Professor Sethuramiah’s haiku, Avani and Ishaan
Partha Desikan
Our friends will remember Susumu Takiguchi’s Keynote Address at the World Haiku Festival, Bangalore 2008, and my blog highlighting its focus on Tagore and haiku. The Address itself was available to me from the online literary journal Muse India, to which I had been introduced by my friend of 40 years and more, Professor Sethuramiah Abburi.. The good Professor is well versed in Japanese culture and ways, having stayed in Japan long enough to pursue his D.Sc. in an Engineering subject.
My friend Sethu is settled now in Bangalore and stays with his son, but this residence is close enough to his daughter’s too so that he gets time to play with his granddaughter Avani, not quite three years old, whenever she feels like it and telephones him, by taking a quick walk across to his daughter’s. He visits an Engineering college in Tamil Nadu some 3, 4 days every month to give some special lectures. More than 25 days of each month of his are available to Avani.
Among things Japanese that have stayed with Sethu is his love of haiku. He reads loads of them and also creates a few very leisurely and with love. I would like to share a few of them with our medhavi friends.
The weather features in these three haikus
1. summer noon –
-
the crow merges into
its shadow.
2. After the shower
cuckoo calls for
another spell
3. Poplar tree--
lone yellow leaf
signs autumn
The first of these was penned on Sept 3, 2008, after summer had become a memory. But Sethu’s mind had held back the crow and the shadow that was not separate from the bird. Perhaps it was raining then. On 5th September he hears the cuckoo when he has just stopped hearing the shower. Haiku number two comes out with the cuckoo.
A month passes. It is autumn still, but, not of the colourful kind Sethu had been used to in Japan. He remembers the first leaf that coloured in a poplar tree and the third haiku results.
Mainichi, Japan published the rain haiku. The autumn verse was published by Asahi Haikuist, Japan.
Smoke and fire form the theme in these two haikus
1. chimney smoke-
toy train spins
a fairy tale
2. Fireworks lift
new year hopes
sky-high
The chimney and the train haiku was published in Muse India, a poetry blog.
With the fireworks haiku, Sethu was heralding New Year 2009, some two days in advance. Ashahi Shimbun, Japan, published it on 16th January in the New year
Walking forms the subject of the following four haikus
1. So many
steps to temple
ascension
2. temple steps
lined with seekers
of alms
3. seashore
white carpet welcomes
bare feet
4. wearing snowflakes
black and white penguin
catwalks
Haikus number 2, 3 and 4 were created in 2007, of which, number 3 was for Muse India journal. Number 1 was published by Ashahi Shimbun in February 2009.
Movements, quite different from walking, were described in three lovely haikus by Sethu.
1. Ah! the ocean
of life and death
tides forever
2. between me
and the mountain range
a train passes
3. transparent lift —
sadhu in yellow robes
descends
The third of these got an honourable mention in the Mainichi haiku contest 2009!
You will notice that the second and third haikus relate to mechanical motion, while the first talks of the philosophical movement of life and of death, not unlike tides in ocean waves. There is suddenness in the appearance of a moving mechanism between man and nature in the second haiku, and of a man in bright robes descending from a moving mechanism that has just stopped in the third haiku. Sethu thinks that the piece number 1 is not characteristically haiku, but several of his friends acclaimed the depth of meaning in it.
Avani, Sethu’s granddaughter, hogs Sethu’s attention in the following haikus and haiku-like verses. Watch the flow or flow along with it. Most of these were published by Muse India over the past 3 years.
The Bond (Museindia)
Bangalore, 2008)
In anguish
two tears roll
down the cheeks
halfway, waiting...
And the mother
embraces the bundle
of inseparable
Emotions
First birthday (Museindia)
Bangalore 2009
Avani pulls
and throws
the spectacles…
I collect
the twisted frame
glasses intact
as the baby smiles
in innocent triumph…
I hold her again
and itching for action
she bites
with two teeth
half-formed…
With bent frame
I am ready
for yet another round
of child play
Avani
Bangalore, 2010
Playing hide and seek
showing tata*
his place!
Asking for more sweet
and every time
it is the last time
Giving the doll
time-out
for the nasty bite
Helping tata
to the floor
of animal world
Thumb in mouth
demanding mamma
the ‘parrot’ story
Bowing again and again
at Toddlers’ school
in welcome
Wondrous tiny steps
of one child
every child
* Grandfather
And Grandfather must have anticipated 2008, even in 2007. He writes already in 2007
present
wrapped in time
for birthday
Was Grandfather himself the present, waiting for Avani’s birth-day?
We have talked of Sethu’s daughter’s daughter, Avani, but what of Ishaan, Sethu’s son’s son?
We do not have a haiku on this person yet, because only last week this baby, less than two months old, got named Ishaan in a properly vaidik Namakarana ceremony. And your Partha Desikan attended and blessed the child.
May both Avani and Ishaan inspire Grandfather to keep writing haikus about them and in turn learn to write haikus themselves!
As most of you would know, Avani means the Earth. She means the earth and more to her grandfather. Ishaana has the same meaning as Isha, Ishvara, names referring to the Lord of everything, namely Bhagavan. These names are however used more popularly to refer to Shiva than to Vishnu, though Vishnu Sahasranama has both Ishaana and and Ishvara as names of Vishnu present in it. The aishvaryas of Bhagavan, of which we read in my blog on the giant figs of India are called aishvaryas only because they are the vishesha gunas of Ishvara, namely Bhagavan. So grandson Ishaan should mean something divine to his grandfather, a divine gift, should he not?
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written by narensomu, 2010-06-12 21:01:04
Poplar tree--
lone yellow leaf
signs autumn
Small lines but great thinking. Haiku could' ve originated only in Japan .
One cant spend hours thinking about lines like these, they have to strike the mind of the person concerned-here, clearly in this case the poet's heart
is further enriched by another Haiku, albeit a human one.
Children inspire adults in many ways, the best thing they do is connect the adult with his/her own inner child.If they are already connected as it seems here, the merrier for the reader of poetry.
Thanks many to you for sharing this with us and thanks to the good professor.
Best wishes to the inspiration.
Warm regards
ns
ps: I was just thinking about a Hindi rhyme my 6 year old likes -it makes me smile and it seems like a limerick.
I think those who pen rhymes for children too are connected very well with their inner child .
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The link for the latest issue of the journal is
http://haikureality.webs.com/indexeng.htm for the English version and
http://haikureality.webs.com/ for the Serbian version.
Hope you are able to locate the article(s) in the links and are happy with me and Prof. Sethu at this nice notice being taken of his work.
Regards. Partha