The Soul Is Wide, the Soul Has No Gender, Interview with Khandokar Halima Akther (Ribon)    

In my country—not only in my country, in this Indian subcontinent—to me, music is everywhere. If you see the tree, moving through the wind, there is a rhythm. And if you get close, you can feel the sound and rhythm. If you put the hand on the heart, there is a rhythm, there is a music. When you go to the river, the helmsman rides the boat. And our music—in my country, music is totally dependent on the environment. Everywhere, everywhere, the environment is around us, but we can find the differences. We can find the differences in geographical structures reflected in the rhythm of music.

            Not only that, but also the different professions are reflected in song.

            The song of north is the song of the cart—the ox pulling the cart along the muddy road, and the ups and downs and ups and downs—there, the music is like that. The cart driver sits in the cart, singing a song with that rhythm. They are driving on the muddy road, ups and downs, without dropping a beat.

            When you come to my area, near the big river, you can find the helmsmen. When they sing, the rhythm is wide, wide like the river. The helmsman is moving on the river, there’s no break in the rhythm.

            The helmsman and the cart driver they use music in their professions. When they are doing their work, they feel at ease because of the music even as they are working.

            The body, to me, is only a structure. The soul is wide, the soul has no gender. But we have to carry this body. Day by day, our body changes, but our soul is the same. So why do we relate to a human through their body? The soul is wide, the soul has no gender. Soul to soul, the connection is totally different. There is no barrier in soul to soul connection, there is no barrier.

            When I feel a connection with a soul in a male body, I feel confused. I cannot touch him because he has a male body; because of my society, because of my religion, because of my status. I feel a connection with that soul, but these things complicate it. When I feel a connection with a soul in a female body, I can touch her. Soul to soul connections are created between male and female; the body only carries the soul. The soul has no gender.

            Art is the expression of the soul through the body. I have to use my body to express it. Whether it’s a male body or a female body, whatever. If I want to paint something, I need my fingers. If I want to think, if I want to see I have to use the eyes. So, art is the expression of the soul through the body.

            The rabbit has his own culture, and the lion has his own culture. If the fox came to the rabbit and said, ‘Rabbit, rabbit, you must change the food you eat, or you will never be king. So, rabbit leave your carrot and try to eat the mouse and then you will be the king.’ So, what happened? If the rabbit is influenced by the fox, and the rabbit starts to eat rat, then the rabbit will die.

            In this world, every animal, every human being, in every culture, in every corner of the world, has their own way of living and are civilised in their own way. I don’t want to teach the ant what civilisation is. Ants know their civilization. The bees know their civilisation.

            It’s also a colonising thought, to say that when I am doing something, I have to label it and analyse it according to first world categories. Why did they divide the world into different layers? Because of the money, because of GDP. The culture of the first world is different because they have money. They have spread their research methodologies; they have spread their thoughts and their writing and all their -isms. And we are influenced by that.

            We have to find the magic, the magic realism, in our own stories and drama.

 

Transcribed Edited by Ruth Kelly

Dhaka, December 2019