tamil nadu

The Owl Song

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This is a song about the owl and is one of the few I have written about birds.

Owl is a companion for those who are awake at night. A nocturnal bird, it would be up and about in the night. There are people who consider the owl to be a bad omen as they think that the hoot of an owl brings bad news. The farmers, however, love the owl and consider it a friend — primarily because the owl’s main diet is rodents and thus helping farmers control its population. The farmers welcome owls near their farms.

The owl’s hoot sounds like a screech, and so there are many who are afraid of it. But if you observe carefully, the hoot can sound differently, depending on whether the owl is looking for its mate, if it is calling its owlets or if it has found food. At times, it would even sound like the laughter of a child.

I like the owl and would be happy if I could get a glimpse of one some night. I have always wanted to write a song about the owl, for when I hear its hoot, it feels as though the darkness of the night is talking to me. I have attempted to bring about this emotion in the following lines.

— Perumal Murugan

Pallavi

It is the sound of darkness
That hoot of the owl
Tune in and heed to it
For it is a many nuanced tongue

Anupallavi

Shattering the dense darkness
Smattering the solid silence, it
Speaks to you and allays you

Charanam

A pair of eyes that bore and stare
They bounce around like two balls
The beak parts open for a moment
To emit a scary raucous hoot
Just listen to it with an open mind
Hear the peals of a child’s glee
See the darkness dissolve away
And a grace that fills your heart

A “Kaigal” on manual scavenging

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In 2015, I had an opportunity to meet Bezwada Wilson for the first time. Since then, I have met him many times and have even conducted an in-depth interview with him, which will be published as a book soon. It is only after meeting him that I was able to understand the life of manual scavengers. We may think that the days of manual scavenging are in the past, but that is not true. Wilson, as a person involved in this cause, provided us statistics of where and how many people are still involved in this practice. It was shocking to me, and I have been thinking about these people since then.

Later, when I met TM Krishna, he suggested that I write a song about manual scavengers. While I had many ideas, it was difficult for me to express those in words. I pondered over it for over a year, wondering what should make the central theme of the song. I wanted the song to talk about the lives of the manual scavengers and raise many questions. These people were scavenging with their hands. So, I wanted to make their hands central to the song. It has has been performed many times by TM Krishna and is well known today.

— Perumal Murugan

Pallavi

Should fetid faeces (shit) be picked by hands?
Should fetid faeces be picked by human hands?
What eternal suffering! Do we care?
Is this civil? Is this fair?
This society, is this civil? Is this fair?
Are we even human beings?

Anupallavi

These are hands that are meant to plough
To eat the food, that they produce and grow
By hugging, mercy, they will show
Hands are gifts from God, we pray and bow

Charanam

To lose one’s life in putrid cesspools
To live in sewers, cleaning stools
To pick up all the refuse and litter
To clean everything and make it better
Do we need a human hand?
Why would that be the right stand?

Also Read | Perumal Murugan’s “Koel Song”

Would we not be spat at?
Spat at by the entire world.
Spat at, spat at, spat at, spat at
Spat at by the graceful world

The Koel Song

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This is “The Koel Song”. Various poets have sung on the koel. “The Koel Song” of Bharathiyar is one of his three major works. We all love to hear the sound of the koel. It is something familiar to us. There are not many of us, who would have actually seen the koel, because it tends to stay out of sight and is generally a shy bird. It is its nature that it would move to denser foliage and hide itself if it gets an inkling that it is being observed. But our poets have observed even such a shy bird quite carefully and have described it. In Sangam poetry, Poet Avvaiyar uses the beak of a koel to describe the jasmine bud. The male koel has a completely black body but its beak is white. This is what Avvaiyar noted and used in her poem. Here is my “koel song”.

— Perumal Murugan

Pallavi

Yonder coos a Koel
In a sweet voice again and again
Yonder coos a Koel
My soul goes searching there
It beseeches, and it implores
My soul goes searching there

Anupallavi

Is it the rhapsody of nature?
Proffering itself thus
Is this its way to enchant?

Charanam

Tucked away in the foliage of
Tall, high trees, hiding
A bewitching tune that
Fills the airwaves like
It is the Ambrosia,
It is the Panacea
Is it the voice of a Koel, or
Is it the voice of the All Knowing?
One wonders in awe
And with great grace

Bezwada Wilson & TM Krishna in conversation with Nilanjana Roy

Bezwada Wilson & TM Krishna in conversation with Nilanjana…

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This conversation with Bezwada Wilson and TM Krishna was part of the Indus Conversations series by Tulika Books, 11 December 2016. TM Krishna, a carnatic music vocalist and social commentator, and Bezwada Wilson, National Convenor of the Safai Karamchari Andolan, are recipients of the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Awards. TM Krishna was honoured for his work toward “social inclusiveness in culture”, and his sustained efforts to bring music and arts to the marginalised sections of society, particularly in the underdeveloped rural areas of Tamil Nadu. Bezwada Wilson has spent his life campaigning against manual scavenging. He founded the community based  Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) to fight for the eradication of manual scavenging.
The conversation of the two awardees with writer Nilanjana Roy probes a range of issues from the meaning of liberty and equality, and nationalism and freedom, to the experience of caste based discrimination, and the role of art in changing our perpectives of the world.