THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s thirty years since a masterpiece in literature took birth at the tip of the pen of a master himself, but Malayalees true to their fickle nature have all but forgotten it. The poem ‘Naranathu Bharnathan’ turned 30 last December and as the poet V Madhusoodhanan Nair describes in the poem, society has truely lost its innate virtues.
“For me ‘Naranathu Bhranthan’ was destined to be my best work. I have faced many charges and have been snubbed. But I had faith in my work,” he says, overlooking the criticisms and condescending attitude of certain writers and critics.
Right from his childhood, poems touched his heart. Reciting poems on the banks of Neyyar river and the foothills of Agasthya provided him with ecstasy.
“While penning ‘Naranathu Bhranthan’ the feelings churned inside me. I took just a week to complete it, though it had been in my heart like a silent prayer for four months. I could juxtapose my house, a fallen ‘tharavadu’ with my land. Both my house and the my land were destined to be so since its inheritors had not been aware of its assets and legacy,” he reveals.
Naranathu bharnathan tells the story of the relationship between mythical siblings and the transitions in their lives. It has been linked not only to the myths of Kerala but also to that of the ancient Tamil Nadu. Agnihotri of the ‘Parayi petta panthurkukulam’ and Pananar of Sreeranga pattanam are all connected through the legends and myths of South India.
The poem helps us to evolve our consciousness through the right ideals of Adwaitha. “Sun is brahmana and Earth, a pariah woman and the children born to them are siblings,” he unravels the philosophy behind the poem which calls for universal brotherhood.
He underlines the fact that man will learn only by facing tough experiences. Only a poet with an insight into the tragic essence of life can pen the lyrics which point towards the futility of man’s exaggerated dreams in the lines
‘cheertha koonan kinakkalal....... mekhakamangal kalluruttunnu’
However, the optimist in the poet says finally, a day will come when from my ashes Adwaitha will spread throughout. These words are emphasised in the lines
‘ente chudalparampile thudathullumee...
Izhacherennoru Adwaitha padamamundayivarum’.
He also unravels’s the lunatic’s dream that a new man will born and out of him an all pervading light will spread across the universe.
Recalling how fans of the poem used to line up outside his house, he says, “There was a time when I had to record the poem up to 16 times a day.”
Regarding the charge that his poems are incomprehensible, he said ‘Naranathu Bhranthan’ had something which is not easily interpretable. But fact remains that there is something ‘tantric’ about it,” he admits.
Responding to the charge that he was an admirer of tradition, he said it was ridiculous to reject one’s tradition. “Tradition is there in one’s gene. I speak from the strong platform of tradition about which I am proud of. Tradition is there in your accumulated memory. The rejection of one’s tradition stems from mental retardation,” he says.
Lamenting the fast vanishing native virtues, he observes that what we experience in Kerala today is the same lifestyle, same taste, same smell and the same mutilated and violated language.
Revisiting his memoirs linked to places from where he discovered ‘Naranathu Bhranthan’, the poet will tread Rayiranalloor hill on April 9.