize the heart; a place also special, where we keep valuable things and where we keep our own personal deities.

Gambhiri Ghara is a sensitively-written narrative that goes from love to international politics. It begins with a three-way love affair, born on the internet, involving two different cultures: Indian and Pakistani. The novel effectively shows the conflicts between these cultures and shows how the large force of love overcomes them. She works very well the strings of their marionettes.
Gambhiri Ghara has been translated into the major languages in India and is now being published in other languages throughout the world, well beyond the borders of India. It was released in Bangladesh in Bengali, sponsored by the most important local newspaper there, and has now been translated into English under the title: The Dark Abode.

But who is Sarojini Sahoo? Today, she is the largest voice of feminism in India and has a very different point of view. Unlike Virgínia Woolf or Judith Butler, she is considered to be the local Simone de Beauvoir. Sahoo is included in Wikipedia and is among the top-100 women’s rights activists of all times. She was recently interviewed by About.com, an entity of The New York Times!

Sarojini Sahoo is an example of superation [?? I can’t find this word]. Her father wanted his first-born child to be a boy. Instead, a girl was born. Frustrated, he waited to see if his next child would come to fulfill his wishes and satisfy his cultural pride. A daughter, Sarojini, came instead.

What did he do then? He just raised and educated her as a boy. She had the name of a girl but the nickname, hairstyle, and clothes of a boy. This went on until she was a teenager. Then, she broke the glass dome she was in and began her personal saga, a saga that has made her what she is today.

And why worship a woman like this? This is my homage to every woman, from Nathalie Rogers to any Mary Anywhere. She is truly a voice to the word, an emergent woman with her own ideas of feminism. Many documentaries have been done about her and many of her texts have been dramatized on India´s official TV channel.

To make yourself visible among millions may look like something easy to do, but when you make yourself visible to more than a billion people in India, this is another thing. Congratulations Sarojini Sahoo! You deserve it!

Sahoo is the mother of two children: a son and a daughter, and is married to the famous writer Jadadish Mohanti.

Kuki, the central character of novel, is a wife of Aniket, An IIT ian working in ‘Mumbai’ and drawing very good salary but she was not emotionally and physically satisfied with him due to his short tempered nature. This loneliness diverted his wife to fall in love with a Muslim Artist from ‘Pakistan’ named Safik through Cyber-media. The long series of love conversations between Safik and Kuki was mostly a fantasy. The acceptance level of feminine psychology of Kuki was so high that she took him as ardent life partner. In spite of her knowledge that Safik was a lascivious and lecherous person who had made contact with variety of 52 women but, still Kuki was very assertative about the artist. Moreover, being mother of two children, she was very happy to make a Cyber relationship with ‘Safik’. Indeed, the novel portrayed the relationship between different religions, different countries with different background even bitter relationship and animosity made by transgression and obsession.

In chapter-16, it was tried to reflect the fundamental of Osho’s theory. In my adolescent ages, I had gone through Osho literature , mostly a revolutionary volumes “SAMBHOG SE SAMADHI KI AUR”. Even I have attended one meditation camp organized by Osho devotees at “JODHPUR”. It is my personal experience that ‘Sex’ can be an originator of great ecstasy that was illustrated by naked idols of ‘Konark’ and “Khajuraho’. In Hindu mythology, the “Shivalingam” worshiping is a fastidious example about the sacro-sanctity of ‘sex’ as a creation of universe.

This novel learnt me a lesson to give a due diligence and respect to the sentiments of my counterpart. Till date I was teemed with a manlihood psychology to suppress the feelings of women. But, now I discovered that feminine psychology elaborated from your novel reflected that it is always vacillating in nature. To ignore these sentiments means it may lead to devastating results . Also, it is pertinent to make the relation fresh and juvenile between couple, there is a prime requirement to understand female physiology and psychology.

In chapter-V a reflection of love towards art,(louver art gallery) made us to think that microscopic views towards any artistic value assuaging the basic need for human requirement even to satiate any perversion. Some sobriquets of the novel such as “Perversion goes hand in hand with genius, be it Einstein or Flaubert, it boosts creativity” are pragmatic and ruminating. This novel recapitulated my memory towards some of previous famous novel such as “ Company with women” by Khuswant Singh as well as “Cosmic love” by an English author. The theme of these novels was also revolving around the same ‘pith’ of your novel. But your novel is a precious jewel due to its very simple, lucid and vernacular languages used at sometimes such as “Impotent, My Baby, My Goddess e.t.c.” This made the novel more interesting to explore another imaginative arena.

This novel is most relevant in present scenario to mitigate terrorism and state sponsored anarchism through soft heart of “Kuki”. It is universal truth that most of Pakistanis are terrorist and threatening another part of the world in name of “Jehad”. If you can vent off the the inner sentiment of Abdul Rehman Kasab, only alive terrorist of “Mumbai attack”. If some Indian girl fall in love with him, Perhaps he could not do such heinous crime of man-slaughter. Hence, love is only an entity to save humanity of world irrespective of cast, creed, race, belief, religion, nations and even by crossing geographical boundaries.

No word I have to panegyrize writer esteemed effort, labor, pain and struggle to construct such original, creative and prolific novel. I hope certainly this novel will meet the interest of laureates, vociferous readers and academicians from all corner of the World.

I am fully convinced that our ancient history reveals about our same origin. In fact, we all are the clans of Indus civilization .Hence any category of humanity in different nomenclature ,say, Muslims , Hindu, Christian , Jain,Sikhs is bound with common philosophy of life.

But it is a matter of great regret that conversion of religion forcibly has not only separated /isolated but created genetically a great animosity among us .The massacre of “Kandhamal” is an burning example when Hindu sage is murdered by any Christian antisocial element. Then preponderance Christians are ravaged by Hindu extremities.

Similarly , if I recapitulate the scene of film “Border” in which an Indian Sikh ( Sunny Deol ) adored a Muslim girl ( Amisha Patel ), I visualize ,first of all , for getting their marriage, the religion of bride-groom was converted into Muslim. Afterward he was drastically tortured to make blasphemous remarks against our Nation, saying Hindustan Murdabad ! Hindustan Murdabad !! . On denial both lovers were publicly shooted to death. The significance of above is to exemplify my own views , “Safiks are very few but the Musarafs are most predominant in Pakistan”

The religious fervor had made them so blind and barbaric that they could not understand sentiments of any innocent human being .

I opined that Military Junta of Pakistan, as a political gamut, acted as abettor of Terrorists such as Dawood Ibrahim and associated other camps of Laskar-e –Toiba etc. and to wash out their gloomy face ,their own innocents persons like “Safik” are entangled.

One more question sometime arises in my heart that genology of Mugal emperors reflected cruelty , barbarism , and in-sensitiveness , but Aryan emperors were very sympathetic ,philanthropic and God- fearing personalities. If Aryan were converted into Muslim during attack of Mugal, was it possible that their unambiguous fundamental properties deteriorated gradually ?

Certainly this novel has tantalized me upto innermost and I pray that this novel will bring peace among India and Pakistan. It is a matter of great rejoice that “Indian Kukis” are sentimental and ready to help secular “Pakistani Safik” personalities. If this novel is published in Pakistan, the rift between two countries will be filled up to some extent .
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I enjoyed the novel; I appreciate that is widely accepted. I ascertain my support to the philosophy inculcated in the novel
Sarojiniji has brought out her faculty as a writer in an entirely novel atmosphere of web and net. Man-woman relation is not a patriarchal hegemonial affair; it must be a human to human affair.
I am an arden fan of Sarojiniji.