two movieGoers And 32 others

The thesis of hyper capitalism has to have an anti -thesis of something else to groove a healthy balance of creativity.
- Jeremy Rifkin


Kalyani bindu's poems are like a live telecast through numerous eyes.These poems disseminate moving pictures.She is turning the concept of poetry into a visual reality, creating magic with action and close-up shots.She wasn't merely recording life,but thinks how to present images in poetry in its best.She is experimenting with the expressive possibilities of poetry and tries to build up a new form.Aiming to derive an idea from the juxtaposition of two independent images, brings  an element of collage into the poems .The poems are like a single reel short film.

Kalyani is searching for a fresh poetic language and writing mode by transcribing large and opaque visuals into the minute small screen of poetry.In a way, was broadening a personal experience into an impersonal-referring very much to the Age of Access we are living in.

M.D.RAMANATHAN

'നിരുപാദാന സംഭാര-
മാഭിത്താവേവ തന്‍വതേ
ജഗച്ചിത്രം നമസ്തൈസ്മ
കലാനാഥായ ശൂലിനേ.'
-വസുഗുപ്തന്‍

The views shared here are those of a music illiterate who happened to hear M.D.Ramanathan. There is nothing novel in these observations and may be wrong either. Let the scholars of music pardon me.This is a tribute to M.D.R whose death anniversary falls on 24th of April.

K.S.Mahadevan, an eminent music critic said about M.D.Ramanathan ,“ this giant of an Oak tree may have flowered late, but till it fell, it was one of the tallest in the musical flora of our country.” Another musicologist K.Chandrashekharan said, “ Ramanathan’s voice gained majesty and depth and moved like a great mountain stream. His voice registered at every turn of its grand gait and the rasika knew that he was in the presence of a great musician.” Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer likened some of Ramanathan’s phrases to rounded pearls issuing from a great vocalist.

When Ramanathan was in one of his best moods ,his  voice touched us in our sensitive chords and something intensely vibrant pierced the seat of our own sensibilities. His raga alapana often reminded us of a gold or diamond prospector, digging up large loads and often striking it rich. Certain ragas became his monopoly so to speak eg; Yadukulakambo
ji, Ritigowla, Shama , Saveri, Bilahari, Purvikalyani. While elaborating these ragas even experienced musicians would come under the spell of incomparably suggestive power of his handling his soft attacks, the audumbration of phrase of exquisite roundness, colouring and subtlety, rolling out of his rich voice like freshly minted coins. On such occasions one would feel that Ramanathan infused a third dimension into his music. Ramanathan’s deliberate choice of Vilambakala was an oasis with its green palms and luscious dates. His  music moved in massive chords when he
lingered lovingly on both the sahitya and sangita of great vaggeyakaras.

In his deep-toned exposition there was an irresistible combination of tenderness and melody. In the purity of tone, admirable vilamba kala pacing and spacing. To Ramanathan, his, extended Kalapramana was a sort of fine tool with which he probed into the inner core of the Kritis of Thyagaraja, Shyama Sastry and Swathi Thirunal and came up with apocalyptic visions of their true beauty when Ramanathan sang “Dorakuna” or “Diwakaram Sanaiswaram” or “Janani ninnu vina”, “Samajavara Gamana”, “Devi Pavanae”or “Dhavayami Reghu Ramam”.-in his inspired moments, one felt he experienced ecstatic consciousness of their artistic content; and that every sangathi he improvised yielded fresh illuminations of the song to our sensitized faculties. His thorough grasp of  Sanskrit,Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam made him fully alive to the nuances of the sahithya and the inner meaning of the kritis. Ramanathan’s music to him an intensely felt experience, a shared personal expression of aesthetic sensitivity and enjoyment. He stormed the citadel of music and won the hearts of professionals and lay man alike with his profound Vidwat, a deeply resonant and rich voice and inspired singing of Kritis, rendered conspicuously in a Kalapramana as large as life.



* M.D.Ramanathan, renowned Carnatic music composer and vocalist ( 1923 – 1984)

MDR teaching students at Kalakshetra. Photo: The Hindu Archives

ON MARGE PIERCY'S POEMS

Marge Piercy was born in Detroit, Michigan.During the 1960s, Piercy was an organizer in political movements like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the movement against the war in Vietnam, an engagement which has shaped her work in myriad ways.Perhaps most importantly, though, has been Piercy’s sustained involvement with feminism, Marxism and environmental thought. An extremely prolific writer, Piercy has published 17 volumes of poetry and 17 novels.

Marge Piercy's poetry is a revelation of the internal and imaginative life.She shocks the readers into complexities of womanhood and breakdowns,psychic awareness and order.Sandra M.Gilbert and Susan Gubar point out that 'these phenomena of interiorization mark the women writers' struggle  for artistic self-definition.'Piercy's poetry is about death,rage,hatred,blood, wounds,cuts,deformities,stings,fever-there is devil's plenty with which she hardly reconciles.Her poetry reveals a hurting,grinding,grating joy which comes from the perfection of the descriptive language that overcomes a hesitating spirit.The expressive violence of the language comes from a mind speeding along madly,yet she commands an uncanny control of language,sound,rhythm and imagery that is the opposite of mental disorder.The symbols and metaphors she uses have the stamp of femaleness about them.The biological imagery in her poetry is useful to understand women's situation in society from a female angle.

The quest for the self and the fragmentation of the self are central to the poetry of Marge Piercy.Most of her personae undergo disintegration of the self:each self split into the woman and the artist.The conflict between split selves is a common motif in her poetry.Madness as a theme and point of view shaping poetic technique is the hallmark of her poetry.The adaptation of madness as poetic material which reveals a wide range of experiences and responses is felt in the individual  voices of the poet and her personae who are at once familiar and strange to the poet.Susan Sontag observes that madness symbolizes the predicament of a modern writer.In Piercy's poetry ,madness is a means of self -realisation.

Marge Piercy has the visionary insight by which she rewrites the history of the female.She narrates the story of a woman poet in such a manner that changes her life as well as those of others.

RAJAM PUSHPAVANAM:IN MEMORY OF A UNIQE VOICE

This dates back to a score of years. I met Perumal Muthiah in Aavarampalayam, Coimbatore. He was a devout music lover and a true friend, through him I happened to know about a lot of things in life. He owned a marvelous collection of music records and cassettes. I was a vagabond then, he took me as his roommate, fed, clothed and kept me alive in those years of penury.

I accompanied him in his long journeys to 100 feet road, Gandhipuram, Maruthamala, those rambles provided apt background for discussions on world literature, music and everything under the Sun. He introduced me to maestros like Tiger Varadachari, Kishori Amonker, Karaikkurichi Arunachalam, M.D.Ramanathan, Chandru Atma, Mallikarjun Mansur, Mehdi Hassan etc,. I heard Mohammad Rafi’s Hindusthani Bhajans for the first time in Muthiah’s gramophone. He was a cornucopia of knowledge. I learned of film directors like Mahendran, Rudrayya; writers like Kulaikoothan, Mouni, Na. Muthuswamy ; painters like Aadimulam, danseuse like Leela Samson, through him.

I heard of Rajam Pushpavanam from Muthiah who was an ardent fan of her. He appreciated her ,used to say of her ‘ostensible voice’, those were his own words on Rajam. Later in our travel to Himalaya; in a frosty night ,near Adibadrinath temple, I heard Rajam’s serene rendition in Muthiah’s taperecorder. It cured me off all the pains and it proved again that music is a panacea.

In ‘Philosophical Studies on East and West’ by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, he pointed out Rajam’s soul stirring expatiation in the chapter dealing with music and philosophy. While reading I mused on that unsung artist. Since then I never heard anyone mentioning Rajam Pushpavanam related to music.

I came to know that later Muthiah had become an ascetic and now I have no idea of his whereabouts. Whenever I hear Rajam Pushpavanam’s blissful voice , I remember Muthiah.

POEMS OF AVEESH

I REMEMBER AVEESH  ,  A YOUNG POET HAILS FROM TRICHUR WHO HAD AN UNTIMELY DEATH . HE WASN'T A CLOSE FRIEND OF MINE .  A DAY'S FRIENDSHIP , THAT'S ALL . WE MET IN THE OPEN MAIDAN AROUND VADAKUMNADHA TEMPLE . WHEN SAID ADIEU ,  HE GAVE ME BUS FARE , REALIZING MY BANKRUPTCY . AN EMBODIMENT OF GOODNESS .

LATER , I GOT HIS COLLECTION OF POEMS , WHICH WAS PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY , FROM ONE OF MY FRIENDS IN TRICHUR . IT CONTAINED MANY PROMISING VERSES . THERE WAS AN IN DEPTH STUDY ON AVEESH'S POEMS DONE BY K.G.SANKARAPILLAI . IT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE INTRODUCTIONS OF SANKARAPILLAI DID .  Dr.S.P.RAMESH'S NOTE WAS THERE IN IT ?  A POEM OF ATTUR RAVIVRMA ON AVEESH ? I DON'T REMEMBER .  I LOST THAT BOOK IN MY YEARS LONG WANDERINGS . YET ANOTHER LOSS.

I HAVE READ AVEESH'S POEMS QUITE A NUMBER OF TIMES , AND FROM THAT MEMORY I CAN ABSOLUTELY SAY THAT , OF THE POST MODERN NATURE POEMS DEVELOPED IN MALAYALAM ,  ITS TRACES WAS SEEN IN SOME OF HIS POEMS . THE LITTLE TIME I SPENT WITH HIM PROVED THAT HE HAD AN UNUSUAL VIEW , RADICAL OBSERVATIONS ON POETRY , AMONG OTHER THINGS . HE READ A LOT , I'M SURE.

OPEN GROUND OF VADAKUMNADHAN , STILL BRINGS TO MY MIND THE DAY WE MET.
HOW DID AVEESH CAME IN THAT AGE , IN A DAY , AND REMAINED AN UNFORGETTABLE FIGURE ?
LIKE A SOLITARY BIRD WITH NUMEROUS WINGS , WHERE HAD HE FLOWN AWAY ?

IS EVERY FARE WELLS
MEANT A RETURN ?
DON'T KNOW.
I'M IGNORANT.

POEMS OF LAL LUKOSE

Lal Lukose is a bosom friend of ours. One ,with a different reading,different observations. He keeps strange interests in music and films. Outside our life of ease,his life too goes on in its clamor and turbulence. His solitary journey heads to an altitude and depth where our commonplace discussions on music, cinema and literature cannot reach. Lal is not a regular poet, Therefore his poems do not tire us like other poets who writes incessantly. Without doubt we can say that Lal is an adept who gives less attention to fame and fortune and we proudly present his poems.


I

SPIDER AND BEETLE

There was a spider and a beetle
Spider spun thread
From the spider's mouth
Grew ten thousand thread
Around the earth.

Beetle sung along the blooms.
When the beetle met the spider again,
Which was vaulting
From stars to stars And spinning the web
To trap the earth,
It didn't tell the hues it saw.
Spider and beetle went on as friends.

II

FISH


Fish kept in ice tastes less
Fish in the sea
Catches its prey,unmindful of its caste.

Whale's mouth is big
It can have only tiny water creatures.
Shark is dangerous
Eats everything.
Fishes precipitates in the shore
When the waves stir
In the rhythm of winds.
Fishes, livelihood of man.
Bargaining, another issue.

I went to the sea
In a night in Karkkidakam.
Sea, darkness.
Then I knew the deathly passion
Of darkness.

Dreams are like fishes.
They slip from reason.
Once reach the shore of vigor
They die out like poetry.
Sylvan trees.
Archaic trees.
Roar of lion.

Let me go back to the sea
Leaving flowers and old trees.
I'm a fishmonger.



*Karkkidakam is a period of monsoon;cloudy days , darkness are its features.

A NOTE ON QURAN

If we read Quran between the lines, we will come across eloquent passages breathing a spirit of universal toleration and harmony.It is an embodiment of the rich contents of the Prophet's mind,as well as of the loftiness of his spiritual genius.It is really an insult to human wisdom to suppose that Prophet of Islam did actually advocate compulsion in religion. The verses quoted below from Quran constitute proofs positive of his catholicity and friendliness towards the religions of others. The Quran says: 'If thy Lord had pleased,verily all who are in earth would be loved together. What! Whilt thou compel men to become believers?' Say thou:'I worship not that ye worship,and ye do not worship that which I worship;neither shall I worship what ye worship;neither ye worship what I worship;to you be your religion;to me my religion'.'Revile not those whom they call on beside God,lest they, in their ignorance, despitefuly revile Him.Thus have we planned out their actions for every people;then shall they return to their Lord,and He will declare to them what those actions have been.' 'Verily, they who believe, they who follow the Jewish religion, and the Christians,and the Sabeites, whoever of these doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord;fear shall not come upon them, neither shall be grieved'.'And if God had pleased,He had surely made you all one people; but He would test you by what He hath given to each.Be emulous, then , in good deeds.To God shall ye all return, and He will tell you concerning the subject of disputes'.'To everyone of you have we given a rule and a beaten track'.'Our God and your God are one God and after Him we all strive'.
Indeed,what stronger and more convincing testimony is needed to demonstrate the universalism in Islam-the freedom extended in Quran to every man to follow his own convictions in matters religious? The illustrious Persian poet Sanai has also sung to the same tune:'Islam and the faiths other than Islam follow Thee,O Lord,when they declare that there is no god but God'.Even the beautiful song of the celebrated Urdu poet Zafar expresses the same sentiment: 'Angels and men, Hindus and Mussalmans, thou , O Lord,hast created according to Thy sweet will.Everyone bows to Thee, for it is Thou who art worshiped everywhere- in the Caaba, in the mosque,or in the temple. Thou art omnipresent.Every heart is a dwelling place,and Thou art the dweller. There is no heart where Thou abidest not. Thou dost abide equally in all hearts, for Thou art all that exist in the universe'.So does another Urdu bard sing:
'Only names differ,Beloved!
All forsooth are but the same.
Both the ocean and the dew-drop,
But one living liquid frame.

--------------------------------

*Remembering Kalam Vellimadu who gave me the Quran for the first time, E. Moidu Maulavi Sahib who taught me the depth of Urdu language, and friends Abdur Rehman Kutty,Syed Alavi Sahib,Nazar.

*Quotations from Quran (Translated from the Arabic by Rev.J.M.Rodwell)