Phantasmagoria can become a word-prism, to re-look at what has touched you, in your life.
" Ariyillanjittu" is the title of a short poem, by the Malayalam poet, Vailoppilly Narayanamenon, which I happened to learn in my 7th standard, while at Don Bosco High School, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur Dist. Incidentally, the pregnant poem appeared on the last page of the Malyayalam text
book, the page which curls like's dog's ears, in the safe-keeping of even the studious student, who would revere books.
" If only we had a few his grains of rice" could be the rough translation of the Malayalam title, though every translation is a betrayal/treason,as the saying goes. The same holds good for my feeble and faint attempt to render the poem in English.
Some cut down the mango-tree, the others gathered up the left-over of the fence
And some busied themselves in consoling the widow
All amidst the might hurry of the village, to cremate the emaciated frame of her husband
When everything was ready, to consign him to the flames,
Somebody ran up to the hovel, and asked the young widow, for a few grains of rice
To sprinkle around her husband's still body, that his soul may be laid to rest, prim and proper
Amidst her sobs, from the corner of the hut, the woman mumbled, groaningly
" If only we had a few grains of rice, he would not have died."
"... the muddled and selective presentation of facts in the mainstream media on Gujarat, while does not highlight the failure of the Gujarat government to provide basic needs and the welfare requirements of the poor, has helped to project the Gujarat model as an "alternative" for India."
- Quoted from Atul Sood and Kalaiyarasan A., " Fiction and Facts", in Frontline, April 4, 2014, p. 16.
" Every second child under five in Gujarat is undernourished; three out of four are anaemic"
- On the cover page of The Week, April 6, 2014
The Dead and the Half-Alive of Gujarat Procalaim the UNtruth of the MOdified Glory of Gujarat.
" Ariyillanjittu" is the title of a short poem, by the Malayalam poet, Vailoppilly Narayanamenon, which I happened to learn in my 7th standard, while at Don Bosco High School, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur Dist. Incidentally, the pregnant poem appeared on the last page of the Malyayalam text
book, the page which curls like's dog's ears, in the safe-keeping of even the studious student, who would revere books.
" If only we had a few his grains of rice" could be the rough translation of the Malayalam title, though every translation is a betrayal/treason,as the saying goes. The same holds good for my feeble and faint attempt to render the poem in English.
Some cut down the mango-tree, the others gathered up the left-over of the fence
And some busied themselves in consoling the widow
All amidst the might hurry of the village, to cremate the emaciated frame of her husband
When everything was ready, to consign him to the flames,
Somebody ran up to the hovel, and asked the young widow, for a few grains of rice
To sprinkle around her husband's still body, that his soul may be laid to rest, prim and proper
Amidst her sobs, from the corner of the hut, the woman mumbled, groaningly
" If only we had a few grains of rice, he would not have died."
"... the muddled and selective presentation of facts in the mainstream media on Gujarat, while does not highlight the failure of the Gujarat government to provide basic needs and the welfare requirements of the poor, has helped to project the Gujarat model as an "alternative" for India."
- Quoted from Atul Sood and Kalaiyarasan A., " Fiction and Facts", in Frontline, April 4, 2014, p. 16.
" Every second child under five in Gujarat is undernourished; three out of four are anaemic"
- On the cover page of The Week, April 6, 2014
The Dead and the Half-Alive of Gujarat Procalaim the UNtruth of the MOdified Glory of Gujarat.
The poor have no voice. Or they do not know how to bring their problems to the right platform. Hence people remain ignorant and support leaders like Modi.
ReplyDeleteThat was a fast fiction !! an allegory !! an analogy !! nobody could slam the society better than poets, of course the translators too!
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