The article “A British journalist & the Tamil poet” (Dec.11) paid a glowing tribute to Subramania Bharati on his birth anniversary. The sands of the Marina still bear witness to his genius. Even today the spirit of the poet would lament over my fallen country. Were he alive today, he would be writing an imaginary dialogue between our self-centred politicians and India.
Shibu Zacharia,
Punalur
Bharati is rightly called a “Maha Kavi.” He gave a new meaning to Tamil literature. His poetic lines were so simple that even an illiterate could understand them. He was well versed in other languages too, including Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, and English. Although he suffered a lot during his short life-span of 39 years, Bharati did not compromise on freedom and self-respect. Unfortunately, our country disregarded him when he was alive.
B. Vijayalakshmi,
Chennai
Enru thaniyum inda sudanthira daagam and Auduvomey, pallu paduvomey are two compositions of Bharati which view freedom in two different perspectives. While the first talks of sudanthiram (freedom) as a thirst to be quenched, the other talks of ananda sudanthiram, a joyful fulfilment of our goal.
While we quenched our thirst for freedom when the British rule ended, we are yet to quench our thirst for freedom in a free country. With all the rights we have, we are not sure whether we are happy.
T.S. Gopalakrishnan,
Chennai
