06-Sentamizh nADenum pOdinilE,,--Nallathoar veeNai seythae
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https://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=201928#p201928
y arasi »
SIX
Sentamizh nADenum pOdinilE
(By the mere mention of my great land's name...)
Some Sangam (institution) in Chennai had announced in the papers, a contest and prizes for the best poems about our land. The cash prizes were three hundred, two hundred and one hundred rupees for the winners. We were all very keen that Bharathi should enter the contest.
He agreed. He composed Sentamizh nADenum pOdinilE and sent it away. Each word in that poem is worth a lakh of rupees (akshara laksham). Why? For each one of those ten verses, he should have been awarded ten crores, ten lakhs, ten thousand--at least a thousand? The Chennai sangam placed him third among the winners and sent him a hundred rupees. It didn't worry Bharathi. Va ve su was most upset. "Neither of the other winning poems were worth a line of Bharathi's poem which has sweetness, chandam, finesse and depth of meaning", he moaned. "They are poles apart from Bharathi's verse (malaikkum maDuvukkum uLLa vityAsam). They are like strewn flowers (the words), no strand binding them together! This land does not know the value of great poetry!"
Bharathi: As if you didn't know! They would have decided on the winners even before they announced the contest. All this is just for public display. Why do you rue? It's just our luck!
Iyer's constant regret was that there wasn't a figure in our times like RamanujA who spread the poetry of the AzhwArs--a giant like him to popularize Bharathi's poetry and to bring him into prominence.
Iyer nevertheless was thrilled when Bharathi's songs got popular, at least after his death--that the third prize winning song was heard in every corner of tamizh nADu, in several different rAgAs at that. There is no trace of the other two songs or the poets--the first and second prizes winners...
Sentamizh nADenum pOdinilE
(By the mere mention of my great land's name...)
Some Sangam (institution) in Chennai had announced in the papers, a contest and prizes for the best poems about our land. The cash prizes were three hundred, two hundred and one hundred rupees for the winners. We were all very keen that Bharathi should enter the contest.
He agreed. He composed Sentamizh nADenum pOdinilE and sent it away. Each word in that poem is worth a lakh of rupees (akshara laksham). Why? For each one of those ten verses, he should have been awarded ten crores, ten lakhs, ten thousand--at least a thousand? The Chennai sangam placed him third among the winners and sent him a hundred rupees. It didn't worry Bharathi. Va ve su was most upset. "Neither of the other winning poems were worth a line of Bharathi's poem which has sweetness, chandam, finesse and depth of meaning", he moaned. "They are poles apart from Bharathi's verse (malaikkum maDuvukkum uLLa vityAsam). They are like strewn flowers (the words), no strand binding them together! This land does not know the value of great poetry!"
Bharathi: As if you didn't know! They would have decided on the winners even before they announced the contest. All this is just for public display. Why do you rue? It's just our luck!
Iyer's constant regret was that there wasn't a figure in our times like RamanujA who spread the poetry of the AzhwArs--a giant like him to popularize Bharathi's poetry and to bring him into prominence.
Iyer nevertheless was thrilled when Bharathi's songs got popular, at least after his death--that the third prize winning song was heard in every corner of tamizh nADu, in several different rAgAs at that. There is no trace of the other two songs or the poets--the first and second prizes winners...
(The second part of this chapter continues...)
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https://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=201939#p201939
by arasi »
SIX
Continued from Post # 34
Around this time, we lost my little brother. He was just two. It was a stomach ailment. The medicines did not work. My father was broken-hearted. Losing money in the svadESi ship venture, the banning of his beloved journal India and all the atrocities of the British government had not shaken him. He was brave. The loss of his little child shook him up. He became weak. To divert his mind, Va ve su and Bharathiar spent most of their time with my father, conversing with him and playing chess. They will all go to Arabindo's house in the evening to discuss the VEdAs and upanishads, returning home at ten or eleven.
On the day my baby brother died, they buried him and returned home. Bharathi was perturbed. He pleaded with dEVi for a boon.
He wrote nalladOr vINai SEidE (under the heading kETpana) and sang it to the children.
My mother got sick with grief. The medicines did not work and they tried to heal her with herbal medicine. To get her out of the house, Chellamma and the children took my mother to a kuzhAik kiNaRu (huge well fitted with a giant tap--like a shower) called pATALa gangai to bathe. On some days, we left early at six and had our oil baths.
Chellamma insisted that my mother should join us every evening to spend some time by the sea. We were at the beach until nine at night.
Va ve su kept my father company. On a cardboard chess board, they played with chess pieces which were made out of cardboard again, with the first letter of the piece's name printed on them. My father ailed from headaches and chest pain. Iyer and Bharathi stayed by him.
One evening, we left for Villianur to bathe in the river. It was on the day of a festival at the temple. ArudrA dariSanam? A lad called Swaminathan came with us as our guide. We stayed at his relative's home there. The next morning, we bathed in the river, looked round the place and had lunch there. Around two in the afternoon, we engaged a cart and left for Puduchery. The wheel of the cart broke when we were three miles away from home and we could not find another cart. The maid carried my baby sister Ranganayaki and we walked home, chatting all the way.
Bharathiyar was surprised that Chellamma could walk all the three miles. After that day, if Chellamma ever complained about aching legs, he would tease her by asking, "enna Chellamma? Did you go all the way to see ArudrA dariSanam?"
Those were the times when the two families were together all the time. Six more months went by, with pAtAla gangai in the morning, and evenings at the beach.
About this time, Astronomy became a craze among us. There was a telescope in Puduchery. It was available to anyone who wanted to look through it at the skies.
This is how we spent our time...
---
Continued from Post # 34
Around this time, we lost my little brother. He was just two. It was a stomach ailment. The medicines did not work. My father was broken-hearted. Losing money in the svadESi ship venture, the banning of his beloved journal India and all the atrocities of the British government had not shaken him. He was brave. The loss of his little child shook him up. He became weak. To divert his mind, Va ve su and Bharathiar spent most of their time with my father, conversing with him and playing chess. They will all go to Arabindo's house in the evening to discuss the VEdAs and upanishads, returning home at ten or eleven.
On the day my baby brother died, they buried him and returned home. Bharathi was perturbed. He pleaded with dEVi for a boon.
He wrote nalladOr vINai SEidE (under the heading kETpana) and sang it to the children.
My mother got sick with grief. The medicines did not work and they tried to heal her with herbal medicine. To get her out of the house, Chellamma and the children took my mother to a kuzhAik kiNaRu (huge well fitted with a giant tap--like a shower) called pATALa gangai to bathe. On some days, we left early at six and had our oil baths.
Chellamma insisted that my mother should join us every evening to spend some time by the sea. We were at the beach until nine at night.
Va ve su kept my father company. On a cardboard chess board, they played with chess pieces which were made out of cardboard again, with the first letter of the piece's name printed on them. My father ailed from headaches and chest pain. Iyer and Bharathi stayed by him.
One evening, we left for Villianur to bathe in the river. It was on the day of a festival at the temple. ArudrA dariSanam? A lad called Swaminathan came with us as our guide. We stayed at his relative's home there. The next morning, we bathed in the river, looked round the place and had lunch there. Around two in the afternoon, we engaged a cart and left for Puduchery. The wheel of the cart broke when we were three miles away from home and we could not find another cart. The maid carried my baby sister Ranganayaki and we walked home, chatting all the way.
Bharathiyar was surprised that Chellamma could walk all the three miles. After that day, if Chellamma ever complained about aching legs, he would tease her by asking, "enna Chellamma? Did you go all the way to see ArudrA dariSanam?"
Those were the times when the two families were together all the time. Six more months went by, with pAtAla gangai in the morning, and evenings at the beach.
About this time, Astronomy became a craze among us. There was a telescope in Puduchery. It was available to anyone who wanted to look through it at the skies.
This is how we spent our time...
---
continued at..
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