The disarming ease of English Poetry

English poetry has no entry barrier. Anyone from 4th grade onwards, with a working knowledge of English can write poetry. The school magazines are filled with poems. It is English poetry’s strength as well as its weakness. The problem is, to an untrained eye, the 4th grader’s output is indistinguishable from a poet of merit. It is a little like Modern Art that faces a similar crisis. Except for the discerning eye of the connoisseur, for the rest of us, my child’s scribble and the Master’s work look much the same. 

 In some sense, writing English poetry has a disarming ease. “I went to the market” is a simple sentence. “To the market went I” becomes a poem! Just a little change in the construct and you have a prospective poem. Once you have the first line in your poem, you simply hunt down all rhyming words from A to Z looking for the right fit. You now have a set to play with- “Buy, die, fie, guy, high, lie...”. You finally settle for “buy” since it is connected to the “market” in the first line. The second line is now ready to team up with the first. ”To the market went I; apples, oranges and a lot more to buy!” The third line will be a fresh line. The fourth will rhyme with the third. You get it? It is simply too easy and reams and reams of poetry can be written this way! 

 At least, English poetry with rhyme has a certain cadence. You can read it loudly and it sounds nice. “To the market went I” when read loudly has a tingling effect, regardless of the common-place meaning. However, modern poets don’t subscribe to rhyme any more. This is a bigger problem. At best, the poems look like prose except for the trailing ellipsis, those tiny three dots at the end of the line. Now, “I went to the market...” itself is a poem. You just need to replace the full-stop with an ellipsis. School magazines, personal diaries and facebook pages are filled with these new poems. A third brand of English poetry has also found its way. In this form of poetry, you do not have to write even a sentence. You stack up a few words right out of the dictionary. “Anguish, Angst, Anger” That’s it! Voila! The poem is ready and can serve as a poetic response to any of the current social ills. 

 We have reached a point where we have lost the norm to evaluate English Poetry. Anyway, no one wants to evaluate. When we flip through the school English textbooks, we continue to see only Wordsworth and Keats and Browning. We wonder why none of these modern poets can find a place in school textbooks. We may not have seen Bradman in Cricket. However, we can relate to greatness in sport today through a Virat Kohli. On the same lines, shouldn’t a modern exponent of English Poetry walk into the school textbooks? 

All Indian regional languages have a rich tradition of poetry. It is a heritage that has come down to us. When lines of poetry are read out to an audience in a regional language, there is an immediate response- a “wah wah” for each line. Some beautiful turn of the phrase, some deft expression, there is an inexplicable delicate nicety to the lines that evokes instant relish.In contrast, a reading of English Poetry has a somewhat muted appeal. Not that it falls totally flat, but it fails to stimulate the senses to the same extent. At times, we are drowned with archaic usage like “thy”, “thine” and “thou” in the poems. It is jarring to the modern ear and we just cannot go past this barrier. Also, the locales for traditional English poems have a distant setting- Scottish highlands with its vales and dales. Though human feeling is universal and transcends location, still, the particular aspect of the poem is lost on us. It is a little like a polar bear from the Siberian regions that has accidentally strayed into Chennai and that too in the sweltering heat of summer. There is just so much commonality possible for both the bear and us to make each other feel truly comfortable. 

 A controversial streak runs through the mind- May be, English has limited tools for writing appealing poetry, lines that can truly touch the heart. Perhaps, the synonyms are limited. Perhaps, the words are scattered in all shapes and sizes and cannot be easily fitted in an attractive poetic meter. May be, it lacks the ability to coin new compound-nouns, words that can leap out with a meaning far different from the individual nouns. Conversational English is simple. It serves the purpose. English Prose is just fine. It has a bigger canvas and the elaboration compensates for the peculiar problems faced by English Poetry. As a language of Science and Technology, we appreciate English’s brevity. As a computer programming language, English is more than adequate. Only Poetry...where art thou?

Madras Mail

The railway line between Mumbai and Chennai has been operational since 1871! Much water has flowed since then, including a change in the names of the cities. In these days of instant messaging, it baffles the mind to know that a train ran each day just to carry mail. My memory goes back to the second half of the previous century. The Madras Mail started from Bombay VT at the stroke of ten at night. It ran the whole of the next day, and reached Madras in the wee hours of the third morning. Each journey was momentous, and in recollection now, it assumes a fairy-tale fondness! 

 Air-conditioned, sound-proofed compartments were non-existent. We listened to the raw sounds of the rail, the rhythmic clatter, the engine hoot and the guard's whistle. Pressing the forehead to the window, we peered into the darkness of the night as the train hurried out of Bombay. Lulled by the train's gentle rocking, sleep overpowered us. In semi-sleep, we continued to monitor the train's progress- the round of tunnels through the Western Ghats, the lonesome "chikki" peddler marking the arrival of Lonavla and the change in the engine at Pune. 

 We woke up in time for breakfast at Solapur. Peddlers competed with each other to outshout the other with "coffee-coffee" and "chai-chai". The compartment was a foodie's delight- the air redolent with the confusing crisscross scents of steaming idli and bubbling sambar, sizzling poha and wholesome upma. Through the rest of the day, the train covered the entire Deccan Plateau. The flag-posts were fixed- lunch at Raichur and early dinner at Guntakal. The sun was a constant fixture; it scorched the earth showing little mercy. A furnace raged outside the train and within. A bottle of "cool-drinks" was elixir, that only a parched throat on that train can understand; none else! From time to time, little hamlets greeted us with a wave of hands from little children. The mind wondered wistfully, what if fate had willed otherwise, and we were born in one of these homes. Sometimes, rail-crossings resulted in a sudden halt in no man's land for aeons. It would take a wake-up call of a thundering train in the opposite direction, to shake the Mail from its stupor. We cross-checked with the "Railway Timetable" handbook and grumbled that the train was running late by a couple of hours. 

 A host of stations went by, there was "Hotgi" and "Kurduwadi", "Wadi" and "Raichur", "Yerraguntla" and "Adoni". The train thundered over the Krishna River and the Tungabhadra, both a kilometer in breadth, an expanse of sand with a ribbon of water in the summer months. A basketful of juicy guavas announced the arrival of Kondapuram. As the sun went down, the landscape cooled and huge boulders and rock formations marked Guntakal Junction. It was time for dinner- crisp dosas, a generous bite into "medhu vada" and piping hot coffee! 

 A sense of impatience marked the rest of the journey. We had sat too long and now wanted to reach Madras at the earliest. But the Madras Mail showed no urgency. It reached Cudappah before sleep time with peddlers pacing the platform with trays of cool rose-milk. By 2:00 am, it neared Renigunta with the twinkling lights of the Tirumala Hills in the distance. A flurry of poly-syllabic stations whizzed past after Arakkonam. The "holdalls" and blankets had to be packed up in a hurry even as we begged to be allowed to sleep for more time. As the train negotiated the bend at Basin Bridge and pulled into Madras Central, it was still dark. We would alight to a brand new world at Madras for a full two months. Bombay was some distant planet.

Of masks and men!

The way you wear the mask entirely depends on the personality type. It is not just the mask. It extends to any mandate- like the requirement to wear the helmet or the safety-belt in your car or follow the traffic rules. How well you adhere to the mandate depends on what you are made of.


The problem is "wear the mask" is an injunction. It is a rule stipulated by the powers-that-be. Mr defiant is a personality type- allergic to any rule. He openly flouts it. The entire humanity may be behind a mask; but he stands apart, walks with a swagger, unmasked and unabashed. There is no point arguing with Mr Defiant- he is armed with his peculiar logic and is well prepared. He has stepped out of home, after spitting on both palms, pumped up for a fight, and in taking him on, we needlessly fall into his trap. If you want to shame him, do it quietly- just ignore him!


Some personality types are exactly the opposite- not only do they welcome the mandate, but go overboard in following it. Open their wardrobe, and an entire riot of masks tumble out- plain-masks, colored-masks, floral-masks and yes, even gold-masks for special occasions! It is their latest accessory, like a scarf or a tie, that needs to be matched with the rest of the person. The mask is their new style statement- when they take the dog out for a walk, it looks equally prim and proper, behind its tiny mask!


There are some who wear the mask for face-value (no pun intended) and no more. The mask is safely tucked under the chin, resembling a full-blown beard they have suddenly sprouted! In some cases, the mask covers only the mouth, with the nose sticking over it, as if they care for protection, but only partially. And then, there are others who wear the mask in full, but the moment they need to talk, pull it down to the chin. Once the conversation is over, the mask is back in place! And then, there are others, who wear the mask, in full,  that too without a break, but there is a catch- the mask is like a pair of pyjamas- it dangles so loose, that leave alone a virus, you could let in an entire swarm of bees! What do you do when someone shows up with a sari-palloo or a knotted kerchief as a makeshift mask? It plays with the wind and flaps- now in place, and now- all open, with a free invitation for the elements to gatecrash into the mouth and nose?  How do you police this motley crowd?


There are certain personality types who pretend to comply only for the fear of being pulled up. Their singular aim is to somehow beat the system. These are the types who carry the two-wheeler helmet in the back-seat like a trophy. The moment a policeman is seen in the distance, the helmet is promptly on the head! So too with the safety-belt in the car-  stretched over the torso, like the proverbial sacred-thread only at the road-check point.  His brain has grown- enough to pick loopholes, but not enough to appreciate the need for safety, his own personal safety. We know how he will wear the mask.


Sometimes, we feel the urge to drive some sense into people, even at the cost of being unpopular. After all, a totally pacifist philosophy does not help. I accosted the first man who wore no mask. He simply retorted "get lost!" and jogged past me! The next attempt was an elderly gentleman. He had an immediate answer, "Beta! I have a breathing problem, oxygen ki kami hai! I cannot wear a mask!" If you have a problem in breathing, you should very well be staying at home, for it is exactly this co-morbidity condition that Corona preys on, I tried to reason. "That I will take care, you don't worry!", said the man, leaving me rooted at the spot!


End of the day, each one is a victim of his own personality. It will decide how the mask is worn, whether it is worn at all! It reminded me of an incident years ago. In the railway compartment, there was a man stretched over two seats of the berth, in a brazenly callous way, leaving the rest of us falling over the edge of the berth. After a point, it was simply impossible to adjust. "Why are you doing this?" we asked him point blank. His reply was swift, "What can I do? My body itself is like that!"
Compliance cannot be bought or enforced. All we can do is provide access to information. The education has to happen from within. And yes, we should definitely pray- "Lord, may people have some common sense. Sabko sanmati dey Bhagavan!"

Learning about eclipses

Eclipse is a complicated phenomenon. It is even more complicated to explain the concept of an eclipse to school kids. May be, children these days have access to better resources and perhaps more academically tuned. Back then, we were very raw. To be fair, Mr Lawrence tried his best. It was just that we did not get it.


That there were two types of eclipses was the easy part. We registered their names all right. The problem was recalling which one is solar and which one is lunar. Someone came between someone else. That's all we could decipher. When Mr Lawrence went around the class and questioned each student, he got all sorts of answers. There was no consensus whatsoever. Most students tended to agree with David's explanation for he was widely accepted as the brain of the class. But Sridhar's definition of solar-eclipse was exactly the opposite, which swayed some votes in his favor. In the end, there was a stalemate and a distinct possibility of a hung-parliament in class. As far as a few other students were concerned, this topic of eclipse was the last thing on their minds. They were in their own world- either dreaming away or busy sharpening their pencils or trying to retrieve a lost protractor from the compass box by tunneling their way under the benches! It was a mixed crowd.


Mr Lawrence was irked. He felt a more practical demonstration may clear the cobwebs from our minds. He asked for 3 balls- a football, a cricket-ball and a table-tennis ball! Like a dog that has dozed away...suddenly picks itself up and scampers around, Mr Lawrence's request was just the impetus needed to liven up the class. When was the last time a teacher asked for a ball during class hours? In a jiffy, all sorts of balls lay piled up on the table, resembling a fruit-vendor's cart! The selection was tough- only one football could be the sun, another cricket-ball the earth, and one table-tennis ball...could be the moon. The discarded balls and their owners were equally morose.


The whole class was now at the table...as we curiously observed the proceedings. Mr Lawrence placed the balls in a particular sequence and beamed with pride. "This is a solar eclipse! This is the sun....and the moon comes between the earth...and...." Before Mr Lawrence could complete the sentence, the balls were just as impatient as the rest of us. The table-tennis ball drifted away from its orbit and fell off the table-edge. More hands were pressed to restrain these balls. A seventh-grader's mind is simple. He relates to a football as a football and the necessity to think of these balls as astronomical objects is lost on him. At the end of this exercise, we picked up some additional points about an eclipse. It appeared some hidden hand could make the cricket ball and the table-tennis ball swap places, like we do in class.  As for the football, well, it seemed to stay as-is.


Mr Lawrence was not yet done. He felt he had more concepts to convey. Dinesh would be the sun- he was the football. He selected a mid-sized boy as the earth and a tiny-fellow as the moon! He made the tiny fellow go around mid-sized and kept questioning mid-size whether he still saw Dinesh! Of course, he always saw Dinesh. He was the football of the class! The answer did not please Mr Lawrence. As far as Dinesh was concerned, he claimed he still saw  tiny-fellow's legs through the mid-sized legs! The class was a riot! We finally understood what eclipses meant.
Sridhar had an elaborate argument with Mr Lawrence on a point too subtle for the rest of us. It had to do with why eclipses couldn't happen more often. After all, the moon was going around the earth all the time. Only Sridhar seemed to grasp Mr Lawrence regarding earth and moon flying on different planes....with a slanted notebook in hand signifying a plane...perhaps in landing mode.


The mid-term exams were over. Mr Lawrence came to class with a sheaf of answer-papers. His face had a pained expression as he shared some of the eclipse diagrams from the answer sheets with the rest of the class. The only common point in all the papers were three circles- standing for the sun, the moon and the earth. Mr Lawrence added a 4th circle to mark a 0 for the answer! In some papers, the circles were of the same size-  the student had forgotten to bring 3 separate coins of different denominations and was stuck with only a 25 paise coin. In another paper, the sun also got a chance to swap places. After all, it was at the center of the solar system. It could very well have the moon and the earth on either side! Sridhar tried to be over-smart by drawing the sun as a huge semi-circle spanning the whole page...with the earth and moon as tiny dots because of their relative sizes in space.
Mr Lawrence called out Mehernosh. He was still busy sharpening the pencil that had turned to a tiny stub.  Mr Lawrence held him by the ear till his ear and face turned red. Mehernosh had labeled the sun as "Dinesh" and had added "football" in brackets for clarity!

Shantanu, Kapoor and sons!

The Mahabharata is a complicated story. There is a main storyline which we are all fairly familiar with. The devil is in the details. The problem starts with the lineage. Every adaptation of the story begins from King Shantanu and his son Bheeshma.
The central characters are of course the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The problem is connecting these dots. How does the lineage travel from Shantanu to the Pandavas? Bheeshma took the oath to be a bachelor all his life. We remember this point. It is here that the family-tree gets confusing. Most people are completely blank  when asked this question. It is as if, they have never thought about it. If the person is a little more informed, he throws a few names- Satyavati, Vichitravirya, Amba, Ambalika, Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Still, he cannot piece the puzzle together. The more he tries, the more he ties himself in knots. As far as the listener is concerned, he is now even more muddled than before. He wishes he had not started the topic at all. Finally, we give up with words of wisdom- why worry about these non-essential details? We should never try to trace the source of a river...or a sage- “nadi-moolam and rishi moolam”! They may have had a past, but we do not care. All we care about is the present! With these parting words, we extricate ourselves from this topic.


If you thought this lineage is tough to understand, wait till you get to the Kapoors. Like Shantanu, the lineage starts with Prithviraj Kapoor. He is the patriarch. That part is clear. We are also sure about the present generation- Ranbir and Kareena Kapoor. The trouble is in connecting these two with the patriarch. We are suddenly faced with too many pieces in this jigsaw puzzle. Somehow, you have to fit all of them correctly. We have Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor. And some other Kapoors we have heard of- Rajiv Kapoor, Karan Kapoor and Kunal Kapoor. And the women- Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. And yes, Ranbir Kapoor. Without consulting your favorite computer search engine, if you try to trace this family tree, you will go nowhere. Suddenly, the mind completely shuts down. It cannot recall whether Rishi Kapoor was Raj’s son or sibling! Many a mighty film connoisseur has had mud on his face when faced with this most elementary question. The more we struggle, the more exasperated we get. It is as if this whole world is filled with only Kapoors. We’ve drawn an elaborate family tree on paper, with several corrections and end up with Ranbir as Prithviraj’s father! And each time, we’ve forgotten one Kapoor, and in trying to fit him, the tree has to be redrawn once more. Seeing us tied in knots, someone has a bright suggestion- What about Tushar Kapoor and Anil Kapoor? We react sharply at the person- “Silly! They do not even belong to this family tree! Don’t think I have such a poor Kapoor memory!” 

Lineages are tough for the human mind. It is not designed to make sense out of them. It brings back the scars of childhood and that blank moment in the History exam when it could not recall whether Aurangzeb was Babur’s son or father! We prefer English History for one simple reason. At least, King George V was after King George III. We wish all naming conventions were that easy!

Thoughts on Tyagaraja's kriti "Chakkani raja"

One hour into the concert, the moment the musician sings the first phrase of Kharaharapriya raga, our face immediately lights up! We know this is going to be the main piece of the concert. The first kriti that comes to mind is Tyagaraja's "Chakkani raja". And when our hunch proves right and he starts the kriti, we break into a big smile! We wait with bated breath for the neraval centered on "kantiki sundara". In the darkness of the auditorium, as the musician explores this phrase in multifarious ways, it is as if the mind rests; it rests on the beauty of the phrase, the beauty of Rama's face and the beauty of Kharaharapriya's grace. When it comes to recorded concerts, how many times have we replayed that neraval by Madurai Mani, who lets his imagination loose as only he can.
In this essay, we look into this song to see what it conveys and how it has become such a favorite with musicians and rasikas alike.


This kriti is addressed by Tyagaraja to his own mind. The word "O manasaa" comes towards the end of the Pallavi. The song is a conversation between Tyagaraja and his mind. Each of the stanzas has a built-in "when you have something so beautiful, why are you drifting off to something else?"- that question is seen in each of the stanzas. In the Pallavi, is the main question- when you have such a beautiful (chakkani) raja-maarga, a royal path in front of you, O mind, why are you drifting off into wayside gullies (sandulu) that lead nowhere? He does not disclose what the raaja-maarga is. He keeps the suspense going and reveals it only in the charanam. We will also analyze the raaja-maarga only towards the end of the essay. He has not mentioned what the way-side gullies (sandulu) are- but we can infer from the context, which will see later.
The pallavi is built in such a way, it is as if we are travelling on the raaja-maarga. We are seated on a chariot hooked to horses...and slowly picking up speed. First, the horse takes a few gentle paces, then a friendly trot and eventually breaks into a gallop. The raaja-maarga is smooth and even- not one jerk in this joy-ride . As the sangatis of the Pallavi are unraveled, starting with the simple ones and expanding into the ones with more complexity, we experience the rhythm of this ride.


The anupallavi also starts with the same refrain- "when you have this, why are you doing something else?" In most Tyagaraja kritis, he takes two examples and drives home his point. The Pallavi had the first example- the royal path versus a wayside alley. In the anupallavi, he gives another example- milk versus toddy. He says, when you have wholesome, nutritious, creamy (meegada) milk (paalu) which can nourish you, why would you go after toddy, which is exactly the opposite- something detrimental (cheeyanu) to your health? To rhyme with chakkani, he uses "chikkani" here to qualify the wholesome nature of milk. Interestingly, the word used for toddy is ganga-saagaram, perhaps a jargon in Tyagaraja's time. Adi Shankara uses a similar example in a verse where he says people are so obtuse that they gravitate towards flour-water (jaley-paishte) and mistake it to be milk (ksheeram).


In the charanam, the secret of the raaja-maarga is revealed. It is the dhyaanam on Rama's rupa and his naama-japa. The Pallavi starts with the famous line "kantiki sundaramagu roopamey". It refers to Rama's beautiful form which is a feast to our eyes (kantiki). The sundara word here takes us to the sundara-kaanda where Hanuman starts Rama's description with the line- "raamah kamala-patraakshah sarva-bhoota manorathah". Rama's eyes are like a lotus-petal's and the beauty of his form enamors all beings. It is as if Tyagaraja keeps this line in mind and starts the Charanam.
Next he says, Shiva is forever engrossed in Rama's naama-japa. He nicely ties "kantiki" with "mukkanti" (the three-eyed one- i.e. Lord Shiva). Rama nama is enjoyed the most by Lord Shiva- this is an idea seen in multiple kritis of Tyagaraja. In the famous kriti extolling Rama-nama (inta saukhya maniney), Tyagaraja says the same..."shankaruniki thelusu"....Lord Shiva understands the beauty of Rama nama. We can remind ourselves of Vishnu Sahasranama too, where prompted by Parvati, Shiva answers that Rama-nama is equivalent to all the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu.


By bringing Rama and Shiva together, he also ties it with the name of the raga. Rama is khara-hara: when he took on Khara and Dushana and 16000 rakshasas and vanquished them. It is as if the raga is hara-priya- favorite to Lord Shiva as well as to Rama- khara-hara-priya.
In the Charanam also, Tyagaraja asks the same question- O mind! when you have Rama, whose form is so alluring and whose name is so beautiful, so much so, that even Lord Shiva is doing his nama-japa….when such a Rama has come to your home (intiney), why are you going down...wayside gullies and not on this royal path?
The home can be taken as Tyagaraja's home, where we know he had a Rama vigraha. It can also be Tyagaraja's heart ("hrdayaagara"), taking the cue from his other compositions. With this, the kriti comes to a close.


The question is- what is "the raaja-maarga" and what are the gullies, sandulu? Can it be taken as Rama worship versus anya-devata worship such that Rama-worship alone would qualify as raaja-maarga? We cannot take such a reading because Tyagaraja himself has composed kritis on Lord Shiva (Shambho Mahadeva), on Devi and on other Gods too.
Hence, we can broadly take, raaja-maarga as life centered on God while sandulu can be taken as a materialistic life. As we see in the Upanishad, "ayam lokah naasti para iti maani"- the one who takes this world as an end in itself, he goes nowhere. This is definitely a cul-de-sac, a road to nowhere, the sandulu that Tyagaraja wants us to avoid.


The next question is...can we then take a religious life as "the" raaja-maarga? Compared to an irreligious life, a religious life is a relatively broader road with scope to progress. So it is a relative raaja-maarga. But even here, there are gradations. As Krishna says, if we use God as an "accomplice" to get out of our problems (aarta bhakti) or to accomplish something (arthaarthi bhakti) in this world, it is fine, but it is also a "sandulu" in a way. However, a person who holds onto God as an end in itself, he is on the raaja-maarga compared to the other two.


Further, even as a bhakta, there is a division- the one who worships god with a form (saguna bhakti) and the one who worships god as formless (nirguna bhakti). Is Tyagaraja then saying that saguna-bhakti is "the raaja maarga"? The answer would be yes, but we have to quickly add what Krishna mentioned in the Geeta. Krishna says that for most of us, we identify so much with our body, that in such a state, we will only appreciate God also with a body, with a form (dehavadbhir-avaapyatey). Hence, saguna bhakti is what Krishna also votes for...for majority of the people. However, he adds, if there is a devotee, who has that mental maturity to reduce his body-identification, for that devotee, nirguna bhakti is the best and that devotee certainly gains the Highest- "tey praapnuvanti maam eva".


Hence, for Ramana Maharishi, "the raaja-maarga" is Self-enquiry. As he says "maanasam tu kim, maarganey krite, naiva maanasam, maarga aarjavaat". The straightest path "maarga aarjavaat" is the one of Self Enquiry- to question the reality of the mind (maanasam tu kim?) and arrive at the Self as the basis of oneself and the world at large. This is the raaja-maarga for such a person.


To summarize, Tyagaraja's raaja-maarga can mean different things depending on where we stand. Ultimately, it depends on us. If we are irreligious, religious life is raaja-maarga. If we are already in religion, god as an end is raaja-maarga. If our body identification is intense, saguna bhakti is our raaja-maarga. If we have already traveled all these roads and our mind is prepared, shastra-vichaara, self-enquiry is the raaja-maarga. Though in most compositions, Tyagaraja's saguna bhakti is seen, we do see examples of the nirguna in rare compositions like "paramaarthmudu".


Utlimately, chakkani-raaja maarga...is our travel- a subjective travel...so that one day we will own up our Self as the aatma raama, the aananda ramanaa.

Thoughts on Tygaraja's kriti "nagumomu ganaleni" set to Abheri raga

One of Tyagaraja's most famous kritis is "nagumomu ganaleni". It is a favorite with both vocalists and instrumentalists. We are reminded of masterly renditions by Semmangudi and an altogether novel interpretation of the same song by Balamuralikrishna. Instrumentalists from Mandolin Srinivas to the violin wizard Kunnakudi loved to perform this piece. The song has a theatrical feel to it as it builds up tempo...reaches a crescendo and thereafter, comes down in cascades of notes. It is a favorite at all marriage functions where nadaswaram vidvans latch onto this kriti with great gusto. We know all this.


In this essay, we look at the kriti to understand Tyagaraja's frame of mind when he composed this piece. The main theme behind this song is one of anguish. Tyagaraja is pained that he cannot see Rama's charming face ("nagu" - beautiful, "momu" - face)  anymore and accuses Rama of indifference. He says that he pines to see Rama's smiling face but Rama, not understanding Tyagaraja's plight (naajaali thelisi), chooses to stay away. For emphasis, he words this as a question to Rama, addressing him as "Hey Raghuvara! Don't you understand my plight, and still, you choose to stay away?" Tyagaraja deliberately chooses to address Rama as Raghuvara and almost mocks him with that epithet. Rama is supposedly the best in the Raghu clan "Raghu-vara", a clan which had an unbroken chain of illustrious kings. We know about Dileep, Raghu, Aja and Dasharatha...all ancestors of Rama, and each a glowing pendant in that necklace. King Dileep had such a noble heart that he was willing trade places with a cow so that the lion could eat him instead of the cow. Rama belongs to this clan and yet, shows least empathy for Tyagaraja. He almost admonishes Rama through this address as "Raghuvara". The Pallavi ends with this.


In the anupallavi, Tyagaraja takes certain possibilities on why Rama could be indifferent towards him and dismisses those reasons too. He says...it is likely that Rama may be busy. He is a chakaravarti with so many people and things to attend to, that it is possible that he may miss Tyagaraja's earnest call. But Rama will be surrounded by attendants, whose job would be to remind him on what he needs to do. Tyagaraja questions...ok...Rama may be preoccupied...but what about these attendants? Have they forgotten their duty? He also explicitly says that it is unlikely that these attendants will be partial and leaves the sentence open. It is for us to interpret the rest. By taking the Rama's attendants also out of the picture, the needle of accusation is squarely on Rama. Yes, the attendants did remind, yes, the attendants did convey Tyagaraja crying himself hoarse, but Rama still chose to be indifferent. Interestingly, Tyagaraja starts the anupallavi with the phrase "nagaraaja dhara", the one who lifted the mountain. Tyagaraja never bothers about chronology. For him, every manifestation is Rama alone. Krishna lifted "nagaraaja"...the king of mountains and thereby, saved entire Gokulam. He could save the whole of Gokulam through one act of grace, and now, when Tyagaraja explicitly asks for his grace, Rama does not oblige him. "Nagaraaja dhara" can also mean the Lord as kurma avatara, where he helped the Devas by carrying the entire mountain on his back, but interpreting it as "govardhana giri dhara" fits the context more appropriately. The anupallavi ends with this.


The charanam starts with "khaga-raaja". The anupallavi began with "naga-raaja" and here, it is "khaga-raaja" creating a nice alliteration. "Khaga-raaja" is the king of birds, i.e. Garuda. It is also appropriate to start the "charanam" with Garuda who is often called "periya tiruvadi", "holy feet". It is as if the charanam should start with charana (feet)! Here, he questions Rama (in his form as Vishnu), whether Garuda does not obey his orders, perhaps? He enquires whether Garuda says that the distance from the sky "gagana"...i.e. Vaikunta..to the earth is too far...bahu dooram? Though Tyagaraja leaves it as an open question, here too, the implicit assumption is the same. It is unlikely that Garuda would have complained. After all, when the elephant Gajendra was in pain and crying for help, it was Garuda who immediately swung into action. Again, the tone is one of accusation. Tyagaraja says...definitely Garuda would not have said that. It is Rama and his stone-like heart, that is the only reason why he chooses to stay away from Tyagaraja.


Though all the previous lines in this song are one of accusation, Tyagaraja does not end the song in the same vein. He implores Rama even more. He calls him "jagamele paramatma", the Lord of the whole universe and says, other than Him, to whom can he cry his heart out ("moralida") (like Gajendra did)? He pleads with  Rama to shun his indifference and forthwith come and bless him! The song ends on this note.
Tyagaraja's songs are his personal conversations with Rama.  Nagumomu-ganaleni is an earnest cry by Tyagaraja asking Rama to give up his indifference "upeksha" and immediately come and bless him with the vision of his beautiful face.


This song can be looked in a philosophical way too. There is a verse in the Upanishad which says- "satyasyaa pihitam mukham". We are not able to see the Lord's face "satyasya mukham" because it is covered- "pihitam". In the context of the Upanishad, the Lord has been already defined as "Truth" (satya), the One Truth that fills the entire universe "ishaavaasyam idam sarvam". It is this all pervading Being, which is here referred as "satya" and the Upanishad says...that that Being's face is covered! How can....that...which is all pervading...its face be covered...we will ask. The Upanishad itself answers..."hiranmayena paatrena"....covered with a golden-lid. The intent here is to say...that our eyes and mind are so extroverted (conveyed through the word "gold"), that we successfully miss to see that which is everywhere! It is as if, we cover our eyes with the lucre of gold and all else and fail to see the face of that Being which is everywhere! This is the "nagumomu" that we miss.


After all, he is "sahasra sheersha purushah"...with a 1000 heads...and "vishvatomukhah" "with faces everywhere". All the faces we see, whether a human's or an animal's or an insect's....they are His faces. That being the case, how can we miss to see this "nagumomu"? If we are still successfully missing, it means, we lack the divya-chakshu, the "divine eye of wisdom" to appreciate all faces as His beautiful faces.
Hence, we pray for his grace, so that we can finally gain this "eye of wisdom". Tyagaraja's cry of anguish can be taken as this cry for grace. The indifference that Tyagaraja ascribed to Rama previously, is owned up here, as our indifference, our inability to see the obvious.
The Upanishad continues..."yat te roopam kalyaanatamam tat tey pashyaami"...I pray for that grace so that I can "see" (pashyaami) i.e. appreciate the Truth which is all mangala "kalyaanatamam". And further says...that Truth is everywhere, in "that sun" (asau purushah) and then, slowly adds..."soham asmi"....in me too!
Thus, the Upanishad begins by saying Truth's face is covered and I am unable to see it...just like Tyagaraja says and then concludes by saying...how can I miss that Truth...when it is all around...in the sun up there...as well as in me!?