Country’s First Petro-fiction Basra Streets Released

Jalandhar, April 22, 2019: Principal Dr Naresh Kumar Dhiman said that it is a a moment of pride for Jalandhar as city’s acclaimed Hindi novelist Dr Ajay Sharma’s country’s first petro fiction Basra Ki Galian on which 10 MPhils have been completed and is prescribed in MA Hindi Sem 1 in GNDU and Punjabi University Patiala has been translated into English as Basra Streets in 2019 by city’s Prof Sandeep Chahal Department of English Doaba College Jalandhar was released amidst fanfare today by Dr Roshan Lal Sharma–Head, Department of English & European Languages,Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dr Z.N.Patil-,English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Dr Srinivas Bandameedi-Symbiosis International Deemed University-Hyderabad, Prof Moti Kala Dewan-President –Nepal English Language Teachers Association, Dr Kumar Shravan-Vice-President English Language teacher’s Association of India and Dr Avinash Chander. Prof Sandeep Chahal said , “ Basra Streets marks a new beginning of petro fiction genre in modern literary world. Petro fiction refers to narratives that directly address the issues related to oil industry- where the oil is, who wants to have it and how they go about getting it and its impact on American culture. Basra Streets reveals connected international patterns of Oil Imperialism in literary form and thematic patterns that confirm the effectiveness of a recently reconfigured world literature as method and resource to map and critique the way in which the world’s oil resources are unevenly produced, extracted, refined and exploited on a global local scale. It reveals vulnerable populations like in Iraq around the globe are subject to corporate and state oil imperialism. Prof Sandeep Chahal said, While translating a work of art from vernacular into English, the greatest fear and threat is to maintain and keep intact the spirit of the original work. I have tried to uphold and retain the original emotions, punch lines, feelings and spirit of Basra ki Galiyan in Basra Streets. I have tried to use Language in such a way to give the local colour, flavour and stylistic usage of language by the characters in the novel. Dr Ajay Sharma said “I went to Basra, Iraq in 1985 and even after 34 years the miserable plight and social condition of Iraqis is still fresh in my mind which has inspired me to write this novel which depicts the past and present of Iraq. Basra Streets highlighted the psudo digital and media propagandist approach of USA The boundary of the two countries, which were relative to Shat al Arab waterway, was much in dispute between Iraq and Iran. US exploited this situation and in 1979 and used a satellite photograph taken by NASA and published it in Washington Post newspaper in which it was mentioned that this area had world’s maximum oil reserves. Therefore, there was Iraq and Iran war due to this discovery. Unfortunately, Iraq and Iran fought for eight years and more than hundred thousand people were killed, mostly males. Such was the miserable plight of two countries that they got reputation of countries of war widows. USSR supplied weapons to Iran and USA to Iraq. In this way both USSR and USA managed to keep their arms and ammunition factories running in full swing. In 1988, USA asked the both countries to give oil-drilling rights to US companies, as Iran and Iraq had virtually no funds available to do so. Unfortunately, when the US companies reached his disputed border area, drilled, they found that it had minimum oil reserves. Thereafter, USA indulged in face saving exercise by publishing an apology in the same Washington Post newspaper that NASA had made an error while clicking the photograph of the disputed region. Dr Roshan Lal Sharma said, "Basra Streets is a forceful novel based on the triangular struggle of war, peace and love. It highlights the social realism, mental conflict and deep psychological insight of an Indian doctor in the oriental city of Basra, Iraq torn apart by US-Iraq war. It effectively portrays the restlessness, helplessness and exploitation of the Iraqi citizens especially of the Iraqi war widows amidst the ugly US-Iraq imbroglio. The thematic structure of the novel traverses from romantic paraphernalia and reaches national and international dimensions. This anti-war novel depicts the civilized man’s basic instinct of ruthless devastation and his inner urge of vain domination of the uncivilized and the civilizing world in the garb of a pseudo-political war”. Dr Z.N.Patil said, “ The character delineation is par excellence; especially the characters of Bushra, Aliza, Julia and Indian doctor cum interpreter Akash are not only pulsating, but also down-to-earth. The novelist has successfully created a microcosm out of macrocosm by drawing an exquisite parallel between the U.S-Vietnam war and U.S-Iraq imbroglio. Basra Streets exhibits the ingredients of Petro-fiction as mentioned above at various levels. It is effectively portrayed through the characters of Akash, Bushra, Gulnar, Aliza, Julia, Abu Majid, Umar, Channan Singh etc. We are able to witness the different layers of meanings of hydrocarbon fiction of the countries like Iraq, Iran, India and USA. These characters undergo harrowing experiences in gulf countries against the backdrop of scramble for oil. The main protagonist Akash , Indian doctor cum interpreter has a keen desire to go abroad in search of better career prospects after completing his B.A.M.S in Punjab. Akash’s three friends come back from Iraq and narrate to him the high standard of living, good salary package and exquisite lifestyle there.. Here we witness the nature of the migration of Punjabis to Middle East in lure to earn petro-dollars. Dr Srinivas Bandameedi said, “The sarcastic, ironical and caustic remarks of the Iraqi citizens against the dictatorial and brutal attitude of Saddam Hussein are another highlight of the novel. It depicts the miserable condition of young boys used as suicide bombers by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the name of Jehad. The sarcastic, ironical and caustic remarks of the Iraqi citizens against the dictatorial and brutal attitude of Saddam Hussein are another highlight of the novel. Such is the shortage of men in Iraqi army that the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein forcibly recruits almost all able-bodied young, adult and old males into army to fight against the US army. Dr Kumar Shravan talked about the portayal of Arm-twisting technique of USA in Basra Streets of USA which it used to subjugate Iraq and indulged in oil politics. French economist and business representatives had clearly mentioned in 1918 that the country that had total controlled on the oil wells of the world would have complete control over the world and would definitely become a super power. So USA feared that if the vast oil wealth of the world came under the direct control of Saddam Hussein then all the developed countries would face a grave danger.