Bharathi Yaarda Née? Who are you?        Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan                               

Bharathi Yaarda Née? Who are you?

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

 

 

 

 

 

Verse above- in Translation :

 

After making a pretty Veena,

Does anyone throw it in dust?

 

Please tell me Oh, Power of Lord Shiva,

You have made me with ,

Glowing Sparks of wisdom,

Would you not give me the strength,

For making my country live with a purpose?

Please tell me Oh , Power of Lord Shiva,

Am I to live here as its simple burden?

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It is Navarathti or Golu time. More pertinently, Gala time, as India is in celebratory mood  or mode,if you will. There is music in the air. Dance is on our face. Well, for one man in Puducherry, it was nothing new. He became the child he was. Inside of the man. He conspired with his younger daughter to visit every house in the street they were homed in. And nine days were not enough to enter those on adjacent streets. He walked in the evenings to smell the kitchen. Picked the house for his daughter to invade. Invade, he did too.

 

And he followed it religiously year after year. It did not matter he knew the householders or not. They ‘knew’ him anyway. Unsolicited , he sang. And he composed new ones, spontaneously, to sing on Parasakthi. They poured and poured. The householders were mesmerized. And as he entered one household, the neighboring houses emptied to follow this Pied Piper.

 

And then he put his hand out. Both hands. Bavathi Biksham Dehi! For his favourite Sundal of the day. He tucked himself. Insisted that the assembled too partook the feast. He lost himself in his Sundal Prasadam. And the householders were shedding tears of joy -as Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiar shouted out his Om Parasakthi! Bharat Mata ki Jai! Vande Mataram to the accompaniment of children. He made HIS day. His Sakuntala’s day. And the householders’ day. Year after after. For the ten long years, he was in  Pondicherry in exile.

 

These words were keyed in by me on Oct 1,2022. Saturday. 18.30 hrs. Venue: Ramakrishnan Mission Students Home, Mylapore. Students Home (Gurukula) provides free school and technical education, food, clothing, shelter, and medical care to around 650 orphan and destitute boys. As a student of the adjacent Vivekananda College, one entered the premises after 46 years to the day.

 

It was in the company of Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi Yaar . A play which had seen 100 platforms, world over. Directed by a fellow practitioner S B S Raman, son of the legendary Veenai S Balachander. And words penned by a fellow writer Isakavi Ramanan. Forget the professionalism. The Acoustics. It was an exhilarating experience to behold. Just listening to the words of this poet in penury,  was rich in tapestry and substance.

 

What particularly appealed and impressed was the audience. The school children in uniform and beyond. The hall was full and overflowing. There were idiot boxes beaming the intellectual treat outside as well, children seated in rows and rows. I sat with them. One of them. Drink and Absorbed them with Bharathi.

 

This is where Bharathi needs to go. And be with. The younger GenZ. Having written and published recently Mahakavi Subranania Bharathiyar ( Musings,Anecdotes,Episodes),Kalaimagal Publications ( iconic and 90 plus years old), on Sept 11,2022, on Subbiah’s 101 st death anniversary, it was a RIDE with HIM like no other.

 

The children, the fortunate ones,  even if we were told they were destitutes and orphans. Who says that? Bharathi would not agree. They are all the children of Bharat Mata and his Parasakthi. They were blessed not abandoned. The smiles and the disciplined enthusiasm they revealed ( no catcalls or whistles) by putting together their hands when it mattered, touched one’s heart, mind and soul. It was a soulful performance from the children.

 

Bharathi would have loved it. He would have gone berserk with his poetry. Words would have tumbled out of him in a torrent. A Niagara fall with a hurricane to boot. Engiruntho Vandhaan – ( Bharathi alluded to his man Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday- Kuvalai Krishnamachari who ‘came from nowhere’ when Bharathi was rendered a destitute/orphan in exile in Pondicherry in 1909). OMG! What lyrics! What a song tugging at your heart and if you had no moist eyes, you must be Vladimir Putin.

 

I would urge all those who may care, to

make it a mission to watch this play at Ramakrishna Mission with missionary zeal for Bharathi’s mission, available on YouTube,  for a sympathetic,empathetic, loving, caring Bharath lives in there .

 

In the meanwhile , the cheap me was relishing the Puttu and Kothhukadalai ( poor man’s Badaam) Sundal a Mylapore Mami had thoughtfully brought in and served us, to the more fortunate of us sitting outside the hall, , and thrusting our hands like Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiyar,on Jamakalams. Nostalgic trip it was, with Bharathi’s Navarathiri Sundal. One could see Sakunthala and Bharathi the Pithhan,Siddhan and Vedanthi, devouring his favorite Kothukadalai Sundal, as my day,week,months, years were made in my small mind’s eye.

 

( Author is practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)

 

 

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