చివరకు మిగిలేది.....!!!!???

ధన కనక సంచయ సంగ్రామములో
రేయింబవళ్ళు లెక్కించకుండా శ్రమించి, కూడబెట్టి
మోజు మేజవాణీల కాంచన మృగమును వెంబడిస్తూ,
శరీర దారుఢ్యత కోల్పోయి
రుజావ్యాధిగ్రస్తుడై, కృశించి, మంచాన పడి,
కళ్ళు మిటకరిస్తూ, గతించిన ఆరోగ్యమును గూర్చి స్మరిస్తూ,
భార్య పిల్లల ముఖాలు చూసి రోధిస్తూ,
సంపాదించిన సొమ్ము ఆసుపత్రి పాలు అవుతుంటే
చివరకు నీకు మిగిలినదేమిటి?
నలుగురి భుజాలపై ప్రయాణం!
ఎక్కడికని తెలియని శ్మశాన మౌనం!
ఆరడుగుల గోతిలో సుదీర్ఘ శయనం!

- ఓ అజ్ఞాత ఆంగ్ల కవి దర్శనము.
[ఈ కవిత సాహిత్య ప్రస్థానం మాస పత్రిక, నవెంబరు 2010, లో ప్రచురితమైనది]

बेवफा के साथ

एक दर्द था सीने में, बाँटा भी तो बेवफा के साथ
कुछ सपने भी थे आँखॊं में, सजाया भी तो एक बेवफा के साथ
कुछ अधूरी लम्हॊं को समॆट के बिताया भी तो एक बेवफा के साथ
अब तुम्हें इल्झाम कोई क्या दे, तुमने बेवफायी किया भी तो एक बेवफा के साथ।

- संगमित्र भट्टाचार्य।

I Slew the Seven Horses of the Chariot of the Sun

[Namdev Dhasal's poem Mee Marale Sooryachya Rathache Ghode, which means I Slew the Seven Horses of the Chariot of the Sun. Translation - Dilip Chitre]

The wicked have injured the Earth
Poets know all about it
Only poets can save the Earth
From extinction.

Man, You Should Explode

[This is Namdev Dhasal's poem from the collection called Golpitha. Translated by Dilip Chitre]

Man, you should explode
Yourself to bits to start with
Jive to a savage drum beat
Smoke hash, smoke ganja
Chew opium, bite lalpari
Guzzle country booze—if too broke,
Down a pint of the cheapest dalda
Stay tipsy day and night, stay tight round the clock
Cuss at one and all; swear by his mom’s twat, his sister’s cunt
Abuse him, slap him in the cheek, and pummel him…
Man, you should keep handy a Rampuri knife
A dagger, an axe, a sword, an iron rod, a hockey stick, a bamboo
You should carry acid bulbs and such things on you
You should be ready to carve out anybody’s innards without batting an eyelid
Commit murders and kill the sleeping ones
Turn humans into slaves; whip their arses with a lash
Cook your beans on their bleeding backsides
Rob your next-door neighbours, bust banks
Fuck the mothers of moneylenders and the stinking rich
Cut the throat of your own kith and kin by conning them; poison them, jinx them
You should hump anyone’s mother or sister anywhere you can
Engage your dick with every missy you can find, call nobody too old to be screwed
Call nobody too young, nobody too green to shag, lay them one and all
Perform gang rapes on stage in the public
Make whorehouses grow: live on a pimp’s cut: cut the women’s noses, tits
Make them ride naked on a donkey through the streets to shame them
Man, one should dig up roads, yank off bridges
One should topple down streetlights
Smash up police stations and railway stations
One should hurl grenades; one should drop hydrogen bombs to raze
Literary societies, schools, colleges, hospitals, airports
One should open the manholes of sewers and throw into them
Plato, Einstein, Archimedes, Socrates,
Marx, Ashoka, Hitler, Camus, Sartre, Kafka,
Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Ezra Pound, Hopkins, Goethe,
Dostoevsky, Mayakovsky, Maxim Gorky,
Edison, Madison, Kalidasa, Tukaram, Vyasa, Shakespeare, Jnaneshvar,
And keep them rotting there with all their words
One should hang to death the descendents of Jesus, the Paighamber, the Buddha, and Vishnu
One should crumble up temples, churches, mosques, sculptures, museums
One should blow with cannonballs all priests
And inscribe epigraphs with cloth soaked in their blood
Man, one should tear off all the pages of all the sacred books in the world
And give them to people for wiping shit off their arses when done
Remove sticks from anybody’s fence and go in there to shit and piss, and muck it up
Menstruate there, cough out phlegm, sneeze out goo
Choose what offends one’s sense of odour to wind up the show
Raise hell all over the place from up to down and in between
Man, you should drink human blood, eat spit roast human flesh, melt human fat and drink it
Smash the bones of your critics’ shanks on hard stone blocks to get their marrow
Wage class wars, caste wars, communal wars, party wars, crusades, world wars
One should become totally savage, ferocious, and primitive
One should become devil-may-care and create anarchy
Launch a campaign for not growing food, kill people all and sundry by starving them to death
Kill oneself too, let disease thrive, make all trees leafless
Take care that no bird ever sings, man, one should plan to die groaning and screaming in pain
Let all this grow into a tumour to fill the universe, balloon up
And burst at a nameless time to shrink.

After this all those who survive should stop robbing anyone or making others their slaves
After this they should stop calling one another names white or black, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, or Shudra;
Stop creating political parties, stop building property, stop committing
The crime of not recognising one’s kin, not recognising one’s mother or sister
One should regard the sky as one’s grandpa, the earth as one’s grandma
And coddled by them everybody should bask in mutual love
Man, one should act so bright as to make the Sun and the Moon seem pale
One should share each morsel of food with everyone else, one should compose a hymn
To humanity itself, man, man should sing only the song of man.

సెప్టెంబర్ 5 ఉపాధ్యాయ దినోత్సవం ఎందుకు?

సాత్వికుడు, దార్శనికుడు, ఒజ్జలకే ఒజ్జ అయిన శ్రీ సర్వేపల్లి రాధాకృష్ణన్ గారి జన్మదినం సెప్టెంబర్ 5 అని మనకు తెలుసు.

వారు భారత రాష్ట్రపతి అయిన సందర్భంగా అతడి పూర్వ విద్యార్థులు దేశము నలుమూలనుండి ఆయన జన్మదిన సందర్భంగా ఆయనను అభినందించడానికి వెళ్ళారు. అతడితో విద్యార్థులు, "మీరు మా జీవితాలను నిర్మించారు. మీకు వేనవేల కృతజ్ఞతలు" అనారు. దానికి అతడు, "నేనే కాదు, యే విద్యార్థి జీవితాన్నైనా నిర్దేశించేది వారి ఉపాధ్యాయుడే. జాతి భవితను నిర్దేశించేది ఉపాధ్యాయుడే. కావున ఈ దినాన్ని ఉపాధ్యాయ దినోత్సవంగా, గురు పూజా ఉత్సవంగా జరుపుకోవడంలో ఔచిత్యం ఉంది" అని పేర్కొన్నారు.

అతడి జన్మ దినాన్ని ఉపాధ్యాయ దినోత్సవంగా జరుపడం గురువులను నిజంగా గౌరవించడమే!

Ureka..Ureka

I had sent an article to www.kendasampige.com, a kannada portal, three months ago and had started to forget about it. The article was on the layman's understanding of Buddha's philosophy of life, death and how we should face both of them without attaching special emotions. I expected the article to be published on Buddha Poornima but somehow it didnt happen so. At last here it is! Published exactly after a month of my daughter's birth.

Am I emotional? Read it for yourself.

http://kendasampige.com/article.php?id=3663

ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ

ಜೀವ ಉಳಿಸುವಷ್ಟು ಉಸಿರನ್ನು ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೊಡು
ಉಸಿರುಗಟ್ಟಿಸುವ ಸುಳಿಗಾಳಿಯಿಂದೆನ್ನ ರಕ್ಷಿಸು;
ಬಾಯಾರಿಕೆ ತೀರುವಷ್ಟು ನೀರನ್ನು ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೊಡು
ಮನುಕುಲವ ಮುಳುಗಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಳಯದಿಂದ ರಕ್ಷಿಸು;
ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಪಾಡಿಗೆ ಬೇಕಾದಷ್ಟು ದುಡ್ಡನ್ನು ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೊಡು
ಆತ್ಮವ ಕೊಲ್ಲುವ ಸಿರಿಸಂಪತ್ತುಗಳಿಂದ ರಕ್ಷಿಸು.

[ತೆಲುಗು ಮೂಲ: ಜಲಾಡಿ ರತ್ನ ಸುಧೀರ್]

ಡಿಮ್ಯಾಂಡ್

ಆಕಾಶದಲ್ಲಿ

ನನ್ನನ್ನು ಆಡಲು ಬಿಡಿ

ಪಾರಿವಾಳದಂತೆ ಹಾರಬೇಕು

ನನ್ನನ್ನು ತಡೆಯಬೇಡಿ.

ತಾರೆಗಳನ್ನು

ಎಣಿಸಲು ಬಿಡಿ

ನನ್ನ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ

ಲಕ್ಷಗಟ್ಟಲೆ ಗುಡಿಸಲುಗಳು

ಕತ್ತಲಲ್ಲಿವೆ -

ಸಾಕಾಗಬಹುದೇನೋ

ಲೆಕ್ಕ ಹಾಕಲು ಬಿಡಿ.

ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳೆಂದರೆ ನನಗೂ ಇಷ್ಟ

ಚಂದಮಾಮನನ್ನು

ಮುದ್ದಾಡುವಾಸೆ.

ಚಂದ್ರಮಂಡಲ ಉಳ್ಳವರ ಸ್ವತ್ತಾಗಬಾರದು.

ನನ್ನನ್ನೂ ಹೋಗಲು ಬಿಡಿ.

ಸೂರ್ಯನನ್ನು

ನನ್ನ ಮನೆಯೊಳಗೆ

ಮನದೊಳಗೆ

ಮೈಯೊಳಗೆ ಕರೆಯುವೆನು.

ಕ್ರೂರ ಮೃಗಗಳು ಅಡ್ಡನಿಂತಿವೆ

ಆಯುಧಗಳನ್ನು ಕೊಡಿ

ಕೊಚ್ಚಿ ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು

ಸೂರ್ಯನಿಗೆ ಸ್ವಾಗತ ಕೋರುವೆ.

[ತೆಲುಗು ಮೂಲ: ಸಿ. ಹೆಚ್. ಮಧು. ]

In a new flow.

I was, I am and I will always be a Navodayan because in Navodaya our destiny was [is being]shaped. But many a times I felt that the recorded version of the Navodaya Prayer "Hum Navayug ki nayee bharati" sent by the Navodaya Vidayalaya Samithi was not-so rich in quality. I know Navodayas have a pool of talent and on a given day they would prove to the world that they are second to none; but it took such a long time for us to listen to an improvised version of the prayer.

I am extremely happy that JNV Trivendrum has taken steps to infuse freshness to both vocal and instrumental parts of the prayer.

While thanking all the students, teachers and the Principal of JNV Trivandrum for bringing out the new rendition of the ever so melodious Navodaya prayer, let us listen to the sweet prayer that still beats in the cores of our hearts.

Click the link and enjoy.

http://www.navodayatrivandrum.gov.in/homepage2/Web/Navodaya%20Prayer.mp3

In false spirit of the game!!

The one-day international match between India and Srilanka at Dambulla on 16th August 2010 revealed that amongst true gentlemen of the game, there are, and there ever will be 'uneducated' players. I use the word 'uneducated' deliberately and carefully because, the men involved in the foul-play are hard-core literates, captian Kumara Sangakkara being a law student and Suraj Randiv is a student of Rahula college, Matara but they have failed to exhibit what they have learnt as cricketers and human beings.

With the scores level, Sehwag on 99 and India needing one to win, Randiv deliberately overshot the crease by more than a foot and Sehwag managed to hit the ball for a six. Unfortunately, it did not count as the no-ball’s contribution of one meant India had won the match.

Despite hitting a six, Sehwag was stranded not out at 99.

The conspiracy hatched by Sangakkara and Randiv is very clear. The stump microphone is said to have recorded Kumar Sangakkara advising Randiv, “Remember, if he scores he gets a 100!”

Mission accomplished.

What is worse is, Sangakkara certified in the press conference that Randiv didn't bowl a no-ball deliberately. That's double standards.

Srilankans had done the same to Saurav Ganguly when Malinga bowled a wide to give four runs leaving Ganguly stranded at 98. It has happened to Sachin Tendulkar too in a match. Courtesy, Malinga again.

Still worse; Prasad Kariyawasam, the Srilankan High Commissioner in a interview aired on CNN-IBN made all efforts to shield the act of Randiv and eventually failed in doing so.

Now that both Randiv and the Srilankan Cricket Board have apologized, the problem seems to have been resolved. But, the scar left by the wound on the finest fabric of Cricket would never fade away.

Classics not to be missed

My students keep asking me to suggest them few books to read. The only thing I do at that particular point of time is to keep quiet, for I don't really know what their tastes are. If insisted, in order to escape I would ask them to read some Telugu or Kannada poems, stories, novels etc. I know they wont be convinced with that not-so-serious suggestion. On one occasion, my inguinity was suspected and I felt I should retaliate. I went on listing some of the finest books of the world that every book lover ought to read. See, if my list is of some use to you too. Do suggest if I missed out any.

1. The Ramayana - Valmiki
2. The Mahabharata - Ved Vyas
3. Abhignana Shakuntalam - Kalidas
4. Aesope's Fables - Aesope
5. The poetics - Aristotle
6. The Bible - Various authors
7. Alice' s adventures in wonderland - Lewis Carroll
8. The canterbury tales - Chaucer
9. Don Quixote - Cerventes
10. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
11. Tale of two cities - Charles Dickens
12. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
13. The adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Canon Doyle
14. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Edward Fitzerald
15. The Diary of a young girl - Anne Frank
16. Mother - Maxim Gorkey
17. The return of the native - Thomas Hardy
18. The Iliad - Homer
19. The Odyssey - Homer
20. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
21. The Alchemist - Ben Johnson
22. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
23. The outsider - Albert Camus
24. Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
25. The Trial - Franz Kafka
26. The jungle books - Rudyard Kipling
27. Sons and lovers - D. H. Lawrence
28. Paradise Lost/ Paradise Regained - John Milton
29. Gone with the wind - Margeret Mitchell
30. Utopia - Thomas Moore
31. Animal Farm - George Orwell
32. The Republic - Plato
33. All is well that ends well - Shakespeare
34. As you like it - Shakespeare
35. Hamlet - Shakespeare
36. Julius Caesar - Shakespeare
37. King Lear - Shakespeare
38. Romeo and Juliet -Shakespeare
39. Man and Superman - George Bernard Shaw
40. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
41. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
42. War and peace - Tolstoy
43. The adventures of Tom sawyer - Mark Twain
44. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
45. Arabian night's entertainement - Unknown
46. Around the world in 80 days - Jules Verne
47. The Aeneid - Virgil
48. Ben Hur - Lew Wallace
49. The time machine - H. G. Wells
50. Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
51. To kill a mocking bird - Harper Lee
52. The Godfather - Mario Puzo
53. Things fall apart - Chinua Ache

Thats all I remember for now... Do let me know if you have read something worthwhile.

15 ఆగస్టు నాడే స్వాతంత్ర్యం ఎందుకు వచ్చినట్లు?

ఆగస్టు 15 నాడు మనకు స్వాతంత్ర్యం సిద్ధించింది. నిజానికి 9 ఆగస్టు నాడే ఆ శుభకార్యం జరుగాల్సింది. కానీ అలా జరుగలేదు. దాని వెనుక ఒక నేపధ్యము ఉంది. మనకు స్వాతంత్ర్యాన్ని ఆగస్టు 9 నాడే యివ్వాలని మన నాయకులు పట్టు బట్టారు. ఎందుకంటే ఆగస్టు 9 ఒక పవిత్రమైన దినం. అదే రోజున మహాత్మా గాంధీ "Do or Die" అన్న నినాదాన్ని ఇచ్చాడు. అదే విధంగా ఆగస్టు 9 వ తేది నాడే విప్లవకారులు పవిత్రముగా భావించే "విప్లవ దినము" కూడా. అయితే భారతీయులకు 9 వ తేది నాడు కాక 15 వ తేది నాడే స్వాతంత్ర్యం ఇవ్వాలని లార్డ్ మౌంట్ బ్యాటన్ నిర్ణయించాడు.


కారణం....!?


ఆగస్టు 15 వ తేది నాడు లార్డ్ మౌంట్ బ్యాటన్ మరియు ఎడ్వినా దంపతుల వివాహ మహోత్సవ దినము. 1930 ఆగస్టు 15 నాడు వైవాహిక జీవితములోకి అడుగు పెట్టిన మౌంట్ బ్యాటన్ ఆ దినాన్ని చారిత్రాత్మక దినముగా మార్చాలనుకున్నాడు. దాని కొరకే ఆగస్టు 15 నాడు స్వాతంత్ర్యాన్ని యివ్వాలని పట్టు బడ్డాడు.



ఒక వేళ పండిత్ నెహ్రూ గారు మౌంట్ బ్యాటన్ పట్టిన పట్టును సమర్థించకుండా, 9 వ తేదినాడే స్వాతంత్ర్యం కావాలని కోరుకుంటే మాతృ దేశ దాస్య శృంఖలాల ఛేదనకై రుధిర తర్పణ చేసిన విప్లవకారుల పాలిట మరియు సకల భారతీయుల పాలిట చిరస్మరణీయమైన దినముగా మిగిలేది ఆ దినము.

ఐతే....

పండిత్ నెహ్రూ గారు లార్డ్ మౌంట్ బ్యాటన్ మరియు ఎడ్వినా దంపతుల కోరికపై నీళ్ళు చల్లలేదు. ఫలితము ఆగస్టు 9 వ తేది నాడు కాకుండా 15 వ తేది నాడు మనకు స్వాతంత్ర్యము సిద్ధించింది.

The roof of the house is leaking...

You call 9491489824, you would hear two lines of a high pitched Kannada song. The lines repeat but you wouldn't understand the lyrics. If you are a Kannadiga or know Kannada, you would catch the lyrics but I bet 95 out of 100 wouldn't understand what those two lines mean.

My brother-like-friend, poet, Nandi Award Winner, Producer, teacher, a 'lover of life' and a 'lover for life' Sri. Prasada Murthy of "30 Minutes" [on TV - 9] fame asked me what the song meant. So did many of my friends and students. I had to explain to each of them what those two lines meant, about the poet, the singer and the composer. I also told many curious listeners that the song continues to live though none among these [poet, singer, comopser] is alive.


The poem is originally a folk song sung [notwritten] by Saint Shishunala Sherif, a 19 th century saint poet, philosopher, social reformer from Karnataka whose preachings can be compared to Sant Kabir Das of North India. Sherif was a staunch believer of humanity and religious harmony and his songs [poems] had in them the descriptions of human misery, sorrow, ignorance that he found in abundance in the society he lived in.

To be precise, let me tell you what the two lines of my ring back tone mean:

The roof of the house is leaking
The roof of the house is leaking
because of ignorance.

First lines of the song:

sOrutihudu maniya maaLigi
sOrutihudu maniya maaLigi
ajnaanadinda...

Original Song: Santa Shishunala Sherif

Composed and re sung: C. Ashwath.

Sung in Rock style: Raghu Dixit.

Film on Sherif: T.S. Nagabharana' s "Santa Shishunala Sherif" [1990]

Click the link and listen to the song and check whether the house is leaking or not.

నానీలు

మా బాస్ అరిచాడు
"గో టు హెల్"
నేను సూటిగా ఇంటికి వెళ్ళాను!

*****************

కుక్కలు ఎందుకు
పెళ్ళి చేసుకోవు!?
బతుకుతున్నదే కుక్క బతుకు కదా!?

ಮರ್ಯಾದೆ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ!!

ಸೀತಾ ಮಾತೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಅದೃಷ್ಟವಂತೆ. ಅಷ್ಟು ವರ್ಷಗಳು ತನ್ನೊಡನೆ ಸಂಸಾರ ಮಾಡಿದರೂ ಶ್ರೀ ರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ ಅವಳನ್ನು ಕೇವಲ ಒಂದೇ ಒಂದು ಬಾರಿ ಅಗ್ನಿ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗೆ ಒಳಪಡಿಸಿದ್ದ. ಮುಂದೆಂದೋ ಅನ್ಯಾಯವಾಗಿ ಕಾಡುಪಾಲದ ಮೇಲೆ ಎರಡನೇ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ಮಾಡಿ ಎಂದು ಯಾರೂ ಕೇಳದಿದ್ದರೂ, ಅಂತಹ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯಿಡುವ ಮುಂಚೆಯೇ ತಾಳ್ಮೆ ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡ ಸೀತಾ ಮಾತೆ ಭೂದೇವಿಯ ಗರ್ಭ ಸೇರಿಬಿಡುತ್ತಾಳೆ. ನಮ್ಮ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ಪ್ರಜೆಗಳು ಹಾಗಲ್ಲ. ತಾಳ್ಮೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರು ಸೀತಾಮಾತೆಯಲ್ಲ, ಅವರ ಅಮ್ಮನನ್ನು ಮೀರಿದವರು. ಅವರ ಪ್ರಮೇಯವೇ ಇಲ್ಲದೇ, ಹೇಳದೇ, ಕೇಳದೇ ಯಾರಾದರೊಬ್ಬರು ಅವರನ್ನು ಅಗ್ನಿ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗೆ ಗುರಿಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಪಾಪ ಅವರೂ ಸಹ ತಮ್ಮ ಪಾಲಿಗೆ ಬಂದ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಪಾಸಾಗುತ್ತಲೇ ಇದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇಷ್ಟಾದರೂ, ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳು ಬಂದು ಬೀಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತವೆ.


1971 ರಿಂದ ನಂದಿಹೋಗಿದ್ದ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ಜ್ಯೋತಿಯನ್ನು 30 ವರ್ಷಗಳ ನಂತರ ಕಲ್ವಕುಂಟ್ಲ ಚಂದ್ರಶೇಖರ ರಾವ್ ಎನ್ನುವ ಆಸಾಮಿ ಮರಳಿ ಹೊತ್ತಿಸಿ ಕೈಗೆತ್ತಿಕೊಂಡ ಕ್ಷಣದಿಂದ ತೆಲೆಂಗಾಣದ ಜನರ ಪುಣ್ಯಕಾಲವೆಲ್ಲಾ ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ಬಾರದ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಗಳಿಗೇ ಸರಿಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. 2001 ರಲ್ಲಿ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಸಮಿತಿ [ತೆರಾಸ] ಎಂಬ ಪೆಟ್ಟಿ ಅಂಗಡಿಯನ್ನು ತೆರೆಯುತ್ತಲೇ KCR ಎಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಯೆ ಗಿರಿಗಿ ಸಲಾಂ ಹೊಡೆದು ಸಿದ್ದಿಪೇಟೆಯ ಕಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ನಿಂತ. ಆ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯನ್ನು ತೆಲೆಂಗಾಣವಾದದ ಅಗ್ನಿ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯೆಂದೇ ಪ್ರತಿಬಿಂಬಿಸಿದ. ಹೌದು, ಇದ್ದರೂ ಇರಬಹುದೆಂದು ಉತ್ಸಾಹಗೊಂಡ ಜನ ಭಾರೀ ಮೆಜಾರಿಟಿಯಿಂದ KCR ರನ್ನು ಗೆಲ್ಲಿಸಿಬಿಟ್ಟರು. ಮೂರು ವರ್ಷಗಳು ತುಂಬುವ ಮೊದಲೇ ವಿಧಾನಸಭೆಯ ಚುನಾವಣೆಗಳು ಬಂದವು. 9 ವರ್ಷಗಳ ಕಾಲ ಮನಸೋ ಇಚ್ಛೆ ಆಡಳಿತ ನಡೆಸಿದ "ವೀರ ಸಮೈಕ್ಯತಾವಾದಿ" ಚಂದ್ರಬಾಬು ನಾಯ್ಡು ಒಂದು ಕಡೆಯಾದರೆ, ತೆಲೆಂಗಾಣದ ವೋಟ್-ಬ್ಯಾಂಕನ್ನು ಬಾಚುವ ತಂತ್ರದಿಂದ ತೆರಾಸದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಸೆರಗು ಬಿಗಿದುಕೊಂಡ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ಕಡೆ. ಅದನ್ನೂ ಕೂಡಾ ಅಗ್ನಿಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯೆಂದೇ ಕರೆದರು ಮಾನ್ಯ KCR. ತೆಲೆಂಗಾಣ-ವಿರೋಧಿ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಯನ್ನು ಮಣ್ಣು ಮುಕ್ಕಿಸಿ, ತೆಲೆಂಗಾಣ-ಪರವಾದ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಯನ್ನು ತಲೆಮೇಲೆ ಕೂರಿಸಿಕೊಂಡ ಜನ ಆ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯನ್ನು ಡಿಸ್ಟಿಂಕ್ಷನ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪಾಸಾದರು. ಅದಾದ ಎರಡೇ ವರ್ಷಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರನೇ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ ಬಂತು ನೋಡಿ! ಆರಿಸಿಬಂದ ನಂತರ ತನ್ನ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದ ಕಡೆ ಅಪ್ಪಿ ತಪ್ಪಿ ಕಣ್ಣೆತ್ತಿ ನೋಡದ KCR, ತನ್ನ ಸ್ಥಾನವನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಈ ಬಾರಿ ತೊಡೆತಟ್ಟಲು ಕರೀಂನಗರವನ್ನು ಆಯ್ದುಕೊಂಡ. ಸಾಧಾರಣವಾಗಿ, ತನ್ನ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದ ಆಗು-ಹೋಗುಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸ್ಪಂದಿಸದ ತಪ್ಪಿಗಾಗಿ ಜನ ತಕ್ಕ ಶಾಸ್ತಿಯನ್ನೇ ಮಾಡಬೇಕಿತ್ತು. ಆದರೂ - ತಾನು ಸೋತರೆ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣವೇ ಸೋತಂತೆ ಎಂದು ಜನರೆಲ್ಲಾ ಆಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾರೆ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿದ್ದೇ ತಡ, ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಮೂಲೆ ಮೂಲೆಗಳಿಂದ ಬಂದ ತೆಲೆಂಗಾಣಿಗರು ತಲಾ ಒಂದು ಕೈ ಹಾಕಿ 2 ಲಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮತಗಳ ರೆಕಾರ್ಡ್ ಮೆಜಾರಿಟಿಯಿಂದ KCR ರನ್ನು ಗೆಲ್ಲಿಸಿ, ಆ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಪಾಸಾಗಿ ಕೃತಾರ್ಥರಾದರು.


2009 ರ ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ಸೀನೇ ಬದಲಾಗಿಬಿಟ್ಟಿತ್ತು. "ವೀರ ಸಮೈಕ್ಯತಾವಾದಿ"ಯ ಪಾತ್ರವನ್ನು ಈಗ ವೈ.ಎಸ್. ರಾಜಶೇಖರ್ ರೆಡ್ಡಿ ಪೋಷಿಸಲಾರಂಭಿಸಿದರು. "ವೀರ ಅವಕಾಶವಾದಿ"ಯಾದ ಚಂದ್ರಬಾಬು ಅರ್ಜೆಂಟಾಗಿ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣಕ್ಕೆ ಮತಾಂತರಗೊಂಡು, ಚುನಾವಣಾ-ವೈತರಣಿಯನ್ನು ದಾಟಲು ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ಗೋವಿನ ಬಾಲ ಹಿಡಿದುಕೊಂಡ. 2004 ರಲ್ಲಿ "ಸಮೈಕ್ಯವಾದಿ"ಯಾಗಿದ್ದುಕೊಂದು ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ಪ್ರಾಂತ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ 100 ರಲ್ಲಿ 10 ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಒಂದು ಸೀಟನ್ನೂ ಗೆಲ್ಲಲು ಕೈಲಾಗದ ದೇಶಂ-ಬಾಬು, 2009 ರಲ್ಲಿ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣವಾದದ ಚಂದಾ ಕಟ್ಟಿದ ಮೇಲೆ 38 ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳನ್ನು ಗೆದ್ದುಬಿಟ್ಟ. ರಾಜ್ಯದೆಲ್ಲೆಡೆ ಊರಾಬಟ್ಟೆಯಾದರೂ, ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ಮಂತ್ರ ಮಹಿಮೆಯಿಂದಲೋ ಏನೋ ಈ ಒಂದೇ ಪ್ರಾಂತ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ತನ್ನ ಮರ್ಯಾದೆಯನ್ನುಳಿಸಿಕೊಂಡ. ಹಾಗೆ ನೋಡಿದರೆ, "ಸಮೈಕ್ಯತಾವಾದಿ" ವೈ.ಎಸ್. ವಿಜೃಂಭಿಸಿದ ಆ ನಾಲ್ಕನೇ ನಂಬರ್ ಅಗ್ನಿಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯಲ್ಲೂ ಸಹಾ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ವಾದವು ಅಲ್ಪ-ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಮಾರ್ಕಿನಿಂದ ಪಾಸಾದಂತೆಯೇ! ಅಷ್ಟು ಹೊತ್ತಿಗಾಗಲೇ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಸಾಕು ಸಾಕಾಗಿ ಹೋಗಿತ್ತು. ಆದರೂ ಕನಿಕರ ತೋರದ KCR ದೊರೆಗಳು "ಸುಮ್ಮಸುಮ್ಮನೇ" ಉಪ-ಚುನಾವಣೆಯನ್ನು ತಂದುಬಿಟ್ಟರು. ಇದು ಒಂಥರಾ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಶೀಲ-ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆ. ಇರುವ ಹತ್ತು ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಸೀಟ್ ಬಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಟ್ಟರೂ ಅದು ತೆರಾಸ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗೆ "ಯಮ-ಡೇಂಜರ್" ಎಂದು ಹೀಗಾಗಲೇ ಹೆದರಿಸಿಬಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ KCR. ಇದ್ದರೂ ಇರಬಹುದೆಂದು ಈ ಸಲವೂ ಗೆಲ್ಲಿಸಿಬಿಟ್ಟರೂ ಸಹಾ, ಮತ್ತೆ ಆರು ತಿಂಗಳಿಗೋ, ವರ್ಷಕ್ಕೋ ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಶೀಲ-ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯನ್ನು ಖಂಡಿತ ಜನರ ಮುಂದಿಡುತ್ತಾನೆ ಈ ವಯ್ಯ.


"ತನ್ನ ಸಾವು ಪ್ರಪಂಚಕ್ಕೇ ಪ್ರಳಯ ತರುತ್ತದೆ" ಎನ್ನುವಂತೆ, ತನ್ನ ಸೋಲು ತೆಲಂಗಾಣಕ್ಕೇ ಸೋಲು ತರುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ಭಯ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ KCR ಗೆ, ಇದು ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತ ರಾಜಕೀಯವೆಂದೆನಿಸಿರಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ, ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ರಚನೆಯನ್ನು ವಿರೋಧಿಸಿ, "ಸಮೈಕ್ಯವಾದ"ವನ್ನು ಬಲಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಪ್ರಜಾ ರಾಜ್ಯಂ, CPM ನಂತಹ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗಳ್ಯಾವುವೂ ಈ ಬಾರಿಯ ಚುನಾವಣಾ ಕಣಕ್ಕಿಳಿದಿಲ್ಲ. ಸ್ಪರ್ಧೆಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗಳೆಲ್ಲಾ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ರಚನೆಗೆ ನಾವು ವಿರೋಧಿಯಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವಂತಹುವೇ! "ಎರಡು ಕಣ್ಣಿನ" ಬಾಬು ಕೂಡಾ, ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಎರಡು ರಾಜ್ಯಗಳಿಗೆ ಓ.ಕೆ. ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಲೇ [ಮೇಲ್ನೋಟಕ್ಕಾದರೂ] ಬಂದಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ವೈ. ಎಸ್. ಮರಣದ ನಂತರ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್‍ನಲ್ಲೂ ಸಹಾ "ಸಮೈಕ್ಯವಾದ" ದ ನಿಶೆ ಇಳಿಯತೊಡಗಿದೆ. ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ರಾಜ್ಯ ರಚನೆಯ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇವೆ ಎಂದು ಪಾರ್ಲಿಮೆಂಟ್‍ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿರುವುದೂ, ನಿರ್ದಿಷ್ಟವಾದ ಗಡುವನ್ನು ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಶ್ರೀಕೃಷ್ಣ ಕಮಿಟಿಯನ್ನು ನಿಯಮಿಸಿರುವುದೂ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಯೇ ಆಗಿರುವುದರಿಂದ, ಆ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಯನ್ನು ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ-ವಿರೋಧಿ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಯೆಂದು ಹಣೆಪಟ್ಟಿ ಕಟ್ಟಿದರೆ ಅದು ನಿಲ್ಲುವುದೂ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಇನ್ನು, ಅಯ್ಯೋ ಪಾಪ ಎಂಬಂತಾಗಿರುವ ಬಿಜೆಪಿ, ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗಳಿಗಿಂತಲೂ ಮೊದಲಿನಿಂದ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ರಾಗವನ್ನು ಹಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಬಂದಿದೆ. ತೆಲಂಗಾಣದ ಪೇಟೆಂಟ್ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾಪಿರೈಟ್ ನನ್ನದೇ ಎಂಬುದು ತೆರಾಸದ ಸರಾಸರಿ ವಾದ. ಕಣದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗಳೆಲ್ಲಾ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣವಾದದ ಚಂದಾದಾರರೇ ಆಗಿರುವಾಗ, ಯಾವ ಪಾರ್ಟಿ ಗೆದ್ದರೇನು? ಸೋತರೇನು? ಯಾವ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗೆ ಎಷ್ಟು ಸೀಟ್ ಬಂದವು, ಎಷ್ಟು ಸೀಟ್ ಹೋದವು - ಇದರಿಂದ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣಕ್ಕಾಗುವ ವ್ಯತ್ಯಾಸವಾದರೂ ಏನು? ಇರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳನ್ನು ತೆರಾಸ ಬಾಚಿಕೊಂಡ ಮಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿಬಿಡುತ್ತಾ? ಒಂದು ವೇಳೆ ಈಗ ಇರುವ ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದೋ, ಎರಡೋ ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳನ್ನು ತೆರಾಸ ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡ ಮಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ, ತೆಲಂಗಾಣದ ನೆಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಇಷ್ಟು ತಿಂಗಳುಗಳಿಂದ ನಡೆದ ಚಳುವಳಿಗಳೂ, ಬಲಿದಾನಗಳೂ ನಿಷ್ಪ್ರಯೋಜಕವಾಗಿ, ಪಾರ್ಟಿಗಳನ್ನು, ವರ್ಗಗಳನ್ನು ಮೀರಿ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣದ ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಲ್ಲೂ ಪಸರಿಸಿರುವ ನವ ಚೈತನ್ಯವು ನಿಸ್ತೇಜಗೊಂಡು ಅಳಿಸಿ ಹೋಗಿಬಿಡುತ್ತದೆಯೇ?

ತೆಲಂಗಾಣಕ್ಕಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದರೂ, ಕಣದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಬ್ಬ ಪೈಲ್ವಾನನಿಗೂ ಈ ಉಪ-ಚುನಾವಣೆಯೆಂಬುದು ಒಂದು ರೀತಿಯ ಅಗ್ನಿ ಪರೀಕ್ಷೆಯೇ! ಪಾರ್ಟಿ ಹೈಕಮಾಂಡ್ ಬೇಡವೆಂದು ಹೆಚ್ಚರಿಸಿದ್ದರೂ, ಅದರ ಮಾತನ್ನು ಕೇಳದೇ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳಿಗೂ ’ಕರ್ಚೀಫ್ ಹಾಕಿರುವ’ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೇಸ್ ಮರ್ಯಾದೆ ಉಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳದಿದ್ದರೆ ನಗೆಪಾಟಲಾಗುವುದಂತೂ ಗ್ಯಾರಂಟಿ. ಕೇವಲ ವೈ. ಎಸ್. ರವರ ಕೈಚಳಕದಿಂದ ಗೆದ್ದು ಬಂದಿದ್ದ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೇಸ್, ತೆಲಂಗಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಎಡವಿಬಿಟ್ಟರೆ, ರೋಶಯ್ಯನ ಹಿಂದೆ ಬಿದ್ದಿರುವ ನಿಗೂಢ ಕುತಂತ್ರಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹಬ್ಬವೋ ಹಬ್ಬ. ಮಿಕ್ಕ ಸೀಟುಗಳ ಮಾತು ಒತ್ತಟ್ಟಿಗಿರಲಿ; ತನ್ನ ಊರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ತನ್ನ ಸೀಟಿಗೇ ನಾಮ ತಿಕ್ಕಿಸಿಕೊಂಡುಬಿಟ್ಟರೇ, ’ಧರ್ಮಪುರಿ’ [ಡಿ. ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ್] ಗಳಿಗೆ ತಾವು ಜೊಲ್ಲುಸೋರಿಸುತ್ತಾ ಕುಂತಿರುವ ’ಅಧಿಕಾರ ಸ್ಥಾನ’ ಕೈ ತಪ್ಪಿ ಹೋಗುವುದಲ್ಲದೇ ’ಈಗಿರುವ ಸ್ಥಾನಕ್ಕೇ’ ಧಕ್ಕೆಯುಂಟಾಗಬಹುದು. ’ಪವರ್’ ಮೇಲಿನ ಆಸೆಯಿಂದ, ಒಂದೆರೆಡು ಜುಜುಬಿ ಸೀಟ್‍ಗಳಿಗಾಗಿ ನೀತಿ ತಪ್ಪಿ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣ ಶೈಲಿಯನ್ನು ಅನುಕರಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ’ಎರಡು ಕಣ್ಣಿನ’ ಚಂದ್ರಬಾಬುಗೆ ತೆಲಂಗಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೋಣಿ ಮಾಡದೇ ಹೋದರೆ, ಮೊದಲೇ ಸಡಿಲಗೊಂಡಿರುವ ಪಾರ್ಟಿಯೊಳಗೆ ಇನ್ನೂ ತಾಪತ್ರಯಗಳಾಗಲಿವೆ.

ಈಗ ಸ್ಪರ್ಧಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವೊಂದೂ ತಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಾನವಾಗಿಲ್ಲವಾದ್ದರಿಂದ ಗೆಲ್ಲಲಾಗದೇ ಇರುವುದು ಷಂಡತನವಲ್ಲವೆಂದು ಇತರೆ ಪಕ್ಷಗಳು ವಾದಿಸಬಹುದು. ಈ ನಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ, "ಗುಲಾಬಿ ಪಕ್ಷಕ್ಕೆ" ಆ ಅದೃಷ್ಟವೂ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಇರುವ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳೆಲ್ಲಾ ಅವರವೇ. ಯಾವೊಂದು ಸೀಟ್ ಕೈಬಿಟ್ಟರೂ ತಮ್ಮ ಮರ್ಯಾದೆಗೆ ಧಕ್ಕೆ. ಅಂದುಕೊಂಡಂತೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ನಡೆದು, ಇರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳನ್ನು ಗೆದ್ದರೂ..... ಹೇಗೂ ಅವು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳೇ; ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳನ್ನು ನೀವು ಗೆದ್ದುಕೊಂಡರೆ ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂಥಾ ದೊಡ್ಡತನವೇನಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಎದುರಾಳಿಗಳು ಹೀಯಾಳಿಸಬಹುದು. ಒಂದು ವೇಳೆ ನಸೀಬು ಕೈಕೊಟ್ಟು, ಎರಡೋ, ಮೂರೋ ಸ್ಥಾನಗಳು ಕೈತಪ್ಪಿಹೋದರೆ, "ಗುಲಾಬಿ ಅಂಗಡಿ" ದಿವಾಳಿ ಎದ್ದೋಯ್ತು ಎಂದು ಅವರೇ ಡಂಗುರ ಸಾರುವುದು ತಪ್ಪದು.

ಪಾಪ ತೆರಾಸ!!!!

ఆమె వెళ్ళిపోయిన రోజు

ఆమె వెళ్ళిపోయిన రోజు
నా ముఖాన మసి రాసుకున్నాను.
కౄరమైన పిచ్చిగాలి చెంప పగులగొట్టాను.
ముక్కచెక్కలైన జీవితాన్ని నా చేతికెత్తుకున్నాను.
పగిలిన అద్దం ముందు నగ్నంగా నిలబడ్డాను.
నా మీద నాకే ఆవేశం.
హుందాగా సూర్యుడిని "మూర్ఖుడా!" అని తిట్టాను.
రంగుల లోకపు వైతాళికులను వెతికి వెతికి "థూ!" అన్నాను.
తూర్పునుండి పడమర వైపు చెప్పులు లేకుండా నడిచాను.
దారిలో పడి ఉన్న కంకర రాళ్ళను మీద చల్లుకున్నాను.
సంభ్రమ స్ఫూర్తితో కొండ కోనల్ని చీల్చి
పారే నీటికి యే సముద్రం చేరే కోరికో?
లేదా, మందగతిలో ఇసుక ఒడిలో కూరుకుపోయే ఉద్వేగమో?

నాలో నేను లేనన్నది ప్రశ్న.
ఇక ఆమె కళేభరాన్ని అక్కున చేర్చుకొని
రోధించడం ఎలా?
ఆమె వెళ్ళిపోయిన రోజు
నా ముఖాన మసి రాసుకున్నాను.

మరాఠి మూలం: నామ్ దేవ్ ఢసాళ్
తెలుగు సేత: హరీశ్. జీ.

[ఈ కవిత 06 జూన్ 2010 నాడు "ఆదివారం ఆంధ్రజ్యోతి" లో ప్రచురితమైనది.]

What a difference!!

Despite government's efforts to make education an integral part of every child in the country, a few children have no option but to labour. Suggestions to eradicate child labour in however small a way are welcome.

నానీలు

సూర్యుడు
దిగంబరుడయ్యాడు!
మేము
వస్త్రాలు ధరించాము!

******

తడి ఆరితే
నేల అయినా
ఎద అయినా
ఎడారే!

[Inspired by Soofi Folk Literature]

To be or not to be

ఒఫీలియాను
హ్యామ్లెట్ అడిగాడు;
నీ రేఖా చిత్రం
గీస్తాను,
ఏ పెన్సిల్ వాడాలి?
2B or not 2B ??

[ఆంగ్ల మూలం: స్పైక్ మిలిగన్]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..............???????

వాళ్ళు నూరడుగుల ఎత్తైన
చెట్టును నరికారు!
కుర్చీలను చేశారు!
నేనొక కుర్చీని
కొని తెచ్చాను!
ఆరడుగుల ఎత్తున్న నేను
కుర్చీలో కూర్చోగానే
అయ్యింది
మూడడుగులే!
నన్ను మూడడుగుల
వామనుడిని చేయడానికి
నూరడుగుల చెట్టును
నరకాలా????

[ఆంగ్ల మూలము: స్పైక్ మిలిగన్]

An intellectual interview with Kancha Ilaiah

[Here is the interview of Kancha Ilaiah, a prominent political thinker of our times, published in tehelka.com]

Kancha Ilaiah teaches politics at the Government Women’s College, Koti, Hyderabad. Active in the Dalit-Bahujan [Scheduled and Backward Caste] movement, he is a prolific writer in both Telugu and English. His latest book, Why I Am Not A Hindu, a critique of Hindutva from a Dalit-Bahujan perspective, turned out to be a best seller. Here he talks to Yoginder Sikand about how ‘Dalitisation’ alone can effectively challenge the threat of Brahminical fascism parading in the garb of Hindutva.

Q: Tell us something about your background. How did you come to be involved in the Dalit-Bahujan struggle?
A: I was born in a village in a forest area in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. The entire area had been given by the Nizam of Hyderabad to Mahbub Reddy, a local landlord, as his fief. My family belongs to the sheep-grazing Kuruma Golla caste. They had earlier migrated from Warangal proper to the forest belt. My grandmother had settled the village. After her death my mother took over the leadership of the caste. I was born three years after the Police Action in 1948. The communists were then very active in our area. In the course of the Telengana armed struggle they killed two people in our village—both were village Patels. Because of the struggle, Mahbub Reddy began selling his lands off, and our caste people, who, till then owned no land at all, began buying small plots. So this was a time when the feudal system had begun disintegrating. Later, at school I came into contact with Marxists, with Marxist literature, and became involved in the students’ movement, and that is how I got involved in the struggle for justice.

Q: What or who has been the major influence on your thinking and your politics?
A: The most important influence on my life was the village in which I was born. As a child in the village I learnt how to breed sheep, till the land and make ropes, but what was particularly instructive was the interactions and contradictions between the different castes within the village—Kurumas, Kapus, Gowdas and Madigas. And it is this personal knowledge of the dynamics of caste that is central to my thinking and all my writings.
My mother exercised a seminal influence on my thinking, too. She was a strong woman and the leader of our caste. You see, among the Dalit-Bahujans, women have an important role within the family and the caste. They set the moral norms themselves, through interaction with the productive process and in the process of struggle with nature, unlike among the Hindus [Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Banias], where women do not work in the fields, and whose norms are dictated by an external agency—the Brahminical texts. My mother was in the forefront of the struggle against the forest guards who would constantly harrass the Kurumas and not allow them to graze their animals in the forest. In fact, she died in one of these confrontations, being fatally beaten up by a policeman while protesting against their brutality. She was then only 46 years old.
I’ve written a Telugu piece about my mother. It’s called The Mother’s Efforts And Her Struggle. There I have tried to show that it is not simply the big ‘political’ struggles against the state which alone are important. Rather, one should look at everyday struggles as well—in this case, a mother’s constant struggle to educate her children, challenging patriarchy, struggling with nature in the productive process, sustaining the culture of the caste. Most Marxist texts look only at grand ‘political’ struggles, party mode of struggles, struggles led by men. In my writings I have sought to also focus on micro struggles, the stories of ordinary people, including women.

Q:How would you characterise contemporary Hindutva? What is the relationship between Hindutva and the Dalit-Bahujans?
A: As Dr.Ambedkar says, Hindutva is nothing but Brahminism. And whether you call it Hindutva or Arya Dharma or Sanatana Dharma or Hindusim, Brahminism has no organic link with Dalit-Bahujan life, world-views, rituals and even politics. To give you just one example, in my childhood many of us had not even heard of the Hindu gods, and it was only when we went to school that we learnt about Ram and Vishnu for the very first time. We had our own goddesses, such as Pochamma and Elamma, and our own caste god, Virappa. They and their festivals played a central role in our lives, not the Hindu gods. At the festivals of our deities, we would sing and dance--men, women and all-- and would sacrifice animals and drink liquor, all of which the Hindus consider ‘polluting’.
Our relations with our deities were transactional and they were rooted in the production process. For instance, our goddess Kattamma Maisa. Her responsibility is to fill the tanks with water. If she does it well, a large number of animals are sacrificed to her. If in one year the tanks dry up, she gets no animals. You see, between her and her Dalit-Bahujan devotees there is this production relation which is central. Likewise, in the case of Virappa, the caste deity of the Kuruma shepherds. His task is to ensure the well-being of the animals. If the flock increases he is offered many sheep as a sacrifice, but if a disease strikes the flock, he gets nothing. Our gods, like us, are productive beings. This is not the case with the Brahminical deities, who have nothing to do with the productive process, but are frozen in the scriptural texts as an external agency. So you can see how the Dalit-Bahujan religion and Brahminism are two distinct and mutually opposed religio-cultural formations, two completely different religions.
In fact, many Dalit communities preserve traditions of the Hindu gods being their enemies. In Andhra, the Madigas enact a drama which sometimes goes on for five days. This drama revolves around Jambavanta, the Madiga hero, and Brahma, the representative of the Brahmins. The two meet and have a long dialogue. The central argument in this dialogue is about the creation of humankind. Brahma claims superiority for the Brahmins over everybody else, but Jambavanta says, ‘No, you are our enemy’. Brahma then says that he created the Brahmins from his mouth, the Kshatriyas from his hands, the Vaishyas from his thighs, the Shudras from his feet to be slaves for the Brahmins, and of course the Dalits, who fall out of the caste system, have no place here. This is the Vedic story. But Jambavanta says that this is nonsense. He says that prakriti [nature] created him and Shakti [the female power principle], and through his union with Shakti, the trimurti [Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva] were born. And then he goes on to say that although Brahma was born as his own offspring, he has not been faithful to his way of life, and that is why the Madigas have kept the Brahmins away from them. Here he talks about the superiority of the Madiga way of life over the Brahminical--of beef-eating over vegetarianism, of manual labour, working with leather and making shoes, as opposed to a parasitic life of living off the labour of others. And then Brahma is defeated, because he has no answer to give Jambavanta.

Q: And then what happens to Brahma?
A: That is most interesting. You see, Jambavanta defeats him by argument, not by killing him. In the Dalit-Bahujan tradition there is no defeat by killing your enemy, which is so central to Brahminism, be it the Gita or the Puranas. This Dalit-Bahujan tradition of overcoming your enemy through logical persuasion runs right from the Buddha to Ambedkar. The understanding is that you must establish your philosophical superiority and defeat the enemy on the moral ground.

Q: What you are perhaps suggesting is that Dalit-Bahujan religion can be used to effectively counter the politics of Brahminism or Hindutva. But Brahminism has this knack of co-opting all revolt against it, by absorbing it within the system.
A: It is true that although Dalit-Bahujan religious formations historically operated autonomously from Hindu forms, they have never been centralised or codified. Their local gods and goddesses have not been projected into universality, nor has their religion been given an all-India name. This is because these local deities and religious forms were organically linked to local communities, and were linked to local productive processes, such as the case of Virappa and Katamma Maisa whom I talked about earlier. But Brahminism has consistently sought to subvert these religious forms by injecting notions of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’, hierarchy and untouchability even among the Dalit-Bahujans themselves, while at the same time discounting our religious traditions by condemning them as ‘polluting’ or by Brahminising them.

Q: Then would you say that religious conversion to a major codified religion could be the way out of the dilemma, as Ambedkar thought?
A: Historically, it was in the struggle of the Dalit-Bahujans against the Hindu order, the Brahminical system which had captured the state and used it as an instrument to impose the caste ideology, that Dalit-Bahujans converted in large numbers to Buddhism, Sikhism,Islam and Christianity. These were social protest movements to gain social rights and self-respect. The whole Buddhist phenomenon in our early history was a story of Dalit-Bahujan protest. The Buddha says, ‘Just as various different streams flow into a river and become one, so, too, the different castes, when they come into the sangha [ the community of the Buddhist faithful], they join the sea of colourless water’. This stress on social equality is, of course, in marked contrast with Hinduism, which cannot be defined in terms of a universal religion with a universal social rights’ concept. It is simply another name for oppression. I have serious problems with Brahmin writers who say Hinduism is ‘a way of life’. As I understand it, it is nothing but a means for exploitation of the Dalit-Bahujans.
To get back to the point I was making, conversion to Islam and Christianity was for many Dalit-Bahujans a means for social liberation. In the medieval period, conversion to Islam afforded some Dalit-Bahujans a means to enter political structures for the first time. In fact, the whole Shudra emergence dates back to this period. Akbar instituted what could be called a ‘reservation policy’ for Shudras in landlholdings—groups such as Jats in north India or Reddys in Andhra. You do not see Shudras as major landowners in the pre-Akbarian period. In the entire period of Hindu rule, you have the agraharam sort of landholding system, with Hindu kings donating vast tracts of lands to the Brahmins.
In the colonial period, of course there was massive economic plunder, but the Christian missionaries did a lot for the Dalit-Bahujans—education, some amount of economic and social mobility. Many Backward Castes which did not convert to Islam or, later, Christianity, are suffering today, the reason being that there is no educated elite among them.

Q: But, then, does conversion have any relevance today?
A: My own feeling is that if the Dalit-Bahujan movement proves unable to propel the Dalit-Bahujans to state power and to place them in politically hegemonic spaces, educated Dalit-Bahujans will increasingly look to religious conversion as a major alternative as a means of mobilisation and protest.

Q: How do you see the demonisation of Muslims and Christians in Hindutva propaganda?
A: It is obvious that the real threat that Brahminism faces is not from the Muslims or Christians but from the growing awakening of the Dalit-Bahujans, who now refuse to accept Brahminical supremacy. And that is why Dalit-Bahujan wrath is being craftily sought to be displaced from their real oppressors onto imaginary enemies in the form of Muslims and Christians.

Q: There’s been much talk about Dalit-Bahujan-Muslim unity. What are your own views about this?
A: It is important to remember that Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims, particularly indigenous converts who form the vast majority of the Muslim population, share much in common in terms of culture. Both belong, in contrast to the Hindus, to a meat-eating culture, and in a society where what you eat determines, in a very major way, your social status, this is crucial. Then, Islam champions social equality, and there is a total absence of the feeling of untouchability. Take a very simple thing—the Hindu namaste, folding your hands to greet someone—is a very powerful symbolic statement. It suggests that I recognise you but you should not touch me. In contrast, the custom that the Christians introduced of shaking of hands is a touching relationship, while the Muslims go even further and physically embrace you. Even today in the villages the Muslims are the only people who actually physically embrace the Dalit-Bahujans. Of course, the Brahmins and Banias don’t let them do that to them, but that’s a different matter. You must remember that the human embrace is itself a very liberating symbolic act for the Dalit-Bahujan victims of Brahminism.
There’s a lot else that Dalit-Bahujans share with Muslims. Scores of Dalit-Bahujans continue to participate in the Muharram rituals and visit Sufi dargahs. Further, in the productive process the bulk of the Muslims find themselves in the same position as most Dalit-Bahujans, as peasants, agricultural labourers, as cobblers, weavers and so on, and in that capacity they share a common culture.

Q: But can mere cultural similarity or commonality serve as a platform for a wider political unity between Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims?
A: My point is that we urgently need to explore and expand these spaces of cultural unity, and only on that basis can political unity come about. Brahminism or Hindutva or call it what you like, seeks to deny this unity, and plays up only on the differences. We, on the other hand, must focus on the elements of unity, and try to expand these sites of unified life into the political domain. Because of our faulty western Marxist methodological training, we start from political unity, straight away trying to unite Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims on the political plane, without an appropriate cultural back-up. And then when attempts at political unity fail, you give up. I feel that this is not the way of doing the job. You must start by exploring existing sites of cultural unity as well as what could be called productive unity, unity that follows from Muslims and Dalit-Bahujans being placed in similar or common niches in the broader productive process. Build up this consciousness of social and cultural unity and then a lasting political unity will easily come about.

Q: What role do you see Dalit-Bahujan spiritualities as playing in all of this?
A: Let me begin by saying that Brahminism is more afraid of the Dalit-Bahujan thought process than of political challenge. It can manipulate or even kill off any number of Eklavyas or Shabukas, but it cannot face the challenge of Ambedkarite thought. They may conspire to kill me off, but they can’t do a thing with my book [Why I Am Not A Hindu]. And it is in this realm of the cultural that Dalit-Bahujan organic intellectuals have a lot to do. We need to retrieve and revive our own histories, traditions, cultures, religions and knowledge systems, all of which are organically connected, in contrast to the Brahminical, with the productive economic process, with the dignity of labour.

Q: But here you seem to be assuming that Dalit-Bahujan traditions have remained static. Is it not the case that they, too, have fallen victim to the process of Brahminical co-optation?
A: I think the process operates both ways, and there is a major way in which Hindu structures themselves are getting Dalitised, which has not been written about. Take, for instance, the Ganapati festival. Earlier the festival was centred around the Brahmin priest, but now most of those who participate in the festival are probably Dalit-Bahujans. And no longer is the festival Brahminical in the classical sense. With the Dalitisation of the festival has come dancing, drinking and singing and loud filmi music! To take another example, some Dalit-Bahujans are demanding that prayers be said in the temples not in Sanskrit but in the languages of the people themselves and that they, too, should be allowed to become priests. Whatever one might otherwise say about this, this is a means to challenge Brahnminism from within its own structures, a process of Dalitisation whose ultimate culmination can only be the destruction of Brahminism.

Q: Do you see what you call the Dalitisation process operating in other spheres as well?
A: This is evident everywhere—the fact that a Brahmin doctor is willing to treat a Dalit patient is a reflection of this process, as is the willingness of a Brahmin woman to divorce her husband or smoke and drink in public or a Brahmin widow going in for another marriage. You must remember that smoking and drinking , divorce and remarriage have never been problems for Dalit-Bahujan women, in contrast to Brahmin women, so all this is nothing but Dalitisation in action. M.N.Srinivas and other Brahmin sociologists wanted to bolster Brahminical hegemony by claiming that India is getting Sanskritised. But when we asked them what is all this surge in drinking and smoking and women’s emancipation all about, they said it was Westernisation, when actually it is nothing but Dalitisation. Of course, they do not want to admit that because that will mean recognising that it is from the Dalit-Bahujans that others are learning.
My point is very simple. If you go on saying that India is getting Dalitised, Brahminism will die a natural death, but if you keep harping on the theme of India getting Hinduised Brahminism will gain added strength. So many books were written in the wake of the Babri Masjid affair selling the argument that India is getting Hinduised. But where were all these historians and sociologists when ten lakh Dalits converted to Buddhism in 1956 along with Dr. Ambedkar? Did they then say that India was getting Dalitised or Buddhistised? Had they done so we would have had a very different history today. So, I say, write history from the point of view of the Dalits, showing how while Sanskrisation and Brahminism are historically unproductive, a burden on the system and a legitimation for exploitation, Dalitisation, in contrast, is historically a productive, creative and constructive process because it is rooted in the dignity of labour.

Q: How would you envisage this project of writing Indian history from the point of view of Dalit-Bahujans as subjects, as the central actors?
A: To be honest, I am seriously opposed to the writing of what is called the ‘history of sorrow’—simply narrating all the oppression and sufferings that the Dalit-Bahujans have had to suffer under Brahminism, although that, too, cannot be ignored. But I feel that the more you cry, the more the enemy beats you. If you want to defeat the enemy, you cannot remain contented with merely critiquing him, because even in that case he is the one who sets the terms of discourse and you are playing the game according to the rules that he devises, so naturally it is he and not you who wins in the end. Thus, rather than dwell simply on our historical oppression or the dangers of Hindu fascism, keep the focus on the process of Dalitisation, and thereby set the terms of discourse and debate yourself. For that you have to present a Dalit-Bahujan alternative as a workable and better solution. If you don’t do so, and restrict yourself to simply criticisng Brahminism by quoting slokas from one Brahminical text or the other, they will put forward yet another sloka to disprove you. But if you write from the Dalit point of view they have no way to rebut what you want to say.
Central to that task would be re-writing Dalit-Bahujan history to show, for instance, their knowledge systems, their role in the productive process, their great contributions to the development of technology or in the realm of spirituality or how their societies afford women a much higher status than the Brahminic. Sati and dowry have historically been specifically Hindu problems never ours. So history re-writing will have to be informed with Dalit pride. You have to show that Dalitisation, and not Hinduisation, is the answer to our ills, because unlike Brahminism, which is rooted in texts that do not spring from real-world experience in the productive process, Dalitisation reflects the interaction of human beings with nature in the labour process.
Unless you present Dalitisation as a superior alternative, you can’t win the battle. Take the Buddha, for instance. His greatest contribution was not his critique of Brahminism, important though that was, but his founding of the egalitarian community of the faithful—the sangha—as a superior alternative to Brahminical caste society. Or take Marx for that matter. To my mind, his greatness lies not so much in his critique of capitalism but in his presenting a superior alternative in the form of a communist society.

Q: Have you attempted anything of this sort yourself?
A: I think you can see this in most of my writings. To give but one example, I wrote this piece on the leather-working Madigas titled ‘The Subaltern Scientists’ and another piece on the Madiga Dalits called ‘The Productive Soldiers’. Presently, I am working on a book dealing with the discoveries and inventions of certain Dalit-Bahujan tribes and castes. There’s so much to be done to recover Dalit-Bahujan knowledge systems. I mean, for instance, you would have to trace industrialisation in India not to Lancashire but to the Madiga wadas [localities], where the Madigas first perfected the art of turning raw leather into shoes, or to our barbers who invented the knife.

Q: One last question. What made you give your book the title Why I Am Not A Hindu? How was the book received?
A: I thought it was important for Dalit-Bahujans to make a powerful statement against the Hindutva propaganda that we, too, are Hindus. As for how the book was received, well, Dalit-Bahujans, of course, were very excited about it. Predictably, orthodox Brahmins were angry, but so too were some ‘socialist’ Brahmins. Actually, that did not surprise me at all, because they read Marx’s Capital just as they read the Vedas—reciting it—not a critical reading. But I did get quite a few responses from Brahmins in Tamil Nadu They wrote to say that they had read a lot of Periyar, but he had only criticised them but never told them where they had gone wrong. They said that it was after reading Why I Am Not A Hindu that they discovered what was wrong with their religion and culture and how they must change if they are to survive.

Glimpses of the Eclipse

A Jordanian woman views a solar eclipse in Amman, Jordan. Jordan witnessed this year's first annular solar eclipse and the millennium's longest on Friday.

The sun is seen partially blocked by the moon during a solar eclipse seen in Shanghai, China.

The ring of fire seen in Male, Maldives.

An annular solar eclipse is seen formed over the skies of Male, Maldives, on Friday. Thousands of people viewed the spectacle of an eclipse of the sun looking skywards through special filter eyeglasses as the moon crosses its path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.

A solar eclipse is seen in Nairobi, Kenya on Friday. Several Kenyan towns experienced the annual solar eclipse.

Kenyans got a rare glimpse of the annular solar eclipse which saw the sun completely ringed by the moon and despite some clouds could be seen for about 10 minutes.

An old man takes a view of the solar eclipse in Surat on Friday.

A view of first annular solar eclipse of the year 2010, as seen from New Delhi on Friday.

People watch the formation of the annular solar eclipse through special filter eyeglasses in Hyderabad.

15th January saw the first annular solar eclipse of the year, which is also the longest of the millennium.An annular solar eclipse is seen formed over the skies in Dhanushkodi, in Tamil Nadu. Thousands of people in southern India viewed the spectacle of an eclipse of the sun looking skywards through special filter eyeglasses as the moon crosses its path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.

An annular solar eclipse is seen formed in the skies over the minaret of a mosque in Hyderabad, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. Thousands of people in India viewed the spectacle of the eclipse of the sun looking skywards through special filter eyeglasses as the moon crosses its path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.

A child watches the formation of the annular solar eclipse at a planetarium in New Delhi, India, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. Thousands of people in India viewed the spectacle of the eclipse of the sun looking skywards through special filter eyeglasses as the moon crosses its path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.

A bird is silhouetted against the sun during the formation of an annular solar eclipse in New Delhi, India, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. Thousands of people in India viewed the spectacle of the eclipse of the sun looking skywards through special filter eyeglasses as the moon crosses its path blocking everything but a narrow, blazing rim of light.

Knowledge is free

[This is the note of reverence and gratitude to all our teacher-trainers at DRR School Davanagere. Originally composed by my dearest friends Late. Gauri and Rekha]

Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken into fragments
By narrow domestic walls.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Into that heaven of freedom my father
Let my country awake.

Dear Sirs/Madams,
Our forty day sprint in your school has been a wonderful experience for us. We stepped into the shores of teaching from the sands of learning. Little did we realize that the shore and the sand were all but one. We entered as novices to the darkened arena, but luckily for us we found the best leading lights in you which led us more smoothly than we ever imagined to the centrestage.

Our ascent from the nadir of uncertainty to the pinnacle of confidence and success was along the cheerful paths of your school. The culmination of our endeavour was the love and ready acceptance of the students. The paths that we tread along together and the enduring journey remains imprinted in our hearts and we always have the footprints in the sands of time to look back to.

The act has ended, but the show goes on forever.... for
The woods are lovely; dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.

Cherishing the memories of your love and companionship into eternity....
Yours truly..
The students of Internship Batch of 1994-98 B.A.Ed and B.Sc.Ed from RIE Mysore that underwent training at DRR School, Davanagere.