November 30, 2016

And I say to myself : A moon will rise from my darkness

She says: when are we gonna meet?
I say: after a year and a war
She says: when does the war end?
I say: the time we meet

These brilliant lines are from the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish (1942-2008). Born in a village in Israel, Darwish and his family were considered 'internal refugees' in their own homeland. He spent most of his later life in Beirut and Paris. Majority of  Darwish's work reflects his unhappiness about being considered 'an outsider' in his own land. His poetry is rich in imagery, lyrical and passionate. Displacement, denial of identity and the yearning to go back to his own home forms the soul of his writing.

His poetry outpours his immense inexplicable pain and longing for his home and for the end of war. His poem I Belong There from the book "Unfortunately, It Was Paradise " is a beautiful composition for his homeland :

I belong there. I have many memories. I was born as everyone is born.
I have a mother, a house with many windows, brothers, friends, and a prison cell
with a chilly window! I have a wave snatched by seagulls, a panorama of my own.
I have a saturated meadow. In the deep horizon of my word, I have a moon,
a bird's sustenance, and an immortal olive tree.
I have lived on the land long before swords turned man into prey.
I belong there. When heaven mourns for her mother, I return heaven to
   her mother.
And I cry so that a returning cloud might carry my tears.
To break the rules, I have learned all the words needed for a trial by blood.
I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a
   single word: Home.

Another poet with family roots in Palestine, Naomi Shihab Nye describes Darwish as 'The Essential Breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging, exquisitely tuned singer of images that invoke, link, and shine a brilliant light into the world’s whole heart. What he speaks has been embraced by readers around the world—his in an utterly necessary voice, unforgettable once discovered.'

In another poem To a Young Poet, Darwish's imagery is magical as can be seen in the appended excerpts :

If you want to duel with a falcon
soar with the falcon.

If you fall in love with a woman, 
be the one, not she,
who desires his end.

................
................

The road is long like an ancient poet’s night: 
plains and hills, rivers and valleys.
Walk according to your dream’s measure: either a lily
follows you or the gallows.

................
................


Don’t think, when you melt in sorrow 
like candle tears, of who will see you 
or follow your intuition’s light.
Think of yourself: is this all of myself?

The poem is always incomplete, the butterflies make it whole.

His love for humanity and peace is timeless and in his short lifetime of 66 years, every stanza he wrote and every poem he composed, exudes his eternal optimism and hope for a better world and a home for all, which he longed passionately each day of his life.

And I say to myself : A moon will rise from my darkness


(P.S. Darwish's select work is translated and edited by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forche with Sinan Antoon and Amira El-Zein in a book published in 2003 named Unfortunately, It was Paradise)

November 26, 2016

Ain-Mane, an epic journey of reincarnation


Sometimes back, while holidaying in Coorg, I came across many signage with the word Ain-Mane. Interestingly, the souvenir shop of the Coorg resort was also named after it, Ain-Mane. I became curious. The word was appearing again and again everywhere. When I enquired , I found the word Ain-Mane has a very beautiful ancient tradition behind it.

It goes like this:

The natives of Coorg (or Kodagu), locally known as Kodavas have a beautiful and unique tradition of meeting in their ancestral homes ( also known as "house of the elders " ) during major festivals. In local language, these houses are called "Ain - Mane ". Needless to say, this house is one of the most revered space of the Kodavas.

Each clan (okka) has individual Ain-Manes and the architectural designs also vary from one other. As per Wikipedia, there are currently 1720 clans in Kodagu (including 1040 Kodava, 320 Gouda and 360 okkas of other communities). Nearly 1000 clans do not have Ain-Manes now whereas the rest have Ain-Manes standing there from the last 150 to 250 years.
(source : Wikipedia / facebook page of ain-mane etc.etc.)

Ain-Manes have become a symbol of going back to your roots. To the basic simple life we all have left far behind. Ain - Manes represents our forgotten past.

For me, it is an allegory of comeback, an allegory of finding the old you, a symbol of  trying to remember the last lines of a poem that we had learned during our school days,  looking for the same old orange lozenges of our childhood when we visit our hometown, insisting our grand-mom to cook the same curry once again that as a child we were tired of having once.

Ain-Mane is that sweet pain of nostalgia that you do not mind nurturing, crying, singing and re-visiting, the journey to re-incarnate.


In the road journey from Coorg to the airport, each Ain-Mane signage was inviting me to go back. I kept looking through the window for more such banners and scribbled a few lines for Ain - Mane, whispers for the old me. 

"A song of comeback
a haunted trail of a timeless sojourn
of a soul reincarnate
for we all yearn for an epic celebration in beloved ain-mane"