Kim's Review : The Taste of Words - An Introduction to Urdu Poetry

The blurb for Raza Mir's "The Taste of Words - An Introduction to Urdu Poetry" read as "Have you ever been enchanted by the spoken cadence of an Urdu Couplet but wished you could fully ubderstand its nuances? Have you wanted to engage with a ghazal more deeply, but were daunted by its mystifying conventions? Are you confused between a qataa and a rubaai, or a musaddas and a marsiya?"

This book was supposed to help me with all 3, but unfortunately it only helped me understand the answer to the last question.

Don't get me wrong, this is a book that has been researched with a lot of love and passion by Raza Mir and I do appreciate it. The first 26 pages which give an introduction to Urdu poetry and a Note on the Poetic Forms is brilliant and I wanted more of it.

However, the bulk of the book was where I was disappointed, because of my expectations.

I learned Hindi late in life (in my 20's) to be able to converse with people in college, at work and then with my inlaws, so my knowledge of Hindi is restricted to the colloquial. I do understand a fair bit of Sanskrit, because halekannada / the classical Kannada (which I learned academically until my graduation) is deeply rooted in Sanskrit (like most Dravidian languages)

So when it comes to Urdu poetry, I love the lyricism, the cadence, the beautiful descriptions, the rhythm - I love everything about it, except I only understand about 50% of it. I was hoping that this book would help take that percentage up a bit further.

However what this book did, was explain to me the technicalities of how Urdu Poetry is classified, it gave me a bit of insight into the History of Urdu as a language (and the multiple events that were portended to bring about its death), it introduced me to a multitude of Urdu poets - some of whom I had heard of, but most of them were a new discovery. The mini biographies included with each, were enlightening.

What Raza Mir has done is assembled a collection of 47 famous Urdu Poets, chosen certain couplets (around 150 poems) from some of their famed works (or his favourites) and then translated them. However, except for a few free verse translations, he has tried to maintain the rhythm and rhyming. He confesses that he internally debated a lot on this point, before choosing this route.

However, for my understanding, I would have preferred a more literal translation with a little note on the double meanings / play on words etc of individual poems.

Rather than a standard transliteration scheme, Raza Mir has chosen a vernacular format, that is easy to read for those accustomed to reading the Devnagari script in English. However, it would be a difficult read for those unfamiliar with this.

This is not a book that can be read at one sitting. There is so much Philosophy and Mysticism in these poems, that each one warrants some reflection.

I commend the author for the amount of work that he has put in, into this book, however it wasn't suitable to what I was looking for and did not help me too much with nuances, which is why I have given it a lower rating.

Rating : 3 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Madhushaala

I re-read Harivansh Rai Bacchan's Madhushala, at a cafe in Ahmedabad called "SandwichworkZ". The Kheema and Ajwain Paratha were to die for and the afternoons experience, will remain etched in my mind forever, given that this gave me an opportunity to re-read the unique and complete 135 Rubaiyee version of Madhushala (with extra material thrown in).

I am attempting to write this review in Hindi and you can view it as the next picture. I have no confidence in my ability to type in Hindi at this stage, not that confidence to write in Hindi is very high, but I am giving it a try.

Rating : 5 / 5

Kim's Review: Yudishtar & Draupadi

With all this moving around and relocating to Guwahati, reading a good solid book is close to impossible as I just don't have the time to curl up and ignore the world for prolonged periods of time. So I've been reading short stories and books that can be read in chapters. good books, but books that can be kept down and got back to after a period of time.

Yudishtar & Draupadi is one such book. When I ordered it off flipkart, I had hoped for an insight into Draupadi's relationship with Yudishtar - very little is written about Draupadi's feelings and attitudes towards her 5 different husbands within the Mahabharath. Hence it is left to books like Chitra Bannerjee Diwakaruni's Palace of Illusions and Pratibha Ray's Yajnaseni to bridge this gap.

Personally, I have always wondered why Yudishtar was lauded for being the upholder of dharma and received direct entry into heaven swarglok,  as there are 2 very  big question marks for me against his "righteous behaviour"

The first was in taking the decision to share Draupadi amongst 5 brothers. There are schools of thought saying that
1. Kunti did this on purpose so her daughter-in-law couldn't fault her for fathering sons from 4 different men. and
2. that Draupadi in a previous life had performed penance to obtain a good husband, but when it came time to ask for her boon, she repeated it 5 times and hence was blessed with 5 husbands
both cases seek to absolve Yudishtar from the burden he placed on Draupadi.

The second was the fateful game of dice with the kauravs. It seems like greed, pride and ego got in his way as he continued to gamble away items that he could not afford to lose, finally staking away his brothers, himself and then Draupadi. As a corollary to this, he stood quiet and did not say a word when the Kaurav's attempted to disrobe Draupadi in public. Bhim made his protest with a vow, as did Draupadi herself and it was Krishna who came to her rescue, but Yudishtar just sat quietly while his wife, the main queen of the Pandavs was publicly humiliated.

Pavan K Varma has an interesting take on this relationship: His view is that - Draupadi never forgave Yudishtar the decision he took, that she be shared among the brothers and recognised his lust behind this decision. The lust he and every man assembled felt for her at her swayamvar although they were incapable of winning Drupads challenge. The lust, knowing that as the eldest he would be the first one to wed her, even though her heart and hand had been won by Arjun.

Since the decision was never in her hands, and seemed to be solely Yudishtars, she let him know her scorn, anger, derision and displeasure each time he was in her presence.

Bhim had his strength and Arjun his skill at archery. Both made them very popular with the ladies. Yudishtar had nothing to set him apart except what he considered his skill at dice. And in an effort to redeem himself in her eyes and win fame and fortune he agreed to take up the Kauravs invitation to play. However when he had lost even himself, he realised it was Draupadi who had driven him to agree to the insane wagers and staked her too.

Draupadi's question in the open assembly "whom did he lose first himself or me?" implied to him the taunt that since he hadn't lawfully won her hand, he had no right to wager her away and lose her.

All their trials in vanvaas, she thought to be his fault and let him know it.

However when all his 4 brothers in their quest for water, angered the yaksha by not answering his questions and lay dead, a realisation dawned in Draupadi that Yudishtar was her only husband left and Yudishtar himself knew that he had lost it all. His kingdom, his brothers, his life as he knew it. Draupadi was still there, but she had never loved him and he had nothing left to lose.

It was in this frame of mind that he answered the yakshas questions honestly and realised the yaksha was actually Dharma - the Lord of Justice - his father.

Pavan Varma uses the first few pages give a background to the incestuous bloodline of the Pandavas & Kauravas: A lineage that was fragile, often broken, compromised and patched up, enfoldong within it dark secrets of sexual excess and denial and the trauma of sexual inability. Of pregny notably effete or marred by diability. A family history of illegitimate liaisons, legitimised covertly and the perpetuation of a dynasty through ways above the bounds of morality.

The rest of the book is a series of sonnets - first in Yudishtar/Kaunteya's perspective, then in Draupadi / Panchali's perspective, the fabled question answer session with the Yaksha/Dharma and finally on the change in the relationship between Yudishtar & Draupadi.

I'm not much of a poetry reader, but this was fairly easy reading. The question-answer session between Yudhishtar and the yaksha makes you ponder awhile.

Definitely read Yudhishtar and Draupadi if you have an interest in the side stories and emotions in the Mahabharat,  or enjoy poetry based on mythology, otherwise there isn't much further insight to gain from this book.


Rating: 3.5/5