Ragas from the Periphery

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the author of Calling Texas and Earth Prime.

Ragas from the Periphery has some interesting features. Phinder Dulai
defines himself as South Asian (of Punjabi origins) and his work shows
the inspiration of the raga form, a kind of musical composition
dominated by a central emotion and showing fluidity and momentum. His
style is marked by a series of short but on-rushing lines; here and
there he interjects technical terms from the raga form.

Dulai strives to relate his work to several literary currents: the
modernist canon of writers like Eliot, the emerging world literature of
postcolonial and minority writers, the Canadian mainstream. He thinks of
himself as a writer of the periphery. Of course, much important work has
seemed peripheral at first, and “minority” writers are in the
majority worldwide. Dulai is also on the periphery of the Canadian
dream; many of these poems describe his experiences as a parking-lot
attendant—a man in a glass booth—in the Vancouver area. From this
vantage point, as the “visible” but invisible minority, he has much
to report. His work is not always intense or well-crafted—message
alone doesn’t make a poem—but he has an unusual perspective.