CLASSICS REVISITED - Thoreau’s truth

Walden is convincing because the vivid details of the woods, the pond, and the seasons are used as a metaphor of his vision of a good life.

Walden and Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, first published 1854 and 1849, Penguin Classics, Special Indian Price, Rs. 250. Ralph Emerson’s essay, Society and Solitude from Complete Essays and Other Writings.

Our life is frittered away by detail…Simplify, simplify, simplify...

I never found a companion so companionable as solitude.

There are three chairs in my house: one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.

Henry Thoreau: Walden and Civil Disobedience

Gandhiji clearly shared with Thoreau that each generation must discover the world through its own eyes rather than through the eyes of previous generations. But in rejecting the “dead hand of the past” Thoreau had warned that every indivi dual “be very careful to find out and pursue (Truth and self realisation) his own way”, that could only come through solitude, away from the madding crowd. If the narrator of Walden stands for anything, it is as an example of “the practicality of virtue” which had the power to awaken people from the torpid lives of expediency and slavish materialism. Thoreau’s impact on Gandhiji’s life and philosophy was profound and much of it came from his reading of Walden, as also the New Testament, Tolstoy and, of course, the Gita.

Thoreau’s writings come to over 20 volumes but it is to Walden that we need to turn to here because a great deal of the philosophy of Civil Disobedience or non-violent resistance (or Satyagraha) can be traced back to the ideas of this book. The story goes that on July 4, 1845, when many Americans waved miniature flags and bells in honour of their country’s independence, Thoreau moved out of his parent’s home to a log cabin beside Walden Pond to declare his own independence. But even as he disentangled himself from worldly affairs, his solitary musings resulted in a series of short essays where he told his readers that if they wanted to live “simply and wisely” they need to simplify and simplify. In Thoreau’s mind, individual discipline, intellectual growth, and spiritual development were the only true methods of reform, and “true reform was interior, private, which meant discovering the divinity within one’s self.”

Reflections on life

Walden is a small book of 17 essays with a Conclusion, some of which are reflections on Economy, Readings, Sounds, Solitude, Visitors, Higher Laws, Winter Animals, The Pond in Winter, and Spring. These essays are filled with quotations and a steady stream of discussions on literature, philosophy, religion, history and other topics. But the essays were more a product of his readings and reflections rather than his experiences which were limited because he confined himself between July 1845 to September 1847 to the Walden Pond.

But Walden’s relevance today is much more than an account of a life in the woods; it is appealing and convincing because the vivid details of the woods, the pond, and the seasons are used as a metaphor of his vision of a good life. Also, although Thoreau drew heavily from the ideas of his contemporary Ralph Emerson’s essay on Society and Solitude, he adapted it to his own ways of thinking and feeling. Thoreau insisted that you “figure it out” yourself and this could only be done in solitude, by being alone with yourself.

Perhaps the great relevance of Walden lies in the distinction that Thoreau makes between “solitude” and “loneliness”. Many of us confuse that the two are one and the same, that “solitude” is the flip side of “loneliness”. Thoreau says they are not, though not in so many words. What he says is this: “In solitude, I am by myself together with my inner Self and therefore two-in-one; in loneliness, I am actually one, deserted by all others.” In solitude therefore a dialogue is possible between me and myself, as it were, as is the dialogue between quotation marks in all Walden’s essays. True understanding (call it the kingdom of God, if you like) will come from within and for this you need to be left alone.

Simple truths

Simplicity; Purity; Clarity of line is what has attracted thousands of readers to Walden. Or to put it in the words of Hamlet’s advice to the players: hold the mirror up to nature, don’t saw your hand or tear a passion to tatters but even more importantly, “Be not too tame either.” Just be true to yourself. It is in the opening essays, “Economy and Where I Lived”, and “What I Lived For” that the tone is set for all the subsequent chapters. For Thoreau, the cost of a thing was to be measured by how much life he had to give for it, which is a sensible rate of exchange by any standard. Consequently, he was content to live simply and modestly because he believed that freedom meant learning to do without the trappings of a more complicated life. Hence, his exhortation, “simplify, simplify, simplify.”

Thoreau’s concluding essay, “Civil Disobedience”, in which he expressed his antislavery and antiwar sentiments and his insistence on living a life of principle has influenced nonviolent resistance movements worldwide. Here he asks the basic question whether we should be content to obey unjust laws or whether we should endeavour to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or we should transgress them at once? Gandhiji riposte was simple: “An unjust law itself was a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”

The simple magic of words

Nowadays, we’d like to assume that children prefer gadgets and do not like reading books. The Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival, held in Delhi recently, proved that assumption wrong. A look at the various book-centric activities that mesmerised children…

Photo: Rajeev Bhatt 
 
Reading as discovery: (From left) Authors Ranjit Lal, Sandhya Rao, Wendy Cooling and Paro Anand at Bookaroo.

I feel like a child. A child writing her first essay, chewing her nails and thinking hard. A child who is trying, with all the intensity she can muster, to recapture all those moments — of sheer joy, whoops of laughter, giggles and chortles, ey es filled with wonder, delight, innocent questions. It wasn’t a movie, it wasn’t a new computer game, it wasn’t Game Boy or Play Station 3. It was the magic of words, of pictures, of cartoons and doodles, of song and drama, of rhyme and verse, of stories read out, poems sung, dramas enacted and so much more. It was two days of pure and simple fun under the shade of a banyan tree at the Sanskriti Anandgram in Delhi. The Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival, the first ever such festival in India, unfolded on November 22 and 23.

We all cluck sceptically and say “today’s kids don’t read”. Bookaroo proved otherwise. It proved that they are sponges, that their spirits need direction from us, that they are hungry to grasp, that books still grip them and make their imagination swing into the realms of fables, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, and even Dickensian grimness.

Books are important still

Subhadra Sengupta, an author and one of the organisers said, “we were a little sceptic whether a fest around books would get a good response. The standard comment was that people don’t read and so a fest without magic shows and giant wheels will fall flat. So what Bookaroo did was prove that books are important to a lot of parents and kids and they can generate real excitement.” Manisha Choudary of Pratham books, who was instrumental in doing the city outreach across MCD schools in Delhi with eight authors, feels that the time was right for a book fest. “Whether it was the people in Pratham or friends, everybody is waiting for a well done, imaginative event around books. We had great luck in getting Sanskriti, lovely weather and such a wonderful mix of speakers! In all the MCD schools, the events were hugely enjoyed by the children and there is great scope to do Bookaroo events round the year in schools — events such as plays, readings in both English and Hindi for mixed groups of kids from both public and government schools.” Urvashi Butalia added value, “What Bookaroo showed is that if you make books available and exciting, kids will rush to read them, they’ll flock to book-related events in droves, as they did in the MCD schools and here and they’ll exchange their ideas and dreams with people who they think are interested in them. I told a young boy in my neighbourhood about Bookaroo. He couldn’t make it to Sanskriti but he came round the next day with a bunch of his stories, saying, ‘auntie, if you like children’s books, would you like to read what I have written; and so I did, and they are utterly brilliant — mature, nuanced, wonderful, how’s that for collateral?”

Signs of hope

So that is the writing on the wall. Children’s stories has seen many spurts of growth in India. Those who don’t subscribe to this view are probably the ones who haven’t looked hard enough. It was unadulterated pleasure to see a mom with two kids on both her knees, reading to them from a book and in two minutes there were 10 kids surrounding her, listening with rapt attention. There was another couple with seven kids (all siblings from a joint family), romping in the lawns and just quite another moment when a mom walked in with a bunch of tweenager girls, saying “we are celebrating my daughter’s birthday party at Bookaroo.”

Wendy Cooling observed that “the Indian publishing scene for children’s literature has taken off. There is a huge improvement in terms of design, illustration and presentation. It needs more direction, more choice, more access and most importantly a good library system in which parents are also involved. Kids should develop their own taste and begin to think about what they want and what they don’t.”

Jeff Smith plugged the graphic novel in for kids. The Bone series created by him proves what he believes in, that “comics till now have been thought of as junkie kids’ stuff. I picked up comics on the Ramayana and Hanuman on my last trip to India and found that just as in the U.S., these also has very stiff and formal drawings. But now there is a whole new generation of cartoonists who’ve created a whole new structure and it seems to be growing simultaneously in both countries… I didn’t know I was a children’s story writer till about a year ago. The reason why the Bone series was successful was because it wasn’t meant for kids. It wasn’t what we suppose in a hollow manner ‘what kids would like to read,’ and I think Harry Potter succeeds for the same reason. When I was a kid, what I liked the best was things that were full of imagination.”

With 40 authors packing in breathless excitement in two days, there was a lot of soaking in happening. Paro Anand, Sandhya Rao, Ranjit Lal explored the elements through their stories based in realities that we have witnessed — the howling seas and Tsunami, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, stories about the children of Kashmiri militants as they flounder in the dried up soil of militancy amidst a confused society.

Setting the story free

Tabish Khair curled up his tall frame under the tree to read from the Glum Peacock to a cluster of knee-high kids. There was no difference between the glee on his face and that of the children. “I’ve been involved with children’s literature because I read out stories to my kids aged four and seven. Children’s books published in India have made their presence felt on the international scene. Indian children’s stories always had an agenda, conveying the broad idea of the world of values, which is fine but a moralistic tone is not the answer. It’s best to combine entertainment and yet take a stand. The problem is a part of the bigger problem — if you have something to say, how do you grab the attention of your audience? You have to capture their attention and then say what you have to, it can’t be like someone talking from above...”

The best way to “nectarise” Bookaroo was to be a butterfly... just wing into readings, workshops, enactments like Venita Coelho’s. Venita said, “I love entertaining kids. Doing theatre and television, writing is just an extension and when they giggle and laugh, it’s most gratifying.” No small wonder then that her next book, based in Mumbai, is called Slice of the Sun, Piece of the Moon. I turned to the call of a loud, mesmerising “Bhuton ki kahani sunoge? Bhuton se kisko dar lagta hai? by Anupa Lal. She had them listening open mouthed and squeaking their answers out... “nnnooo, we aren’t scared.” “I’ve been telling stories since I was six years old. Children’s books in India have seen a growth and the momentum must be sustained.”

Did four year olds “wish to be animals?” asked Swati and Manisha. “If we were African lions, we’d be a rrroooaarrring success and if we were sheep we would knit jumpers together.” Deepa Agarwal took the children on an exploration of Tibet through the stories of Nain Singh and Kishan Singh. Workshops like Charm Seekers Challenge by Jo Williams had kids lost in the world of colour, stars and wings...many flights of imagination soared. The London Jungle Book with Bhajju Shyam and Steven Guy literally making mechanisms of the story work was a hands-on show of scientific creativity unleashed. The Panchatantra revisited with Kalpana Swaminathan, Ishrat and Sampurna Chattarji reading from their own books, retelling tales of the past in the new now. Sampurna’s tale is told by three brothers whose “pop was always mad at them”. Kalpana and Ishrat’s tale begins with a languor under the shade of a tree — “Nygrodha” and the “moon swings like a chandelier”. Very, very current!

Across the spectrum

We journeyed from Dickens to Dahl and good ole’ Scrooge. Anita Roy, a natural at story telling, literally made us wish our adulthood away. “We need to connect to kids at their level, ‘be’ them and then give them stories. The festival is about bringing children and the authors who they love together. We all got to meet some of the best authors and illustrators, and not just hear and see stories performed but also learn how books are written, illustrated and published. We hope to create a conducive platform for authors, publishers, booksellers, parents and teachers to meet and exchange ideas. It is about celebrating the world of children’s literature in a plethora of genres.”

Picturoo, the exhibition of Indian children’s book illustrations, was a great showcasing of Indian illustrators, because publishers sent in two works each, of three of their best illustrators, and it represented quite a diverse range of styles and talents and turned out to be a substantial exhibition, said Anushka Ravishankar. Children’s books in India have come a long way from being a moral science lecture and are moving into spaces where young minds can be left loose to explore “the spellbinding, dazzling, serious, grave, lyrical, poetic and precious” and it keeps in mind that today’s young reader is a highly perceptive, keen, intelligent person who is equally aware of the “ugly, morose, unsightly, lacking in moral values” world which can’t be dismissed by a play of words just as this young reader is also aware of all that is wonderful, warm, fantastical, magical...