Skip to main content

Heart

Kamala Das [From Wikipedia]


Lady, what did you gain by giving up Krishna

And embracing the Prophet’s amorphous Allah?

Did your heart throb better

With your head veiled with the hijab?

The heart works better without the head!

But yours didn’t.

Your head was as good as your heart.

 

You learnt the hard way

That you (nor I, nor anyone)

Can’t run away from yourself

By changing the god.

You betrayed your most beloved god,

The playful Krishna,

In favour of a “rigid husband.”

 

And you remained unhappy

Till the end of your life.

 

Happiness is not given by any god!

Let it be Krishna or Kristu or Allah,

Let it be any god from any culture –

Have you ever come across a happy god anywhere? –

Happiness cannot be given by gods.

Happiness is in your heart:

Or else you won’t ever have it.

 

PS. I’m going to teach a poem of Kamala Das tomorrow. These lines were a result of my reflection on the poet. Kamala Das became Kamala Suraiyya at the age of 65 by changing her religion. And she lost her smile after that. 

An earlier post on Kamala Das: Stains on Greatness 

Top post on Blogchatter

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanMarch 19, 2023 at 4:59 PM

    Hari OM
    "Happiness is in your heart"... yes, this! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. ArtiMarch 20, 2023 at 1:46 PM

    The 'happiness is in your heart' message has come my way twice this morning. First, via an Insta share and now this post. Perhaps, the universe is nudging me to smile and accept the lethargic state of my writing these days:) Perhaps. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 20, 2023 at 2:38 PM

      The universe has its own ways of telling us certain vital things. All tje best.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 21, 2023 at 5:13 PM

    Your Stories/ poems are refreshing. Keep written. Lots of love 💟

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 21, 2023 at 7:50 PM

    Proud to be your student rrly!Love the way You teach

    ReplyDelete
  5. vanderloostMarch 22, 2023 at 9:04 PM

    Very well written

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMarch 24, 2023 at 6:28 PM

    Sir, can I ask some question?
    According to physics energy can neither be created nor be destroyed so what happens to the human energy after death?,also where does our soul go?what are your views on the concept of souls?
    It's not related to what you have posted yet I'm curious to know all about this. F

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 24, 2023 at 9:05 PM

      If you study biology, the answer would be that all organic energy is bum with death. Which branch of science accepts soul? Soul is a good concept for poetry like
      When it rains
      Souls rise like seeds...

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMarch 25, 2023 at 1:02 PM

      Everything knowable about the "soul" can be learned by studying the functioning of the brain. In their view, neuroscience is the only branch of scientific study relevant to understanding the soul.-Google.
      I had a teacher who said that after death we all are subjected to judgement and a lot of other things related to what might happen after death. He also said some stuff related to souls.which made me more curious about souls so i decided to read a book on it named destiny of souls. After 2 chapters i stopped reading it though. But still there is this one question which i haven't got a proper answer. What happens after death? Why living if it is to just decay in soil? There must be something more to it. After all humans are considered miracle. Do you think we evolved into this form?Why does humans exist,if existence of humans is dangerous to earth considering the current situations.

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 25, 2023 at 8:05 PM

      Glad you're seeking to know the deepest truths. I'm no guru. But i can tell you my convictions.

      Life has the meaning we give to it. I know that death will mark the end of all that I am. But it's my duty to live a 'good' life till death for the sake of promoting goodness on earth. Why? Good is better than bad! Not because I'll receive eternal rewards.

      Read Albert Camus, if you can. The Myth of Sisyphus.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
28 comments
Read more

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...
4 comments
Read more

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...
10 comments
Read more

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...
13 comments
Read more

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...
8 comments
Read more