Reflections and Retrospective (Of a Blogger)

Reflections and Retrospective (Of a Blogger)

It is not for want of ideas or topics that I am writing this post. Purely I want to take a little break from all the noise of current wars, the lingering aftereffects of Covid pandemic (ex: children’s falling school grades), and the food shortage, etc.. At times it seems appealing to wade into controversial topics (ex: politics, religion) but one can get stuck in the muck of the moment and lose the larger picture of life. Any way there is no point in getting the blood pressure up and losing mental equanimity over the price of milk, gas, fad (the Zeitgeist, a fancier word) of the moment (ex: AI, Artificial Intelligence), or the ubiquitous temperamental weather. 

Years ago I started blogging on poetry, Telugu literature, Carnatic music, science, and gardening. There were some miscellaneous topics like bodily upkeep too. The articles were mostly non-controversial and they helped me polish my writing (communication) skills and share some hidden beauty in (500 year old) ancient musical compositions and nature. That the blogs cumulatively attracted more than a million (~1,000 k) page views speaks some thing about the sites’ durability and continued interest among its readers. And the readers are scattered all over the world; bulk of the visitors are from US and India with a smattering of page views from Canada or Australia. Occasionally a dance student or Carnatic music fan requested for the lyrics of a rare Kshetrayya padamu or the meaning of a popular Ramadasu kirtana. I’ve always acceded to such requests and posted the musical pieces on my site. All this work I assiduously did with care within my time constraints and without any reward per se (except a pair of pearl earrings!); I simply considered this as part of paying tribute to my homeland, teachers, and family. To my surprise some of the articles have withstood the test of time and they turned out into a set of “benchmark critical essays”. Whether any of these posts influences the Indian youth (or contemporary Telugu generation) – I cannot comment. Literary or musical interests do not rub on everybody easily; it does not matter whether they are of highbrow or lowbrow type. Some get it and some don’t – that’s the beauty of life. Hobbies, i.e., non-monetary idle diversions – ideally they should be honed during the prime of life, if they have to be of any help or lasting value in life. 

So like the little sparrow (see a Puranic story about Garuda) on the sandy beach, I’ve kept on writing, adding attractive nature photos, several original Telugu compositions, and a few exploring pieces on the timeless ancient Sanatana faith (dharma). Through these writings I too have benefited. It sharpened my abilities in observation, expression, translation, science, and arts. Here, at this juncture I just want to express my thanks to all the visitors, the random browsers, and keen readers of both the websites: Google and Sulekha. Though I do not know the readers personally, though I’ve not seen any of them personally like many authors I feel a special kinship with all of them. One may consider such a relation as purely a figment of imagination, but then the conscious world is not the only tangible worldly thing in this universe. I am sure a Viswanatha or Tagore would agree, even Adi Sankara will nod in unison! Like pure aural music this mode of communication works wonders only through words, sentences, and passages; it is shorn of all other glitzy bling-bling as in a video clip or reel. The early morning chirping bird catches our attention though it is invisible and far away tucked in the branches; yet occasionally a flying pileated woodpecker or blue jay betrays its identity through a raucous screechy call. Copyright 2026 by the author

Translation of Siva Song by Krishna Sastri

English Translation of Siva Song by Krishna Sastri

Can’t you (just) say “Siva”, “Siva”, and “Siva”?

(Can’t you utter “Siva”, “Siva”, and “Siva”?)

Is Siva's name a bitter pill to swallow?

Can’t you let your head

Rest on Siva’s feet?

Where is the unbearable

Anguish – of 

Crossing the ocean of birth (life)?

Isn’t He a compassionate servant?

Can’t you let His feet’s dust

Fall on you?

Won’t our drought end

By just saying “Hara”, “Hara”, “Hara”?

Elephant, spider, snake

And the hunter -

Didn’t He listen to their

Distress calls?

Did He not descend from Kailas?

And bestow salvation?

Can’t your mind 

Ever dwell on the 

Destroyer of Manmatha?

Is the veil of “attachment”

Blocking the mind?

Is it preventing you 

From seeing Him?

(Dedicated to the memory of my loving parents)

Copyright 2021 by the author

(Once my friend and I went around Pithapuram, Samarlakota, and nearby Siva temples on a Maha-Sivaratri day. Sri Devulapalli Krishna Sastry, the lyricist of this exquisite devotional song was from Pithapuram.)

Audio link: Gopalaratnam siva siva

Telugu lyrics link: siva siva anarada 

SriSri's Surrealist Poetic Puzzle - Part I

SriSri’s Surrealist Poetic Puzzle

         "కాకి కేమి తెలుసు సైకోఎనాలిసిస్

ఆటవెలది ద్విపద కత్తగారు

5,3,2, ఆముక్తమాల్యద -"

"kaaki kEmi telusu saikOenaalisis/aaTaveladi dvipada kattagaaru/5,3,2, aamuktamaalyada -"

O Lord of Seven Hills, what is the meaning of this? Even if we break our heads, it is difficult to fathom its essence. It is not proper (scholarly unbecoming) merely to brush it aside as “just a meaningless little rhyme”. Surrealist poetry is like that, its style. Yet, even if we contemplate very strenuously, even if we think very deeply, we may not decipher it. It’s baffling.

What is the essential point in this poem? What is the puzzle (1) here?…. Who is this great poet? Who else? “This century is mine” – so he said , so he declared with  a thump on his thigh, Mahakavi Srirangam Srinivasarao (2). By joining the first letters of his surname and his name, he coined the pseudonym: “Sri Sri”. Thus evolved a most meaningful, rhyming, poet-stalwart. Who else but he, could pen such surreal poems? Of course, people also say Narayana Babu also too wrote surrealistic poetry.

What is surrealism? We know its goal (i.e., to baffle the reader, hold him captive, and grab his attention. Make the reader stop in his tracks!), but what is its quality? SriSri explained its quality with an example. If we read it, we would go a bit crazy, become perplexed.

"జీబ్రాకు, Algebra చిహ్నాల

లాంకోటు, పాంకోళ్ళు తొడిగి

సాహిత్య పౌరోహిత్యం యిస్తే

వెర్రికాదు, Sur-Realism రా సోదరా!"

If we get (grab) a zebra 

Drape it in a long (trench) coat  with algebra symbols

Put him on wooded sandals

And bestow priesthood, of literature

It is not crazy, but surrealism, dear brother!

This definition makes us all stupefied, dumbstruck. [Translator’s addendum: Among Telugu community a common disparaging remark is – 'అడ్డగాడిద'. “You are  an upright donkey with two feet”. Quite likely, SriSri may have such an epithet(s) in his mind while composing this poem. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, deep in his sub consciousness, he had this vivid image; he must have encountered such a situation. After all he worked at the All India Radio, also he had a stint at a newspaper. So, he must have crossed paths with such a person. A totally incompetent nincompoop, dressed in a suit, given a big title (like director, editor, managing director, program director) and was put in charge of a key literary/journalism program. Perhaps, such a person has acquired lots of formal degrees, like B.A., M.A., from a university. What a havoc on Telugu literature and culture, it would create? How can a gifted artist, poet, scholar work under such oppressive pitiable conditions? Perhaps, these are the underlying factors, colorful images that prompted SriSri to compose this poem. Of course, on the face of it, the whole thing looks a bit unrealistic, surrealistic. A dream scenario. But that is the beauty of it. There is enormous humor embedded in the little poem, but only very few readers can grasp it! We must also remember here one more important factual detail: SriSri was a student of zoology. Zebras are a sort of (hybrid) cousins of asses and horses!]

In (Dr. C. N. R.) Narayana Reddy’s “Modern Telugu Poetry: Traditions and Experiments” (doctoral thesis), we find a reference to this poetic puzzle. Dr. Reddy’s comment is like this: “Because Amukta Malyada is a rather tough mature literary work (prabandham), he wanted to poke fun at it by using those numerals, 5,3,2. Perhaps.” Thus C.N.R. too left the riddle as an unsolved poem, he gave us no convincing answer. On top of it, Dr. Reddy tried to ascribe his own opinion to SriSri by saying, “SriSri wanted to say – irrelevance (out of context), meaninglessness, and jugglery of sound are the characteristics of surrealism, surrealist poetry”. One may portray surrealism (poetry) as absurd poetry, but it is not proper to say such poetry as meaningless. In any type of poetry, there will be some shrewdness, but it will only be one of the factors. Just a part; meaning – shrewdness alone cannot determine what is poetry and what is not. Here, in this context, we have to discuss one very pertinent incident related to our poet.

I think, during the sixties (1960’s), the very famous literary critic, late, Sripada Gopalakrishnamurty wrote a long essay on “Modern Telugu literature” in “Bharati” magazine. It went on for months, that review article. In that essay, he praised “Mahaprasthanam”. While paying tribute, Sripada said of SriSri, “in later years somehow the poet lost his talent, as a consequence, he started playing rhyming games with miscellaneous poems.” As an example, the critic offered this –

తురాయి కంటె

ఆకురాయి కంటె

కీచురాయి కంటె

హిమాంశురాయి (3) గొప్పవాడు

“Greater than a turayi

Greater than a file

Greater than a cricket

Is Himanshu Roy – the greatest (4)

Copyright by the author 2014, except the original cited Telugu poems.