The New Nation - Internet Edition

Maswood Alam Khan

Doris Lessing has shown to the world the convenience of searching the truth concealed in nature by her gifted education instead of wasting time digesting texts in schools. Energy and time she invested of her own free will since her young life in comprehending tomes of Dickens, Scott, Stevenson or Kipling could have earned her many certificates that she could nicely laminate to treasure in a showcase if she instead did invest under compulsion the same in schools and universities, but would have missed her bijou moments to write "The Grass Is Singing" or "The Golden Note Book" or dozens of other volumes that has crowned her with this year's Nobel Prize in literature.

God does not endow anybody or every graduate with a gift of power to converse with nature and then weave the dialogues in the literary or scientific equivalence of a garland. A handful of gifted geniuses---Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is one of them---stepped on this earth to leave behind their immense contributions in the fields of science, art and literature. Gifted students ironically are often frustrated with the 'education as usual' systems, which, while it may suit the majority of students, do not suit their needs. Doris is one of those talented prodigies who found committing passages of textbooks to memory shelves and vomiting those words in exam halls a caricature of an idiot storing his/her mind with a million facts and still remaining entirely uneducated.

At 13 was the end of her trialing with formal education and at 15 she left her home to elope with nature. Her childhood was an uneven mix of some pleasures and much more pains. A self-educated intellectual Doris did not need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. Her labor pains in giving birth to literary flowers and fruits started when as a child she first saw and heard the pains and groans of her crippled father, who lost his one leg in World War I, trying in vain to make fortunes through maize farming and her ambitious mother fruitlessly trying to reproduce an Edwardian lifestyle in the midst of Rhodesians (now Zimbabweans). Lessing's soul always looked for chances to escape from dilemmatic torments of life she witnessed inside her home into an imaginary world that she ardently fancied outside.

The only runaway from an otherwise miserable existence during her childhood she could explore was in the world of nature. Her insatiate childhood seems to have prodded her to satiate her adulthood thirst and hunger through writing "The Grass Is Singing", her first fiction the manuscript of which she carried along with her youngest son as she left Rhodesia for England to begin her career as a professional writer leaving behind bitter memories of her two failed marriages and two children from her first marriage.

Materials that fueled Lessing's emotion to read maps of nature and shapes of human mind emanated from her childhood memories and later from her encounters with politics, duality of cultures, inequality of races and the struggle within an individual's own personality to find the truth in the forest of falsities. She was declared a prohibited alien in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa as she exposed the brutality of the whites over the blacks and the sterility of artificial white culture in the pristine nature of southern Africa.

The most talked about works of Doris Lessing are referred to as 'The Grass Is Singing' and 'The Golden Notebook', the two fictions she wrote with her restless intellect in no-nonsense language based on her bumptious experiences in Africa, Europe and America. 'The Grass Is Singing' is her first novel published in 1950 that dealt with racial politics between whites and blacks, a dreary and horrifying tale of a failed marriage, a feverish neurosis of white sexuality and fear of black influence---a novel with depth and maturity of a psychological study. 'The Golden Notebook', published in 1962, is a daring narrative experiment in which the multiple selves of a contemporary woman are rendered in astonishing depth and detail---a novel with fecundity of ideas and insights. But on the contrary, whenever, however, she was asked to name her best works Doris Lessing would always point at her science fictions which though were not much appreciated by the reviewers in the press or the readers in the library.

A prolific writer Lessing once described writing as a kind of 'wool-gathering'---a slow, tedious and difficult process. Still she could manage to raise a child alone, be so involved with politics and still find time to write. Her involvement though with politics was perfunctory. She attended not more than 10 meetings as a member of the communist party writers' group in Rhodesia. Lessing believes that she was freer than most people because she became a writer.

Readers of Lessing became her followers largely because of her odysseys in inner space of human mind and outer space of the cosmos and her commitment to major issues, such as communism, feminism and Sufism. In her struggle to prove or disprove existentialism she continued writing one fiction after another constructing characters acquiescent with ephemeral matters, pleasures and pains of life as if she were tirelessly climbing a tall flight of stairs with books considered her steppingstones in quest of a truth fleeting and missing for ages before her arrival at the theatre of this planet.

Not before reflecting her interests on Sufi mysticism could she climb high enough to tryst with the truth of spirituality. Her science fiction in series probing higher planes of existence (Canopus in Argos: Archives, 1979-1983) was greatly influenced by the Muslim scholar Idries Shah whose writings on mysticism stress the evolution of consciousness and the belief that individual liberation comes about only if people understand the link between their own fates and the fate of the society. Sufism's universality in source, scope and relevance persuaded Doris Lessing to ornament her writings with sequins of Sufism.

Lessing viewed her space-fiction series of Canopus as a platform where she extrapolated fates of the living from the fate of cosmic evolution---raising humankind to a higher plane of existence-which is a basic tenet of Sufi philosophy, the latest of three major influences on her thinking. The first was communism that lasted from 1944 till 1956, the second was feminism that began in 1950s and lasted through the 1960s when she turned to Sufism. Most readers, however, felt dismayed at the sudden veering of the writer from her steadfast position as an archeologist of human relations to the smog of mystification. She was dubbed an African writer, a Communist writer, a feminist writer, a psychological writer, a science-fiction writer and lastly a mystic writer. Her pilgrimage progressed from Communism to Sufism covering three continents and a world war.

The Swedish Academy, while announcing the 10 million Swedish Krona (US$ 1.54 million) Nobel Prize for literature, termed this year's recipient Doris Lessing as an "epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny." Lessing, to be 88 on 22 October, is the oldest person to win Nobel Prize for literature and the 34th female laureate since Nobel Prize was introduced in 1901. Though British by heredity she could be introduced as an Iranian baby, a Rhodesian adult and a British poet as she was born and spent her childhood till she was 5 in the Iranian city of Kermanshah, was raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) till she was 15 and had since her literary talent flourished in the United Kingdom till today.

According to the statutes of Nobel Foundation framed in strict compliance of what was mentioned in the will Alfred Nobel wrote in 1895, the Swedish Academy had chosen Doris Lessing from among hundreds of candidates nominated by thousands of registered nominators all over the world---nominators like members of academics, university professors, writers and poets from numerous countries, previous Nobel Laureates, members of parliamentary assemblies and others.

Anybody from anywhere in the world did cast votes---through SMS or Emails---to make Nolak the best (or the most popular) 2006 singer in Bangladesh through Close-up One competition sponsored by NTV and also did put weights of votes on Time magazine's Editorial Board to choose their 'Person' of the yester century. But Tom, Dick or Harry like you and me cannot voice to the Swedish Academy our supports or recommendations for a writer who touched our souls by his/her writings composed in our own mother tongue and styled in our own lore and tradition.

Had Alfred Nobel had the slightest inkling on the possibility of a global referendum through instant messaging he would perhaps added a clause in his will to take into account a percentile weight for global opinion of the masses in addition to votes from think tanks of the world to decide for the best of the year and in that scenario we could perhaps find among the Nobel Laureates many other new faces from China or Bangladesh whose labor pains in giving birth to literary flowers and fruits were more excruciating than those withstood by Doris Lessing.

Nevertheless, we are looking forward to a Monday on 10 December of this year when Doris Lessing attired in her best evening gown will be receiving the Nobel Prize Medal, Diploma and Pay Order for US$ 1.54 million from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and shaking hands with Her Majesty Queen Silvia reciprocating measured bows and smiles in regal style. We are also eager what message she would convey to us in her Nobel Lecture Lessing will have to deliver as a Nobel Laureate a day or two before the Award ceremony.

In the most coveted banquet following the Award ceremony, a rare partying arranged in the most splendid settings adorned with the best thinkable culinary protocols from flower arrangements to food, wine, dessert and divertissement---everything minutely orchestrated to make the banquet unforgettable---as Doris Lessing would be sipping soup or picking dessert her mind would be traveling back to a variety of panoramas that molded her pen to spill inks in composing parables of life and living that has earned her a space in the glittering world of the noblest.

Maybe at one poignant moment, during her exchanging pleasantries with a few known faces amid the murmuring of 1300 VIP guests who would be gathering in the banquet at the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall, Doris will overhear a ventriloquial whisper reminding her a mystical advice: "Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much s/he has polished it", as quoted in 'The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi' by William C. Chittick.

Rasal Hasan Lia

Mistake is a common trait of human beings. People though may commit it because of lacking knowledge, it becomes punishable if a mistake harms others and if the people do not apologize and compensate; and it becomes a sin and punishable, if the people take it as a usual practice and/or they willingly avoid the opportunity to learn before committing the mistake. A speech or comment of any responsible person may be a reason for others to engage in sinful and punishable activities.

There are some prohibitions from the Creator for human beings in engaging inter course with some specified relatives. Though the Creator is merciful for the activities already done before the rules announced by the prophet, people can not avoid the curse of such sinful act on the ground that they were not knowledgeable about the prohibitions unless they ask and certainly permitted by whom they were taught religion and thereby became follower of the respective religions.

If anyone in conscious mind or mistakenly ask someone to engage such hated activities, those who are conscious should protest and should not provide silent consent. No one, whether he did or did not and whatever his position in the society, has the right to make a religious holy place a seat for teaching what is prohibited in that religion as there is a chance of sufferings for those who do not follow or protest the lesson on the ground that the lesson is irrational or unethical or prohibited in that religion.

Both the twos who ask to do the sinful act and who provide silent consent thereto should be punishable as long as the person who was asked to do the sinful act does not commit the sin and the protester suffers. The followers of that respective religion if truly believe in HIS existence should not be reasons for the sufferings of the protester. If it's a religious holly place and/or in front of many people, human beings can not avoid their responsibilities of the consequences of their speech, comments or silent consent thereto. If anyone opines that there is no corruption after s/he gets empowered, s/he must take the responsibilities if the corruption is not totally eradicated as such an opinion can work as an inducement for the persons who are still in corruption.

Those who render such an opinion can not avoid the responsibilities of the corruptions that are taking place during his/her tenure wherein an involver is visible back of the opinion provider in a publicized picture. Anyone can opine confidently that h/she is not engaging in any corruption but no one unless being corrupted or stupid can opine that there is no corruption during his/her tenure unless the corruption is totally eradicated from the concerned department. Not only the perfections, usefulness of any law or rule depends on its effectiveness in ensuring the activities and attitudes of the people to be as desired by the law or rules. Human beings are on the journey towards civilization in the sense that they are improving their tolerance for protecting human rights allowing freedom of expression and equal opportunities regardless of the power and position of people.

When the relationship among the people is influenced by the abuse of power or devil like deceitful tricks that hampers the human right, there are reasons to believe that there is a lacking of belief on HIM among those who abuses the power and forget that HE is knowledgeable of every mind. There is only one Creator sends prophets and provides guidelines so that human beings can be helpful, not harmful for others. All objects and people surrounding a person will be witness at resurrection in the sense that they will claim for each and every misdeeds of that person, not in the sense that they will merely express the facts as HE knows every thing.

The Creator is the most resourceful. HE needs nothing and expects nothing for HIS own as HE is all in all but HE expects that HIS creatures express gratitude by helping each other, not merely praising in HIS name. Human beings should be grateful for each other and should extend co-operations to each others simultaneously they must be able not to be emotional and not to offer unethical co-operations or favor for those from whom they even get help, as HE is the almighty WHO expects HIS creatures be right.

Human beings, who extend endeavors to protect democracy and human right in many societies on earth, should not be biased on the basis of religious identities or existence of natural resources. Followers of all religions should believe that HE exists everywhere and HE will count all the right and wrongful activities of HIS creatures regardless of the religious identities……………..

In a state of democracy with many newspapers wherein the media and the media associated people perform vital roles for establishing the right of people, wherein the editors are very busy, and wherein their assistants who feel pressure in executing the roles on behalf of their boss and frequently get instructions from the boss to be precise while reporting, once an assistant of an editor gets a query from the ministry of communication about the schedule of the editor who informed his subordinate before leaving the office that he was going to attend a seminar on "capacity building of a blind" and instructed the subordinate to communicate the message precisely if anyone ask as every one has the right to access information and delegated his smart subordinate the authority to talk and meet incase of importance, replies to the ministry accordingly as " hi! hi! meet me as hi! he is blind now".

I edit: I didn't, editor did.

The valuable time of the respected editor never can be expected be useless. Though the writer is confident of matching critical puzzle games, now falls in trouble restoring the original message that was edited by a newspaper. It is easier to match a puzzle game as no new fraction is added to, no existing fraction is thrown out from or as there is no alteration of the shape in any of the existing fractions, than to restore the significance of the original message that was sent to the newspaper and thereafter edited with insertion of new words, deduction of original words and with changes in the meaning. The editors should understand that buying a newspaper and buying food become mutually exclusive for many readers. Replacement of words, correction of spelling mistakes and changes in sentence formats and even dropping out of objectionable opinion may be common while editing, but changes in the meaning is unexpected as it becomes injurious to a sender.

Insertion of the term "most" by the editor in the original message that expresses "mistake is a common trait of human beings" produces enthusiasm as it produces the possibility of finding the editor as an exception of human beings that the editor is free from mistakes. But the enthusiasm goes to hell watching the subsequent alterations of the sense of the original message. Original message explains when a mistake becomes sin and when it should be treated as punishable and when it becomes both punishable and sin. "People though may commit it because of lacking knowledge, it becomes punishable if a mistake harms others and if the people do not apologize and compensate; and it becomes a sin and punishable, if the people take it as a usual practice and/or they willingly avoid the opportunity to learn before committing the mistake". Mistake is viewed separately as when people commit only sin, it is the only one Creator can award punishment. There is no hesitation from the part of this writer to accept the limitation in writing in english which is not his mother tongue, but there is hesitation in offering thanks to the editor when he reads: "it (mistake) becomes punishable only when the mistake harms others. If the one who committed the error does not apologize and compensate; it becomes a sin. The error becomes punishable also if the people take it as a usual practice and deliberately avoid the opportunity to learn before committing the mistake"- instead of the original message.

"A speech or comment of any responsible person may be a reason for others to engage in sinful and punishable activities"- this is inferred after experiencing the impact of a comment of the chief of a ministry. If anyone opines that there is no corruption after s/he gets empowered, s/he must take the responsibilities if the corruption is not totally eradicated as such an opinion can work as an inducement for the persons who are still in corruption. When a newspaper conveys any message, it is expected that the editor does not edit the message in such a way that the message becomes misguiding for the readers. People when assemble to protest for the disgraceful use of the holy term that is associated with the holy name of the best prophet, they should have the morale to judge themselves that they do not commit that sin for which death sentence is the punishment as per that religion.

The original message contains: "There are some prohibitions from the Creator for human beings in engaging inter course with some specified relatives. Though the Creator is merciful for the activities already done before the rules announced by the prophet, people can not avoid the curse of such sinful act on the ground that they were not knowledgeable about the prohibitions unless they ask and certainly permitted by whom they were taught religion and thereby became follower of the respective religions. ………. Not only the perfections, usefulness of any law or rule depends on its effectiveness in ensuring the activities and attitudes of the people to be as desired by the law or rules."

The message explains that the creator is merciful for the sinful activities that people did before the arrival of the prophet or before setting belief in religion. HE is merciful if human beings are in doubt regarding any rule and they do not avoid the opportunity to learn before committing the sin and/or they are misguided by the religious teachers. But what the editor writes after deducting some sentences from the original message, may work as an inducement for the readers to engage in the sinful activities. Any one may or may not do sin, but no responsible person should attempt to make a prohibited or sinful activity permissible unless he takes the responsibility of advocacy at resurrection. No religious person, if s/he believes truly should remain indifferent when someone attempts to make a mosque or/and a shrine a place of prodding sinful activities as such an attempt may adversely affect the fate of others. "No one, whether he did or did not and whatever his position in the society, has the right to make a religious holy place a seat for teaching what is prohibited in that religion as there is a chance of sufferings for those who do not follow or who protest the lesson on the ground that the lesson is irrational or unethical or prohibited in that religion." However thanks to the editor as this portion is not as difficult as that of a critical puzzle game. For the convenience of the readers, for the understanding of how things are going on, though the readers may be the readers of the news papers or may be only the editors, a story comes suitable.: "In a state of thieves where the price of ink is stable, the key decision maker takes a provision of general mercy to make the state free from the blame and he instructs the implementing bodies to communicate and implement the provision that the thieves who will return the stolen properties and will compensate and thereafter will apologize for the same will get themselves relieved. Taking the job to return stolen properties very painful, the implementing bodies communicated the message as "the thieves who will return the stolen properties and will compensate and thereafter will apologize for the same will get themselves relieved".

Setting up the caution "there are some prohibitions from the Creator for human beings in engaging inter course with some specified relatives" after deletion of some sentences by the editor produces the ground to believe that the editor expects tolerance, freedom and co-operation in this respect. But the original message pays an application for human beings not to extend unethical co-operation or favor to anyone for getting undue benefit and simultaneously not to harm others. The original message contains: "There is only one Creator sends prophets and provides guidelines so that human beings can be helpful, not harmful for others. All objects and people surrounding a person will be witness at resurrection in the sense that they will claim for each and every misdeeds of that person, not in the sense that they will merely express the facts as HE knows every thing. The Creator is the most resourceful. HE needs nothing and expects nothing for HIS own as HE is all in all but HE expects that HIS creatures express gratitude by helping each other, not merely… praising in HIS name."

The gap between what the people read and what they understand; and the gap between what they learn, though they can accept, reject or develop that they understand and what they implement, can vary from person to person but the gaps are expected to be reduced or to be bridged. The editor of The Independent (Bangladesh) must be given thanks as there is no doubt that he spends time for reading and editing letters that he receives. However the valuable time of the editor should not be a waste of time. The Creator exists everywhere Who counts all the activities of His creatures regardless of the religious identities.