...says about Gabor Lanczkor's selection of poems at the launch of Sound Odyssey in Mumbai
Last evening, the audience at Kitab Khana at the book launch of Hungarian author Gabor Lanczkor's selection of poems Sound Odyssey was small, but everyone was listening in rapt attention as he read some poems including The Table, the first one in which he declares in his very first lines:
'I cannot be
A humanist'.
A fact that artist and writer Sanjeev Khandekar is quick to pick on and remind us of the irony as Lanczkor belongs to a nation known for the Renaissance of Humanism. He deconstructs the poet's book the audience describing how it reflects the "current dilemna worldwide about what do you do when the majority in a democracy votes against the minority, for the racist, sexist..." and also points out how the post-colonialism poet, born after the 1956 communist revolution and 1986 rebellion to adopt democracy talks about loopholes in the new regime through gashes, slits in various poems and lines like 'The new fashioned dictatorship is possessed by the masses' in To Save.
Prof Ashwani of TISS, who was instrumental in making this happen, describes the Lanczkor's work as a ''perverse chaos of ancient traditions and contemporary myths. Occassionally materialist horror and existential pessimism, they are a celebration of growing Arachitecture in life and arts".
Lanczkor, who likes to leave readers to interpret his works for themselves, says after the event that he appreciates that Khandekar "also managed to uncover some of his sub conscious influences".
A significant portion of the selection focuses on Hungarian-born Amrita Sher-gil, who died at a young age of 28 and whose paintings became Lanczkor's guide to India and her traditions. "I first came across it in a gallery in Delhi and it was very to strange to see a Hungarian church atop a hill being celebrated as prominent work in the capital of India". And he's not yet done with the war-time painter was born in 1930. Other inspirations that repeatedly pop up in his poetry are androgyny and nature -- especially dormant volcanoes, the open night sky, the universe. But he's "not done with Sher-gil. She's a very complex personality".
Among Indian literary works, he's fond of Kalidasa, Life of Krishna by Jayadeva, and Tagore, but finds the epics tough.
Dr. Robert Revai-Bere, Consul General, Hungary, present at the launch reminds us about how lasting ties are built through culture and looks forward to it strengthening through arts and literature.
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 "The Sound Odyssey has many addresses: Sanjeev Khandekar")
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