RE: maLLee mahejabeen (typos corrected)
V. Chowdary Jampala (cjampala@quark.dayton.net)
Mon, 29 Dec 1997 11:14:40 -0500 (EST)
On Fri, 26 Dec 1997, Ramarao, Ram wrote (as usual) a nice commentary on
the poem Jnaapakam (I left the poem at the end of this message for easy
reference - I know it is a violation of this group's etiquette, but I
think it is a justifiable violation here), and found a few 'weaknesses' in
the poem:
> Firstly, the theme in this piece is very poignant, the way it is
> developed is quite impressive. Except for one word that gave away where
> it was leading ("udyamAniki" in the fourth line), the beginning is
> rather innocuous which makes the impact of the ending even more
> profound. How I wish she didn't use that word there! When she talks
> about wall posters in the second line, my first thought was about movie
> posters. Perhaps those who know more about her poetry would have guessed
> right away which posters she was talking about but ordinary people like
> me would not. If that word were not there, until one gets to the phrase
One of mahejabeen's early pieces (and one of the first pieces in
the anthology) has to do with 'writings on the walls' and the troubles
there from. And, I suspect that most people familiar with the current
scene identify what posters he was pasting. So, the very first line hints
about what kind of a person he is. But, the writer does not want to leave
any doubts. Hence the udyamam in fourth line. (The expression 'udyamaaniki
paTTina cemaTa' serves to tell us that, for the heroine, he personifies
the udyamam.)
> On the weaknesses side: is there a hidden dhvani in "nI vartamAnAnni
> mOstU?" One clear meaning is that she is carrying his news. Is she
> pregnant too? Then is what she is carrying his "vartamAnam or
> Bavishyattu?" Is "gaDapa dATaTam" simply meant to say that she went out,
> or as per the conventional usage of that phrase, she is leaving her
There is probably more than one way to understand this. I view
vartamaanam here to mean message rather than news. In one interpretation,
this could mean that she left the confines of her home and began
dispersing his message. Until that time, she was not a part of the
movement unlike him and was functioning within the traditional boundaries,
but has now crossed them. Remember that the whole poem is about memories
from the past. She is probably now part of the udyamam and reminisicing
about how it all began. However, the word 'mOstoo' also invokes the image
of pregnancy, I must admit.
> parents? There is no other indication of that possibility in the poem.
> As with "kavi samayam" in the first poem we saw before, she seems to be
> using phrases of specific conventional usage either in literal sense
> (assuming she does this consciously and intentionally) or perhaps
> because she likes to use nice phrases somewhat loosely.
I now think that she is rather careful with her choice of
words. I think kavi samayam was intentional for the multiple ways it
can be interpreted (it's her time for poetry; signifies a special
alankaaram; it is one of the devices used in the poem to signify
traditional poetry)
> A second issue is the progression from "cIkaTi" to "kAnti". He pasted
> the wallposters in the dark. If there's significance to this, then he is
> not a diehard revolutionary (poetry normally doesn't talk about hero
> doing great things in the dark). This is also borne out by the
> "udyamAniki paTTina cemaTa" - usually heroes don't sweat (out of fear?)
> because of their heroic deeds (even if these deeds are done in the
> dark). Is the intent here that "he" is a simple, normal, low-level
> revolutionary who cann't paste posters daylight and sweats even doing it
> during the night, and in spite of this, he gets taken away by the
This 'hero' may not fit the traditional lakshaNa standards for a
hero, but current conventions would not find it a problem. Sweating is not
taboo for the modern day hero. Remember that the mahaakavi has already
characterized sweat as invaluable (gharmajalaaniki dharmajalaaniki
khareedu kaTTE sharaabu lEDOy...). And as the poet already noted, putting
up some posters can be done only at night (the earlier gODameeda raatalu
forms a background). And cemaTa comes not only from fear, but from intense
activity.
> police? Now, contrasting this to the narrator coming out in "kAnti", is
> the poet saying that the narrator is unafraid of being in the open in
> broad daylight? This may be so because apparently the events narrated
> happened a fairly long time ago (she vaguely remembers them now) and
> she's still ok unlike him (whose crime was to paste wall posters). This
> is not to make light of the situation - only trying to see if there are
> deeper treasures.
>
I thought that the progression from cheekaTi to kaanti signifies
the protagonist's own evolution. At the beginning of the verse, she was a
passive observer, a shadow of him and is bothered by the uncertainity of
the cheekaTi. But, by the end of the verse, she has seen the light and
has begun to disperse it herself.
Happy Holidays!!! -- V. Chowdary Jampala
> > Jnaapakam
> > ---------
> >
> >
> > toli poddu cheekaTloe
> > vaal`poasTar`lu atikinchi vacchi
> > nuvvu talupu meeTina Jnaapakam
> >
> > talupu terichi nee nudiTi meeda
> > udyamaaniki paTTina chemaTanu
> > cheerakongutoe addina Jnaapakam
> > appuDae paiTa jaarina Jnaapakam
> > paiTa meeda nee vecchani Jnaapakam
> >
> > tolijhaamu veluturuloe
> > kOdi paaDE prabhaata geetaanni vinToo
> > manam oopiritoe chalikaachukunna Jnaapakam
> > kanureppalu penavaesukunTunna
> > toli niSSabda nimishaanni bhagnam chaestoo
> > vaaLLu talupu koTTina Jnaapakam
> > nuvvu en`kounTar`voe, laakap`voe
> > teliyani sandigdha Jnaapakam
> > raavani maatram telisina chaedu Jnaapakam
> >
> > toli sandhya kaantiloe
> > nee vartamaanaanni moastoo
> > naenu gaDapa daaTina Jnaapakam
> >
> > (aandhrajyOti daily, December 15, 1991)