cATuvulO woman - calaM gaari woman
Rao Veluri (rveluri@smtpgate.anl.gov)
Fri, 21 Jun 96 17:02:49 CST
My dear lovers of literature:
While writing the Teeka for a very ordinary and run of the mill authorless
cATuvu I posted, I was in my own way, giving the vyaakhyaanaM( as a neo -
pauraaNika does!) for some words used in the poem. One of them was mOmu
maarveTTucuN, and I wrote peDamukhaM peTTukoni. At this point,
parenthetically, I expressed my admiration to one of calaM's women
characters in a short story, in reference to peDamukhaM peTTukOvaTaM. Lo
and behold, it has taken peculiar turns!
Sree Sadananda was able to read much more into the poem than the poem
really has! He tried in vain, in my opinion to defend even the 'filler
words' to have an almost esoteric poetic purpose rather than mere
prosodaical trappings. I am not surprised at all! It only shows his almost
religious and fanatic (absolutely no offense intended, sadananda garu!)
admiration and adherence to chandassu, and chadobadhha poetry. I stick to
my stand that they are fillers, no more no less. YMMV ( This abbreviation,
I have learned from Sri Suresh Kolichala a couple of months ago, and I was
itching to use it, eversince. Moreover, I always remain honest when it
does not cost me a penny! Thanks Sureshgaru!!)
In reference to calaM's woman, the peDamukhaM I referred to has a more
powerful connotation. Let me briefly tell the story.
A gorgeous washerwoman and her man daily go to the river and wash the
clothes of the upper class people of the village. As the clothes were set
to dry in the sun, they play with each other. He throws water on her, she
reciprocates, they roll in the shallow waters, tease each other, roll in
the sand, laugh etc. And, of course they always had real fun too!!
One of the upper class baaboos who was also a sort of a voyeur watches them
every day, hiding behind bushes. Naturally, he gets excited, particulary
watching the playful and well-proportioned woman in wet translucent
clothes, and all that! He lusts her and wants to have sex with her. calaM
provides an ocassion for the baaboo. One day she comes to wash the clothes
alone and our baaboo approaches her. I do not remember, I think he forcibly
holds her and rapes her! (I may be wrong!) His whole encounter with her
takes probably less than a minute, and after the 'act,'she says to him in a
what-do-I-care attitude, ( vekkiriMtagaa!)--
"Os! OrayyO! OsiMtEnaa!idE maavaaDayitEnaa," and you can imagine the rest.
Remember! This is a summary. One has to read the original as calaM said it!
Let somebody search for it. I do not remember even the title.
I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions! You can. Can't you?
Regards.
-- Venkateswara Rao Veluri