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WeShallTurnToAsh_MASTER.mp3

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Collection: Part 10 · VIDEHA MITHILA MAITHILI DISCUSSION CRITICISM SERIES PART 10
Status: asr-draft
Human verified: No
Editorial review: not-reviewed
ASR model: small
Detected language: en (0.995492)
Duration: 15:08
Source: Open preserved recording

Timestamped machine output

0:00–0:20विदेहा परज़च, विशल तरन ता आश्छ, माइदली श्फर्स्ट,
0:20–0:23क्लामबद वारनिस च्फर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट,
0:23–0:29Written by Gajendra Thakur, editor, Videha, the first mightily fortnightly e-journal.
0:29–0:31An English language radio adaptation.
0:43–0:45Come, come!
0:45–0:49Come and watch this Crossroads play, this street play.
0:49–0:52Put your phones down for a moment, lift your eyes.
0:52–1:02The sky that is changing is your own sky.
1:02–1:04Hey!
1:04–1:06What are all of you saying?
1:06–1:08What is this?
1:08–1:11Everyone, gather round.
1:11–1:13Form a circle.
1:13–1:16Stand in a ring for this Methili Crossroads play.
1:16–1:18It will be a powerful play.
1:18–1:21Come on, come on.
1:21–1:23Let them put on their Methili play.
1:23–1:26We're watching a play put food on your plate.
1:26–1:28No, sister.
1:28–1:33This play is for the hungry, hunger of the stomach, hunger of the mind, hunger for language,
1:33–1:35and hunger for clean air.
1:35–1:40When the air falls ill, even the stomach feels empty.
1:40–1:41True enough.
1:41–1:44Then let us go and watch.
1:44–1:46Come, come!
1:46–1:50Today there will be a play for children, adolescents, young people, adults and the elderly, a play
1:50–1:56for women and men, a play for birds and tiny birds, for trees and plants, for air and wind,
1:56–2:01a play for the sun, moon and stars, for the visible and invisible, for the nation,
2:01–2:03for sleep and dreams.
2:03–2:07And if, while watching, you begin to think, then this will also become a play for the
2:07–2:08earth.
2:08–2:13Oh, just tell us plainly who this play is not for.
2:13–2:16Why are you making such grand speeches?
2:16–2:19Have I left anyone out?
2:19–2:21There you are.
2:21–2:23I have to say that too.
2:23–2:28Now begin the spectacle and show us how far this play reaches.
2:28–2:30Very well.
2:30–2:31Let us begin.
2:31–2:43I am a bird. No, a firefly.
2:43–2:51I am a monster. I am a tiny bird. Ha, ha, a firefly.
2:51–2:58I am giant. I am a tree. I am a pala. I am a tree. Ha, ha.
2:58–3:02I am VJ. I am the sun and the stars.
3:02–3:09I am Vijaya. I am the moon, Chanda. He he.
3:09–3:16I am Nettlal. I am a ghost, a spirit, a demon.
3:16–3:27I am Ramvati. I am a dream that is imagination. I, I, I.
3:27–3:29What is your work?
3:29–3:32What is your work?
3:32–3:35Give us any task and see how we'll do it.
3:35–3:37But the work of the workers and the staff
3:37–3:40must be done by the day they work together.
3:42–3:46Bird and tiny bird, both of you come forward and become fireflies.
3:48–3:57Where are you, Osta?
3:57–4:00I have seen the signal.
4:00–4:03I was like the bat in the thicket.
4:03–4:06Yes, it is done.
4:07–4:09What has happened?
4:10–4:16Did you not see how we found each other through light, without shouting, without smoke, without fire?
4:17–4:23When I was human, I mean, before I die, I used to experiment with this a great deal.
4:24–4:26What do you say, Ramvati?
4:32–4:36You did experiment, but so much heat came with the light.
4:36–4:39The stifling heat could kill a person.
4:39–4:46If there is light, heat is bound to come out.
4:46–4:53Neclology, out of every 16 parts of energy, you produced 15 parts of heat and only one part of light.
4:53–4:57You fancied yourself a great scientist.
4:57–5:01The light did come, but the stifling heat could kill.
5:01–5:05Only when energy is saved can the earth be saved.
5:05–5:13You are imagination after all. That is why after dying you became imagination.
5:13–5:19And that is why you became a ghost, a spirit, a demon.
5:19–5:26Then you tell us whether light can be obtained without heat.
5:26–5:29No, it is not possible.
5:29–5:32It is possible, Vijay.
5:32–5:38Vijaya has arrived. Ask her whether she has any light of her own.
5:38–5:46No, she does not. Yet the moonlight she scatters at night certainly feels cool.
5:46–5:54Ha! Imagination! Keep saying whatever comes into your head, keep saying it.
5:54–6:01Had you listened to me while you were alive and used your imagination, you could have made
6:01–6:08light without stifling heat cool light listen oh em an osther light without
6:08–6:14stifling heat now you two tell her that light without heat is impossible
6:14–6:23if light gave off heat five flies would die then how are the two of you alive
6:23–6:25What do you mean?
6:25–6:28Our light is cool.
6:28–6:32Light comes from my tail, cool light.
6:32–6:36This is not a game, it is the science of the body.
6:36–6:38It cools the heart.
6:38–6:42It sends a signal and helps us find one another.
6:42–6:45Light that brings companions together is good,
6:45–6:48light that scorches the earth is incomplete.
6:48–6:56Oh, I kept gazing at the moon over distant lands at night and went on imagining.
6:56–7:02But you, Neclo, why could we not see the fireflies wandering at night?
7:02–7:08The science of a small creature shone before us long before it appeared in a great book.
7:08–7:11I am a failed scientist.
7:11–7:15I wander as a demon, burning in the energy of light.
7:15–7:20Oh imagination, I could not imagine, otherwise I would have become a firefly.
7:22–7:27Had you fulfilled that dream of mine, I too would have become a firefly.
7:28–7:31So many trees and forests would not have been cut.
7:32–7:34Look how far the forest has receded.
7:35–7:41As trees diminish, shade diminishes, water diminishes, and songs diminish.
7:41–7:50We have been left alone, as lonely as the sun, stars and moon, but the sun and moon can shine from far away.
7:50–7:55When a tree is left alone, the village dries up.
7:55–8:00We have been left all alone. In a few days we shall be gone.
8:00–8:05Seems so. We shall become ghosts, spirits and demons.
8:05–8:12Why? How did you come to this condition?
8:12–8:15condition.
8:15–8:17Because of you.
8:17–8:20Because of you alone.
8:20–8:23What have I done now?
8:23–8:25You cut us down to make paper.
8:25–8:31You cut us down for chairs, doors, decorations and single use things that are thrown away.
8:31–8:34You cut us down to build houses.
8:34–8:37But those things were necessary.
8:37–8:41They had to be made, did they not?
8:41–8:43Then why did you not plant us again?
8:43–8:45Why did you not imagine?
8:45–8:47Tell us.
8:47–8:51Why did you not imagine?
8:51–8:53Imagine what?
8:53–9:00Imagine how many trees you would cut and how many times that number you would plant.
9:00–9:03But I did plant trees.
9:03–9:06You planted eucalyptus.
9:06–9:08You planted foreign trees.
9:08–9:10They drank all the blood.
9:10–9:13No, no, all the water from the soil.
9:13–9:18Planting a tree that does not understand the soil's thirst does not make a forest.
9:18–9:21Do not put all the blame on me.
9:21–9:24Do you not use energy too?
9:24–9:26I am a scientist.
9:26–9:29I understand all of this.
9:29–9:39But if knowledge is not put into practice, science itself remains incomplete.
9:39–9:45We burn oxygen to make our food, and burn it as our labor demands.
9:45–9:58In the winter months we keep ourselves warm, yet we do not heat the whole world.
9:58–10:04I know all of that, but we produce only a little heat.
10:04–10:07And even that is for all of you.
10:07–10:08For us?
10:08–10:09How?
10:09–10:11How?
10:11–10:16We keep the lotus flower warm so that your hands do not freeze when you pluck it in winter.
10:16–10:19Nature spends its heat with restraint.
10:19–10:21Human beings spend it without measure.
10:21–10:26Then, when someone cuts you, why do you not defend yourselves?
10:26–10:31Imagine, think, think.
10:31–10:33We do.
10:33–10:36We do as much as we can.
10:36–10:39We show you thorns and drive you away.
10:39–10:42We feed you fruit and drive hunger away.
10:42–10:45Pluck our flowers and carry them home.
10:45–10:55Offer them to your gods and ancestors.
10:55–10:58We tempt you with fruit and flowers.
10:58–10:59We give you shade.
10:59–11:01We give you breath.
11:01–11:06We frighten you with thorns, but an axe is not afraid of thorns.
11:06–11:09Even then, you refuse to stop.
11:09–11:12Imagine, think, think.
11:12–11:18Oh, imagination, what you told me, that we must plant many times the number of trees we
11:18–11:22cut, please tell them that too.
11:22–11:24Their feet are rooted in the soil.
11:24–11:27How can they do that?
11:27–11:35But seeds, pollen, wind, water, birds and animals can all become their feet.
11:35–11:38Imagination, think, think.
11:38–11:45A seed catches in a buffalo's hair and travels with it far from here.
11:45–11:49The buffalo shakes, the seed drops there.
11:49–11:54With rooted feet we journey there.
11:54–12:00We make tiny hook like barbs on a seed so that it catches in an animal's coat and travels far.
12:00–12:04This is our journey without a ticket, without smoke.
12:04–12:07Far away the seed gives birth to a new tree.
12:07–12:11A butterfly carries pollen far away.
12:11–12:16With that pollen it fertilizes another tree, in a distant land.
12:16–12:18Imagination.
12:18–12:23Jayanth, now I feel that we shall disappear.
12:23–12:28What will happen in a country whose scientists do not imagine, in a village whose children
12:28–12:30do not count its trees?
12:30–12:31Apalla.
12:31–12:35There, the imagined treeless future becomes reality.
12:35–12:41But if the children count the seeds today, the future can still be rewritten.
12:41–12:48As it has been here, cut our roots and we shall turn to ash.
12:48–12:51Take all our flowers and leaves.
12:51–13:00All the children are dead.
13:00–13:26We shall take all our flowers.
13:26–13:30I shall protect the fireflies' cool light.
13:30–13:36I shall also protect the darkness of night, so that the stars remain visible.
13:36–13:39I shall plant more trees than I cut.
13:39–13:43I shall recognize native trees and preserve their seeds.
13:43–13:47I shall not allow energy to become waste heat.
13:47–13:51I shall imagine, but I shall also act.
13:51–13:55I shall admit the mistakes of the past.
13:55–13:59I shall plant a new dream.
13:59–14:03Say it all the same.
14:03–14:06Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
14:08–14:11If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night.
14:11–14:14If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night.
14:14–14:19If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night.
14:19–14:22If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night.
14:22–14:50If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night.
15:00–15:07If the root survive, we shall survive.

Plain text

विदेहा परज़च, विशल तरन ता आश्छ, माइदली श्फर्स्ट, क्लामबद वारनिस च्फर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट श्वर्ट, Written by Gajendra Thakur, editor, Videha, the first mightily fortnightly e-journal. An English language radio adaptation. Come, come! Come and watch this Crossroads play, this street play. Put your phones down for a moment, lift your eyes. The sky that is changing is your own sky. Hey! What are all of you saying? What is this? Everyone, gather round. Form a circle. Stand in a ring for this Methili Crossroads play. It will be a powerful play. Come on, come on. Let them put on their Methili play. We're watching a play put food on your plate. No, sister. This play is for the hungry, hunger of the stomach, hunger of the mind, hunger for language, and hunger for clean air. When the air falls ill, even the stomach feels empty. True enough. Then let us go and watch. Come, come! Today there will be a play for children, adolescents, young people, adults and the elderly, a play for women and men, a play for birds and tiny birds, for trees and plants, for air and wind, a play for the sun, moon and stars, for the visible and invisible, for the nation, for sleep and dreams. And if, while watching, you begin to think, then this will also become a play for the earth. Oh, just tell us plainly who this play is not for. Why are you making such grand speeches? Have I left anyone out? There you are. I have to say that too. Now begin the spectacle and show us how far this play reaches. Very well. Let us begin. I am a bird. No, a firefly. I am a monster. I am a tiny bird. Ha, ha, a firefly. I am giant. I am a tree. I am a pala. I am a tree. Ha, ha. I am VJ. I am the sun and the stars. I am Vijaya. I am the moon, Chanda. He he. I am Nettlal. I am a ghost, a spirit, a demon. I am Ramvati. I am a dream that is imagination. I, I, I. What is your work? What is your work? Give us any task and see how we'll do it. But the work of the workers and the staff must be done by the day they work together. Bird and tiny bird, both of you come forward and become fireflies. Where are you, Osta? I have seen the signal. I was like the bat in the thicket. Yes, it is done. What has happened? Did you not see how we found each other through light, without shouting, without smoke, without fire? When I was human, I mean, before I die, I used to experiment with this a great deal. What do you say, Ramvati? You did experiment, but so much heat came with the light. The stifling heat could kill a person. If there is light, heat is bound to come out. Neclology, out of every 16 parts of energy, you produced 15 parts of heat and only one part of light. You fancied yourself a great scientist. The light did come, but the stifling heat could kill. Only when energy is saved can the earth be saved. You are imagination after all. That is why after dying you became imagination. And that is why you became a ghost, a spirit, a demon. Then you tell us whether light can be obtained without heat. No, it is not possible. It is possible, Vijay. Vijaya has arrived. Ask her whether she has any light of her own. No, she does not. Yet the moonlight she scatters at night certainly feels cool. Ha! Imagination! Keep saying whatever comes into your head, keep saying it. Had you listened to me while you were alive and used your imagination, you could have made light without stifling heat cool light listen oh em an osther light without stifling heat now you two tell her that light without heat is impossible if light gave off heat five flies would die then how are the two of you alive What do you mean? Our light is cool. Light comes from my tail, cool light. This is not a game, it is the science of the body. It cools the heart. It sends a signal and helps us find one another. Light that brings companions together is good, light that scorches the earth is incomplete. Oh, I kept gazing at the moon over distant lands at night and went on imagining. But you, Neclo, why could we not see the fireflies wandering at night? The science of a small creature shone before us long before it appeared in a great book. I am a failed scientist. I wander as a demon, burning in the energy of light. Oh imagination, I could not imagine, otherwise I would have become a firefly. Had you fulfilled that dream of mine, I too would have become a firefly. So many trees and forests would not have been cut. Look how far the forest has receded. As trees diminish, shade diminishes, water diminishes, and songs diminish. We have been left alone, as lonely as the sun, stars and moon, but the sun and moon can shine from far away. When a tree is left alone, the village dries up. We have been left all alone. In a few days we shall be gone. Seems so. We shall become ghosts, spirits and demons. Why? How did you come to this condition? condition. Because of you. Because of you alone. What have I done now? You cut us down to make paper. You cut us down for chairs, doors, decorations and single use things that are thrown away. You cut us down to build houses. But those things were necessary. They had to be made, did they not? Then why did you not plant us again? Why did you not imagine? Tell us. Why did you not imagine? Imagine what? Imagine how many trees you would cut and how many times that number you would plant. But I did plant trees. You planted eucalyptus. You planted foreign trees. They drank all the blood. No, no, all the water from the soil. Planting a tree that does not understand the soil's thirst does not make a forest. Do not put all the blame on me. Do you not use energy too? I am a scientist. I understand all of this. But if knowledge is not put into practice, science itself remains incomplete. We burn oxygen to make our food, and burn it as our labor demands. In the winter months we keep ourselves warm, yet we do not heat the whole world. I know all of that, but we produce only a little heat. And even that is for all of you. For us? How? How? We keep the lotus flower warm so that your hands do not freeze when you pluck it in winter. Nature spends its heat with restraint. Human beings spend it without measure. Then, when someone cuts you, why do you not defend yourselves? Imagine, think, think. We do. We do as much as we can. We show you thorns and drive you away. We feed you fruit and drive hunger away. Pluck our flowers and carry them home. Offer them to your gods and ancestors. We tempt you with fruit and flowers. We give you shade. We give you breath. We frighten you with thorns, but an axe is not afraid of thorns. Even then, you refuse to stop. Imagine, think, think. Oh, imagination, what you told me, that we must plant many times the number of trees we cut, please tell them that too. Their feet are rooted in the soil. How can they do that? But seeds, pollen, wind, water, birds and animals can all become their feet. Imagination, think, think. A seed catches in a buffalo's hair and travels with it far from here. The buffalo shakes, the seed drops there. With rooted feet we journey there. We make tiny hook like barbs on a seed so that it catches in an animal's coat and travels far. This is our journey without a ticket, without smoke. Far away the seed gives birth to a new tree. A butterfly carries pollen far away. With that pollen it fertilizes another tree, in a distant land. Imagination. Jayanth, now I feel that we shall disappear. What will happen in a country whose scientists do not imagine, in a village whose children do not count its trees? Apalla. There, the imagined treeless future becomes reality. But if the children count the seeds today, the future can still be rewritten. As it has been here, cut our roots and we shall turn to ash. Take all our flowers and leaves. All the children are dead. We shall take all our flowers. I shall protect the fireflies' cool light. I shall also protect the darkness of night, so that the stars remain visible. I shall plant more trees than I cut. I shall recognize native trees and preserve their seeds. I shall not allow energy to become waste heat. I shall imagine, but I shall also act. I shall admit the mistakes of the past. I shall plant a new dream. Say it all the same. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night. If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night. If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night. If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night. If the rooster flies, we shall not know the night. If the root survive, we shall survive.

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