AVALA KAVITHE
A collection of poems by M.S. RUDRESWARASWAMY
Aneka, Rs.130
The romance, the sensations, the happiness, the companionship, the irritations, the mystery, the tension, the contradiction, the incomprehensibility, the isolation and the agony associated with the man-woman relationship is the focus of 81 poems in this collection, Avala Kavithe, authored by M.S. Rudreswaraswamy. It is said that this is the third collection of the author and he has been awarded Muddana Kavya Puraskara for this book. One of our distinguished critics, C.N. Ramachandran, has written a complimentary blurb and one of our well-known poets, H.S. Venkatesha Murthy, has blessed the work with his sonnet. This book has two introductory forewords, the first one by M.S.Ashadevi and the another one by Tharini Shubhadayini.
Each of the 81 poems is preceded by an epigraph in English meant perhaps to enable the reader to read the poems in a particular perspective. In almost all the poems, the exploration of the ‘feminine’ is done by the other (male) out of deceptive familiarity with her. It is almost impossible to comprehend the ‘feminine’ completely despite the much pronounced physical proximity. The relationship is always incomplete and delicate. ‘She’ is conceptualised as a root (which sustains life), a mother, a beloved, a poem and a white sheet of paper. In many of the poems here, ‘She’ is often recognized by her weaknesses. It is for ‘Him’ to negotiate the meaning potential in ‘Her’. This might inspire into writing poetry or sometimes might even frustrate into inaction. That this happens despite a strong attraction between the two is the real mystery. The poems give vent to all the subtleties that seriously affect the intimacy between the two. The delicious romance in the relationship is not really a binding force – on the contrary it is too temporary to withstand the fragile nature of relationship. Certain opacity is built around ‘her’ not to reveal her true ‘self’ completely. Though the two are recognized through their bodies (male/female), the comprehension of the other cannot be taken for granted. ‘He’ is watching ‘Her’ steps, AvaLa Hejje , closely and thus exploring ‘Her’ through ‘Him’.The exploration of the ‘Feminine’ is akin to the exploration through creative writing. The poet finds that there are similarities between the two as both have abstract destinies.
The poems are written in free verse. Sometimes the words and the postpositions ( pratyaya ) are split and the syntactic structures are displaced. But, such deliberate linguistic deviations appear to be quite purposeless.
It would be a good exercise to find out why the poems in this collection do not sustain interest throughout, in spite of many novelties in the theme and the poetic diction. One important reason could be the lack of any forward or backward movements in these poems. The issues raised do not develop into anything new, they remain the same. Besides, almost every poem resembles the other. The theme, the imageries in them, the issues that confront the poet and the narrative technique used are repetitive in nature. Though many expressions are tender and though there is a certain ease in terms of vocabulary use, (it sounds ‘feminine’ throughout the book), they do not go beyond a particular level of understanding. In poems like these, one would expect ironies to play a predominant role – particularly when the ‘Male’ is trying to establish the identity of the ‘Female’ without being authoritative. It would be rewarding to compare these poems with some of the poems of feminist writers like Pratibha Nandakumar, H.L. Pushpa, and M.R. Kamala who are constantly nagged by contradictory forces while dealing with interpersonal relationships. In any relationship, looking at the other means looking at oneself. ‘Avala’ Kavithe is ‘Avana’ Kavithe too. Unfortunately, this is not realised in these poems.
