A TALE OF TWO SONGS

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Around 35 years back, may be in 1977 0r 1978, when I was studying B.A in Sri Venkateswara Arts College, Tirupati; I received an invitation from the District Nehru Youth Centre to participate in a Young Writers Workshop which would be conducted in Besant Theosophical College, Madanapalli. Though I was born and brought up in the same Chittoor district I didn’t get an opportunity of spending few days in Madanapalli till then.

When I reached BT College on an evening I saw nearly a dozen young writers in between 20 and 30 years, of our district who were put up in a class room. The people whom I still clearly remember among them are: a group of young poets who had already published two volumes of poetry with the name “Nisi Kavulu” (Poets of Darkness) who include,  Madan Mohan Reddy, Kasim Yusifi, Mahesh Kumar, KS Ramana and Harish along with another  poet Kaluvagunta Ramamurthy and an elderly  poet, Jettigundla Raghunatha Reddy.

The memory of the three day long discussions and deliberations of the then enthusiastic, romantic and optimistic people is still fresh in my memory. The first thing that attracted our attention was that of the cottage of Tagore in the premises of the college. BT college was established by Annie Besant in 1913 with Rabindranath Tagore as its Chancellor and it is one of the oldest colleges of the region of Rayalaseema . Tagore came to the college when the then principal James H Cousins, the famous Irish poet, invited him and stayed in a cottage in the college for a few weeks in 1918-1919. At the request of Cousins, he joined a gathering of students and sang JanaGana Mana in Bengali which was till then confined to the pages of the Arya Samaj journal, Tatva Bodha Prakasika, a journal edited by Tagore himself. In the days that followed, it is told, he wrote down the English translation of the song and with Cousins’ wife, Margaret, an expert in western music, set down the notation which is followed till today.

Recalling the unforgettable company of Tagore he enjoyed in Madanapalli, Cousins wrote in one of his memoirs, “In a voice surprisingly light for so large a man, he sang something like a piece of geography giving list of countries, mountains and rivers, and in second verse, a list of the religions of India. The refrain to the first verse made us prick our ears. The refrain to the second verse made us clear our throats. We asked for it again and again, and before long we were singing it with gusto…Jaya hai, Jaya hai.”

 The great song which became popular throughout the world as the morning song of India and then honored as the national anthem of India thus had a very humble beginning in Madanapalli. We were thrilled to see the cottage in which Tagore stayed and the original English draft written by him which was framed and displayed as a proud heritage in Besant College Library.

Later the same Tagore cottage was converted into a quarter and Vallampati Venkatasubbaiah, the famous Telugu critic who worked as a lecturer in the college was put up there for quite a few years. Then it got crumbled down many times but the college authorities seemed to have repaired it last year on the occasion of Tagore’s sesqui birth centenary celebrations.

There is a big meeting hall in the college named after Annie Besant as she delivered many lectures there. In a two storied old house in one of the narrow and busy streets of Madanapalli, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, the renowned philosopher was born and it is also preserved as a monument.

Having acquainted with the great history of college and the town, we were very much electrified to participate in a writer’s workshop conducted there. By the evening of the first day we noticed that a phrase, “social consciousness” got derogated by it’s over usage. We wrote that word on the black board on the next morning and took a vow not to denigrate its prestige further. There was a lecture by Badala Ramaih , a scholar of the same place on the second day. On the final day Vasireddy Sitadevi, the renowned Telugu Novelist, who was also the Director of the State Youth Centre, arrived and we had serious deliberations once again. Finally a poetry reading session was held in which we unhesitatingly read our avant-garde poems.

We were surprised to get remunerations from the organizers after the workshop and that was almost the first remuneration for many of us as many of us were still students. So we decided to take a  break and enjoy a vacation with the money we  earned  in Horsley hills, a summer resort nearly 14 miles away from Madanapalli. It became a dwelling place only when a British officer, W D Horsley, visited the place in around 1840-43 and chose it as his summer residence. Even now it is not a crowded place and 35 years back it was more secluded. We could get the accommodation in the outhouse of the Governor’s Bungalow which was nested in a place surrounded by huge trees and massive boulders. It was almost like camping in a wild forest. The watchman of the bungalow provided rotis and chicken fry out of sympathy. But who cared the comforts and food? We were immersed neck deep into our discussions and poetry readings and the mushaira we had went on till the next morning.

After the midnight of that memorable day, amidst that forlorn wilderness, under the starlit sky, K.S.Ramana, one of the friends who went there, sang a song. He is the son of K.Sabha, the famous Telugu short story writer. He published two volumes of poetry by then and I didn’t know that he sings too. Then he sang a Hindi song: “Kahi door jab dilbar jaaye…Chand ki dulhan badan churaaye…Chup ke se aaye…” Afterwards I knew that it was a song sung by Mukesh, the legendary movie singer and that song was from Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s classic, ‘Anand’. Ramana thus introduced Mukesh to me and a few days later  presented me a cassette of Mukesh songs.  When I saw that movie I learnt that it was a song sung by the hero of that movie who knew that he was suffering from a dangerous disease and he would die soon. Thus it reminded me the words of Shelley: "Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought."

As I told you it happened 35 years back. Nisi poets who made a very promising beginning couldn’t sustain the same vigor and versatility for a long time. Ramana was the only one among them who continued to write poetry and short stories. But he left the world a few months back very much like the hero of “Anand” leaving his friends in utter bereavement.

Life is a peculiar thing combining and intertwining happiness and unhappiness. Whenever I remember B T College, the song of Tagore comes to my mind. And whenever I am reminded of it, the song of Ramana, mellifluous and strikingly elegiac with a typical nasal tone which Ramana too had like Mukesh, crawls into my heart.

                                                                        ---                MADHURANTHAKAM NARENDRA

            (The writer is a bilingual short story writer, novelist and poet, who writes in Telugu and English)

 

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