Channel-4′s Sri Lanka war-crimes video

One of the women victims, stripped naked, hands tied behind back, and shot dead, as seen in the video footage that has recently reached Channel-4 has been identified as 27-year-old Shoba, with nom de plume Isaippiriya, who worked as media specialist with the LTTE, according to the TamilNet Vanni correspondent who recently reached a free country in the West. “I am able to learn through those who have been at Mu’l'livaaykkaal in the final days of war, that Shoba remained unarmed and did not take part in combat,” the Vanni correspondent told TamilNet, adding that Shoba lost her 4-month-old baby girl, named Akal, in the last stage of the war. (Read the rest of the story here)

~~

I have been disoriented ever since I watched the video.

We were children in the 1980s. We grew up watching IPKF rape our Tamil women in Jaffna, bomb whole villages. We learnt our first lesson about India, we learnt (as girls do), to shiver at the sight of men in army uniform. We are in our 20s now, blessed with women’s bodies that know what rape means. We’ve watched a genocide, we’ve sisters who’ve withstood it. We are still shocked by what state terrorism can achieve and get away with. We have lost all faith in the international community. We may not have all/any of the answers, but we are angry, we are aggrieved, and that is the first place to start.

Two exciting lit/film events over the weekend

Sorry for this very late, Friday night notice.

1. Lit event. Thanks to Ajayan Bala’s insistence/ persistence, I will be speaking about contemporary Indian English fiction (as we say in Tamil, தற்கால இந்திய ஆங்கில நாவல்கள் மற்றும் அவற்றின் கதையாடல்கள்). This is guest-lecture will be sometime between 4pm to 7pm, June 12. It is taking place alongside  a discussion about the little-magazines scene here, organized by Sorkappal, a website for Tamil literary criticism. Venue: Discovery Book Palace, KK Nagar, Chennai. Other authors who’ll be giving talks on the little-mag scene are: Sri Nesan, Selva Puviyarasan, Veli Rangarajan, Latha Ramakrishnan, Yaazhan Athi, Thakkai V. Babu, Sa. Devadas, Yuma Vasugi, and Manonmani. More details here.

After Chandra Thangaraj’s book launch in January, this is the second time I rubbing shoulders with Tamil literary circles. Feeling a little nervous inside, and I m just saying a silent prayer that all goes well.

2. Documentary Film Screening.

Mullaitivu Saga (46 mins), directed by S. Someetharan (whose previous documentary Burning Memories about the burning of the Jaffna Library garnered critical attention). Sunday, 13 June, 6pm, Alliance Francaise Auditorium.

Film synopsis: A battered face believes that Kannaki, legendary heroine of the ancient Tamil literary work Silapathikaram; will one day come, fight for justice. This is recounted through a last Koothu played in the historic land before the war in Srilanka. ‘Mullaitivu Saga’ an episode of planned massacre of the suppressed people while most of the international human rights machinery remained a silent witness.

Mullaitivu Saga (46 mins), Sunday, 13 June, 6pm, Alliance Francaise Auditorium.

Film synopsis: A battered face believes that Kannaki, legendary heroine of the ancient Tamil literary work Silapathikaram; will one day come, fight for justice. This is recounted through a last Koothu played in the historic land before the war in Srilanka. ‘Mullaitivu Saga’ an episode of planned massacre of the suppressed people while most of the international human rights machinery remained a silent witness.

See you there folks. ; )

Poetry as an enemy of the oppressive state

This 10-minute video is a part of a hour-long discussion on how poets are regarded by totalitarian regimes. Sohail Najm of Iran and Milos Djurdjevic of Croatia, Khet Mar from Burma and I participated in this discussion that took place on September 11, 2009 at Pittsburgh. We were there as poets from the IWP to take part in the City of Asylum Jazz Poetry Concert.

In this video I speak about Tamil poetry, poetry as resistance, Kasi Anandan, Tamil Tigers, suicide bombers, Eelam, language, oppressive states, exile and whatever else 3 minutes can hold..   : )

On a related note, here is an article in Sampsonia Way Magazine by Desiree Cooper about the collaboration between the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and the City of Asylum Pittsburgh. Check it out..

Book Review: Sam’s Story by Elmo Jayawardene

(First published in The New Indian Express, 02 August 2009.)

Sam is poor, Sinhalese, and a servant in the Master’s River House. His only best friend is the owners’ dog Brutus. Sam is someone who can never figure out what a problem is, someone who doesn’t know why people cry. He has never learnt anything, not even how to write his name. He is a village idiot who doesn’t know what breasts are, but then, surprisingly, he knows about the Tamil militants.

Employing the first person narrative throughout the text, Sam’s Story succeeds in its attempt to imitate the raw, sparse prose style of Hemingway — the stark simplicity blends with the irreverence and dumbness of the protagonist, and the sudden shifts of action make for an aesthetic reading experience. But the story-telling embeds a clear-cut political agenda and is nowhere as remarkable as the superficially successful prose-style.

Sam’s Story, first published in 2001, painstakingly avoids even a single oblique reference to Tamil suffering on the island. Perhaps, it is left for us to infer that just as the stupid Sam is incapable of looking at reality, even to the minimum extent of noticing that Tamils are being discriminated against, people too refuse to accept that linguistic and racial chauvinism have wrought a climate of hatred on the island.

Most of the novel is a successful study in hate: the narrator prefixes everything about the Tamil language, people or culture with the word “stupid” and goes little beyond depicting Tamil people as those “who threw bombs and killed our soldiers and tried to divide our country”.

After more than 100 pages of a monotonous rant, we are privy to the picture on the other side, of how the Sri Lankan military is also a convoluted place to be. Perhaps, this is one way of striking a balance and attempting neutrality, although the damage is already done; no amount of salvaging can help the text.

The depiction of the brutalities of army life begin when Sam talks of his brother Jaya who’s killed-in-action, and his brother Madiya who deserts the armed forces. From this point forward, the book changes vastly in tone and treatment. Madiya, in his brief stopover at his home (after his desertion, and before going into hiding) explains the poverty draft and the meaninglessness of the war.

Against this backdrop, Jayawardene explores how poor people, bereft of all opportunities, send their children to war; and how they make do without food and medicine whereas a rich man’s dog gets immediate access to the best doctors and a stream of visitors inquiring about its health. He writes of this divided world where the political ‘punishment’ for a Sinhalase man campaigning for the Other Party involves being transferred to teach at a faraway Tamil school.

Sam’s lives his life in a climate of mutual hatred, and he instinctively distrusts the Tamil servants at River House. While Sam tolerates the housekeeper Janet, he resents the cook Leandro, who, with his talk of Eelam, divides the world into easy binaries — the people who are willing to kill (The Army) and the people who were willing to die (The Tigers).

Sam’s suspicion of Tamils extends to everybody: he thinks Velu, a servant in a nearby bungalow is a spy; and he doesn’t appreciate that Master’s son has found himself a Tamil girlfriend. The fatal climax, replete with a truck-bomb driving into a national bank, throws them all apart, and widens the rift to such an extent that any coming together seems fraught with impossibility.

Genuineness IS NOT EQUAL TO Authenticity

And this is something I had to relearn from ELT. Soon, I think I will even be capable of telling apart midnight from 12.00 a.m. and so on. In the past 24 hours, I have slept for some 10 hours. And in he remaining time, read 4 books. Where I pick up such absolutely true, and mostly useless bits of information. Though, in some corner of my mind, I love critical theory, I love Friere and hooks and all. But that is not what my research is totally about. They are just a tiny part of it.

I think I need to read about 50 more books. In fact, not everything is a fresh reading, some of these titles have to be reread. And then, I have to reread about a 120 research papers. And all this just to write the two chapters: Review of Literature, and Background to the Study. After that, I can shut out all the external world, analyze just my research and be done with everything.

I wrote my 12000 word MPhil thesis in a week’s time. So, this shouldn’t be difficult in the end, but the process is such a damn pain. The list of unreplied emails is continuing to grow. But, the mails are mostly uninteresting. Somehow, the world seems to know that this woman is not someone who will write back immediately, and so it decides to remain silent. I really don’t know.

How am I battling with my two biggest distractions? Regarding elections, I decided not to vote. In spite of all the ToI campaigns. No one’s even visited our ward. Everyone I know is against the Congress and want that party to be shown the door because of what’s happening in Sri Lanka. India supplying radars and arms and training and what not. But, I can’t think of any other party as an alternative at the Central Government. The thought of BJP getting to rule India is like a nightmare, and asked to choose between these evils, I will go for the Congress. I hate the external affairs policy of the Congress with respect to Eelam, but then the BJP is no different on that stand. Which means, I have to judge the parties based on domestic issues. And here, Congress fares a little better. At least, no state-sponsored pogroms against minorities. Of course, in my constituency it is a straight fight between the DMK and the ADMK. And I will go with the DMK. Amma is another face of Hindutva, another face of casteism. Still, I don’t think I am going to go and vote. (Well I will not go on about this).

The next distraction is the cellphone. I put in the silent mode and put it out of sight. Every caller gets angry, but after a point of time, everyone gives up. I think, if I ever finish my Ph.D. I might have to do a lot of apologizing to all my friends. More later.

Some poetry news in an otherwise impossible world

What’s happening in the Vanni is becoming more atrocious by the day: we earlier mourned for the hundreds dead each day, now it is into the thousands. Reading any news simply sends me spiralling into depression. Wanted to sort of take stock of what is going on with my life. Blog posts here shall become fewer each progressing day, and here’s why

1. Come Oct ’09 I will be finishing the third year in my Ph.D. I can’t do it any longer than that, and I already feel that three oh-so-precious years of my life have gone into something that I will not remember with much fondness later in life (If you cannot be happy about somethign when you are old, you better don’t do it: my motto so far). So, since the beginning of this year, I have been working damn hard at finishing off my degree and dissertation. Attended two workshops on ELT, presented papers at two national conferences, sent a paper for publication. Spent most of April preparing a 6-page, 250+-questions questionnaire for the Engineering students in the city. Have been getting it filled up FRANTICALLY. And students are a bit angry too, having to answer so many questions… That, I can understand. I plan to take off in May-June and sit and write my dissertation… And once this Ph.D. is done, I am thinking of giving up this job (my contract stipulates that I work till 2012, and that is dreary)…

2. Talking of job, things here are as messed up as they can be. Some inefficient people run the goddamn show and so I get the salary for March only on April 20. And this is a Government educational institution. A university in fact. (And did I forget to mention to that inefficient could also mean male-chauvinist). More on this later, and when I quit this job. 

3. Since most of this sounds like bad news, let me continue on that vein. My publisher’s decided not to go ahead with the anthology of urban poetry by Indian women (Sheher), and has asked me to look out for other publications. The recession’s hit him, he says. Now, if you have good suggestions about whom I can approach, please tell me. It should be a lovely book going by the quality of poems that have gone into it. Hope it gets a publisher!

4. My poem REVERENCE: NUISANCE has appeared in 3quarksdaily, a blog that is read by the likes of Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins. I nearly fainted from the surprise, and thanks to Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta for pointing it out to me in the first place. Go, read the poem on 3QD. It is one of my earliest poems, so please read with the eyes of a seventeen year old.

5. If I have a crush on any one of my poems, it’s this one. And it’s got me some good news too. MULLIGATAWNY DREAMS has been anthologized in the National Book Trust anthology Both Sides of the Sky. Edited by Eunice de Souza, this anthology has been released fairly recently. I haven’t yet seen the book/cover anywhere on the web, and if I receive it sometime soon, I will upload the covers. I am thrilled, because I am really the last person who believes that what I write will finds its way into state-sponsored anthologies… Just guess life is full of surprises. I am also smiling to myself all the time, thinking of the fact that I am in an anthology of Post-independence English poetry. That sounds like a great category, except that I am not entirely comfortable with a word like independence. It has eluded a great many of us, I think. 

6. Back to some non-poetry news. My article has been quoted extensively in Green Left Weekly’s take on the genocide of Tamils in the Vanni.  

Which takes us back to square one right. I am not a believer, but right now  I pray every minute. To some one, somewhere. I reall want this massacre to stop. The civilian death toll since Jan 2009 could have easily crossed the 5000-mark. How many more Tamils should die before the world decides to do something?

Opinion piece in today’s Deccan Chronicle

STATE PARTIES TO GAIN POLL MILEAGE FROM LANKAN ISSUE

WITH ELECTIONS in Tamil Nadu just a month away, the Central government seems to have realised that it can no longer keep up its pretence that the Lankan Tamils problem does not exist. Home minister P.Chidambaram said on Sunday that India had pressurised the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE for a ceasefire. Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is set to meet MPs of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on April 15.

Apart from all this ‘tokenism’, the DMK-Congress combine plans to canvass by projecting Manmohan Singh’s candidature for the nation’s top post and highlighting the DMK government’s achievements. The importance that will be accorded to the Lankan Tamils problem therefore depends on the manner in which the opposition is going to handle its election campaign.

The pro-LTTE PMK banished the Eelam Tamil issue to the 38th point in its manifesto released last month in order to cozy up to its new ally Ms Jayalalithaa, but now, it is bending over backwards to highlight the issue. In a press meet Sunday, PMK chief Dr Ramadoss declared that the Eelam Tamils problem would be the primary focus of his party’s campaign. Vaiko’s fiery pro-LTTE rhetoric, as evidenced by his recent ‘bloodbath speech’, threatens to further hurt the DMK-Congress combine.

The AIADMK-led alliance may also gain from the propaganda of Tamil nationalist groups. Already, several thousand copies of the VCD, Ini enna seyya pogiraai (What are you going to do now?), allegedly released by the Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, are doing the rounds in the southern districts. It contains disturbing visuals of death and destruction in the so-called No Fire Zone, along with clippings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi shaking hands with Mahinda Rajapaksa. It ends with the rhetorical question: “Will you still vote for them?” Though the VCDs are not publicly distributed, this message is set to reach a vast majority of the voters.

Beginning with Dalit leader Thirumavalavan’s indefinite fast early this year, Eelam demonstrations in Tamil Nadu have peaked. A dozen self-immolations in the last three months have mobilized the students and youth towards the Lankan Tamil cause. Since young people form the largest slice of the voting populace, both the staunch critics of Tamil self-determination, AIADMK and Congress, have played down their opposition to Eelam, a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, keeping in mind the mood of the electorate. Sensing that the Lankan Tamils problem would emerge as a key electoral issue, Jayalalithaa staged a token fast. A while ago, unwilling to be isolated, Congressmen collected relief material for the affected civilians in Vanni. Likewise, Rahul Gandhi’s justification of the party’s tie-up with the pro-LTTE VCK of Thirumavalavan as ‘political strategy’ revealed the extent to which the Congress was willing to dilute its opposition to the Tigers to avoid becoming ‘unpopular’ at poll time. 

Congress politicians in Tamil Nadu have so far not been targets of Jarnail Singh-style protests, but as the daily civilian death toll in the Vanni reaches explosive proportions, they might perhaps have to be cautious on the campaign trail. Moreover, if LTTE chief Prabakaran were to be harmed in the war’s last phase, the DMK and the Congress would not only be embarrassed by the public hysteria, but they could also face a rout in the elections, should such tragedy strike closer to poll date, May 13.

Official link here.

What’s kept me busy…

I have managed to sail through the past few days with my health mostly intact. Ever since the wounds healed, I have got going. . . Mostly running around. First, on Wednesday there was this documentary Pottu getting launched at the Vis. Com. department at Loyola College. Produced by the Kalangarai Trust, it deals with the life (and the struggle for a dignified life) of tsunami widows in the Nagappattinam district. Especially since Tamil Nadu has the highest number of widows in India, I think this is one area that deserves a l-o-t of attention. I will be blogging about this elsewhere (and will link to it later)… But the high point of the visit was getting to share the dias with veteran film director Balu Mahendra. Been a great fan (despite the fact that I got a late start where movies are concerned), so when I met him, I was so thrilled, I didn’t know what I was talking. There’s something that he said that totally inspired me (and sort of reflected the life that I led). It seems Balu sir always asked his assistants (Bala, Ameer, all of them) to read a short-story or a poem everyday. They were asked to write a synopsis, otherwise, they weren’t asked to get on with that day’s work. He spoke about this passion for reading literature, for appreciating poetry, and also how much of one’s drive (to learn, to educate oneself, to become more understanding, well-read, and so on) has to come from within. For five full years after school, that’s how I went about doing stuff. So, I loved that bit really, and I felt some kind of justification for what I went about doing. In those days, it appeared as if I was screwing up my life, but right now, I actually prefer screwing it myself, than letting others do it. Other people are merciless. And when other people are screwing your life, it’s a lot less fun. 

On Wednesday evening, I presented a paper at a national conference at my university. It went on well, but nothing really remarkable. Yesterday was again extremely tiring, too many hours of class, and then this departmental seminar, then rushing off to a public meeting in Mylapore in memory of the 16 Tamils who have immolated themselves seeking an end to the war in Sri Lanka. I addressed the meeting, but couldn’t stay till the end. There was this unbearable headache coming on, I hadn’t eaten the whole day, and I had to leave. I managed to reach home onnly around 9.20 p.m. And I skipped dinner as well. Sometimes I am very afraid that my refusal to eat food, or feel hungry, is going to cost me a lot later in life. But that’s only later right? For now, let me do things as I want to.

Going by the mood of yesterday’s meeting (it was organized by Tha. Vellaiyan, Tamil Nadu Traders Association President), I am really convinced that nothing other than Eelam is going to be an election issue. But right now, the Eelam issue is being used to thrash just about everybody on the political scene. I think people basically need a little more clarity on whom to vote against, given the fact that no one is calling for a total boycott of elections.. 

I will write more later, my machine’s battery is showing a lot of those sweet alarm symbols.

Interview with Siritunga Jayasuriya

(First published in Countercurrents.org)

SIRITUNGA JAYASURIYA, a trade unionist and leader of the United Socialist Party is best-known for being a high-profile Sinhala dissenter against the war on the Tamils in Sri Lanka. A fierce critic of the current regime and an ex-Presidential candidate, Jayasuriya has survived several attempts on his life. His unwavering voice of dissent cannot be silenced wherever he is. During a recent visit to India, he spoke to Meena Kandasamy about the situation in the war-torn island and bravely answered questions on India’s role in the war. 

Meena Kandasamy : You were telling me about your friend Deshapriya who had to flee Sri Lanka because he happens to be a mediaperson with his own individual and independent opinion. Right now, a lot of coverage especially in the Tamil Nadu press is about how Sinhalese journalists have been forced to flee their country just because they are dissenters. What is your take on that?

Siritunga Jayasuriya : You see that is a very good point to start, because not many journalists started their discussion in that angle. Now, many people think Sinhala people live okay, and that the problems lie with the Tamils. I think that is not the correct picture. Of course, Tamils are the worst-hit victims, but at the same time, the Sinhala people are also victimized. The first victim of war is democracy, followed by rights of all the people. 

[Read the rest of this one-hour interview here. IMHO, it was one of the scariest interviews I have done so far. Everytime he spoke, I was wondering about what would be the repurcussions of his statement back home, in Sri Lanka. If he will be safe there, if the Army's goons attack him, if his family can live peacefully. I just admire the man's courage. It's one thing to be Tamil to oppose the genocide, but it takes quite a bit of daring to be Sinhala and oppose the Sri Lankan Government and its war. . . ]

An Indian writes about his government

I don’t publish letters that friends write me, but I am making an exception this time. Manoj, who wrote me this letter is a nice friend of mine and we have talked about all topics under the sun. Of course, we spoke in times of peace, and I don’t remember discussing the Sri Lankan situation with him. He’s not even a Tamil (even though his Tamil is better than mine, he grew up in our state). I am putting this letter here so that Indians (who really believe that they can remain detached when their government is waging a proxy war) change their attitude, and that change, possibly, causes a turnaround in the Indian Government’s attitude.

Why did I receive this letter btw? I wasn’t aware that he had left India, so I had invited him to a students’ rally in support of Tamil Eelam that is scheduled to take place tomorrow (18.2) in Chennai.

**

Hello Meena,

How are you? How is ____?
I would like to tell you about an incident that occurred recently here in New york. You will know that a lot of refugees from Eelam have come here over the past decade.

I have one such friend named Guna. He works in a grocery store and sends money to his poor mother(living in Eelam) from here. For most people, life is about luxury and fun. But all this boy can think of is his next meal and make sure that his mother is safe. She lives in formerly Tiger-governed eastern Sri lanka which recently fell to the Lankan Army.

He works in the store at nights (it is a 24 * 7 store owned by an immigrant from pakistan) and when I was getting back home from college at around 11 PM, I stopped by to buy some milk. Guna was standing there in te store alone and crying. He said that he called his village and got the information that people had either fled or been killed during the SL army’s assault. He did not know the where abouts of his mother. He is hopeful that she is alive.

He stood there helplessly and asked me why our government is supporting S Lanka. he said, Even if you had just left us alone(instead of supplying weapons to their army), we would have lived our lives peacefully.

India supplied a cache of deadly weapons to Sri lanka. (Chetak light helicopters with machine guns, heavy artillery guns, and INSAS assault rifles.) The Indian government officially denies having supplied any of these weapons (they admit to selling some others). So the real problem here is our own government. Instead of trying to solve the issue, the Congress government is probably taking revenge for Rajiv gandhi’s killing. In the process, they have aided the murder of thousands of Tamilians in Eelam.

“Why isn’t Tamilnadu government doing something?” he says. All i could say was that I had no control over the government’s policies. Then I asked myself if India really was a democracy .. If a government that I chose, fails to do the legitimate things I want, there’s is no point. it is as good as a dictatorship.

I then went home and saw some gruesome pictures of children (no more than three years old) with their heads busted open and bled-dead. It was not one or two children, I could see some tens of kids like that in some videos. So, when one video can capture this much, how about thousands of villages where the war was not video-documented? (go watch youtube videos on this – Dont get fooled by the many sri lankan media videos, see the videos uploaded by the Tamilians.)

Anyways, Guna is a strong person, and he continues to work the way he always did, unfazed by everything that happenned to him. I met him a day before yesterday and he smiled at me and talked normally. It is amazing how easily they get over their biggest losses in a few days. I guess since they live a life of agony, they got used to it.

You are doing a great job, Meena. One of the few voices raised against these attrocities. I hope the government stands up and takes notice atleast now. All my support to you.

Hitting below the belt

Yesterday I went to the black flag rally organized by the Lankan Tamils Protection Movement under ayya Nedumaran. I also stayed back for the public meeting that followed. And there were certain things that did not escape my notice: 

I am really scared that this Eelam Tamils protection movement, in spite of its noblest goals, is being used as an anti-DMK vehicle. Everybody (or at least I) expected the meeting to be a platform where our leaders spoke about the necessity for a ceasefire, or the exponentially increasing number of civilian casualites, the Indian government’s inaction, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s adamant approach to carry on the war–or any other pro-Eelam point of interest that will unite all Tamils in Tamil Nadu. That was not the case.

•  Vaiko attacked media for its celebration of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victories and for turning a blind eye toward civilian deaths and sufferings. But, the choicest of his abuse was reserved for Karunanidhi. At one point of time, Vaiko called him an eunuch. I find this disturbing. 
• Ramadoss, demonstrated his medical knowledge by certifying that Karunanidhi lacked mental clarity, or words to that effect. 
• Nedumaran claimed credit for having ghost-written the five resolutions of the TESO conference of the 1980s, refuting the commonly held belief that those “brave” points were put forward by Karunanidhi. 

I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the other speakers, so I cannot say anything about what their political motive was. Everyone else at least kept up some standard of decency in attacking Karunanidhi. To me, this meeting sounded as though Eelam was just a electoral rallying-point. Or a convenient “coming together for seat-sharing” platform.

I don’t have admiration for the DMK, but I resent the fact that a burning issue, a question of life and death for some, is being hijacked for political mud-slinging. It would have at least made sense if the Indian Government was targeted.

I will not bother to devote so much space just to share my disappointment with our politicians attacking one another. The fact is, compared with Muthukumar’s funeral procession, yesterday’s black-flag rally was a very, very tame affair.   Perhaps it could arise from the fact that the funeral procession was totally a students’ affair, it was absolutely spontaneous, whereas yesterday’s black flag procession wasn’t like that. Yet, in yesterday’s procession, whenever someone came up with a pro-Tiger slogan, it would be silenced by some “volunteers” of some of the bigger parties. The presence of those who want to play it so safe will not be suitable for any kind of struggle. Especially for a struggle for the right to self-determination. 

As I write this, the fourth self-immolation suicide has taken place in Tamil Nadu. At least for the sake of these innocent souls who are giving up their lives in the hope of some solution coming about, I hope our politicians will rethink and review themselves, and come out of their routine pettiness.

martyr muthukumar

I went to Muthukumar’s funeral saturday, and though I paid my homage, I never had the courage to look at his face. It was not because I am against curiousity of any kind, it is just that, I couldn’t get the nerve. Since Thursday, I must have read his last letter at least ten times, until I could no longer bear to reread it. Or perhaps, I knew its contents by heart, by then. And every time I read, I cried. It is sad to think that someone wrote so much, so powerfully and then went on to print it, and then go to Shastri bhavan and set himself on fire. 

And he was woefully young and talented. And sharp and critical and brutally frank. There’s no reason why he should have tried to escape from life. I was all the while reminded only of Kasi Anandan ayya’s short poem Poraali (Fighter) You cry/ For the dying. He dies/ For the crying.

That sort of sums up Muthukumar. But I think his mission was successful. He conveyed a message that thousands of public meetings, posters, pamphlets couldn’t convey. I was so disoriented after this letter, I can’t put it down into words. Not here, of all places. It is solely because of Muthukumar that I saw the Tiger flag in Tamil Nadu. It is because of him that I saw placards of the Tamil National Leader Pirapakaran in a massive procession. It is because of him that I witnessed a students’ upsurge on such a scale. It is because of Muthukumar that I heard slogans I would have never had the courage or the context to imagine.

I salute his sacrifice.  

Last week alone, hundreds of Tamil civilians, particularly young children have been killed by the genocidal Sinhalese military. And all of us know, and are afraid to say, that this is India’s war. The escapism that I saw around me, the refusal to acknowledge the reality, the ever-ready helpless shrug, everything’s disappeared. The media and the state government are trying hard to cover up, and to curtail, but no one can singe a blinding sun. There’s only one word on the lips of those I know, and those I love: Tamil Eelam. 

You can’t hear me talking about anything else too.

In which the Poetess becomes a Terroristress

तमिल ईलम संघर्ष के पिछले ४० बरस से मुख्य स्वर रहे, क्रांतिकारी-लिरिकल कवि कासी आनंदन से युवा दलित अंग्रेज़ी कवि मीना कंदसामी की बातचीत और उनकी कुछ कविताओं के अंग्रेज़ी एवं हिन्दी अनुवाद. मूल से अंग्रेज़ी में लाने का काम मीना कंदसामी ने किया है और अंग्रेज़ी से हिन्दी अनुवाद गिरिराज किराडू ने. राजनितिक कविता के बोझिल बड़बोलेपन के बरक्स कासी की लगभग सूक्तिनुमा छोटी-छोटी कवितायें मितव्ययी होने के साथ ‘अचूक’ होने में विश्वास करती हैं;, वे महाकाव्यात्मकताओं के छल को पहचानते हैं. दूसरी तरफ़ साक्षात्कार में वे ‘सुंदर’ के विरूद्ध अपनी रणनीति के बारे में बात करते हैं.

ON PRATILIPI: Meena Kandasamy’s conversation with revolutionary-lyrical poet Kasi Anandan who has been the voice of the Tamil Eelam struggle for the past 40 years, along with some of his poems translated into English (Meena Kansadasmy) and Hindi (Giriraj Kiradoo). In contrast to the tedious stridency of most political poems, Kasi’s poems are epigrammatic and precise: he has come to recognize the emptiness of the epic grandiosity. On the other hand, he also talks about his stand against beauty.

ps: Forgive me for the title of this blogpost.. I don’t have any such intentions in the foreseeable future ; )