Tripping Out on India

Allen Ginsberg8217;s search for his personal brand of salvation

A Blue Hand, Deborah Baker, Viking Rs 499
Allen Ginsberg8217;s search for his personal brand of salvation

In a recent interview, Amit Chaudhuri said that 8220;for any cultural practice8230; the position of the outsider, the misfit, the daydreamer and even of failure are very important categories in the creation of a truly energetic and self-critical social and intellectual space8230;. My anxiety is that in the last 20 years India, typically for a globalising country, hasn8217;t theorized such a position.8221;
To find some of the best examples of such irresponsible misfits, you8217;d have to look at members of the so-called Beat Generation of the late 1950s and early 8217;60s in the US, with their experiments with psychedelic substances, their stand against those in positions of power and their redefinition of what constitutes a literary work. Ironically, in light of Chaudhuri8217;s statement, it was India that some of the most prominent Beats looked to for a degree of illumination and sustenance.

In Deborah Baker8217;s A Blue Hand, we find an account of Allen Ginsberg and his lover Peter Orlovsky8217;s sojourn in India in 1962, interleaved with the travels and exploits of others such as Gary Snyder and Joanne Kyger. In this detailed narrative, Baker draws heavily not only on the unexpurgated and unedited version of Ginsberg8217;s Indian Journals, but also the books, journals and correspondence of the rest. The logorrhea of the Beats was well known, and Baker bravely dives into their sea of words for her reconstruction.
Though the sections dealing with India form the bulk of the book, Baker also dwells on the dovetailing effects of the actions of others, including those who never visited India, such as Gregory Corso. In particular, she dwells on Corso and Ginsberg8217;s fascination for Hope Savage, the charismatic and chimerical young American woman whom both attempted to influence and engage.

Baker is frank about the heroin abuse, psychosis and occasional mystical visions that affected these angel-headed hipsters. She recounts Ginsberg8217;s vision of a poetry recital by Blake: it was an attempt by the poet to recapture this sense of the ineffable that was in part responsible for his trips to Benaras and Rishikesh, among other places.
Because there is so much detail, and because so much of it is interconnected, Baker8217;s prose can sometimes frustrate as much as it illumines. On occasion, the teasing out of a continuous narrative thread becomes an effort 8212; especially with digressions such as details of Jackie Onassis8217;s trip to the country, to bolster the aim of examining the role of India in the American imagination.

Some of the most fascinating sections deal with Ginsberg and Orlovsky8217;s stay in Calcutta, where they were to befriend other poets such as Sunil Gangopadhyay and Shakti Chattopadhyay. Baker makes their visits to the College Street coffee house, the burning ghats and literary soirees come alive and elucidates their East-meets-West interactions with perspicacity.
In conclusion, Baker quotes Ginsberg8217;s final despairing entry in his Indian journal: 8220;Another day and I leave India/And I never crosslegged pierced heaven/With a thought or found bearded Guru/In Brindaban or levitated in Bodh Gaya8230;.8221; She asserts, however, that what stayed with Ginsberg the rest of his life was 8220;the sweetness and sympathy he found in the company of India8217;s sadhus, charlatans, poets and saints8221;. Something evident from even his last poem, Things I8217;ll Not Do Nostalgias, in which there are more than a few lines devoted to the time he spent with Orlovsky in search of his personal brand of salvation.