With close to 1000 views in the last three weeks, it would be an understatment to say that i am overwhelmed by your responses. Having said that i am migrating from here to wordpress which has better options to manage the blog. My blog address is simple to remember : aquasanju.wordpress.com.
Mostly i post in the weekends and this weekend too i will be attempting a translation of song, which will be published in the wordpress site.
Love you all and i see a huge opportunity in the field of quality translations of Tamil and Malayalam especially malayalam songs, albeit a difficult language for poetry, has gems lying hidden from outside world. With translations which started out of passion for me, is helping me overcome many of my inner ghosts of low self belief to be exorcised. Will try my bit to keep this activity alive in the years to come.
My first attempt at English Translation of this wonderful Malayalam song, Malare, which i played in loop many times!It sort of made me feel compelled to translate into English, as google search offered no page, absolutely no single page, with an English translation of this song. Wish more translations are available for Indian languages to spread the rich literary culture of this land. Please comment if the translation was not upto the mark. The meter does not match, but ensured that translation is as true to the original as possible. Special thanks to Ayyappadas Girija Rajan, Arun NM
Seems like some of the readers are not able to read Malayalam script. To their benefit I have added the English Transliteration along with Malayalam Script. Hope it helps :-)
തെളിമാനം മഴവില്ലിന് നിറമണിയും നേരം,
നിരമാര്ന്നൊരു കനവെന്നില് തെളിയുന്ന പോലെ,
Theli maanam mazhavillin niramaniyum neram,
niramarnnoru kanavennil theliyunna pole,
When the hues of rainbow color the clear skies
Is the moment, my dream too breaks to wake up into the dawn
പുഴയോരം തഴുകുന്നീ തണുനീറന് കാറ്റും, പുളകങ്ങള് ഇഴനെയ്തൊരു കുഴലൂതിയ പോലെ
puzhayoram thazhukunnee thanu neeran kaatum,
pulakangal izha neythoru kuzhaloothiya pole
the cool breeze caressing from the rivulet
is like all the blisses woven into the rhapsody of a flute
കുളിരേകും കനവില് നീ കതിരാടിയ കാലം, മനതാരില് മധുമാസം തളിരാടിയ നേരം,
kulirekum kanavil nee kathiradiya kaalam,
manatharil madhu maasam thaliradiya neram,
You shine bright like sun, to the comforting dreams of mine
Like memories sprouting with spring like sweetness
അകമരുകും മയിലിണകള് തുയിലുണരും കാലം, എന് അകതാരില് അനുരാഗം പകരുന്ന യാമം,
akamarukum mayilinakal thuyilunarum kaalam
en akatharil anuragam pakarunna yaamam,
I relent to the beauty, of the peacock displaying his feathers
As it spreads love within me, infecting me through the night
It took a while for me to accept my identity. Not that I am talking like a NRI who is pulled by the native roots of India on the one hand, while on the other by the new found liberalism of the foreign country. My identity crisis can be located within India, which is a confederation of different cultures united beyond any logic, through Indian constitution! History played a major role in this confused identity under the umbrella term "India"- an idea which existed only in the administrative convenience of Britishers, and helped in a great way by that ubiquitous social immobility institutionalized by casteism. Be that may, which i will visit later, my immediate rambling is how on many occasions i had to add many qualifications just to answer the question- Where are you from? If in Chennai, it was easy to say I am from Kerala, but if in Bangalore or in Delhi, the qualifications becomes a necessity more to do with my own non acceptance of where I belong
Not any more, I have finally reconciled to the fact that I am a Malayalee but not a Keralite or more specifically a Chennaite whose mother tongue is Malayalam. Being a Chennai vaasi for 35 years albeit interrupted for few years in between, it is but natural to accept your identity in such a way. So that makes me practically a Tamilian in every which way, except that my marriage happened to a Malayalee, as per Keralite tradition, celebrating Malayalee festivals, apart from the Tamil festivals and the like. Otherwise, my cultural outlook and upbringing happened in a typical Tamil environment. I realised it quite recently when I could relate to songs or literature of Tamil than Malayalam. A simple act of liking a piece of art is so much conditioned by your upbringing did bring in profound realisation about myself is something that I would cherish and regret at the same time.
How despite good qualifications and a lineage of 1-2 generations of graduates, they are not married among the arrogant and well off dalits,
How due to reservations of dalits their women folks are routinely raped and paraded naked in villages by dalit mukhiyas and sarpanches,
Their houses are pelted when they crack IIT entrance exam
How due to reservations of dalits almost all the safai karmacharis in Indian Railways are Brahmins and clean human shit, they are discriminated based on the food they eat...indeed a life of Brahmin is hell...
When viewed under this optic, it sounds ridiculous that how The Hindu can say that it is only the upper castes and their culture which is represented more in mainstream Hindi films.
So finally started blogging after creating this page in May 2010. Those were times when i joined facebook and liked many atheist pages. Was getting to know Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennet and Sam Harris-the four horsemen of new atheism, through the FB pages and could perceive the definite shift in educated masses' idea on religion and morality, through the interactions and comments in FB. Personally it was a life changing moment to me. Intellectually less equipped to answer to questions and doubts on how atheism can be a life philosophy, which has changed over the intervening period, to the point that my naive idea that atheism can indeed replace religion as moral compass, has changed! I think atheism as a philosophy cannot be an effective replacement to religion, not that it is worse than religion, but it is grossly incomplete as some of the atheists have not shown sensitivity to the marginalised and "voiceless"...i have routinely come across atheists who are misogynists, muslim haters, hindu haters, homophobic, casteist, racist, which only exposes its inadequacy as a moral compass to lead an ethical life.
No wonder Dawkins, despite his numerous contribution to bringing out atheism out in open, has disappointed with his male privilege blindness when his misogynist tweets and comments were called out. Be it Muslima letter in 2011 which came soon after Rebecca Watson mentioned about elevator incident , or his defense of rape under influence of alcohol is no rape at all only shows how incredibly shallow one can be, despite calling oneself as a rationalist. When one thought these were few faux pas, more has come tumbling from his tweets and his defense of fellow scientists accused of rape and sexism, which taught me important lessons while adopting any new philosophy as a moral guide or compass -one need to be sensitive above all and no hero worship for sure.
And definitely no unqualified endorsement be it Dawkins or gOD!!
A place where you will find largely gibberish disguised as intellectualism in the form of opinion or musings. Am a freethinker and feminist first and last, and those who think that these terms are "discriminatory" please feel free to use your spare time somewhere else. All other opinions are welcome and will be encouraged for debate and discussions.
So Be Calm and Post!!
