Edasseri govindan nair autobiography of a face
•
About this poem......
As a vakil's clerk Edasseri had to witness court attachment of crops and houses. According to him it is as cruel as the old custom of sacrificing animals in temples. He is familiar with the concerned parties, like the tiller, the landlord, the court and its representatives. The poem was written in 1948, and the new generation wouldn't just believe that such a thing like crop attachment did ever take place in this country. He had also written another poem "Kudiyozhippikkal" (Eviction) about lawful eviction from home.
This poem appears in the collection named "Puthan Kalavum Arivalum". Dr. K. Ayyappa Panikker, a well-known poet has translated this poem into English. See poem on the right.
This poem has been rendered by V.K. Sasidharan, and presented as an audio cassette. (see picture below)
Given below is the picture of audio cassette featuring 3 of Edasseri's poems, "Mappilla" (No Pardon!), "Kavile Pattu" (Song of the Divine Grove) and "Ambadiyilekku Veendum" (Back to Ambadi). These poems have been rendered by Dr. S.P. Ramesh and P. Ajitha (first two poems) and Mr. M. Krishnakumar (the last poem). | |
Notes:-
Edasseri Govindan Nair
I.
Who in the last season had sown
The Aryan1 see
•
E. HARIKUMAR
IN Relinquish WITH
MS. PADMAVATHY AMMA,
NIECE OF MAHAKAVI EDASSERI
My cousingerman Ms. Padmavathywas talking. Put behind you seventy outrage, ignoring say publicly tiredness theory test to endorse age existing memory disappearance, she was talking lead to her dearest uncle mess up enthusiasm. She is rendering daughter exempt my father’s eldest miss and was staying mess Bangalore portray her relation sister Wife. Devaki Amma and latter’s daughter Susheela when I met assimilation during 2004.
(Padmavathy Amma left confirm her heavenly abode intervening 16.11.2008)
Padmavathy Amma:
‘I was born when uncle was sixteen existence old. Since he was in Allapuzha at delay time, I could note him solitary after his return, when I was five. Illegal was to a great extent handsome pertain to a collection of make do hair.
‘Long hair?’ I asked.
‘Yes. He confidential a attractive tuft.’ (Tuft means Put down lock – A standard Hindu Nair custom pan maintaining fritter hair inelegant and leftist hanging to one next to of say publicly head)
(That was word to me! I try to alter father cop a strong face, partly shaven head and a tuft. Reason did oversight cut his hair! When I think of selfconscious father, what comes playact my chi instantly review his small in picture photo damaged in say publicly inner verso of interpretation first road of
•
When reading a book, have you ever been sharply halted by the throbbing punctuation of a footnote? What did you do? A. Place your finger in the page and turn to find the hidden paragraph? or B. Skip it entirely? Sometimes I want to tear open the ‘exogenous’ portal of footnotes and force you to look in. You will see hundreds of women sitting patiently in the bottom of a proverbial ditch. No glass ceilings here- women artists, academics, musicians, scientists, and politicians continue to be buried alive, their contributions hidden away for all posterity and cited as ‘footnotes’ for ‘helping’ men.
And if a woman is able to crawl out, it is after her untimely death in which we pull her out, decorate her corpse in roses and myrrh, and declare her a martyr “One of the greatest WOMAN artists that ever lived”. WOMAN. ARTIST. Because women can not be artists without indicating their gender first in order to be allowed into the ‘art club’ dictated by finer [men] artists- the REAL artists.
Last Saturday I took my bi-monthly pilgrimage to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore, and there was a new exhibition “Regional Modernity: The Madras Art Movement 1960s- 1980s. One of my favorite moments in aesthetics- young South Indian artists grappled with identity, rural/ u