Portraying Realities of Contemporary Life

With the great writer Ashokamitran

If the 12 year old boy Thyagarajan had not come across a short story in the literary magazine Kalaimagal and enjoyed reading it, he might not have discovered the Ashokamitran in himself.

“The short story Siddhi, which I read and enjoyed in my school days, did not let me sleep for many days” says the 82 year old modern Tamil writer Ashokamitran, whose real name is Thyagarajan,

Ashokamitran remembers that, as a school boy, he was very much interested only in the story and discovered its author after a period of 15 years!

“He was none but the famed Tamil writer Pudhumaipithan” he avers.

Shouldering family responsibilities after the death of his father, Ashokamitran came to Madras in 1952 from his home town Secundrabadh. As S.S Vasan, founder of the Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan and Gemini Studios, was a friend of his father, he provided Ashokamitran a job as Public Relations Officer in the studio.  

In the beginning, Ashokamitran wrote short stories only in English and got them published in magazines including The Illustrated Weekly of India. Due to his association with the popular Indian English writer R.K Narayan, he was also asked to translate his novel The Guide into Tamil.

“As I was just 31 years old then, I had little confidence in translating R. K. Narayan’s

The Guide. I just attempted translating one or two sentences from the novel and later gave it up” remembers Ashokamitran.

When asked about why he switched over to Tamil literature from being an English writer, the modern writer says:

“Though Tamil literature has wonderful classical pieces, I felt it was lacking the contemporary character. Most Tamil writings of those days were rhetorical and full of exaggerations. Hence I wanted to write something, which should reflect the reality of the contemporary society”

Of his numerous novels and short story collections like Appavin Snekithar, Pathinetaavathu Atchakodu, Manasarovar and Karaintha Nizhalkal, his novel Thaneer discusses not only the acute scarcity of water in Chennai, but with its background, brings to the reader how human relationship survives amidst the people, who are cruel and narrow-minded in the city.

When asked about his early literature friends in Coimbatore, Ashokamitran recalls:

“Marxian literary critic Kovai Gnani used to laud my writings and novelist C.R Ravindran had written many letters to me in those days. Moreover, I remember poet Puviarasu and Dhilipkumar from Coimbatore once jointly edited an English magazine called ‘Word’ and discussed with me the production of one of its issues”

Ashokamitran was in the city recently to receive an award from Kannadasan Ilakkiya Kazhagam.  

On a question regarding contemporary Tamil cinema, Asokamitran wonders why most films of these days are filled with violence. Nevertheless, lauding Tamil actor Dhanush, the octogenarian writer says:

“The young guy is doing well in Tamil movies. I enjoyed one of his movies. I think it is… Poda Podi… sorry… Thiruda Thirudi”. 

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1252317

A Travel into the Ancestral Past

Ramachandra Avadhani

Alathoor Kuppusamy Iyer

Most children of the present day, who cannot overcome their addiction to visual entertainments like watching television and playing video games, hardly know anything about the lives of their grandparents. Nor do the parents of the present day have time to narrate the story of their ancestors to their children. But, here is a 75 year old grandson, who has enjoyed the story of his lawyer grandfather from a voluminous English manuscript, which had been penned by his father. 

A page from the manuscript

“The biography of my grandfather Alathoor S Kuppusamy Iyer, who was a famous lawyer in Thiruchirapalli in the 19^th century, has been with me in manuscript form for over five decades. My father, K. Ramachandra Avadhani, who was also a lawyer, penned the work from his father’s memoirs and various other sources” says Venkatasubramaniam, a retired bank employee, residing at Kovaipudur in the city.

The hard-bound manuscript with papers turning yellow over time contains matters typed in a conventional type writer and has been awaiting a publisher for several decades.

“When I found the manuscript after the death of my father Avadhani in 1968, I thought of getting it published into a book but to no avail. However, in 1972, the Tamil periodical Kumudham published a few excerpts from the manuscript on the title Thiruchy Courtil 50 Varudam (Fifty years in Trichy court) “points out Venkatasubramaniam.

He says that his father Avadhani’s objective of writing the biography of his father Kuppusamy Iyer was to introduce an accomplished ancestor to his future descendants. However, the manuscript, which crossed past several decades from the demise of Avadhani in 1968, has turned out to be a social document reflecting the culture, education and lifestyle in a yesteryear Trichy.

“It was surprising when I read from my father’s manuscript that my grandpa Kuppusamy Iyer passed a second grade law course and became a lawyer, as just his first class middle school education was eligible to the admission of legal studies” says Venkatasubramaniam.

Nevertheless, the biography has recorded how Kuppusamy Iyer, in his 50 year legal profession, defeated his opponent lawyers by his wit and wisdom in plenty of civil and criminal cases. Known for his present wit and clear interpretation of legal terms, Kuppusamy once inspired the English judge Young, when he was asked to interpret the term ‘Recognition’ during a trial.

“My Lord, I haven’t gone through your appointment order as a judge, nor have you gone through my credentials as a lawyer. Still, I ‘recognize’ you as the judge and you ‘recognize’ me as a lawyer’ This is the connotation of the word ‘recognition” said Kuppusamy Iyer to the judge.

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1276191 

 

From Daughter Manonmani to Dr. Manonmani

 

Had Karia Gounder, a rich landlord at Ambalur, a village in Vellore district, not been a man of progressive ideas, Coimbatore would have lost its reputation in having a US- educated doctor as the city’s first paediatrician. Thanks to Gounder, who wanted his daughter Manonmani to be ‘Doctor’ Manonmani, even before seven decades.

“When I had hesitations to study medicine, my father drove out my fears and encouraged me to pursue medical education” recalls Dr. Manonmani, who is 87 years old now.   

Due to his close association with progressive thinkers and Justice Party leaders like Raja of Bobbili, P. T. Rajan, R. K. Shanmugam Chettiyar, A. T. Paneerselvam and Periyar E. V. Ramasamy,  Karia Gounder  practised equality and treated all his Dalit servants with due respect at his village Ambalur.

“ My father used to call our farm worker Periya Appu as ‘ Anna’, though he was a Dalit. Hence, we too would appropriately call him ( Periya Appu) ‘Periayappa’” writes Manonmani, in her autobiography Ambaluriliruthu America Varai- Oru Gramaththu Pennin Suysarithai (From Ambalur to America – A Village girl’s autobiography), which was released in the city recently.

“During the British rule, only 3 percent of the people in India were literates and that too in the urban areas. Worse still, women could never think of getting educated during those days. But, Manonmani, who was born at Ambalur, a village on the banks of river Palar in Vellore District, rose to the heights of fame by successfully studying medicine in the US” writes Pollachi N Mahalingam, well-known Tamil scholar  philanthropist, in his preface to the book.

After taking her MBBS from Christian Medical College, Vellore in the early 1940s, Manonmani pursued her higher studies in American Board of Pediatrics and later got employed as a paediatrician in Bob’s Robert Baby Care Hospital in the US. Later, starting her practice as the first paediatrician of Coimbatore in 1958, Manonmani has, so far, treated around 10 lakh children.  

 “In those days, Coimbatore was a small, beautiful town with rich green cover. I still remember the traffic-free Good-shed Road, through which I regularly drove my Fiat to the Government Hospital” she reminisces.    

   

On writing her autobiography, Manonmani says:

“I always  loved to read Mahatma Gandhi’s The story of My Experiments with Truth and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery of India. Their recollections of personal life in the books inspired me to write my autobiography”

When asked about her passion for Tamil literature, Manonmani says that her mother Thiruvammal, who had studied only up to class V, introduced her to the works of great Tamil poets like Avvayar, Ottakoothar and Pugazhenthi Pulavar.

“Moreover, I cannot forget the Tamil classes taken by my teacher, Mu. Va. Alias  Mu. Varadarasanar, an erudite Tamil scholar and well-known author “avers Manonmani.  

Link to my article in The New Indian Express: http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1207675

Enacting Issues on Streets

Street play artiste Prabakaran

A man is seen hurrying with an empty bucket along the street. Many think that he is heading towards a public tap to fetch water. But, the scene unfolds that he is proceeding to a ration shop, where with commodities like rice and wheat, water is  being sold !.

The scene also portrays incidents of smugglers stealing tanker lorries that transport  ‘PDS water’

In his street play III World War Prabakaran, a 34 year old drama artiste, points out sarcastically how water would be so precious in future.

  

Heading Vidiyal Veedhi Nadaka Kuzhu, an organization for conducting street plays in the city, Prabakaran says:

“Street play is an effective medium for carrying messages of social interest to the masses directly”

 

Prabakaran, who is working as a contract staff in the District Water shed Development Agency, spends his weekends with his drama troupe, staging street plays at important spots of the city.

Being also a singer of folk songs, Prabakaran can move a listener to tears by singing his favourite folk number Ethanai Murai Vetkapaduva Engal Akka, on how one’s elder sister is unable to get married due to demands of huge dowry.

“The evil practice of demanding dowry still persists in our society. Dowry, if not in the form of jewels these days, is demanded as valuable consumables, vehicles and immovable properties like plots and houses” rues Prabakaran. 

A performing artiste of Tamil folk dance forms, Prabakaran has trained hundreds of college students in the city in Parayattam,Oyilattam  and Kummiyattam..

“When I was a student, I used to sing folk songs on occasions like school annual days, temple festivals and even in funerals” recalls Prabakaran, who hails from Kattapettu, a village near Kotagiri.

Prabakaran informs that he learnt the art of staging street plays at his age of 13 from Suresh Sharma and Francis, who were the students of the famed Indian dramatist Badhal Sircar. He also underwent training in staging street plays under popular Tamil playwright Professor M. Ramasamy, Department of Dramas, Tamil University, Thanjavur.

Born to the parents, who were tea estate labourers in Kotagiri, Prabakaran says that he mostly chooses the issues of the working class as themes for his street plays. Also, his dramas campaign for the protection of children from sexual abuse.

Differentiating the features of street play from those of cinema, Prabakaran says:

“Cinema, with its commercial goal, draws the masses to the theatre and entertains them for about two hours. But a street play, which is very short, not only delights the spectators but makes them alive to the problems in the society”

Link to my article in The New Indian Express: http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1195550

Reintroducing Kovai’s Traditional Houseware

Dr Thirumagal addressing on traditional Kongu utensils

Sitting nearly for an hour, a woman of modern day Coimbatore does not have to make batter labouring hard at the Aattangal (Stone mortar). Nor does she need to crush the ingredients for Kulambu (curry) or Rasam (pepper water) manually on an Ammikal (Grinding stone), as she readily has an electric mixer-grinder, which can do it for her (If there is power supply at the time!).

With rapid development in science and technology replacing man’s physical activity by machines, people, who are just nearing forty, have myriad bodily complaints like back pains and joint pains. But, how was it, our ancestors could live disease-free even in their eighties or nineties?

“When you work at the Ammikal regularly crushing the ingredients for food, your muscles and bones get strengthened” says Professor Thirumagal.

Dr Thirumagal is a professor of Tamil in Arulmigu Palaniandavar Arts College for women, Palani. She was in the city to address in the exhibition “Kovai Vattara Puzhangu Porutkal (Traditional housewares of Coimbatore region) organized by The Vanavarayar Foundation as part of ‘Coimbatore Vizha 13’ recently. 

Addressing the gathering, Thirumagal pointed out that hard labour on earth in the absence of science and technology kept our ancestors disease-free even in their old age.

Displaying various traditional housewares in her slide show, she noted that all house hold items of the yesteryear Coimbatore were identified with the meaning of human life in the Kongu region.

 

“The Ammikal which our ancestors used to crush ingredients like pepper, garlic and cumin for making traditional dishes, was an object of reverence that sitting on it was considered to be a sacrilege” she said.

Also the broom, which is called Seemar in the Kongu dialect, would not be in the list of the bride’s Strithan ( Seethanam), as her  parents believed it would ‘sweep’ away their wealth !

When Thirumagal displayed the picture of a Virakaduppu (Oven functioning in firewood) it was a rare spectacle to the viewers, who are used to the modern day LPG or electric ovens.

“The Kottaduppu, a smaller oven, was of great use to the people of the then Coimbatore, as once they kept on it a Sundachatti containing Kuzhambu ( curry) the previous night, the light warmth of the oven would condense and convert it into a mouth-watering dish for the next morning”  recollected Thirumagal.

The little earthen utensil Sundachatti was named so, as it was used for condensing the curry.

Thirumagal also displayed some agricultural equipment like Kalappai (plough), Kadaparai (crowbars),Mammutti (shovels) and so on.

  

“The Savari Vandi (A bullock cart exclusively meant for journey in villages of Coimbatore) was, indeed a vehicle for luxury travels those days. Sitting on a cushion of hay, people would love to travel in it. The vehicle would also have a small ‘box-like’ section for keeping the footwear, as the inmates would like to sit bare-footed and relax during the journey

B. Meenakshi Sundaram

A Tea Master, Who Brews Haikus

A Glass of Tea with Tasty Haikus

Inside thatched huts

The Poor live…

At ‘Selva’puram – N. Muthu

Customers browsing through news paper while sipping tea from glass tumblers is not an uncommon sight at the road side tea stalls in Coimbatore. But, is it possible at any tea stall to sip the hot beverage, supplemented by beautiful haiku Tamil poems?  Yes it is… when you have tea at the stall run by Tamil poet N. Muthu in Ponni Nagar near Papanaickenpalayam.

“I love to share my poems with the customers visiting my tea stall, if they are interested to listen to me” says the 34 year old Muthu, who is an author of two books of poems Edai Kuraivaai and Irukku.

Muthu, who appeared in the Kaviarangams conducted by literary organizations in the city like Vasantha Vasal Kavi Mandram and Tamil Nadu Murpokku Ezhuthalar Sangam in the mid 1990s, used to receive rapturous applause from the audience, as he read out his sharp haiku poems lampooning the follies in politics and society.

“I observed the paradoxes even in common things we come across in life. This interested me to write funny short poems on them” recalls Muthu.

 Born to  

 The staff of ration shop …

An under weight baby

Muthu parodies a staff of a ration shop on his practice of distributing commodities in lesser quantities to the consumers in order to hoard much for him.

“I draw inspirations from the ordinary lives of commoners, who experience injustices like caste discrimination, unemployment and poverty” avers Muthu.

Muthu’s poems are rich in symbols. Comparing the bonds of a sheep with the freedom of a butterfly he writes:

Towards a direction at its choice

Flies above a herd of sheep

Butterfly

Answering a question on his views about writing poetry, Muthu says:

“Poetry is not a craft but a discovery from everyday human life. And, a poet writes the discovery in his language.”

Muthu discloses that he learnt writing poetry while he was an activist in the CPM and a street play actor in the party’s literary wing Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artistes Association. 

“I could understand the plight of the people, only after I had taken part in protests and demonstrations against civic issues like poor water supply, lack of drainage facilities and so on in our locality. And I have registered such hardships of the residents in many of my poems” he says.

When asked whether formal academic education is required for writing poetry, Muthu notes:

“Poetry is a creative art and borne out of understanding the society. And, I don’t think academic education has anything to do with it.

On a question about his educational qualification, the poet says:

“I discontinued from school after studying two years in grade VIII, getting detained in the class”. 

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1166668

In Search of a Dirty, Divine Mystic

Azhukku Swamigal

In the Kongu dialect of yesteryear Coimbatore, there was an interesting figure of speech, which a mother would use to chide her mischievous little boy, who was much interested in playing but more reluctant to take bath as ‘Azhukku Saamiar’ (A dirty monk). But, it is true that a Siddha by the name Azhukku Swamigal once lived here nearly a century ago and the phrase could have crept into the language after the mystic.

Azhukku Swamigal lived inside the deep forests of Vellingiri Hills and believed to have mastered Tantra, Alchemy and Yoga inside the woods. When eminent Tamil scholar Ku. Natesa Gounder’s father visited the Vellingiri Hills in the dawn of the 20^th century, he met the mystic there and brought him to the city.

Though he got his name as Azhukku Swamigal after his habit of not taking bath, the mystic is believed to have possessed supernatural powers and tricks. He would hold the spectators spell-bound by his unbelievable performances like coming out of a locked house, making food appear inside an empty utensil, showing his appearance suddenly in a distant land and lighting a lamp with water as fuel! The mystic would also stand unaffected even after the bite of a venomous snake.

Despite his tit for tat for the people, who made fun of him at his appearance, the mystic played Good Samaritan to the hard-working poor.

“The thick woods of Coimbatore were once havens for mystics. And the remarkable  one, who lived at Vellingiri Hills about a century ago, is Azhukku Swamigal” says Prof. I. K Subramaniam, Assistant Editor of the Universal Tamil Encyclopedia.

Later, Azhukku Swamigal settled at one Ramu Mudaliar’s house in Vettaikaranpudur near Pollachi. During his stay, he requested Mudaliar’s wife Alamelu to plant saplings of trees like Vilvam (Bael), Vembu (Neem), Vanni (Indian mesquit) and a plant of Mandharai(Bauhinia purpurea) at a spot on the banks of river Upparu.

Planning to bid adieu to the world, he reduced his consumption of food and passed away within twelve days at Ramu Mudaliar’s home. In the meanwhile, he had asked Alamelu to bury him at the spot, where she planted the trees. The place, where he was buried, has now become a temple and being called as Azhukku Swamigal Kovil.

“Rangasamy, the chief minister of Pondicherry, who regularly visits the Azhukku Swamigal Kovil, is a pious devotee of the departed mystic” says Sirpi Balasubramaniam, Sahitya Akademy award winning poet and former Tamil professor, Bharathiyar University.

Elders recall that though Azhukku Swamigal had no habit of bathing, he could produce captivating fragrance around him all by his divine power.

Link to my article in The New Indian Express:http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/1153815

Compiled by: B. Meenakshi Sundaram

Source: Azhukku Swamigal – an article by Sirpi Balasubramaniam, Kongu Kalanjiyam - Vol 1.