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A profile of Hari Barkakati
You come, my beloved
Thus flows the romanticism and sensuality from Hari Barkakati’s pen, the most riveting and beguiling poet of the
present era. A perfect icon of a transcendentally romantic era, his poems reflect his spirit of art, clarity of thoughts and
magnanimity of his mind. After a long chat with him on a Sunday morning at his residence at Guwahati, he completely
overwhelmed me with his urbane and genial approach.
Born in 1927 in the midst of exhilarating and idyllic surroundings of tea estates of
Doomdooma,
he was educated at Seniram High School,
Tinsukia and then went to St Paul’s College, Calcutta, but had
to return after one year due to
communal violence at Calcutta and completed his graduation from Cotton College,
Guwahati. He obtained his MA (1st
class) degree from Gauhati University in 1951. During 1952-53,
he worked as a sub-editor of Natun Assamiya and also
as a lecturer in B Borooah College, Guwahati, but later joined the Assam Civil Service in 1954. He was posted as
Extra Assistant Commissioner in
Golaghat and later worked in various departments till he
retired as Joint Secretary Education in 1984. He even invented
‘keyboard’ for typewriter in Assamese in 1964. Sri Barkakati was fortunate to be born in a family
which had deep
inclination towards the fine arts and he was greatly influenced by the writings of Bengali writers like Buddhadev
Basu,
Jibananda Das, Sukanto Bhattacharjee and also different Assamese poets like Ganesh Gogoi, Amulya Baruah, Jatin
Narayan Sarma, Jatin Dowerah and others during his schooldays. His very first poem Sri Sri Sankardev
was published in
his school magazine at Tinsukia. But in 1948 his predilection
towards poetry took a serious turn when he got the first
prize in the fine arts competition in Cotton College for his poem Shihot Ki. Author of six outstanding poetic
anthologies
namely -- Xagar Balir Khoj, Konoba Shitar Eta Boga Xandhiya, Chinaki Chinaki Gondh, Man Kagazar Nao,
Hari Barkakatir
Kabita and Swanirbaashita Kabita (both Assamese and English version), he is a true devotee and
lover of art and beauty.
The poetical works of Hari Barkakati take us back to the romantic and golden era of Keats,
Byron and Milton with multiple qualities of his poetry like touching exuberance, mellifluous
articulation and wonderful capacity of concentrated and unembellished ways of narration. In
his poem Ek Abhavaniya Amantran, he has wonderfully lifted the curtains to expose the
mentality of a newly married bride of the high class rotten modernised society when she
invites her old lover to satisfy her carnal desires during the absence of her husband, thus
making the sanctity of marriage a mockery. The writings of Sri Barkakati touches the strings
of human heart like a seraphic bliss and resuscitates complete serenity and placidity to a
perturbed mind. In his panegyrical poem Dristipat, the poet has magnificently depicted the
futile endeavours of the vagabonds trying to free themselves from the fetters of earthly desires
in search of eternal peace and tranquility but ultimately surrendering to the manacle or bond of
irresistible, alluring and winsome qualities of feminine love.
Hari Barkakati’s perspicacity and sagacity in the literary field are very well reflected in his notable poem
Kunuba Shitar Ek
Boga Shandhiya, where the poet appeals to his beloved to recollect those passionate reminiscences and tender
moments of love shared together during their youthful days and further aspires to live in the mind of his lover
even after his
death, at the same time sanguine that his beloved will one day surely go in search of him and of those treasured and
reinvigorating memories of love and youthful vigour. A man of demure deportment, arresting personality and
altruistic
character he is a glittering sapphire in the diadem of Assamese literature. His appeal lies in his expressions
which are
really copacetic and unmatched. In his laudatory poem Amar Sobi, he has eloquently portrayed the illusory
picture drawn
by the people in this barren and arid world with stains of their blood, dreaming about conquering the
inevitable death and
then experiencing a heavenly joy of flying across the cosmos. But the poem ends with a pessimistic and
melancholic
note when the poet unveils the other fact of this illusory and hallucinatory sketch to which the people do not try to
visualise, where the lives of the people are valueless like the shephalika (Shewali phool) and even compares our blood as
anaemic and pallid like the thin and penetrable curtains of a girls’ hostel and leading a rodderless voyage, thus
upholding
the ultimate and bare truth of life.
An erudite writer, his elysian poems clearly indicates his true love for beauty, glamour, passion and sometimes
the ache
of a lovelorn soul. In his mesmerising poem Mor Bigot Jaubonor Prayoshir Prati, the romantic and
amorous aspect of
unrequited love has found graceful and revealing expressions, when the poet expresses his dissatisfaction at
his failure to
get his beloved, but at the same time sceptical about his fate on unfulfilment of his dreams by saying that
though his
lady-love radiated charm, alluring and erotic qualities but was bereft of appealing, passionate and captivating the
reflections of those appealing qualities in the face of his beloved’s daughter which made a perpetual impact
on his mind
and motivate him in times of solitariness.
Regarding the present generation writers he says that he is happy to see promising talents blooming but
categorically
remarks that "poets are the mirrors of the society. Poetry should be able to reflect the true picture of a
society and a poet
who deviates his thoughts from such basic features is not a poet in the true sense." On his thoughts on the
present
political scenerio he says, &#quot;we do not know where we are heading for" and further laments over
such violent events of the
state and states that such turbulent conditions can never form a stairway to success.
Hari Barkakati is a silent conqueror of the hearts of his readers and exhibits complete dexterity and dominance
over the
art of sensuousness and romanticism in his poems with an enthralling and spellbinding effect. A man of
youthful energy
he is still at the gateway of rejuvenation with his eternal creations of literature when he says –
Walking soft footed you  Courtesy: The Assam Tribune Read Hari Barkakati’s poems.
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