This Time Let's Say Hello To Bharati!

Dear Kamla,

I take extraordinary pains to ensure that knowlege of the poet or his works, should not become a pre-condition to enjoy his works. With Kambar or Bharati, you can choose a line at random and without knowing about the other million lines you can enjoy that line fully.

If you do not believe my words now you will believe them on Valentines day, this time, when I will make Kambar deliver us all the essence and juice of love.

The story I attributed to the poem is apocryphal. But the poem is a powerful answer to those who seek God in man-made symbols.

Words of people like you who enjoy such posts drives me deeper and deeper into the Kambar Ocean and the Bharati Samudram, so that I come up with more and more precious pearls.

L,
sridhar

Dear Sudha,
Legend has it that Bharati challenged that his verses would be the most suited for Carnatic music. (and of course for dance as well, as they are emotional and profound)
But I have the suggestion to make to dancers like you. Instead of choosing those verses where others have already done some work, if you choose some new, different selections, the effect will be really tremendous. For example it is easy to do choreography for Theeratha Vilaiyattu Pillai. But very difficult for Achamillai. Many know only the first two lines of Achamillai. If you read the whole verse you will know that it is the ultimate in spirituality. If you can try to set this song for a dance number, that will be really great.
Best of luck,
sridhar

Dear Varloo,

I was dead-against the practice of mugging up poems by school children. But when I expressed my views to an educationist, he said, that the act of mugging up is like taking a locked up treasure box without its key. But later when you grow up and somebody talks about the same poet, you suddenly get the key and start enjoying the treasure you have been having all along.

Kambar and Bharati are like large hot Dosas. You cannot straightaway bite into the middle. You start slowly munching up from the edges and gradually advance to the core. That is the best way to enjoy a hot dosa.

Thanks for the kind words, Varloo.
regards,
sridhar

Dear Bharati,

When great minds like Kambar or Bharati walk in to our hearts, they come through a one-way door. The door is wide open to welcome them but never opens to let them out. Once they are in, they are in for ever.

To be able to enjoy Bharati is a blessing given to all of us. Let us thank God for that.

To see God not merely in the assigned symbols but in everything one sees, and in the best of what is there to see, is the way of a mystic. And Bharati was the most profound of all the mystics.

Thanks Vandhana for the participation.
regards,
sridhar

Dear Varudhini,

There are many Tamil poets whom only the Tamils can enjoy. I would never dream of posting their works in an international forum.

But Bharati and Kambar are all yuga-purushas. They belong to the entire world. If we are not able to enjoy these great souls, the loss is ours.

After posting on Kambar and Bharati for two weeks, I started wondering whether what I did was all right. IL is an international forum having members from all countries and all languages. To post about Tamil poets in such a forum, I was no sure of the reception.

But after reading your post I am sure that there are many gracious ladies like you who would like to savour the sweetness of literature, whatever may be the language it belongs to.
Thanks Varudhini.
sridhar

Dear Jothi,

Getting goose bumps is the perfect reaction to such a great work. Unless your emotional involvement is total you will not have goose bumps.

Though in a way it is better to learn these things in school, at times I feel that it is like giving very precious objects to a child for playing, especially at an age where the child does not know its real worth.

Once when I was in England and I could not relish an item of food which they Britishers have been enjoying, I told them, "How are you able to enjoy this awful food?"

To which my patient host replied, "There are certain things in life, which, if you want to enjoy, you should develop a taste for it."

We need to develop a taste for Bharati and Kambar.

I will do my part. This Valentines day we are going to see some love scenes scripted and directed by Kavi Chakravarthy Kambar.

Thanks Jothi once again for your kind words,
regards,
sridhar

My Dear Indhu,

I have no words to thank you for your appreciation. I sit before my laptop all the time and you do my share of household work as well. And then to top it all you appreciate my work, forgetting for a moment, that I made you work more. Thanks is not the word, Indhu.

The beauty with Kambar and Bharati is that you cannot say hello to them or shake hands with them without a part of their divine soul getting into yours.

You need to wait for 2 more days for Kambar's love scene.

with love,
sridhar

Dear Varalotti sir

I enjoy Bharathiyar poems very much. I have heard this poem years before in doordarshan. Yes I remember they used to show this very often. The very first line is so powerful that it will make you listen to it fully. It was a great feeling to listen to it even though I have not gone to the meaning of the poem. But the vibration that it makes is a different feeling. So with much ease I could read it again in Tamil. But still I couldn't read the last stanza of the tamil part fully. Thank you for posting it.


regards
vidhi

Dear Vidhi,

Thanks a lot for your participation. Bharatiyar is timeless and spaceless. You can enjoy him anytime through any medium. Very few poets have survived upto this Internet age. Bharati has a place of pride among those survivors.

regards,
sridhar

Dear Varalotti
I am much grateful to you for correcting me.

(B.Dasan's image of a Rationalist is so deeply entrenched in mind that I dint even imagine he would have written a Shakthi verse.)

I shudder to think that I could have bumbled along life with that factual error filed in memory ;and horror of horrors, I could have blurted it out in some flesh-and-blood company !
Now I am saved.

, saviour.

Manjula