MORE WELFARE, LESS PROFIT MONGERING

Amartya Sen, the Nobel prize winner in economics thinks that India could have taken more care of education and public health to ride out on recession. Kerala has done this to an extent. It is time Indian entrepreneurs invested more to create more jobs and hoarded less nad indulged in extravagant and unproductive spending to satisfy their whims and fancies. Nirad Chaudhuri writes that the English people live in style and Indians are fond of hoarding. We have to combat over cautionary mindset along with economic recession. A lot of money is stashed away in Swiss banks. Indian government has to turn towards welfare of the public rather than remain technocratic state in the service of the elite. Technology has to be developed to serve the interests of the people and not just to turn them into redundant resources. Education would go far in this direction. It has to increase the skills of the people. The need of the hour is not the maximization of profits but democratizing education to raise the purchasing power of the people. Country means not currency but people who could lead their lives without scarcity and with dignity.

WHAT IS POETRY?

End rhymes can’t turn prosaic idea into poetry
Poetry is an alchemy, its secret is poet’s alone
Kalidasa knew, Peddana also knew
Krishna Sastry, Sri Sri knew

Live in the present, reflect this world
Open the windows to invite all winds in
Your words must be original,
Emerge from your insides- tearing

Brother! Poetry has to open the deepest areas of light
Expand the range of consciousness
Showering fire or raining nectar
Beauty and joy are its ultimate.

(extracts from “Novelty-Poetry” of Tilak )

PEOPLE MATTER MORE

He is
Symbol of consciousness of Rights
Showed life essence
Intellect razor-sharp
Courage and impact vast
Leaving university
Read and taught in people’s university
Stood by Dalits, Bahujans and tribals
He bore his pain
And even pain of the world

No bowing before an ism or a party
Will- Powered Freedom and Equality
Spurned seductive Globalization
Told the forgotten country
People matter more than Ore
Yearned for human rights
Constitutional safeguards
His mother is movement
Mother land is India

( In memory of Balagopal)

YOUNGISTAN CALLS!

What do the young want? They want to navigate through the turbulent waters of career,love, enjoyment of sports such as cricket,films, enterpreneurship,sense of achievement, finding and becoming role models themselves. But the present shock is proving more than future shock.we have put false Gods such as success and money as the only ideals before them to worship. we see them only as consumers or producers but not as lovable humans.

Our attitudes earthworms
Our aspirations eagles
Our culture for risk less

Why should boys and girls of tender age
Jump from terrace to court death
In the name of education myth?
Do we need cut-throat competition ?

But sooner or latter
The youngistan can revive the nation
The youth can bring smiles of prosperity
on the face of our country
Time and Synergy are theirs
They can rewrite our priorities
They can fortify the weak social fiber
They are heroes of the present
who need encouragement

( from the "Dove and the Mother Earth" )

NANNIES OF GAFAR

"Nallamala Ratnalu,"a book of new form of poetry "nannies"was written by M.A.Gaffar, a retired teacher from uppununtala village, Mahabubnagar in simple and captivating style on touching themes. Some translations of his telugu poems into English.
1) "child labourers
in cotton fields
turning into wicks
school -age children"
2) God is
Omnipresent
still being searched
Everywhere.
3) Tomattoes grown
in tonnes
Broken are
Farmers' spines
4) strange diseases
contagious
Now patent
Jowar bread.
5) stars
Shine in the night
prices
flare up forever
6) In love deep
Fell youth reckless
At the moment of joy
Sent to gallows

Musing over Chalam

A seer
Of the edge of heart

A definition clear
Of freedom

A critic
Of beauty and cruelty of man

A poet
Who shed tears
When he found a jasmine
Forgotten in his pocket
Bloomed

Hated power
Loved defiance
Of Tradition

Pure water
That cleansed
Stagnant waters of society

A guide for decades

walked forward like a Yogi
Lover of nature
Understood woman’s nature

A vast sky
Immeasurable
For the prejudiced

Shame the tiger and encourage the lambs

We need technology for ending scarcity and meeting the needs of growing number of people. But technologism has set in. It means thinking that "technology first, people next and devil take the hindmost". In the name of Globalization, many nations and many languages are slowly losingtheir existence. Violence has been growing and emotions are dominating one and all. Conflict has become our new idiom. Can the writers awaken the intellect of the people? Can they shame the tiger and encourage the lambs? Can they stress the importance of other nations and their literatures apart from the lone super power and a handful of its allies as hoped by 'Viswakavi' RabindranathTagore? Can we treat all nations as partaking in the orchestra of world peace as desired by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan?

NO ONE IS MARGINAL

Rajni Kothari, a great political thinker writes that the present world has made many men and women into marginal in the name of technology and development. "Man is the most dispensable element inthe system modern man has produced." Is it correct? Pope, an English poet says that proper study of mankind is man. Let us not treat humans as expendable and nature as perennially exploitable.

TECHNOLOGY WITH HUMAN FACE?

Need the servants of Mammon
Migrate to the moon to cause cosmic pollution?
Can we sustain this earth?
Can we regain our mirth?

In our penchant for the projects
What about the tribals of Papi hills?
the evacuees of Narmada Dam?
Have we become deaf to their cries?
Have we poured Lead into our ears?
***

Sri Sri

Srirangam Srinivsa Rao was a poet par excellence. command over language, commitment to people and experimentation in the light of international literature were his strengths.His words are valuable to any young poet. He says
"Novelty plus Humanity is equal to poetry"
"The unity betrween mind and heart
is the sole quality of greatpoetry".
"Man is a seeker of material world
Good poetry must open his eye of knowledge
Daily routine to perennial truths
An epic must touch every item
Delights and enligtens
Moves like a great stream
Impacts and attracts like a magnet
Grindstone that softens and shines our hearts."

KALAM'S DREAM OF 2020

We have been independent for 64 years. Have we retained the spirit? Do we remember the sacrifices made by our previous generations? can we eradicate poverty? Can we turn our country free from corruption? Can we remove the dividing line between the rural and urban areas? Abdul Kalam says, "Work with integrity and succeed with integrity."

Real or Ethereal?

The villages are d(r)ying
Farmers autumn leaves
Weavers torn out clothes
Cities are bursting at seams
Contamination and traffic jams
Pedestrian penguins crossing roads
Wastage, sewage, effluents in rivers
Drifting over subcontinent are ‘dirty clouds’
Our ties with nature spider silk
Will Kalam’s dream be real or ethereal?
Posted by Ravindranath Jandhyala at 11:41 PM 0 comments

Missile in inner sky

Nature and you are inseparable
A wave divided from the sea
batters its head on a rock.


Drive Bhasmasura from your being
The divine element lives in man and creature tiny
Never send a missile against your inner sky.


The death of a single ant is tragic
Your death , a trifle to nature
Can we say “no” to warmongers ?
Can we see, listen and think with our hearts?
Can we sustain fertile imagination?
Can we reject nuclear winter
And welcome cheerful spring?

The Dove and the Mother earth

Use of Muse ?



Like a cloud
Poetry
Rains compassion and joy subtle
appeals to mind and soul glocal.

A poem stirs
or slips and dies like a baby
in the bore well of silence.