Chapter 1 - About the Poet and his Background
It is said that thehistory plays of Shakespeare help one to better understand the history of England than volumes on British History. And it is better to read the poems composed by K. V. Dominic to understand India of our times than perusing volumes on Indian economics, Indian politics and Indian society of today. This is not all. Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life. If this be true, then Dominic has no peer in the context of Indian English literature. In order that searching criticism could be done, there must be a high moral standard in the light of which the criticism would be possible. Dominic’s poetry, unlike much of our poetry today, speaks of high moral values that are at the core Indian and that could be emulated by other cultures also. Moral values, in order to be practicable, need a grasp on the economic, political and social condition of the society under study. It also needs a comprehensive grasp on the philosophy, on the background of which the socially aware poetry could be composed.
Though Dominic’s poems are not philosophical on the surface, it seems that Dominic has a philosophical system of his own which is unique and very much Indian. If anyone starts reading his poetry, he cannot stop. Dominic is irresistible because of his simplicity of parole below which lurks a deeply visionary message. Here is a humble attempt to decode his poems. The text is not there in the printed material. The text is in the minds of the readers. There are as many texts as there are readers of a particular book of poems. I must acknowledge that I am not a seer who can unravel universal truths. Hence the present write-up is composed often in the first person. When you find good poetry you cannot but share your feelings with your fellow readers. Hence this book! If it provokes a few readers to read Dominic more and to plunge in what Dominic calls sattvika karma, the present reader will be more than obliged to his readers. With deepest regards to all,
Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhayay
On the Cover Page of the Book K. V. Dominic Essential Readings
A paratext is the threshold of a text. It includes the cover along with illustration with it if any, the name of the author, the name of the editor if any. It is the link between the text and off text. Its importance cannot be exaggerated. Once upon a time, a drama with deeper message was advertised as one that bursts with laughter. When the spectators entered the theatre hall, their expectations were belied. They left the hall in the midst of the play. The advertisement was the paratext. But the drama, which is a comedy or a play, pleasant and unpleasant in the course of time, found a niche in the realm of literature. At the moment, we have a book with the names—K. V. Dominic Essential Readings and Study Guide. The name K. V. Dominic is kept separate from the rest. Often the name of an author stands for the works by the author. This is an instance of metonymy. There is an illustration on the cover above the names. There are two children together there--one is whitish and another black. Is it a metaphor–a comparison between two apparently unlike things? It at once reminds us of William Blake:
My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav'd of light.
(Blake, “The Little Black Boy”)
The illustration brings a black child and a white child together and announces aloud that neither black is the truth nor white is the truth. Neither not black is the truth nor not white is the truth. Truth is elsewhere perhaps. Thus the cover page of the book evokes expectations in the readers that they will come across some emergent truths in the text if they ever take the pains to go through the same.
On the Poet and his Name
The paratext informs us that the book contains poems. In fact genres aresine qua non not only in our everyday world, but also in the field of art. Does anyone go for prayer in a post office? Does anyone go to post a letter at a church? Similarly if any one infers from the paratext of a
