Re: maachiraaju saavitridE marO kavita
Bapa Rao (brao@la.tis.com)
Tue, 17 Jun 1997 13:31:54 -0700 (PDT)
> Why do I like this? At first glance, this appears like a satirical
> observation about the local temples or 'dEvuDi paaTlu'. Then, in the
> penultimate stanza, suddenly the writer brings about an incisive parallel
> with the life of immigrants. Even that is surpassed in the last stanza,
> where she talks about the status of these suffering immmigrants once they
> step back on their native land. We realize that the poem is not
> about the dEvuDu, but the immigrant dEvuDu. The whole verse takes
> on a new meaning and forces you to read it again. I read this poem the day
> before I went on a trip to India. The line, 'svadESaaniki tirigi veLLina
> dEvuDu maLLee konDekkaka maanaDu' haunted me for several days. I welcome
> further discussion of this verse.
I don't have much to add except to say that to me, this poem cleverly
conflates the idea of society and society's gods. Joseph Campbell noted
that our gods are created by society to reflect, abstractly, society's
world-view. Thus tirupati devuDu is very much of a god reflecting
middle-class, material aspirations. When I first arrived in this country,
I remember noting with wonder that our gods have to compromise on the
dates of their designated pujas, by settling for the nearest weekend.
This is of course reflective of the unique compromise that NRIs seem
to make (unlike other minority communities like Jews or Chinese who
do celebrate their holidays on the proper day).
Bapa Rao