From the Sundarbans via New York: How Bon Bibi assumes new meaning in the audio version of 'Jungle Nama'

Amitav Ghosh, Ali Sethi on how the parables of Bon Bibi, a tale popular in the villages of the largest mangrove forest in the world, assumes new meaning in the audio version of Jungle Nama
Aradhana Seth
Aradhana Seth

It was an ordinary night in Brooklyn a few months back that gave Bon Bibi a new lease of life. What could have been an otherwise usual evening of conversations and bonhomie shaped the idea for an unusual piece of work. As it could have played out, writer Amitav Ghosh was narrating the legend of Bon Bibi to writer-musician Ali Sethi who was immediately intrigued by the story. A decade earlier, Ghosh, the 2018 Jnanpith award winner, had introduced Bon Bibi as a small, but significant narrative in his novel Hungry Tide.  

It was only providence that Sethi could connect the legendary tale with something he heard while growing up. “I think we were discussing the tropes of syncretic South Asia, and the story of Bon Bibi came up, how she flies in from Mecca and rescues the locals from a man-eating tiger. A very familiar sort of fusing—the Hindu mother-goddess meets the Muslim ‘Bibi’ or holy woman. It reminded me of the Bibiyaan Pak Daaman (six ladies from Muhammad’s household) who are buried in Lahore and have a similarly Meccan provenance,” Sethi says. So an evening of stories—one that could easily have vanished into oblivion—turned into a collaborative effort in every sense of the word. 

In its audio book avatar Jungle Nama is the verse adaptation of an episode from the legend of Bon Bibi, a tale popular in the villages of the Sundarbans. Earlier this year, it was released as a book, with illustrations by acclaimed artist Salman Toor. “Working on this audiobook was a complete delight, unlike anything I have done before. My novels are entirely textual, so they don’t really lend themselves easily to music. That was one of the reasons why Jungle Nama was a hugely exciting departure for me,” Ghosh says. Released by HarperCollins India, Jungle Nama is a one-of-its-kind collaboration of three of the most acclaimed figures from the world of arts—Ghosh with verse, Sethi with music and illustrations by Toor. 

Audiobook is a new medium for Ghosh. “It has completely surpassed my expectations,” he says. His euphoric tone is almost palpable in this email interview. The musical notes have given Bon Bibi an immersive experience, believes Ghosh. “Ali has created something magical, and enchanting, which is what I was hoping for. Not being a musician myself, I did not know how this could be achieved; I only had a general sense of what I would like the audiobook to be. I wanted it to combine many different musical traditions, and this is exactly what Ali has succeeded in doing,” he adds.

The story of Bon Bibi, like many such stories, exists in many different versions. The original print version of this legend, dating back to the 19th century, is composed in a Bengali verse metre known as dwipodi poyar meaning the ‘two-footed line’. Jungle Nama is a free adaptation of the legend, told entirely in a poyar-like metre of 24 syllable couplets that replicate the cadence of the original. “There is a printed version, which is often chanted aloud at rituals; there are theatrical versions which are enacted by travelling jatra companies. And so on. In that sense you might say that stories like these create a kind of immersive experience, and I think the audiobook does exactly that: it creates a musical world that draws the listener in,” explains Ghosh. 

Even though the pandemic put limitations to the recording, the period was also a blessing in disguise for the two creative minds at work.  “Amitav and I were part of one Covid ‘bubble’, so we saw each other a lot in New York. Our dinners invariably turned into jams,” says Sethi, a former student of Ghosh in his writing classes at the Harvard University. “I would come over with my keyboard and we would sit together for about two hours, writing the lyrics and trying out tunes. Then I’d go back to my apartment and set up a virtual recording with the producer Anthony Soshil Shah, who is based out of Lahore. Anthony entered my laptop through the software and we spent many mornings tracking my vocals, as well as traditional instruments like surmandal and dhol, all of it done over scratchy WhatsApp video calls,” he says.

The result is anything but scratchy. Sethi effortlessly mixes the various classical ragas—moving from Ahir to Bhairav—and picks up the Bengali words like a pro. Undoubtedly, the Pakistani musician has practiced hard on his vocals—to get the enunciation right. Sethi says the biggest challenge was “finding my voice—the exact shade of inflection as I narrated the tale.” It’s not easy when you are putting together your first Bengali song as well as translating the music to fit an English verse. “I think I ended up placing desi stresses on the English phrases, which seemed to make them ring out in a novel though not distorting way,” Sethi adds. 

The role of language in creating this score can’t be undermined. “Amitav found an incredibly persuasive register for the verse adaptation—it feels simultaneously like South Asian folk theatre as well as storybook English. For the musical parts, I drew on ragas and folk tunes. I was hoping they sounded as persuasive when set to the rhyming English verse of Jungle Nama,” Sethi says.

Ghosh would love Bon Bibi to come out in various avatars. “One of the new dimensions that I would like to explore is theatre. In fact Ali, Salman and I are collaborating on a theatrical version of Jungle Nama next year,” he says. The University of Pennsylvania has invited the trio to stage a theatrical piece on the subject. “I am very excited about this experiment because who knows where else it may lead?” Ghosh adds.

Fables, notwithstanding the region, binds people together from across the globe. Just like Ghosh and Sethi who have recreated a parable that puts a long-cherished fable on the world literary map. 

Jungle Nama: A Story of the Sundarban (Audiobook)
By: Amitav Ghosh, Ali Sethi
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Listening Length: 1 hour 21 mins
Price: Rs 1,181

Amitav Ghosh and Ali Sethi tell Smitha Verma how the parables of Bon Bibi, a tale popular in the villages of the  largest mangrove forest in the world, assumes new meaning in the audio version of Jungle Nama 
 

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com