The following is a passage translated from a famous Telugu Novel “ASAMARDHUNI JEEVA YATRA” written by Tripuraneni Gopichand (1910-1962). He is celebrated for this work. This was his second novel. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1963 for his last novel “Pandita Parameswara Sastri Veelunaama”.
“He hated to see attractive women prettily dressed. He would wonder “Why are they so proud? Are they not like other women? Haven’t they to answer calls of nature?” He would imagine things; the more he imagined the more he hated the things these women did.
“One of the women got into trouble. Like other ordinary women, this beautiful and attractive woman too shed tears, blowing her nose. Whenever he recollected such scenes, he smiled to himself. Perhaps, these women were not ashamed to doll themselves up like that! Moreover, each of them was enormously vain about her beauty. What for? He laughed to himself.
“He hated even more the young men who ran after these women. The fulfillment of these women’s wishes was their sole task. They were proud to follow them. A touch of the sari hum / pallu was enough to send them into raptures.
“When do they go after women like that? They become ecstatic and exclaim “How beautiful she is!” What kind of beauty is that? What does she have that other women do not?
“People say “I do not know”. He had loved once, and had loved more than anyone else. What is it that I do not know?
“To these beautiful women admirers he would contemptuously say “You think it is great. What is the difference between you and animals? Animals are much better. He loses his temper when people say “You are heartless”. At this stage he would recite the poem Chintamani sang after she became an ascetic. Chintamani was a courtesan in a Telugu paly, renounced the earthly pleasures and became a sanyasin.
You think this is nose,
Look at it when it catches cold;
You think these are eyes,
No, they are two holes.
You think these are breasts,
No, they are lumps of flesh.
You think this is loves abode,
No, this is a leathery hole.
“When he was in college, girls used to get into a big bus and go to college. He wanted to sit among them in the bus. Once he sat, he wished the bus would topple, that someone’s face would be cut, another’s cheeks are scratched, yet another’s leg broken. Somehow he delighted in visualizing the girls disfigured. But knowing it was wrong to wish, he would suppress it. He never allowed these wishes to surface”.
The novel “Asamardhuni Jeeva Yatra”, was part of the syllabus for APPSC examinations with Telugu literature as an optional subject. A postal stamp in his honor was released by the Government of India on his 100th birthday.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
