Book Reviews

Symphony Weds Symmetry by Dr. H. Tulsi (Naidu), 21-46/1, Kakani Nagar, Visakhapatnam­530009, (A.P), India, Pages-160, Rs.150/, US $ 8.00.

This book is a collection of 103 poems divided into XIV structured metrical verse units and it comes from a well acclaimed poet-editor, Dr. H. Tulsi. She is the editor of world famous poetry journal, Metverse Muse. In this latest collection, she covers a wide range of topics, immaculately composed in metrical verse. Some poems are tributes paid to stalwarts like Dr. Frances Hackney, Dr. Ivan Cuba and Prof. Srinivasa Iyengar.

The poet has mastered the structured verse and it is a delight to read these verses when breaking the rules of prosody in the name of Free Verse is the order of the day. Dr. Tulsi’s poems contain lilting music and create magic with their form and content. The poems are a pleasure to read. I specially liked the poem ‘From Smiles to Tears’ written in a Haiku sequence. We become one with the poet and start enjoying the wisps of fresh air and she suddenly takes us into rough weather where the storm arrives and turns into a whirlwind.

Arrived then the storm
To throw dust into my eyes!
I hurried indoors.

As the poem moves on, we hear the loud rumblings of the cyclone, the blizzard and the hurricane and ends with the lines,

Swooped down the Hurricane
Next, It fell trees, ripped off roofs
Rendered folks homeless!

The poet’s choice of words is pertinent. She handles the metered verse with felicity and deftness. While the poet addresses a poem to (late) Mr. Krishan Khullar, she talks about their acquaintance which was not very long, however, their mutual cooperation was quite strong. She remembers with gratitude the help he rendered in supporting Metverse Muse (MM).

When authors of works you published, had problems
Ascending a stage, your support you lent
By placing stepping-stones firmly for them.
From personal purse, for them you spent!
Wishing to see their debut in MM
Their poems, with your cheques, to me you sent!

The poet brings out his generosity very strikingly in this stanza by highlighting the words Their and Your. She ends the poem thus,

May soon, therefore, your kindred clan increase,
So as to destroy destroyers of peace!

How well framed is the phrase destroy destroyers of peace! and she appropriately names the poem ‘May your kindred clan increase’. There are many more poems worth mentioning, which express the poet’s deep emotions and poetic sentiments. She is also a humorist! In the poem ‘Quizzical Questionnaire’, with ‘abcbc’ rhyme scheme, she begins with the line Here are jokes, in verse retold. The poem proceeds in the form of Questions and Answers, which is a rare technique used by poets. Here are some samples of the humorous questions and witty answers by the poet.

Question: What things can move sans any legs?
Answer: Hours and days, till they are gone!

Question: What can you catch but cannot throw?
Answer: Catch can I but cannot throw a cold!

The special feature of the book is the Addendum, which contains reviews of her previous works by established critics world over. She has included this in place of a ‘Foreword’ because she values the views of hundreds of reflective readers more than the opinion expressed by a single VIP, who may or may not be a literary person. I was thrilled to find my review too, which I wrote long ago. She has meticulously collected and carefully preserved all the critical comments and brought them under one umbrella. This is a novel experiment which is commendable. The title is apt and the getup and print are elegant. The book is to be preserved by all poetry lovers.

Dr. I. Satyasree

Viewless Wings by Dr. Raghavendra Rao.

For Dr. Raghavendra Rao writing poetry in Telugu and English is a hobby which now brings him new honours and rich dividends. His anthology, Viewless Wings, is a collection of 36 fine and enjoyable poems. These poems are published in India, the U.S.A., and the U.K. Several of his poems are acclaimed abroad. He participated in poetry reading sessions at home and abroad. The settings and themes of his poems are cosmopolitan. While the locale changes from Hyderabad to Badrinath to Ethiopia to the U.S.A., the themes embrace a wide spectrum of human concerns such as affection for one’s children, drought, hunger, death of a valued sibling, or of a pet dog, love of one’s motherland, and above all, a steadfast commitment to the muse of poetry. The poems in this anthology are international and therefore they appeal to people across the globe. Dr. Rao’s cosmopolitan outlook does not in any way diminish his love for his motherland. In his poem dedicated to his country, he proclaims:

My just sustenance is in my soils soul
In the hermitage of its inheritance.

He may write in an alien tongue and on distant lands, but his roots are firmly fixed in his own culture from which he seeks nourishment.

Next in importance in themes is the family. He has a poem for his daughter, his son, his son-in-law and his grandson.

“The Song of an Ethiopian Child” is a moving poem of the desperate lives of people during prolonged periods of drought. They await rains or, in their absence, grains imported from other countries. The Ethiopian child plants a seed daily and eagerly waits for its growth and yield. But the sapling is only half-green and half-dry, and that was enough to boost the confidence of the child that all is not lost. Human will remains unconquerable and hope lives on in the midst of dire calamities.

“A Sublime Encounter” is a beautiful description of the Ganga in Badrinath:

The Ganges kicking the Ghadwal bases
Like an infant in suckling.

The law-abiding citizen waits like the boy who stood on the burning deck while the traffic moves on all sides unmindful of the colour of the signal lights. Ironically,

You think you are going
When you are only allowing others to go

This is an instance of number ones (the good citizens) staying where they are, not even aware of what is happening around them.

Apart from figurative language as in “An Indian Wheelbarrow,” Dr. Rao uses ironic contrasts to weave his poetic webs. In “An Amorous Encounter,” the lotus and the whale, the pond and the ocean, sweet and salty, shallow and deep, placid and roaring, are juxtaposed throughout. Word­play is another recurring device in these poems. For instance, in “The Golden Dawn, we notice:

The parents become grand, endowed with grandeur,
As they arrive and await their one grand dear.”

There are also memorable phrases coined by the poet, ‘grenades of tears’ is an example from “Everywhere.”

Although some of Dr. Raghavendra Rao’s poems deal with the sordid aspects of life such as drought, hunger and death, the overall impression of these poems is one of optimism. Continuity of life is stressed in “The Golden Dawn” where the arrival of a grandson is welcomed. “The New Year” is an example of undying hope.

The remarkable poem, “Scissors with Eyes,” perhaps epitomises Dr. Rao’s world-view. It uncovers the interior reality by peeling off the exterior appearance. The hidden mystery of life clothed in layers and layers of attractive attire must be exposed to public gaze.

Dr. Rao has immense faith in the muse of poetry. He sees poetry everywhere in the Scriptures, in Nature, in the artist’s pen, and in the lover’s pride and passion:

In the poem, “Me, the Muse,” he declares:

If I have to perish,
Oceans have to perish,
Missions have to die,
Constellations have to die
I am the Muse the seductive Mammon shuns,
But in whom timeless Humanity triumphs.

It is this great faith in poetry that will take Dr. Raghavendra Rao to Himalayan pinnacles of poetic achievement.

Prof. E. Nageswara Rao

Golkonda Vajram: Premavati by Nataraja Ramakrishna.Hyderabad: Andhranatyam Trust, 2004  Rs.100/-

Sri Nataraja Ramakrishna’s historical novelette, Golkonda Vajram is highly readable. He depicts the dedicated life of Premavati, a danseuse par excellence in the Court of Abdullah Quli Qutb Shah. Nataraja Ramakrishna takes us to the seventeenth century rule of Golkonda Nawabs, who patronized the Hindu art forms, especially the Fine Arts.

History is selective. To this selective history of those times Padmasri Nataraja Ramakrishna conjoined his artistic imagination. Hence, the book is a beautiful flower which bloomed from the innate tenderness of the writer and his total empathy with excellent artists of the past. His zeal, combined with agony, to revive the name of Premavati and make a special place for her in the history of Indian Classical dance is laudable.

The novelette is divided into twenty tiny chapters. The epigraph by Nataraja Ramakrishna is the quintessence of not only the philosophy embedded in the book but also, perhaps, his own life’s philosophy. Having been a performer, teacher, researcher and scholar in the field of Indian Classical dance for more than half-a-century Nataraja Ramakrishna, we understand, has arrived at the portals of Vedanta.

The twin  sisters Taramati and Premavati were patronized by Abdullah Quli Qutb Shah. Both were well-respected by the Nawab and his Court. In fact, the Nawab had fallen in a deep spell of infatuation towards Premavati. In that state of delirium he admired her physical beauty rather than her artistic eminence. With God’s grace and his mother’s blessings he could pluck himself out of the sinful burden.

Premavati’s character was a paradox. She was enthusiastic and pensive by turns. Through her deep meditation on reality and life, as a woman and an artist, she could attain a state of penance. Her life was totally fulfilled. The book offers varied instances of her experience and facilitates the reader to a fine-tuned understanding and appreciation of art and artists.

Nataraja Ramakrishna specifies the honour given to Taramati and Premavati by Abdullah Quli Qutb Shah. Due to his high esteem for these connoisseurs of art, Abdullah places their tombs next to his. Nataraja Ramakrishna, having been instrumental in renovating the abode of Taramati with the help of the Department of Archaeology, hopes to see the day when Premavati’s abode – Dhyana Mandira–will be renovated. In fact the book is a plea to reinstate the pristine glory of Premavati. Humanity needs a monument in her memory to rejuvenate itself through divine love of art.

Those who wish to know the grandeur of “The Golden Flower in High Heaven” – Premavati–should make it a point to read the book.
Y. Somalatha

Maadee Swatantra Desam by Dr. J. Bhagyalakshmi; Visalandhra Book House, Navodaya Book House, Praja Shakti Book House; pp +175; Rs. 100.

Maadee Swatantra Desam is a collection of a series of lively short stories authored by Dr. J. Bhagyalakshmi. These short stories are mostly centered on real life situations of the present day. The presentation of the theme’s sensitive psychological perspective bringing to the fore the implied human element is handled remarkably well. This undoubtedly calls for a genuine in-depth appreciation of and an intimate concern for the situation, which is considered to be an essential attribute of all authors of high repute. In writing these short stories Dr. Bhagyalakshmi proved herself amply endowed with this attribute.

In the very first of these short stories… Maadee Swatantra Desam, the author introduces two characters, who had actually been together as a teacher and his student at college level, during the period that immediately followed our national freedom struggle. These two characters happen to meet after a couple of decades and they engage themselves in a conversation. While the teacher continues to cherish and hold on to his old views guided by staunch ethical values prevalent during that good old era of boiling nationalist fervour, the student proves to be quite different…a true specimen representing the treacherous life style trends of the present day. In fact the teacher is shocked at the unscrupulous views and ways of his former student, and his current political career that is full of cheap gimmicks and manipulations, badly lacking in values and respectability. The ethical degradation that has gradually crept into our national politics and more generally into our Indian Society as a whole, during the post independence era, is depicted with crystal clarity.

In Evari Viluvalu Nanna… Saritha is a 23 year old post graduate girl who is on the verge of completion of her diploma studies in Public Relations and Advertising. She is thoroughly obsessed with western life style and is determined to migrate to Australia for her job and settlement. She is prepared to go to any length to achieve this goal…even to go there, on a purely temporary mutual matrimonial arrangement, as the spouse of her friend’s brother who is already settled in Australia…all this merely to get her visa problem sorted out!!! Also she is prepared to procure and produce fake documents, if need be, for fulfilling the Australian immigration requirements. Her parents are taken aat her manipulative plans. Finally when they suggest that she should first get married to him for life and only then join him in Australia as his wife, she readily agrees most unhesitatingly and without any second thought whatever!!! The author effectively points to the most unpatriotic and perhaps ungrateful crazy trend prevalent among our youth of the present day …. a senseless infatuation for western life style and a gross lack of love, respect and affinity for their own mother land that had so lovingly nourished them for decades.
Kambhampati Krishna Prasad

FOUR CLASSICS OF TELUGU FICTION: Tr. Dr. Kakani Chakrapani, Dravidian University, Kuppam, 517 425 (AP); pp 391; Rs. 250/- Library Edition - Rs. 350/-

The Dravidian University has done well in ­bringing out in a single book four of the classic Novels of Telugu writers, which are all-time great, each in its own right. “Rajasekhara Charithra” of Kandukuri Veeresalingam, which was claimed by him as the first Novel in Telugu (1875) appears as the “WHEEL OF FORTUNE”; “Maidanam” by Gudipati Venkata Chalam (1927) as the ‘PLAIN’; “Chivaraku Migiledi” by Buchibabu (1946­-48) as ‘ULTIMATE REMANENCE’; and “Alpa Jeevi” of Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastry (1953) as the “LITILE MAN”, all ably translated by Dr. Kakani Chakrapani.

Rajasekhara Charitha was the first Telugu novel and an attempt alien in a new direction modelled on the lines of Goldsmith’s VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. Like D.H. Lawrence, Chalam candidly portrayed sexual relations in all his works and believed women need independence in a male dominated society. His writings have created great controversies and they even do so today. There is no denying that there are very few writers other than Chalam who wrote on unfettered freedom for woman. Even after Chalam repudiated most of his philosophy after going to Arunachalam, his supporters still fight for what he wrote with the same zealousness.

In Chivaraku Migiledi, Bucbibabu (influenced by Maugham) imbued the Telugu Novel (as A. Ramakrishna Rao points out), with intellectual maturity and philosophic depth. His central concern as a novelist was to explore the complex nature of human relations and amounted to perpetual quest for reality. The novel thus is thus a triumphant assertion of humanism and sanctity of life.

Ravi Sastry as he was popularly known,adopts the technique of James Joyce - the stream of consciousness - in his “Alpa Jeevi”, and the novel had become instant success in literary circles. Subbaiah the hero of this novel suffers from inferiority complex and is a universal and ubiquitous character.

Thus each of the four novels is unique and distinct in its own way and offers a challenge to any translator and Dr. Chakrapani has succeeded to a large extent in bringing out the core in his editing and translation.

Mention may however be made of the lavish use of (‘s), both for the verbs and the nouns. Take for example “The king of Vijaynagara’s my uncle’s son” certainly impedes one’s thought and pause for the meaning (p41). Expressions like “lizard had not fell on the head” (p42) or “at most, all immovable property was replaced” (p27) need explanation. Expressions like “she utters the word over such misfortune man” (p 362) or “greenly jacket” (p372) or Manorama coming closer to the possiblest extent” (p374) show that the copy needed a more thorough check before going to the press.

On the whole, it is a satisfying and useful work - this collection of four of the classic novels of modern Telugu Literature.

The Dravidian University has been doing a commendable job in getting classics of Telugu published in their translated form for the benefit of readers.

One expects more of this kind from them.
Vemaraju Narasimha Rao