Book Reviews

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METVERSE MUSE (By-annual journal): Edited by (Mrs) Dr. H. Tulsi Publishers: 21-46/1, Kakani Nagar, N.A.D.Post Visakhapatnam -530 009Price: Rs.50;     $ 7; 5 Pounds (Sterling) Pp.112     

A band of lovers of metred poetry started a bi-annual journal devoted to metred verse entitled Metverse Muse from Visakhapatnam with (Mrs) Dr. H. Tulsi as Editor cum Publisher.  The insignia printed on the cover page of the 4th Issue (July ’97) projects in unequivocal terms the aims and objects of the Publishers.  It reads thus-  

The time has come at last for re-installation of metred verse as king and for his coronation just a few pages between him and the throne Once again his lost crown he soon will own. Let us on this long looked-forward-to occasion Promise him allegiance of boundless duration. 

The contributors include such stalwarts like Dr. Niranjan Misra, P.K. Majumdar, Hyder Nayab, Dr. (Mrs.) Louella Lobo Prabhu, S. Chandrasekaran, N.N. Murthy, Dr. Eric Poersch (Canada) Peter Geoffrey Paul Thompson (England). Sufficient space is also allocated to articles and essays, Prosody and Views and Reviews.  Photographs of the contributors add colour. The Publishers and the Editor deserve all praise for this excellent format and rich content.

-Dr. K.R.K. Mohan 

VISTAS OF INTEGRAL VISION- By Dr. P. Subba Rayudu, Seva Sadan C/o Srinivasan Enterprises, 1-14-234, Balamrai, New Vikas Nagar, Secunderabad – 500 003.  Pp.107; Rs. 35

In recent times a new discipline of science known as ‘Para Psychology’ emerged and is fast developing. This branch tries to explain occult phenomena on rational lines.  Dr. P. Subba Rayudu who is also a double master evinced keen interest in the inner realms of self and higher dimensions of the mind.  He made an in depth study of the mind subject and attempted to explain several such phenomena which are still questions to the scientific community. His observations and explanations are thought provoking and convincing. The book offers a rewarding study even to the common reader. Dr. P. Subba Rayudu deserves kudos for taking up a less touched subject.

-Dr. K.R.K. Mohan

KABIR: Selected couplets from the Sakhi: (In transversion); Mohan Singh Karki; Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi; Pp160; Rs.195 (Paper) Rs.295 (Cloth bound)

Dr. Mohan Singh Karki obviously has taken great pains to select over 70 poems of the saint-poet Kabirdas and translated them into English.  He has selected the verses carefully and rendered the transversion with confidence and competence.  He also appends Notes on points where he considers would help the reader have a better appreciation of the sense, as also an Index to the first lines in both the Hindi original text and the English translation, in addition to a bibilography, which enhance the value of the book considerably.    
It will be relevant to quote the author’s own words about his translation.             
“I remember when Mathew Arnold was requested for translating Homer’s works, Arnold lectured which is now available in the essay ‘On Translating Homer’. Arnold brought out the weaknesses of the earlier translations and suggested the future translators to keep in mind his suggestions.  I had not read any translation of Kabir’s works when the work was in progress.  In the interval between the submission of the MSS and final publication, I came across G.N. Dass’s ‘Couplets of Kabir’, Lind Hess’s, ‘The Biajk of Kabir’ and Charlotte Vaudeville’s, ‘The Sakhis of Kabir’, the first being published the last.  G.N. Dass has rendered into English 300 dohas, Linda Hess 234 and Charlotte Vaudeville 735.  In my selection there are 408.     
“I have used the set stanza form-iamblic tetrameter four line stanza in which the second line rhymes with the fourth, similar to W.B. Yeats stanza in ‘The Fiddler of Dooney’. Dass classified his selections into 21 categories.  Linda has no categorisation. Vaudeville into 33 headings. In my book the classification is into 71 headings.

“In any translation choice of words is an important thing.  For example, Rabindranath Tagore retained the word ‘Sadhu’, G N Dass uses ‘learned saint’, Linda Hess also uses ‘saint’, so does Vaudeville.  I have used ‘the righteous’ guided by the Bible.       

“A question is often raised.  Can the spirit of Kabir be maintained in the translation?  Translation has its limitations.  ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam’ is often quoted.  There is a ‘Jhirmir Jhirmir barasiya’ in one doha. Vaudeville  renders it as ‘softly, softly rain came down’.  I made it ‘it drizzled in graceful drizzles’. Trying to keep the spirit and sense of alliteration.”

No more comment is needed.  Dr. Karki has done a good and thorough job and he deserves all praise for his worthy effort.
-Vemaraju Narasimha Rao 

In the Ruins of Time; Pronab Kumar Majumder; Writers workshop.

This collection of poems by Pronab Kumar Majumder has a natural and reflective tone to it.  There are several poems in here I particularly liked and there were others that I thought were perhaps too sentimental.

A poem that I did enjoy was “A huge bell”.  I liked this poem particularly for its easy rhythm, its simple words, and it’s (to me) exotic locale:

          A huge bell tolls
          Atop peaks of Himalayas
          Ringing echo
          In the valleys and
          Snow-capped stones
          As though the voice of God

It is one of those poems that is enjoyable to read the first time around simply for the sound of it, and interesting to read the second time around, for the meaning. The final stanza of “Photograph” I liked for its powerful image:

          My fingers and eyes
          Were not always
          Working together;
          Suddenly a page surfaced
          With a photograph
          With a recognising smile
          When before I could stir
          My memory cord
          I poured all my kisses
          I stored thru my life
          Upon the cheeks of
          The hundred years old
          Young and fresh girl

Powerful images occur throughout the poetry in this book, although sometimes the images in some of the poems are unfamiliar to this Western reviewer, such as in “Walking legs”: “In wavering flames of a lantern/ In hand?  Could be seen a pair of legs/ Walking across the dark of the night”.  

It is the odd poem like this one where the images are large and the sound of the poem not as free or as natural as the others, which disappoints in a good collection of poetry.

Yet it is this voice, and what lays behind it, that holds it all together – that sense of a single persona in different situations projecting a distinct and developing individuality.  Yet however apparent this sense of persona, and however strong the impression that Majumder is an innovator, one also gains the impression that the emotions of these poems springs from real happenings and situations.        

In this engagement with the world as well as the word Majumder is on firm ground. His direct and evocative voice is a consequence of the journey he is making in an increasingly alien world, as in the poem “Courtyard”:

          The courtyard of my childhood is no more
          My childhood has slipped behind
          The memory of the courtyard for sure
          A cord yet works somewhere to bind
Here the poet confronts the changes in his life from childhood to maturity.

So Majumdar takes the reader on a journey of his self-discovery.  Yet possibly indulges the persona in us who is fascinated by something which may be beyond our own experiences, but to which, nevertheless, we can relate.  We, too, perhaps find our own enjoyment in his words, an escape from our everyday banalities, while professing that we are still merely observers.

This book is a publication by P. Lal’s Writers Workshop and is thus handcrafted: layout and lettering by P. Lal, gold-embossed, hand-stitched, hand-printed and hand-bound.  It makes a delightful addition to one’s library of poetry books.
-Patricia Prime

Rural Development in India - Full view at a Glance; Dr.Karnati Lingaiah Edited by: A.V.Ranganatha Ch; For Copies: Kalyani Publishers, 3-5-1108, Narayanaguda, Hyd-29 Pp.232 Rs.60/-

The governments both State and Central started a number of employment schemes such as IRDP, Jawahar Rojgar Yojana, TRYSEM, MREP, Dwera. But in many cases there are many slips between the cups and lips, mostly due to ignorance. Of course it is a different issue.

Dr. Karnati Lingaiah who earned a name as a successful senior Lecturer in Economics and who occupied covetable position and received laurels from the Academic circles and who had several popular books and papers to his credit brought out his latest book entitled “Rural Development in India-Full View at a glance” at an appropriate time. The book contains 14 chapters which deal with anything and everything under the Sun relating to the rural front. He dealt with at length the rural situation, problems identification of lacunae and possible solutions. He also gave details of various schemes that aimed at rural upliftment. On learning about them one wonders that there are so many schemes. It is for the needy people to derive benefit out of them. It is essential to give wide publicity about the schemes and create an awareness especially among the rural youth. If these schemes are used properly, there is no wonder if our villages get a face lift and Gandhiji’s dreams come true. Dr. Lingaiah’s book is a big step in this direction. He deserves all kudos.
-Dr. K.R.K. Mohan

The Craft of Poe’s Tales; Publishers: Gyan Publishing House 5, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi – 110 001.

Great detective writers like Sir Arthur Conandoyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), Edgar Wallac, Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner and the like were greatly influenced by Poe.

In the U.S. there are several Readers’ dedicated to Poe’s studies. India too has a Poe’s Society started by Prof. D. Ramakrishna of Kakatiya University.

Poe’s writings are known for their Gothic mysteriousness or strangeness in their cosmic abullience, strong nationalism and scientific curiosity. The outlook of Poe was so great that countries like France and Czechoslavakia feel proud in claiming him as their own. In the words of leading Poe’s scholar Professor R.Burton, R.Pollin of the City University of New York. It is the multiplicity of aims, techniques and atmospheres that has tempted musicians from many countries to seek out Poe’s texts for choral pieces, songs, instrumental works, tone poems, symphonies and operas.

In fact it was his dissertation on Poe which brought Prof. Ramakrishna his Ph D and many other awards. His studies were so authentic and scholarly that the Emerson Society Quarterly and the Explicator of U.S. published parts of his manuscript in their journals. His magnum Opus “The Craft of Poe’s Tales” contains seven Chapters which literally touch every aspect of Poe’s works from different angles. The Bibilography running to 28 pages is solid proof for the unique effort made by him. Perhaps no other scholar did so much on Poe either in India or abroad. All kudos to him.

-Dr. K.R.K. Mohan  

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SCIENCE FICTION KATHALU (Telugu), K.R.K. Mohan. Price: Rs. 120/- Pages: 256. Published by Sri Mukha Publications, Plot 101, Kanchi Residency, P&T Colony, Dilsuknagar, Hyderabad-60.    

The mention of the word ‘story’ generally evokes interest in the young and the old alike.  We have all heard bed-time stories narrated by our grand mothers.  In the Indian setting they have been mainly from our scriptures, epics, folk-lore and the like.  As time passed stories began to be written on people, events and incidents. In modern times the story has for its subject science fiction in tune with the spirit of the times.

A science fiction story differs from the run of the normal story.  The writer of a science fiction story should possess a fertile, if not, a wild imagination, coupled with a sound knowledge of science and its application.  He should be able to weave situations, descriptions and dialogues, which fit into the story naturally and convincingly. He should himself possess scientific thinking and be able to delve into the minds of the creatures of his imagination. In short he should possess talents that breathe life into his characters and situations and keep his readers in a spell. The language he uses should be scientific yet colloquial, the descriptions vivid yet simple, the narration lucid yet gripping.

Mr. K.R.K. Mohan has all these talents in abundance and has achieved success as a writer of science fiction stories in Telugu.  There are twenty three stories in the book.  Each story has its freshness in concept and believability in its appeal. The book being the first compilation of its kind in Telugu is sure to hit the stands with a bang. The book richly deserves to be in libraries and in private collections.  Kudos to KRK for the publication.
-D. Ranga Rao

DIGI VACHINA ARUNDHATI: (Short stories), Janaki Jani, 6-7-17, Lalbahadurnagar, Kakinada-533 003; Rs.80

Janaki Jani is a well known Telugu writer.  This book contains 12 of his short stories in a variety of themes, simple style and with a message.  Three of these need special mention.

DIGI VACHINA ARUNDHATI: Arundhati deserts her husband and elopes with her lover who promises her a glamorous life, and who later ditches her. In her forlorn later life she sees an advertisement for a cook and finds that it is no other than her husband. He however forgives her with a large heart and wants her to stay with him.  A well developed theme narrated in a gripping manner.

ARDHA RUPAYEE: This is based on human behaviour. Satyamurty steals a half-rupee coin from a blind beggar to buy bread for his ailing wife, as he has no other way.  But he later repents for his disgusting act and he puts the coin in the beggar’s bowl.

RUPANTHARAM: It delineates the tribulations of an unmarried young woman working as a tutor in a college.  Her male colleagues try to attract her attention. A rumour is spread that she is about to get married to another lecturer in the same college. Feeling humiliated, she leaves the place to work in another town and remains a spinster. Her colleagues also refer to her as a woman of loose morals. A very telling story of the way of our society. On the whole, a compelling reading.
M. Arunachalam, Hyderabad

SRI YOGA VAASISTHA SANGRAHAMU (Telugu) by Dr. Ratnakaram Balaraju, M.A., Ph.D., Saketha Nilayam 21, S.B.I. Colony, Anantapur (A.P.) – 515 001. Rs. 280/-

The original Yoga Vaasistham in Sanskrit is a work of over 30000 slokas, whose authorship is attributed to Maharshi Valmiki.  It is also known as Vasistha Ramayana or Vasistha Yoga and contains Maharshi Valmiki’s narration of sage Vasistha’s teaching to Lord Sri Rama after the latter returned in a dejected mood from a visit to various places in the kingdom of his father Dasaradha.

The work expounds the various aspects of the Indian spiritual tradition and is regarded as an important practical guide to the attainment of self-knowledge (Atma jnana) and liberation.  Selections from the larger work of over 30000 slokas, of portions which contain the essence of sage Vasistha’s teaching have been made from time and time by scholars and learned men, and one such selection of 1698 slokas by Sri Jnanananda Bharati Swamy of Sringeri Matt has received wide popularity and renown; Dr. Ratnakaram Balaraju has renedered the Telugu translation of the above classic work for the benefit of Telugu readers with his own commentary. Dr. Balaraju’s work is unique in several respects. 

The essence of sage Vasistha’s teaching in Yoga Vaasistham is that everything originates out of, exists in, and finally merges with Brahman (the Absolute), Atmajana (self knowledge) which leads to liberation and bliss consists in realising the above truth.  When the jnana arise, ajnana is destroyed, and it is realised that Brahman alone is the Reality.

According to Vasistha, the mind is not different from the Absolute, Mind also originates from and merges into Brahman.  However, the mind is the cause of all illusions and the cause of the delusion, that “I” means the body the senses and the mind.  Karma (action) according to Vasistha, is nothing but an activity of the mind.  Vaasanas are the root tendencies and inclinations in the mind.  The mind is the respository of the results of karma and Vaasanas of several births.  The mind and karma (action) are more or less the potential and actual states of the same activity.  When the mind and the ego (the ‘I’ thought) merge in the self (Atma), the illusion ceases and bliss arises.

Sage Vasistha lays great emphasis on human effort. It is Vasistha’s conviction that man is a free agent and it is for him to mend his mind, senses and the vaasanas and choose the course of action which contributed to his own good and the good of the group in which he lives.

The treatise deals at great length as to how the merger of the mind with the Atma is to be achieved.  It is variously referred to as the destruction of the mind (mano-naasa), quietening of mind (chitta prasamana), restraint of the mind (Chitta-nirodha), purification of the mind, stoppage of the activities of the mind (Chitta Vrithi nirodha), discontinuance of the mind’s delusions (mano-bhrama nivrithi), restraint of the vibrations of the mind (chitta chalana nirodha), destruction or giving up of vaasanas (Vaasana Kshaya or Parityaga) and merger of mind and the ego with the Atma (manohankara laya).  For the one who, restrains the mind’s activities by the various methods indicated, including the control of breath (Pranayama) and posses through the seven stages of self realisation, (saptabhoomicas), a vision of the real self and the attainment of bliss is possible.  The above message is brought home through several illustrative stories (Upakhyanas) the story of Induputras, Prahladopakhyanam, Uddalakopakhyanam, Bhusundopakhyanam, Sibidhwajopakhyanam, Choodalopadesa and several others.

Dr. Balaraju’s work does not read like a translation, buts reads like an original. His Telugu diction is superb, the language used is precise, expressive, chaste and elegant and every word is profound with meaning.  To explain and bring home the point made in particular slokas or in support of the view expressed therein he quotes appropriately from various scriptural and classical works and from the writings of eastern and western scholars.  His comments in the footnotes are illuminating and sum up in one or two sentences the essence of the entire upakhyana, and give focus to the contents of each chapter.  The entire work bears the imprint of his monumental scholarship, his encyclopedic mind and his voracious reading.  Above all, is his devotion and dedication to the teachings of sage Vasistha underlying every sentence in his introduction, translation and commentary, signifying that the work is wholly a labour of love.  The book by Dr. Balaraju is a precious gift to the Telugu reading public, worth reading, worth possessing and worth preserving for constant reference and study in daily life.
                                    -N. Sriramamurthytc "ENGLISH"