Bruised, but not Broken (poems)
-Challapalli Swarooparani
23. Love at Chennai
Though my visits to Madras
Maybe just once in a blue moon
To run some errand― yet
An unknown blood bond
Makes the town always my own,
Walks me through, holding my hand!
Madras metropolis
Is a splendid pot of hot food
Catering to the
Hungry toiling masses!
An inviting affection advances
With beauteous black bodies
Clad in white ethnic dhothis
And offers a jubilant smile!
In its very air, hangs a certain
Dravidian familiarity
That stretches her friendly hand
Draws me close by my neck
And looks me, eye to eye!
Tamil Nadu means love-land
Inhabited by innocent endearing
people Daring to build temples and
towers Not merely for a Lankesh or
Murugesh Or a Velangini Mother
Mary
But for a queen of the silver-screen as well!
It seems:
When I go to and forth
To my mother’s mother’s house
When on vacation
Grandpa Pandit Ayotidas
A philosophical fossil
Links our lineage
To the past
The legendary Sakya dynasty!
When I visit father’s mother’s house on a festive day
I squat on his lap and listen
To the tenacious Periyar
As he unravels the dark mysteries
Of gods.
Once upon a time,
Madras was a flowing, golden beard
Of ‘self-respect’ grown by the
‘Grand old Man’!
It dazzled
Like the jaguar Jayalalitha
An invincible icon
Who trampled the cobra
Of male chauvinism
Under her tender feet!
It inspired
Like the untamed conquistador Tirumavalavan
Who caused the Pariah, Pallar hamlets
To ignite into flickers of blue light!
On the lustrous countenance
Of Madras
There now hangs
An unbeknownst
Magical, diaphanous veil!
Streets that once throbbed
To the steps of
Hard-working labourers
Now lie supine
Like herds of dried-up cows!
The waves on the ocean
Now loiter
Shirking their ebb and flow.
This great city is now
A yoga guru
In a tight-fitting loin-cloth,
And turned upside-down!
(Telugu: “Love at Chennai”, translated by N R Tapaswi and published on the Face Book Timeline of the author.)
*****
(To be continued-)
Challapalli Swaroopa Rani hails from a village, Pyaparru, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. She is one of the five daughters of Mariyamma and Mantraiah. Went to Govt school in her place, completed her college at Guntur, the District head quarters. Then shifted to Hyderabad Central University and involved in student politics as a founder member of Ambedkar Student’s Association. She had her master’s in History & Archaeology, M.Phil in Medieval History and Ph. D in Regional Studies. Swaroopa has obtained Gold Medal in her Masters Examinations. She has got her first recruitment as Asst. Professor in History at Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Srisailam and got selected as Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies in Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur. She lives in Vijayawada. Presently she is a Professor of Buddhist Studies and Director, Center for Women’s Studies in the same University. She is specialized in studies on Buddhism, Caste, Religion, Gender, Tribal Studies, People’s Culture and Literature.