Translations

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/197353/ Date: 21-Aug-2024   "Indiraneelam" is the second creation in Venmurasu novel portraying the story of Krishna. That way, it is rooted in Bhagavatham, outside of Mahabharatha. The Krishna of Mahabharatha is not a god, rather a great king possessing wisdom and worldly intuition in equal measure. It is only via external addendums that the portions establishing Krishna as a god got integrated in Mahabharatha. Bhagavatham is a creation that happened post the time when Krishna became a god. Is is therefore Bhagavatham and not Mahabharatha, that stands as a primary scripture for many Vaishnavaite traditions. During the creation of Venmurasu, I had a conundrum on how to depict Krishna. In several re-creations of Mahabharatha, Krishna is depicted solely as a king. In some of the creations, Krishna is depicted as a mere political strategist stripping Him of any wisdom. Example is M.T.Vasudevan Nair's "Irandaam Oozham" (...

  Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/197118/ Date: 8-Mar-2024   In the 2 berths only first class cabin of the train, there was an old lady in front. Quite a fair complexioned one. Reddish brown hair. Countenance resembling a white lady. A rosary in hand. Had she applied eye liner? Maybe. No lipsticks on lips, as there was hardly any lip. Mouth akin to a bloody scar. Eyes like a green pale pebble.  With sunken eyes, seeing me with suspicion, she continued her prayers. After placing my suitcase, I noticed. She wasn't praying. Though she had rosary in her hand, it was not being rotated. she was caressing the same bead. Eyes spied on me. When I saw, she turned away. "Good evening", I greeted. "Praise the lord", she mentioned viewing the glass window. I concluded her to be proselytizer kind. I thought of ways for creating defenses. I have found that acting like a counter proselytizer usually has the instant effect. I constructed the sentences. "Kali is a ...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/200919/ Date: 21-May-2024   Dear J, To what extent is the premise of 'Padukalam' realistic? You write this as a thriller. Generally, thrillers take place in a context we hardly know - like Underworld, Police etc. When it is set in a known context, question arises over its credibility. I am asking this because I too hail from Tirunelveli. Krishnamurthy   Dear Krishnamurthy, In Tamil milieu, those who have written something are usually the ones that are required to explain it. I have been keenly watching the fiction space from world over; not sure whether anyone else has that interest. Most of them have formed an opinion through the residual information available here and there. It can also be said that most of them are deprived of a lifestyle amenable for constant reading. Even in Europe, reading literature is drifting away from being a social event. It is the self help books which reign both in readership and sales. Literature is reduc...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/2760/ Date: 27-Feb-2017 Republished. Originally published on 26-May-2009   Dear Jeyamohan Sir, How do you do? I too am a firm believer in non-violence and gandhism like you. I may have inherited it from my family. My grandfather participated in Indian independence movement. He had participated in toddy shop picketing, Quit India Movement and had been imprisoned. We have been devoted nationalists as long as I know.  You would be knowing about the news articles published in the online version of Dinamani about the recent happenings in Sri Lanka. Comments from readers were also published and I had also written my comments. In reply, I was scolded and advised by many. India as a nation state was questioned and criticized in those online comments. Several people stated that non-violence cannot lead to independence. Many insisted that Gandhi was an impostor. Participants of that discussion praised Nethaji and announced that Prabhakaran was o...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/79162/ Date: 2-Oct-2015 (This article seems to have a translation already. https://thesabarmati.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/toddy-shop-gandhi/ . Didn't notice it until about half of my translation. Proceeding to publish my translation as well). I had been to Vaikom for some Cinema work a couple of days back. Friend Madhupal and Cinema producer Sukumar accompanied me. While returning back, when we were wondering where to have lunch, Sukumar called up his friend and enquired. That friend suggested a toddy shop in a place called Chempu*. This is a place where actor Mammooty was raised. We enquired the place of the toddy shop. It was a shop thatched with palm leaves on the shore of Vembanad lake. Yet, it had several rooms; small rooms to consume toddy in private. It was late afternoon when we arrived, therefore the usual toddy consumers hadn't yet come. Mostly, people had come there for lunch. As Madhupal was an actor, he was given a royal wel...

  Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/168299/ Date: 24-Jul-2022   Dear J, In recent times, whenever I visit the Iskcon temples established in various places, I feel that these temples will form, in future, the support structure of Hindu culture and the modern centers of Hindu worship. The important points that I observed were that these temples follow the same methods of worship in every country they are established, they have the same simple prayer slogan "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna" and anyone who joins that organization, irrespective of their caste, would've the privilege of performing pooja and delivering service. Most importantly, the aspects which we think as not possible anymore due to the apathy of the public and the government, like maintaining cleanliness in temple premises, eschewing from commercializing devotion by selling special tickets, forcing people to buy from the shops that have been setup at the temple entrance are not present in these Iskcon temple...

Original Source: https://www.jeyamohan.in/197129/ Date: 19-Feb-2024   I recently remembered, out of the blue, one of the classes of Nitya Chaitanya Yati. That too, when I was on my morning walk, viewing the huge Earth Movers that are laying the 8-lane roads. "Poetry is an art of misusing words". Amazing line. As he talks, Nitya drops such comments nonchalantly. So true! Aren't all the poetic lines that we remember made up of a combination of words that brings meaning in a way unknown, unusual for us? I was immediately reminded of the word "கண்ணிநுண்சிறுதாம்பு" (Kanninum Cirutampu - translated as knotted, slender cord) and that day became quite radiant for me. That is why grammarians and poems do not get along well. Once you study grammar, poems move away. One more line was remembered. This time by Sundara Ramaswamy. "My father used to say long back that a chaste girl cannot dance". Even though he was mocking his father, it is true to an extent. During ...