A rangOli story - VIII

When we are happy, it seems time runs fast like wild horses. After a long time, conversations with Chandru were like sweet honey mixed with nectar. With mallI and Usha around and their father nodding in appreciation, I never knew when day dissolved into night and when night was reborn again as another day. New dimensions were added to our joy with the expectancy of the arrival of two new lives, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood and image of our images. chikkammA, without my father's knowledge, used to peep in now and then. One day we decided to go somewhere and we hit upon the idea of visiting SrIrangapaTTaNa. It was late Decemeber, the air was crisp and relatively cool but not damp. The monsoon was past. My husband's colleague teacher had his own house there. He said we could stay there overnight. Even though my father and chikkammA would not accompany us, Rama joined us. By the way, my chikkammA named her child after my deceased mother ramAdEvi. It is a common practice to name the children after the husband's first wife in some families.

We decided to avoid unnecessary stares at mallI by entering the temple. Fortunately, there was some temple festival called utsava and the image of the God was being carried around the temple streets. We visited the palace of Tippu Sultan and afterward, spread a blanket near the river kAvEri. Since it was past the rainy season, the river was not full. One could witness the sand and the rock bed. It is here that for the first time Chandru and mallI gave a narration of their first encounter. Just like here in India, Indians living in America too celebrate festivals like the New Year’s Day and dIpAvaLi. It seems they normally celebrate these not on the actual festival days but during weekends because of their busy schedules. In one of those functions, Chandru was urged by his friends to sing a song on the stage. Even though he never had any rigorous training in music, Chandru has a reasonably good voice and he sang the Kannada song nAnE vINe written by kuveMpu, a great Kannada poet and jnAnapITh awardee. The meaning of the song (nAnE vINE nIne taMti avanE vaiNika, miDida nenalu rasada honalu biMdu biMdui sEri siMdhu nAdarupaka) he sang goes somewhat like this - I am the vINA, you are the strings and he is the player; the vibrations of the strings and the flow of the music drop by drop becomes a river and everything becomes an epitome of sound. For such functions, not only Indians but their American friends and others also attend. One such attendee also volunteered to sing and she sang jayadEvA's ashtapadi and one stanza of that caught everyone's attention - tvamasi mama bhUshaNam, tvamasi mama jIvanaM, tvamasi mama bhavajaladhi ratnaM, bhavatu bhavatIhamayi satata manurOdhinIm tatra mama hRdaya mati yatnaM, priyE chAruSIlE priyE chAruSIlE. This is the famous nineteenth ashTapadi from gItagOviMda. Krishna addresses rAdha thus- You are my jewel, you are my life, you are the precious gem in the ocean of my life. I am worshipping you, my dear love, follow me and my heart longs for you. It was not actually the song, not the way in which she pronounced the words, but the manner in which she put the tender and loving feelings that caught everyone's attention including Chandru's. Chandru told that he fell for the song - hook, line and sinker! mallI was smiling bashfully. I wanted to provoke Chandru. I asked him, "Do you know what happened afterward Chandru? Did you get bruises on your head?" Even my husband, who is reserved, began to chime in the ensuing peals of laughter. gItagOviMda was one of my favourites too. When I was young, I was carried away by the rhymes and assonance of words in those operatic songs. In fact, my father snatched away the book once from me admonishing me that I was too young to read such books! After my marriage, I found the book among my husband's books too. Later I caught Chandru reading it once and I smiled at him and he ran away.

mallI was a literature student and her thesis was on classical Indian love poetry. As a part of that she read books like gItagOviMda, gAthAsapataSati of hAla, bhavabhUti's uttararAmacharita, ANDAL's and mIrA's songs. That is how she got interested in Indian languages and Indian culture. After this initial acquaintance, they began to spend time together. Chandru once even wrote a letter to his father for some book on the poetess vijayA on her behalf. Just as crops grow inches overnight in humid summers, their love grew, expanded and envelpoed them entirely. We know the rest of the story.

After such wonderful days in the idyllic surroundings of SrIrangapaTTaNa, We didn't have the heart to return home. We were all too tired, especially mallI and I. Happily tired we went to bed after coming home.

... to be continued

Links to songs:

nAnE vINe -
Janaki, Srinivos - http://www.deezer.com/en/music/s-janaki-p-b-sreenivos/maavana-magalu-207865#music/s-janaki-p-b-sreenivos/maavana-magalu-207865
Bhimasen Joshi - http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Bhaavageethe/home/UttaraDhruvadim.php
manjuLA gururAj - http://www.kannadaaudio.com/Songs/Bhaavageethe/home/NaaneVeeneNeeneTanti.php

priyE chAruSIlE -
vidyAbhUshaNa - http://www.esnips.com/doc/52399b3c-0ccc-4cf2-b740-1be76af05127/GEETHAGOVINDAM---VIDYABHUSHAN-06-Vadasi-yadi-kinchidapi-..-priye-charusheele
suSIla, yEsudAs - http://videos.ibibo.com/videos/viewvideo/Appadam/58001
Hindustani style - http://www.wittysparks.com/video/178928387/
ghaMTasAla - http://www.4shared.com/file/75365396/dea73d2/PRIYE_CHARUSHEELE.html
kErala style ushA - http://www.malayalasangeetham.info/secure/MalayalaSangeetham/MasterLyrics/7419.html
rAdhA, subbulakshmi - http://www.esnips.com/doc/b5b277aa-9726-4492-bad7-7f02e06df0f0/Priye-Chaarusheele-%28Ashtapadi%29.....Mukhari......M-S-Subbulakshmi.....