By Kollengode S Venkataraman (written in 2001)
Sri Sri (Srirangsm Srinivasa Rao) was a well-known firebrand Telugu poet in post-independent India. He claimed himself as one of the Digambara Kavulu (Naked Poets). In the 1960s and 70s, he and other Digambara Kavis defied the orthodoxy of their time by getting their work published in street corners by lesser-known personalities such as a rickshaw puller, even a prostitute.
When I was a student in Berkeley in the early 1980s, Sri Sri visited the campus. In his talk, he read his work first in Telugu, after which he translated the lines into English for the benefit of those like me who did not know Telugu.
Sri Sri was freely using imagery from Hindu epics in his firebrand poems asking people to arise and end the social oppressions and economic exploitations he saw all around. The similes he used were very Hindu: “Arise like the arrow from Vijaya’s Gandhiva; destroy your enemies like Kaali overpowering Mahishaasura.”
Later, at a friend’s place, hesitantly I asked him, “You are one of the revolutionary extreme-leftist poets who denounce religion as the opium of man. Yet in your poems you use themes from the very religion you denounce. How do you reconcile this contradiction?”
Sri Sri stared at me for a few seconds and said something along these lines: “I am an atheist. But as a poet, I recognize that the imagery from our epics is so deeply embedded in my people’s consciousness that nothing else will convey my passion and verve better. I cannot remain without using the similes, metaphors, and other imagery that are chiseled deep into our languages. No poet, however revolutionary he is, can completely insulate himself from his linguistic traditions, if he wants to reach his audience.” I admired him. Sri Sri died in late 80s.
Kaifi Azmi is another left-leaning poet, but in Hindi/Urdu mélange. Last December, in New Delhi, they released his selected poems translated into English. In the function, I read in newspapers recently that poet Kaifi Azmi peppered his talk with anecdotes and appropriate couplets to illustrate his points.
His poem on the destruction of the Babri masjid was poignant. Kaifi Azmi, a born Muslim, took imagery from Ramayana to drive his point as if he had talked to Sri Sri.
This is what Kaifi Azmi said: “On December 6, 1992 (the date on which Babri Masjid was razed years ago in Ayodhya), it was as if Shri Ram Chandra was returning after fourteen years of exile. Seeing what had been done in his name by others, instead of reclaiming his throne, Shri Ram Chandra decided to go back to the jungle.”
They may be speaking different languages. They may not even be aware of each other’s existence. But their minds work remarkably alike. END