There resides a prominent person in your area, very influential, good, and also very helpful. His wife is also likewise. Their
child is the darling of your neighbour-hood. Very mischievous and playful, he is.
The boy is the leader of all the children of your place. The glass panes of the windows in all the houses in the street tell their own stories. Your gardens are their play-fields. Things in your houses grow legs. You don’t need to ponder for the reasons for all these terrible happenings. Of course, the boy’s charm and your love for him make it very difficult for you to scold him.
All the same, you are worried about your children’s unruly behaviour. Yet you hesitate to bother the big man over these childish excesses.
How would each one you face such a situation?
This is how a sage poetically saw the whole thing:
O Yashodaha Ma! Offspring of your cow-herd race The magician Gopala Krishnan; Hear me out speak of his pranks Fair lady, none like your child In this world, I have come across Anklets cuddling his legs, bracelets jingling And pearl strings swaying, He comes out in the streets. To the merriment of the spirits in the heaven, And to the praise of men, Dark complexioned Kannan danced. Embraced him, only a child; poor me! O lo! He kissed me in my lips as though my love. By no means a child your son; of his tricks To speak in public, I am ashamed of. Oothukadu Venkatasubbier, the saint composer, transforms himself into an ordinary maid of the cow-herd, feels angry with the child
Kannan, showers love on the child, gets enchanted by his beauty, feels frustrated at his antics, and pleads with
Yashodha through this
song in Tamil
set in the
Raga ‘Todi”.
Need I explain his feelings, once you hear the song, or read the original in Tamil?
Let us see another great poet’s word
play also in Tamil on the same theme.
Playful he is, always – Kannan A menace to women in the streets (Playful) Would offer tasty fruits – and Always snatch it halfway through; On pleading – he would spit and Bite, and offer it back spoilt (Playful) Bringing beautiful flowers, would Tease me and make me cry a while, then Blinding me with promise To adorn my locks, would deck With flowers my playmate’s crown (Playful) On his flute, he would play Nectarine songs that Make you feel dizzy as though One par-took wine. (Playful) The poet is Bharathi. Who else?
How does one describe the experience that this song set in ‘Raga Malika’ and the earlier one set in ‘Todi Raga’ do not tell? I have no words to explain the joy brought out by the union of poetry and music.
Note: A raga is a distinct expression of musical notes, unique to Carnatic Music, a centuries old South Indian Classical music System
More summaries about the Pleadings – As Poetry