i cannot forget how beautifully calam crafted his lead character
in "aruNa". almost all of the novel/story is related to us by
a relative of aruNa's husband, who is one of the many recipients
of aruNa's uninhibited love. he takes the reader through his own
understanding (or lack of it) of the complex character that aruNa
is. the story is all about man-woman relations, imposing no
restrictions whatsoever, and stressing on the purity of emotion.
aruNa repeatedly says that men are being selfish when they desire
to own a woman, as if the latter was their jIvam lEni property.
she shares her love with almost everyone who desires it and refuses
to restrict it to one single man. the story is all about the free
spirit that she is. the husband of aruNa wishes to impose his
"property rights" over her, but she doesn't succumb to
his/mother-in-law's/other pressure. calam points out the imbalance
in the society's norms for men and women. all the men who desire
to possess aruNa as theirs, suddenly withdraw their claims when
her husband stakes his claims. the narrator, who too is one of
those trying to implement her husband's "property rights" over her
grows to realize this imbalance. he realizes that he is asking aruNa
to conform to one-sided norms and reckons that aruNa, the free-spirit
that she is, will never give in to these pressures.
telugu university started a monthly called "telugu" in 1995,
or so. its first issue carried a very good essay on "calam nAyikalu",
i can't recall who the author is at this instant. i can help
anyone who wishes to get a copy of that article, provided i am not
flooded by requests.
regards
prasad
p.s: obviously, my introduction to calam nAyikalu ends here :)
and would be interested to read about more of them thru telusa-ers' notes.
-- ********************************************************************* Prasad Chodavarapu * WWW Homepage: * 305 N.Lincoln Av., #S105 * * Urbana IL 61801 * http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~chodavar* ********************************************************************* ph:(217)-344-0473(R) * "manasanE oka sampada prati * (217)-244-6909(O) * manishilOnU unDanI, mamatalE * ********************************** prati manasulO koluvunDanI" * e-mail:chodavar@students.uiuc.edu* --rAjasrI * *********************************************************************