T.V. Reddy's Fleeting Bubbles (eBook)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Among all the genres in literature, poetry is the earliest and the most appealing one, and right from the early times it has its sway on the minds of all the people, both literate and illiterate. Thousands of years before the emergence of Greek literature, the earliest epic The Ramayana was written in Sanskrit in ancient India by sage Valmiki probably 5000 years before the birth of Christ or by all knowledge even earlier and its appeal is as fresh as it was eons ago in the days of Sri Rama the legendary King of Ayodhya in ancient India and the hero of the immortal epic. About three thousand years before the advent of Christ the second great epic The Mahabharata was written in Sanskrit by Vyasa and there is no place or village in India where these two great epics are not read everyday even now. Scholars and historians of the West have totally failed to arrive at the correct date or period of composition of these two great ancient Indian epics thereby misleading generations of readers.

With the passing of millenniums its appeal is growing on the international scene. It is not only a lengthy poem abound with all the literary beauties and flourishes but a permanent work of art and a monument of ethics, aesthetics and human values. That is the reason for its unfading greatness, growing popularity and increasing appeal. In the early times after the advent of Christ, stream of immortal poetry flowed from the quill of Kalidasa the distinguished poet in Sanskrit and while reading his Sakuntala the German poet Goethe danced in joy at its poetic beauty that transported him to higher realms. Such is the inspiring spirit and artistic merit of poetry. In the same way in English literature Shakespeare has become an immortal writer with his poetic plays and sonnets of supreme quality. Can we in India forget the unforgettable lines of immortal poets such as Gray, Wordsworth, Shelley or Keats?

To this category belong a few Indian poets in English. In the period before independence Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu, Tagore and Sri Aurobindo wrote good poetry judged from any literary or critical standard and their greatness cannot be questioned by any sane or rational reader or critic. All of them come in the long line of Indian poets writing in Indian tradition; language may be English in which they have written, but they are Indians and they never felt that they were away from the land and spirit of India which they projected in their writings. Toru Dutt with her stay with her parents in France and England at the early age imbibed multi-cultural discipline and after returning to India equipped herself with necessary knowledge of ancient Indian epics which enabled her to write some of her best poems on Indian themes.

As a matter of fact Tagore wrote first in Bengali and later translated some of his writings into English. Sarojini Naidu, born and brought up in Hyderabad, was very much influenced by the multi-cultural living conditions, architectural beauty and harmony of the place. The process of thinking was essentially Indian as their minds were steeped in Indian tradition and culture. During her stay in England she was advised by the famous writers of the period Arthur Symons and Edmund Gosse to focus on Indian themes in her poems which she scrupulously followed. With Aurobindo, English was almost his mother tongue as he entered England in his seventh year and after fourteen years soon after the completion of his education he returned to India in 1893. As a matter of fact Aurobindo as a student in London and Cambridge did outshine his British compeers in English and in classics and he scored the highest mark in Greek.

Almost a similar feat was achieved a few years later by Sir C.R. Reddy (kattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy who belonged to the same Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh from which the present poet T.V. Reddy comes) who outshone the British students as an inspiring orator and he was an outstanding debater and he was the first Indian student to be chosen as Vice President of the Union Society. When he was the Vice President of the Union Society, John Maynard Keynes who later rose to be a world-famous economist was the Secretary of the Union Society. His oratorical skills attracted the natives so much that Members of British parliament requested C.R. Reddy to campaign on their behalf and even as a student in Cambridge, Reddy campaigned on behalf of the Liberal Party in the Parliamentary Elections held in 1906 which swept it into power that year. Many British politicians admired C.R. Reddy’s gifts of intellect and eloquence and predicted a great future for him.

When Aurobindo left Baroda College C.R. Reddy succeeded him as the Vice Principal. He later became the founder and the first Vice Chancellor of Andhra University. While C.R. Reddy shone as an orator Aurobondo shone as a remarkable poet and writer. Though Aurobindo was kept away from the influence of Indian heritage and culture, soon after his arrival to Baroda he earnestly tried to learn Bengali and Sanskrit and succeeded in gaining that knowledge which he was deprived of. Later with redoubled vigour and zeal he presented the glory of our Vedic knowledge. The seed of his voluminous spiritual epic Savitri lies in The Mahabharata and it is hailed as a magnificent creation and a wonder in world poetry.

The same cannot be said of the poets who came immediately after the independence. This group of poets is best represented by the anthology of poets edited by R. Parthasarathy i.e. Ten 20th Century Poets in English. In these poets there is little of Indian spirit and less of Indian culture. Whenever they made an attempt to refer to Indian mythology or Indian temples they introduced the subject only to subvert their sanctity and significance. Without ever bothering to go deep into the Vedic knowledge and without understanding the truth behind the age-old institutions and traditions and with their half-learned minds they began portraying in a sarcastic vein and indulging in the game of mud-slinging interspersed with glittering laces of irony. It is true the purity of the ancient Vedic knowledge lies beneath the heaps of garbage formed of various narrow creeds and cults over a long period of millenniums going beyond the pages of history.

Is it not the duty of a poet in the real sense to clear a part of this long-accumulated dust? On the other hand most of the so-called renowned poets who manage to shine in the artificial brilliance of Awards are trying to add their contribution of rubbish to the already piled up heap. This is the irony of the present situation of Indian poetry in English. Though many anthologies of poems in Indian English have come out, it is a pity that Parthasarathy’s anthology alone, which might have impressed the minds before the Emergency period, is still being prescribed in most of the Universities. It is necessary that professors and scholars are well acquainted with contemporary and recent poets in English and recognize and appreciate the merit wherever it is.

After the period of Emergence, modern poetry in English in its real spirit commences and the poets, fully conscious of the glory of our ancient Indian culture and the present fall of values, have made an earnest attempt in presenting the existing social situation in its real colours. Poets such as Krishna Srinivas, the senior poet from Chennai, I.K. Sharma from Jaipur, I.H. Rizvi from Bareilly, D.H. Kabadi from Bangalore, T.V. Reddy from Andhra, D.C. Chambial and P.C.K. Prem from H.P., H.S. Bhatia from Punjab, O.P. Arora from Delhi, Margaret Chatterjee and Manas Bakshi from Kolkata, Aju Mukhopadhyaya from Pondicherry, Prof. Syed Ameeruddin and Prof. Radhamani Sarma from Chennai, Arundhati Subramanyam a recent poet from Mumbai and a few others deserve to be mentioned in this context. Krishna Srinivas of Chennai which was familiarly known as Madras had encouraged many younger poets, and some of the senior and well established poets now owe their popularity as poets to him.

T.V. Reddy happens to be one of them and he humbly acknowledges in his talk that it was Dr. Krishna Srinivas, the President of the World Poetry Society Intercontinental, who invited him to the World Congress of Poets held at Madras in 1987 and introduced him to the poets all over the world. Krishna Srinivas dedicated his life to the cause of poetry. And till the end of his life he saw that his international journal Poet was alive with the same quality and creative spirit. Of course many new voices have now emerged in the growing field of Indian poetry in English and their relevance can be understood by a careful evaluation of their poetry. But as we go through their poems, most of their writings obviously may fail to stand the litmus test of poetry. Regarding the quality of poetry there cannot be any discrimination based on person or gender or generation.

Observed on the touchstone of literary criticism, T. Vasudeva Reddy or simply T.V. Reddy as he is familiar to the literary world comes out with poetic brilliance. Right from his maiden work When Grief Rains (1982) to the recent collection of poems Sound and Silence (2017) the poet Reddy has been writing poems with sustained quality and it is indeed a matter of poetic joy to see him writing poems continuously for well over forty years. That he is a born poet is an undeniable fact; he started writing poems as a student in the high School and his poems were published in college magazines in the University. Poetry reading and writing is a passion for him and he undertook the writing of poems both as a joy and as a challenge; that is why he is a careful craftsman always pursuing for perfection. Moreover constant reading and...