A RIVER by A.K. Ramanujan

In Madurai,
city of temples and poets
who sang of cities and temples:
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand-ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water - buffaloes lounging in the sun.
The poets sang of the floods.

He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked'
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places.
and the way it carried off three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.

The new poets still quoted
the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her,
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.

He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
and then
it carries away
in the first half - hour
three village houses,
a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda
and one pregnant woman
expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.

I first read this poem in 2002 and hated it. This was around the time we used the term global warming to describe the environmental crisis. Terms like climate change came much later but all schools had started introducing some form of environmental studies by then. Ramanujan died in 1993, well before the apocalyptic possibility of humans destroying the planet had become a cause for concern. In fact, his generation, and even mine for that matter, has grown up reading the poems of Wordsworth and Shelley who describe the beauty of nature. When you look at The River in that context, it's impressively ahead of its time. 

In fact I think I think I hated the poem so much in school because around the same time, I was obsessively reading the Anne of Green Gables series (for those of you who haven't read it, please do - it's about 80% richly descriptive of the landscape and 20% about Canadian rural life that I didn't understand at all). So I was dragged straight from the laughing brook of Rainbow Valley with its pretty moss covered logs that make convenient seating spaces to this River Vaikai, repulsive, realistic and deadly. I still recoil in disgust when I read it. 

Obviously, that was Ramanujan's intention. He wanted us to shake off our idyllic notions of nature and the complacence with which we treat human suffering. Consider this - most of you reading this poem in school live in large cities. The fact that you've come to my blog on the internet to find an explanation of the poem means you have access to some amount of infrastructure. It's very easy for us to romanticize life by a river in the wilderness. We think of it as a vein of life and nurturing, which it is. All the great civilizations were built on the banks of rivers. Yet, as people who have not experienced its havoc, we don't consider that the river is also destructive, either by going dry and leaving behind the parched cracked earth, or flooding and submerging all that crosses its path. Consider what it would be like if your urban jungle collided with the destructive force of nature - that is what happened each year to Madurai. 

Ramanujan sets his poem in Madurai, where art flourished at the peak of Tamil culture. The poets of Madurai sing only of the splendour of cities and temples. They ignore the revolting decay of the city that Ramanujan paints for us in great detail. The image is loathsome as he describes the flotsam in the river and the ridges in the sand - bed that look like ribs. He describes the filth floating in the water. He shows us how poorly the dam and bridges are maintained, covered in rust and patches of shoddy repair. The stones resemble sunning crocodiles and water buffaloes lolling about in the sun.

But the poets sing only of the floods when the river shows some sign of life, when the ugliness is hidden from view. But with this new dynamism, the river also brings destruction and death. 

Ramanujan then introduces a persona he refers to only as 'He'. Whoever this persona is, he appears to be an outsider who can see the river for what it truly is and is not taken in by the poets' idyllic picture of it. Ramanujan goes on to describe the countdown to destruction as the water rises steadily over the bathing ghats. The poets continue to produce the same old stories, turning a blind eye to the pain and havoc brought on by the flood each year. They are so awed by the turbulence and fury of the river that they almost lose their sense of compassion towards those suffering around them. And so Ramanujan takes it upon himself to hold up the true picture.

He, (Ramanujan) as well as He, (the persona) talk about the lives lost in the flood. Unlike the other poets who are blinkered, he wants to immortalize in verse the drowned pregnant woman and the animals whose lives were also lost. 

Notice how the lines about the pregnant woman and the cows who were washed away are repeated. When do you repeat something? When you don't want people to forget. When you want to make sure they have heard you. Notice also that to emphasize the irony, the pregnant woman is nameless but the cows' names are mentioned twice. Right at the end of the poem, after shocking us out of complacence, Ramanujan talks about loss, to draw us towards empathy. How does he do that? Think about how you feel when you read about the pregnant woman. How did you feel when you read the last four lines of the poem? He first mentions her in Stanza 3 as the pregnant woman with "perhaps twins in her". Then he brings her up again in Stanza 4 but this time with more details in the last 4 lines. What are those details? Did anyone actually know if this nameless woman was going to have identical twins with no moles on their bodies and different coloured diapers to tell them apart? She's been swept away by the flood and in fact, no one will really know. What those lines convey, without explicitly saying so, are her dreams, the anticipation that she and her family must have had, what they imagined it would be like when the children were finally born. 

Hopefully, those of you reading this have never experienced a natural calamity, and hopefully you will never have to. But think back at all the times you have read about it in the news. How reports post numbers of people who have died. Ramanujan's poem is a reminder that the casualties of nature are not just numbers, they are real people and real animals who had dreams, who had names and who experienced pain and suffering and who deserve to be remembered, who deserve to have poems written about them, just like the river that swept them away. 

P.S. I Love You

Alright alright I'll be completely honest! So I haven't read the book. I always pick books over movies but in this case, when I read the synopsis on the back cover, I wanted to throw up. And then when I finally picked it up one day and opened the first page, it described the lead character throwing up so I slammed it shut and decided not the read it. 

And then while browsing channels on tv one day while I was by myself at home, I happened to catch the movie just as it was about to begin. It was really the opening song that got me. (You can hear it here - pick any video of your choice, I can't find an official one. It's called Love You Till the End by The Pogues). 

The song plays in the background during this scene where Holly and Gerry are fighting over something Gerry unwittingly said to his mother in law. 

But the song keeps returning as part of the story with the lead characters singing it as the story jumps between events in the past and Holly's struggle to move on in the present. 

 My favourite scene is the part where Holly wakes up to find Gerry sitting on the couch playing this song. And then in a smooth cut, we realise that she's somewhere between a memory or dream and reality. I loved how the act of remembering or day dreaming was expressed visually. 

So yes, I admit I did cry. And I did watch the movie again about 10 times. And then I decided to post pictures of Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank on the internet because is-anyone-complaining-do-I-need-to-give-a-reason? 

Grief and loss are very personal things. EVERYONE experiences them and you can keep feeling sorry for yourself if you like, but everyone around you has had it pretty bad at some point. So I think that dealing with these things is something that everyone can identify with. We've been fed on the Disney princess trash for too long and we're so conditioned to believing in a happily ever after. I like that this story depicts what comes after. I like that it depicts moving on and giving life a second chance. I like that it depicts ordinary people fighting their own extraordinary demons and then healing when they can't fight any more because that's what real people do.

Found A New Poet

I absolutely love how he writes! Not only does he have a way of expressing simple thoughts in a very beautiful manner, he also manages to use his poems to create shapes and give them a visual form.

Well done Joel A Doetsch. You have a fan.

And since I can't remember how to spell your name and have to keep googling various combinations, here's the link:

http://hellopoetry.com/joel-a-doetsch/

And the days are not full enough

I don't really want to analyse this poem. It doesn't need any analysis and that is how good poetry should be. I don't want to take it apart with a pseudo intellectual deeper meaning because it conveys its meaning so effortlessly anyway. So here it is. I hope you like it. What it says is exactly how I feel right now. 

Just so you know, Ezra Pound's life was full enough for a long time. He helped many of his contemporaries who shot to fame because of his efforts and after the First World War, he lost faith in England and moved to Italy. During the Second World War he strongly voiced his support for the Axis powers which led to his arrest for treason. He suffered a mental breakdown and much torture until he was finally released. He lived the rest of his life in Italy where he is buried. 

Cherry Blossoms

And then... I come to this place of my ancestors and I remember, like these blossoms we are all dying. To know life in every breath, every cup of tea, every life we take; the way of the warrior. Life in every breath. That is Bushido

Katsumoto from The Last Samurai

10 MUST SEE SIGHTS IN SAN FRANCISCO

So I don't usually like these must see lists because the only thing you really must see is what you're interested in. And the minute something goes onto a list on the internet it's no longer a secret place. Obviously the best places are the ones we stumble upon ourselves, just strolling around but if you want to know what you shouldn't miss out on, here's a start.

The best thing about San Francisco is of course the Pacific. I don't think I could ever like a city that isn't by the sea. While Frisco isn't your typical beach, you know you'll always have spectacular sunsets here every day. 

1. Alcatraz

There's a certain eeriness to this windswept island. You know that some terrible things have happened here and in the clear light of day with pretty flowers nodding in the sea breeze you can ignore it, but you can't really shake off the feeling that this was once a dark and horrific place. It's worth visiting, simply to understand what it must have been like, and the audio tour presents the story from the point of view of the prison guards. Although I was a little disappointed that no one really describes anything about the Native American movement to reclaim Alcatraz.

2. Grace Cathedral

The doors are a copy of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise and inside are several stunningly beautiful stained glass windows. On the floor within is a labyrinth, again a copy from a medieval church in France. Walking in the labyrinth is meant to induce a meditative state but the place is usually buzzing with tourists and most tour operators don't really give anyone enough time to look around, let alone meditate. 

3. City Lights Bookstore

It's a bookstore. Must I really provide other reasons? The founder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was instrumental in publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems which sparked a nationwide debate on obscenity and freedom of speech.

4. Lombard Street

A street with eight sharp turns, Lombard Street is one of the crookedest streets in the world and probably a nightmare to drive down. I wonder what would happen if I took my bicycle up there.

5. Palace of Fine Arts

The structure is meant to look like the ruins of a Greek temple, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama - Pacific Exposition. It was reconstructed 50 years later. To be honest, it made me feel a little cheated, like I was being sold a piece of history which was in fact just a modern construction. But if you put that aside and just see it for what it is, a beautiful building with a lagoon, it's a nice peaceful place.

6. Alamo Square

What I love the most about San Francisco - the Victorian houses. Each one is different from the others in some way, and they're all so colourful and sculptural. And of course, they remind me of Full House :)

7. Golden Gate Bridge

Apart from the obvious (it's ORANGE) the Golden Gate bridge is a remarkable feat of engineering, especially since it was one of the early suspension bridges to be build over such a long distance and has stood the test of time (and seismic activity). There's something reassuring about it... That no matter how wide or how deep the chasm, people can find a way to get across.

8. The Cable Car System

While I haven't ever had much fascination for cable cars, I think it's nice that they evoke the memory of someone who invested a lot of time, effort and money into having them built because he witnessed an unfortunate incident. I like that these cable cars are proof that people can be moved by what they see to make a positive change that helps society, while most others simply shrug their shoulders and walk on.

9. Powell and Market Street

Time to go shopping!!!!

10. Sausalito 

Don't be fooled. You're not in Europe and this isn't an idyllic fishing village. But it does a good job of appearing to be like one. It's a beautiful, quiet place that will remind you that you need to get a higher paying job if you want a house in a place like that. A much higher paying job. Probably 2 or 3 in fact. But I guess it's enough to just spend time in such places and know that they do exist.

William Wordsworth - An Analysis

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Wordsworth. I have never managed to get through Tintern Abbey without falling asleep at least 3 times. But some of his poetry is actually some of my favourite poetry and since I had already written this essay I thought I should share it. This is the edited version. I obviously don't plan to share all of it unless I have a very good reason. I hope it helps you appreciate what he has written because whatever we may think now, what he did was really a leap ahead of his time.

William Wordsworth is universally regarded among the greatest poets of English literature. Charles William comments that Wordsworth, along with Shakespeare and Milton form the three great ranges of English poetry while other poets of equal height are mere peaks, thus comparing Wordsworth’s poetic skill to the breathtaking vastness of a mountain range.

At its greatest, Wordsworth’s poetry has a solemn sincerity beyond the compass of the human voice to utter. He does so by arousing a sense of unity of individual life with universal life.

“The shell of his verse ‘murmurs of the ocean from whence it came’; something more than us, more than Wordsworth, more than the poetry of Wordsworth, seems to open up and expand in the sound, as afterwards it withdraws and closes itself in the more expected, but still noble, verse to which it returns.” (Charles William)

In 1798, along with Coleridge, Wordsworth published The Lyrical Ballads which embodied his first major achievements in poetry. The famous Preface to The Lyrical Ballads lays down Wordsworth’s objectives and principles with reference to his poetry. In his own words,

“The principle object… proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men… and to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing in them… primary laws of our nature.”

Didacticism is another of Wordsworth’s traits and he attempts to draw moral conclusions through his poetry. He was conscious of his moral purpose and made sure the reader did not miss the point. For example, in the Lucy Poem Three Years She Grew he narrates Lucy’s education by Nature and indirectly preaches the idea education of a child and the traits of a human being educated thus. In his own words, “Every great poet is a teacher: I wish either to be considered as a teacher or as nothing.”

In keeping with Rousseau’s notion of the ‘noble savage,’ Wordsworth shows a preference and respect for the humble and rustic life, believing that men are better and uncorrupted when closer to their ‘natural’ state. The poem about a shepherd and his son entitled Michael is a telling example of this:

                “His bodily frame had been from youth to age

                Of an unusual strength. Among the rocks

                He went, and still looked up to sun and cloud,

                And listened to the wind.”

Wordsworth describes himself as a “worshipper of nature.” His poetry is inextricably bound with nature as his own upbringing in the Lake District, his way of thinking, his lifestyle and outlook of life are influenced by it.

Natural objects played a significant part in Wordsworth’s emotional life, similar to the part real people play in our lives. They were a source of strength, delight and comfort as he narrates in The Daffodils:

                “And then my heart with pleasure fills

                And dances with the daffodils.”

Another example of Wordsworth’s deviation from the conventions of the time, aside from the points he stresses in the Preface is his introduction of autobiography into poetry as a central theme. For every poet his own experience is the raw material of the creative process but in Wordsworth’s case it is something more. His personal experience is his characteristic subject matter, so that much of his best verse constitutes a kind of diary. Thus Wordsworth in the Preface says, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

Wordsworth invites the reader to share the sensations and feelings experienced by the poet – persona, rather than just present them.

Romanticism celebrated the individual and this is evident in Wordsworth’s habit of introducing solitary figures. These figures are shrouded in an air of mystery, evoking sympathy and sometimes also fear. The Solitary Reaper, The Forsaken Indian Woman, Ruth, the shepherd at the end of Michael – all these, and more, sing their own solitary songs or preserve their solitary silences. The natural world too has its lone figures such as The Skylark or The Daisy. Looming above this is the recurrent solitude of Wordsworth himself. His poems often tell of individuals made lonely by their own actions or those of others, arousing in us a sense of our own capacity for solitude and endurance.

                “Behold her, singing in the field,

                Yon solitary Highland lass !

                Reaping and singing by herself;

                Stop here, or gently pass !”                                         (The Solitary Reaper)

Although frequently autobiographical, Wordsworth masterfully presents the experiences and suffering of others. Resolution and Independence, Margaret and Michael are 3 major examples of this. Margaret, for example, echoes Wordsworth’s own relationship with Annette Vallon who he abandoned in France. The poem tells of a woman deserted by her husband, her life prematurely extinguished and her surroundings left to decay. The tale is narrated by a lonely Wanderer. The pathos is real because it is not asserted but felt:

                “Then towards the cottage I returned; and traced

                Fondly, through with an interest more mild,

                That secret spirit of humanity

                Which ’mid the calm oblivious tendencies

                Of nature, ’mid her plants, and weeds, and flowers,

                And silent overgrowings, still survived.”

Tintern Abbey forms a kind of bridge which links the purely autobiographical poems with those that concern themselves with the “still, sad music of humanity.” Through “Nature,” it merges not only inanimate nature but human nature as well.