Monday, July 26, 2010

ഉട്ടോപിയ.

ആമസോണ്‍കാടുകള്‍
ദുബായ്എയര്‍പോര്ടിലിറങ്ങി
ഗള്‍ഫിലെങ്ങുംതുള്ളികളിച്ചു .

സഹാറാമരൂഭൂമി
നെടുംബാശേരിയിലെക്കുള്ള
ഫ്ലൈറ്റില്‍ യാത്രചെയ്യാന്‍ തുടങ്ങി .

ഈജിപ്തില്‍ നിന്നും
നൈല്‍ നദി
ഫ്രാന്സിലേക്ക് പോയി .

അമേരികയില്‍ നിന്നും
വെള്ളച്ചാട്ടങ്ങള്‍
അഫ്ഗാനിസ്ഥാനിലെത്തി.

അന് ട്ടാര്ടികയിലെ
മഞ്ഞുമലകള്‍
ആഫ്രികയിലേക്ക് സാന്‍ചരിച്ചു.

പാകിസ്താന്‍ ഗ്രാമങ്ങള്‍
ദില്ലിയില്‍ വിമാനമിറങ്ങി
ഇന്ത്യന്ഗ്രാമങ്ങളെ
ആലിംഗനം ചെയ്തു .

കേരളത്തിലെ വീടുകള്‍
ജമ്മുവിലേക്ക് തീവണ്ടി കയറി .
ആസാമിലെ മഴ
ചെന്നൈ റെയില്‍വേസ്റ്റഷനില്‍
വന്നിറങ്ങി മരിനയിലേക്ക് നടന്നു.

ഹിമാലയം ബാഗ്ദാദില്‍
കുടിയേറിപ്പാര്‍ത്തു.

മക്കയുംകാശിയും വിവാഹിതരായി
ജെറുസലേമില്‍ താമസമായി .

പാര്‍ലമെന്റും
വൈറ്റ്ഹൌസും
സ്ടാച്യു ഓഫ് ലിബര്‍ട്ടിയും
പക്ഷികൂടുകളായി .

ഭൂമിയുടെ ജന്മദിനം
കണ്ടെത്തിയതറിയിച്ച്
എസമെസുകളും
ഈമൈലുകളും
ആകാശമെങ്ങും പറന്ന്നു .

ഹൃദയാഘാത്താല്‍
മതഗര്‍ന്ധങ്ങള്‍ മരണമടഞ്ഞു .
ഭൂപടങ്ങള്‍ മാഞ്ഞുപോയി .
മേല്‍വിലാസങ്ങളും .

Thursday, July 15, 2010

ON PAINTINGS OF GANESH BABU CHEMBAYIL

Ganesh Babu Chembeyil’s paintings are always in search of polyphony. It stands against the minimized academic concepts of art. In each of his paintings, there is a complex analyzation of colours and is applied into the space with a different pattern. This is a’ hyperrealisation of real colour ’as the contemporary art critic Peter Halley said. Ganesh Babu’s treatment and improvisations enable him to share a fraternity with today’s painters like Bruce Newman, Richard Turtile, Eva Hesse, Biplab Dalai.,C.K Behra,C.H. Manohar…etc.

Through a spontaneous expressivity, he is trying to rediscover colours and content in every painting. He hesitates to fall into categories like still life, figurative, landscape, abstract, ethnic…. ’Fallen Hibiscus’,’Dancing God’,’Golden Comb’,’After Warly’,’Praris-1’,Paris-11
’…. all these creations are sheer examples for this. He is experimenting with different devices like splattered, stained, poured and the emphasis of brush strokes. The openness in his approach leads him to freewheeling usage of paint,-texture and surface. Most of the time it focused on hermeneutics and psychological interior.

From the 90s onwards, in art also a democratization happened, like in other fields of culture. The concept of art slowly escaped from the kinds of Fauvism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Cubism…and so on. And a break from Modernism was apparent. Artists of our time are trying to stamp, at the same time,the contradictions, complexities and freshness originated from such a break. Ganeshbabu’s works are also part of this new phenomenon and its limitations and scope.

GANESH BABU CHEMBAYIL

Lives and works in India and France.

Visit : http://ganeshbabu-painter.e-monsite.com/

Saturday, July 3, 2010

MAHATHMA GANDHI AND MAHADEV DESA I

In memory of the great gandhian who I know ,the creator of the wondrous movement 'Ayalkoottam',editor of 'Darshanam'(monthly) a platform for social awareness, D.Pankajakshakurup .



ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL LIFE AND RELATIONS
By M.K.Gandhi

( Three volumes. Total pages-846 compiled and edited by V.B. Kher)

To Gandhiji, the motive behind every work is the realization of truth.Even a social and political system, in order to be far reaching, must have truthful urges serving as its basis.To him, therefore,Swaraj means self- control by each individual.A society where the individuals do not possess this quality is not ’really free’.When the individuals can control themselves,there is no need for external interference, so that there is a state of enlightened anarchy,and each individual is ‘really free’.Dictatorship is not a suitable means for the attainment of this ideal;For it does not pave the way for the withering away of the state;rather, it has a tendency to perpetuate violence and struggle for power.Gandhiji, therefore,champions decentralized democracy with ’ Panchayati Raj’ as its corner-stone.
On a similar ground, he decries the western pattern of industrialization.In the west,industrialization has caused concentration of economic power,economic inequality,and the conflict between capital and labour. Such a system is bound to hinder the unfolding of human personality. Therefore the use of machinery should be reduced to an essential minimum, and attention should be given to the development of each village as a self-contained unit ‘manufacturing mainly for use'.'"Provided this character of the industry is maintained, there would be no objection to villages using even modern machines and tools that they can afford to use. Only, they should not be used as a means of exploitation of others’. Gandhiji has also much to speak about bread labour, labour dispute, and similar other problems. His views on all these subjects and their interrelations have been admirably brought together in these three volumes. The book will be of immense help to every serious student of Gandhism.

LETTERS TO SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL
By M.K.Gandhi

This book contains a bunch of letters of Gandhiji, translated from the original Gujarati, dealing mostly with the topics connected with the various phases of the independence struggle.

Letters, really speaking, mirror the contents of the writer’s mind. The different moods of the writer, reflecting his fears and disappointments, hopes and joys, humour, love, or sympathy, can be felt in the pages of this book. The letters cover the entire period of the hectic days of our national struggle from 1921 to 1947. It is fascinating to read what Gandhiji’s thoughts were on some of the important events that have shaped India’s future-Bardoli ‘satyagraha’; Round Table Conference; Bihar earthquake; Haripur Congress; Naokhali, Delhi, and Punjab disturbances; etc.
Students of history will derive much benefit from these letters, and the general reader will get a valuable insight into the personality of Gandhiji.

THE STORY OF BARDOLI

By Mahadev Desai

Bardoli’s name has been permanently inscribed in the pages of modern Indian history. The non-violent battle waged by the peasant population of this little taluk of Gujarat for seven months during 1928, under the inspiring leadership of Vallabhbhai Patel,was aimed at securing remission of an increased levy in land revenue.The satyagraha drew the attention of people even from remote countries and created a stir in the British Parliament .Its triumph acted as a fillip to India’s freedom struggle.Gandhiji wrote then:’Though the object of the proposed satyagraha is local and specific, it has an all-India application…..The struggle has an indirect bearing on swaraj’(p.45)
The author of this book, Mahadev Desai ,a martyr in the cause of India’s freedom, who worked for many years in close association with Gandhiji.The book unfolds,in arresting language,the history of Bardoli satyagraha and its sequel, in two parts. When it was first published in 1929, the volume must have acted as an immediate tonic to the freedom movement.Now this book will be read like a story by the young generation.All the same, the author has made the book authentic with numerous quotations from actual correspondence and many statistical details .


A NOTE ON QURAN

If we read Quran between the lines, we will come across eloquent passages breathing a spirit of universal toleration and harmony.It is an embodiment of the rich contents of the Prophet's mind,as well as of the loftiness of his spiritual genius.It is really an insult to human wisdom to suppose that Prophet of Islam did actually advocate compulsion in religion. The verses quoted below from Quran constitute proofs positive of his catholicity and friendliness towards the religions of others. The Quran says: 'If thy Lord had pleased,verily all who are in earth would be loved together. What! Whilt thou compel men to become believers?' Say thou:'I worship not that ye worship,and ye do not worship that which I worship;neither shall I worship what ye worship;neither ye worship what I worship;to you be your religion;to me my religion'.'Revile not those whom they call on beside God,lest they, in their ignorance, despitefuly revile Him.Thus have we planned out their actions for every people;then shall they return to their Lord,and He will declare to them what those actions have been.' 'Verily, they who believe, they who follow the Jewish religion, and the Christians,and the Sabeites, whoever of these doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord;fear shall not come upon them, neither shall be grieved'.'And if God had pleased,He had surely made you all one people; but He would test you by what He hath given to each.Be emulous, then , in good deeds.To God shall ye all return, and He will tell you concerning the subject of disputes'.'To everyone of you have we given a rule and a beaten track'.'Our God and your God are one God and after Him we all strive'.
Indeed,what stronger and more convincing testimony is needed to demonstrate the universalism in Islam-the freedom extended in Quran to every man to follow his own convictions in matters religious? The illustrious Persian poet Sanai has also sung to the same tune:'Islam and the faiths other than Islam follow Thee,O Lord,when they declare that there is no god but God'.Even the beautiful song of the celebrated Urdu poet Zafar expresses the same sentiment: 'Angels and men, Hindus and Mussalmans, thou , O Lord,hast created according to Thy sweet will.Everyone bows to Thee, for it is Thou who art worshiped everywhere- in the Caaba, in the mosque,or in the temple. Thou art omnipresent.Every heart is a dwelling place,and Thou art the dweller. There is no heart where Thou abidest not. Thou dost abide equally in all hearts, for Thou art all that exist in the universe'.So does another Urdu bard sing:
'Only names differ,Beloved!
All forsooth are but the same.
Both the ocean and the dew-drop,
But one living liquid frame.

--------------------------------

*Remembering Kalam Vellimadu who gave me the Quran for the first time, E. Moidu Maulavi Sahib who taught me the depth of Urdu language, and friends Abdur Rehman Kutty,Syed Alavi Sahib,Nazar.

*Quotations from Quran (Translated from the Arabic by Rev.J.M.Rodwell)



Friday, July 2, 2010

ജിപ്സിയുടെ ലോകങ്ങള്‍

1

വഴി തെറ്റും .

തിരച്ചിറകിലേറി
കടലുകള്‍
ആകാശത്ത് കൂടുകൂട്ടും .

കുന്നുകളില്‍
ഉദയാസ്തമയങ്ങള്‍
ഉടക്കിപ്പാറും.

വൃക്ഷങ്ങള്‍
മലയിറങ്ങി വന്നു
താഴ്വരയില്‍
വലയെറിയും.

മന്കുടങ്ങളില്‍
സുര്യചന്ദ്രന്മാര്‍
പതഞ്ഞുയരും
ഇലച്ച്ചുണ്ടുകള്‍
ദാഹം തീര്കും.

കാല്പ്പാടുകളില്ലാതെ
ഭൂമി പുനര്‍ജനിക്കും .

വഴികള്‍
മാഞ്ഞുപോകും.

2

മനുഷ്യപാദങ്ങള്‍
വഴികളെ വൃണങ്ങളാക്കും.


പിന്നില് മറഞ്ഞതെല്ലാം
മുന്നിലേക്ക്‌ തികട്ടും .
ഒളിപ്പോരാളിയും
ഒറ്റുകാരനുമാകും .
ആഹിംസയാല്ഹിംസിക്കും
നീതിമാനും
കശാപ്പുകാരനുമാകും.

വീണ്ടും വീണ്ടും
പടച്ച്ചട്ടയണിയും
പരാജയപ്പെട്ട്
തിരിച്ചുവരും .

ആരുമറിയാത്തിടത്ത്
അജ്ഞാതശവമാകും
പുഴുക്കള്‍ പൊതിയും.

മണ്ണുമാത്രം
കൈനീട്ടും .