There was an air of restlessness in the graveyards. A number of dead literary figures turned in their graves. A new sun was about to rise on the horizon of English Literature ... Dumblina had decided to do her Masters in English Literature. Since then, she has enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the subject. She loves the subject, but at the same time hates it because, like most things in her life, it is full of chaos and confusion for her.
When Dumblina started studying English Literature, she began feeling literary and poetic all the time. She discovered that the creative juices inside her were craving to come out on paper. She could not hold them in any longer, thus she developed a strong belief that she was a poetess by birth. Her poetic talent was overflowing so much that she had to write poetry during her classes instead of listening to the lectures of her respected teachers (perhaps this is the reason why she believed for a long time that Nostromo and Nostradamus were long-lost brothers). Not only that, she was deeply offended when her best friend, sitting beside her and listening to the teacher’s lecture seriously, would sometimes refuse to read her poetry there and then. Let me quote some lines by the great poetess:
Drop drop drop
The rain is dripping
And so are my tears
I look at you
You look at me
Isn’t the weather lovely?
Dumblina was lucky to be blessed by sincere and patient friends. They would read her poetry and give her sympathetic appreciation. But one of her best friends couldn’t help advising her that she should try to bring about some change in her poetry. Dumblina was very angry and decided that the only way to take revenge was to stop writing poetry, so that everyone would blame the person who dared to criticize her poetic skills. So far, she hasn’t heard of any lamentation.
A kind soul used to teach her at the university and after hours of tutoring, when he would suspect that she wasn’t paying any attention , he’d quiz her and she would utter a few syllables innocently, “Tum batao.” At home, her sister would read and explain every study material while Dumblina darling would lie in her bed half asleep and often in deep slumber.
However, Dumblina was not so dumb after all and did quite well in the exams. Although her well-wishers wanted her to become a position holder, there was a problem — Dumblina used to get fits of boredom while attempting the question papers. Halfway through her paper, she would suddenly realize that there were more important things in life than just obtaining good marks (like going to the canteen and having food, sitting and chatting with friends and writing poetry, of course). She couldn’t just devote all her time and energy to studies. So she rushed through her exam papers to set her priorities right.
Three years after obtaining her Masters degree in English Literature, whenever she experiences flashbacks of her academic life, certain questions still haunt her: Did Emma write Jane Austen or vice versa; Who wrote Great Expectations (when a friend answered, “Seth Chhota Bhai Mota Bhai Baatlee Wala”, Dumblina thought for 10 minutes before figuring out that it was a joke); Was Big Brother a character of Orwell’s 1982 or 1986; How many books did Joseph Andrews, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield write?
These sort of questions keep travelling in the vast space of Dumblina’s mind whenever she tries to recall and ponder upon the mysteries of English Literature — a subject she has now ‘mastered’!
