Sindhu Nadiyin misai.....

Happened to watch "thullatha manamum thullum" programme in Podigai TV the night before. Am glad I did!

The programme (for the benefit of those who have never heard of it) features old Tamil film songs sung by present day amateur singers. It transports you to a dreamland of the 50s and 60s where the lyrics were audible & comprehensible and when instruments beautifully complemented the singing and did not dare smother the singer's voice. For those brought up in their childhood by the staple of VividhBharathi, some film song or the other almost always keeps playing at the back of one's mind throughout the day. And during these current mid-life crisis times, these old film songs present a splendid escape route to Xanadu.

And yesternight's selection was doubly sweet. Yesterday was the 130th birthday of Subramania Bharathi. In the programme were presented six gems of the great poet, carefully selected, beautifully sung by unknown faces to the accompaniment of an orchestra that was brilliant.

It is sacrilege to restrict the definition of Bharathi to a mere poet. He was a visionary, a humanist, a poet and a patriot all rolled into one - some one approximating what they routinely refer to as genius today. The term genius itself is so commonly used nowadays that it takes a real genius to identify another. And why do many of them have to die young? Mozart, Ramanujan, Sankara, Bharathi....it's a long list. I club them all under the genius brand because genius is not just about an abstract talent like music, poetry etc but also about esoteric subjects like philosophy. And I have the license to brand any one I like as genius because I can't really tell one from a crowd.

Digression apart, the songs that were on air included:

1 'Kakkai chiraginile...'

Bharathi saw Nandalala in whatever he saw. All the myriad hues of the universe were but those of Kannan himself. The black of the crow's feather, the green of the trees, the blue of the ocean....This piece is the real fore-runner to the more popular 'pachai nirame' of Vairamuthu of recent times. Beautifully and soulfully rendered by Yesudas.

2 'Vellippanimalayin meedhulavuvom....'

What does it take to roam the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas, to run a fleet of big ships on the high seas, to produce weapons, not to kill but to deter the enemy, to make paper, to establish big factories? What does it take to do all these amidst slavery and poverty? It takes a Bharathi to dare to dream, dream big about the India he foresaw. Any one who knows Tamil and who has a bit of imagination about the times the great poet lived in would be roused by this song. And who better than Sirkazhi Govindarajan & Tiruchi Loganathan to bring life to the song on the silver screen?

3 'Chinnanchiru kiliye....'

The poet here extols a child as a cute, little parrot, a treasure trove, which descended on this earth to purge him of his sins. Bharathi's expressions like "uchithanai mugarnthal garvam ongi valarudhadi.." are beyond me for translation. He also says that when folks praise the child, he gets goose-bumps and when kissed (or getting kissed), the mind gets ecstasic as one would feel when in an inebriated state! The naughty Baliah on the screen uses the metaphor of kissing & hugging to address his lady-love instead of a child and the frown of displeasure and anger on the lady's face - to be seen and enjoyed. Just goes to prove that Bharathi handles love and lust with equal felicity as poems of other genres.

4 'Katru veliyidai kannamma....'

Can any love duet be more melodious? Can any song aspire to capture the emotions of the lovers better? This piece is a heady mix of PB Srinivas, Gemini Ganesan and GR Ramanathan (the music director). They do ample justice to the beautiful lyrics of the bard. Such immortal duets are beyond today's composers and writers, no doubt about it.

5 'Sindhu nadhiyin misai......'

We have heard 'mile sur mera tumhara'. We have heard 'Vande mataram'. We have always believed that these two songs represent the ultimate 'patriotic' masterpieces outside the film world. What about the 'national integration' variety from among the film songs? Film song aficionados would readily come up with some Bollywood hit numbers, deluding themselves that Bollywood represents the whole of India. If only we all could understand 'Sindhu nadhiyin...' there would be no discussion on which is the best patriotic film song. Sindhu would win hands down.

Patriotism is not just about holding one's country high over the head, extolling its virtues and berating the enemy. It is not just worn on the sleeves, the feeling should come from within. Visionary Bharathi's idea of unadulterated joy lies in having a boat ride on a full moon night in the company of lithe lasses from Kerala, to the accompaniment of beautiful Telugu songs on river Indus! The vision is breath-taking in scope and the imagery just awesome. The entire song is a wish-list of the poet yearning to exchange Cauvery betels for the wheat of the Gangetic plains and the ivory tusks of Kerala for the poetry of the Marathas... And in the film version, a small duet in Sundara Telugu thrown in for good measure. Lilting music by Viswanathan/Ramamurthy and perfect emoting by (who else) Sivaji Ganesan makes this one of the favourite film songs of all who understand Tamil and follow Tamil film music. Even if the language is not understood, if one keeps aside hypocrisy and watch the song clip, any one would fall for it.

Now, at the beginning, did I say 6 gems? I can recollect only 5 now. Does not matter. I will wait for an encore next year.The half an hour experience of Pothigai was worth a 'half' of my favourite intoxicant brew. Without any commercials. Who in their sense would advertise in Pothigai, that too featuring old Tamil songs written by one Subramania Bharathi? Did I mention geniuses dying young? It is only fair that they do. The world does not deserve them.

The best moment to float away.....

There always is an appropriate time to embark upon important tasks. Time (and tide) wait for none but the task in hand always ought to wait for the right time. You do not barge into your boss's office and start asking for a raise when he is nursing a bad cold and his famous capricious mood is at a new low. In the same vein, one doesn't ask the wife when her parents, who have originally come on a short visit, are leaving, especially if it's not even a month of their arrival. The timing has to be perfect for all tasks - mundane as well as momentous.

What can possibly be the most important milestone event in a person's life? Graduating from college? Marriage? Birth of a child? Retirement? Yes, there are several. If important events have to coincide with appropriate timings, then almost all of these can be engineered to happen at the precise time best suited to us or at the most auspicious time, if one is astrologically inclined. And that includes child-birth. Engineering a child-birth is almost child's play nowadays. (the deluge of 11.11.11 births is just behind us). But we all conveniently hide under the carpet and refrain from discussing the single-most watershed event in our life - which is death!

Of course, death is an event that is part of life, who is saying no? Event-managers may manage without much fuss the important events just prior to death but with death itself, they are non-plussed. Life just does not start from a non-event and end in a non-event. The starting point of life is, we can say with pride, in our hands, as far as the time of birth is concerned. The doctor diagnoses a probable birth time at which moment the planets don't see eye to eye? No problem, a caesarian section a day or two earlier would ensure the baby pops out when the planets have made up. Landed your first job and asked to report for duty at Rahukalam? No sweat, ask for a day's extension. Fallen in love, decided to go the whole hog and tie the knot and your foolish friends have fixed up registration of the wedding at the Registrar's office exactly at the time when Saturn occupies the 8th house and looks askance at any one sitting in any other house? No issue at all, report to the Registrar's office an hour later (though some might argue the real Saturn has just embraced you, what's the big deal about its less dangerous counterpart in the heavens!!). But death? It's a different ball game altogether. How one wishes one can pre-fix the goldent moment, the death moment! The culmination of a life-time, the breasting of the tape after a marathon, the crescendo of a musical symphony, death is all rolled into one and should it also be not left to the humans to decide as to when, if not how?

Imagine for a second the wish is granted. Then at what moment would man like to die? Perhaps for some at 4 at dawn, when the world is still sleeping, the birds have just begun their chirping session and there is a comfortable nip in the air. Or for some, perhaps at 11 in the night, lying on the bed comfortably and gently swaying to soft music on the FM or at 6 in the evening, the 'ponmalaippozhudu' of Vairamuthu.... Can any other time-slot be apt for dying? Can dying at any other time sufficiently bring out the poignancy of the moment? At least for me, no.

Death may be painful. Or may not be. Death may be a mystery. Death evokes fear. Death is an outcast all are loathe to discuss. But death is certain. The only certainty in life. The dying moment can be beautiful too. If only we have the wherewithal to decide on its timing. Cometh the moment, cometh the man, they say. If only we could say with conviction, "cometh the moment, cometh death..."

Sweat-shop bliss

Only the work-stations keep changing but the cheerful smile on her face seldom does. Somehow it manages to stay etched on her sweaty face always. Watching her going about her chore with nonchalant ease, I always used to wonder - how can the mundane rigour of mixing frothing coffee a thousand times a day or frying a few hundred vadas and pooris in scalding hot environs produce so much joy? They say, if you are happy, you love even the dreariest of the jobs and conversely, if you love your job, however miserable it might be, you will be happy! A typical chicken-egg situation - no one knows for sure which is the cause and which, the effect...

... oh yes, I forgot. The work-stations I was referring to are the sundry departments in the kitchen of the fast food joint of the famous 'high quality' vegetarian hotel chain in my neighbourhood. And the smile I am witness to daily is that of a lady'chef' or 'cook', whatever you may call her. To be fair, the cheer and joy are not specific to any single cook or employee there. They all exhibit varying degrees of bliss while routinely going about their tasks, and they number nearly fifty.

In fact, everything about that joint radiates cheer. For one, the location, a tree-lined side-street in a residential locality, away from the traffic. Then the premises itself, a vast hall, thoughtfully arranged chairs & tables for those who prefer to savour their 'fast' food not so fast and the marble topped counters for those who enjoy their snacks standing. The joint opens sharp at 5 a.m. and even before the shutters are drawn up, a waiting crowd of morning walkers would stand outside, ready to gate-crash. The doors (Swarg dwar for many) open, the crowd rushes in, heavenly aroma of pure filter coffee pervades the air and the atmosphere would be just divine! Scores of coffee cups are emptied within minutes and the joggers' day is already made.

The same routine is repeated every day, day after day, month after month and year after year. There are hardly any holidays for the hotel except may be for Diwali and Pongal. From dawn to dusk (by dusk, I mean midnight here), the cheerful cooks, the cheerful server girls, the cheerful Nepali floor cleaners and the cheerful billing boys slug it out with never so much as an impatient frown or sign of exhaustion.

They all come from ( I am just guessing here) where else - Tuticorin or Tirunelveli or Virudunagar or some such small town south of Vaigai in TN. They flock to our Saravana Bhavans, Pothys, Saravana Stores and Chennai Silks, somehow manage to eke out enough to sustain themselves and also remit a portion to their families back home. The family back home would typically consist of a younger brother studying, two younger sisters waiting to get married, an aged mother and for good measure, a drunkard father. These clothes shops and eateries in Chennai are to Tirunelveli what Kuwait and the Emirates are to Kerala. Young boys and girls come laden with dreams and little else, slog it out here, become unwitting parts of our daily lives and maybe lose their own identities in the bargain. The dreams remain with them for some years, only that time to sleep eludes them to live their dreams. After some time, the dreams too wither away as they invariably do. Only the physical bodies remain, repeating the routine day after day and the boys and girls cannot care less, so long as they are fed, clothed and provided a bunker to sleep in and paid just enough to be able to remit home a few hundred rupees.

I've always wondered - how do they even deign to manage a smile amidst all this drudgery? They just don't make such boys and girls here in Chennai. What joy and amusement could these sweat-shops possibly give them? What could possibly motivate them to love their jobs, if slavery can be termed jobs? What is behind the laughter and banter I see among them? Teasing each other about their attire? or dates? or discussing their last customer? or the Veerappan-moustached supervisor? These questions cross my mind now and then, whenever I visit the joint (and that's about twice a day, for pure filter Kapi, despite its astronomical price). The questions just come and go. Never seriously tried to search for answers for that's not my wont. I have a bus to catch, an office to reach, an attendance to sign, a clock to stare at till it strikes 8 and in the evening, a home to rush to, you know... And even if the answers were discovered, they would just mean nothing to me, I know. Cheer and joy are the sole preserves of those lucky ones who love their jobs. Misery and melancholy of those who pretend they have great jobs, great families and better things to do. Yes, I should know....