Voices from the backyard
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Some interesting reads in Kannada
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Alegalalli Antaranga
By Vaidehi
Akshara Prakashana, Rs. 400
One of the main missions of Vaidehi, among the most compelling Kannada women writers of our times is the retrieval of the woman's voice from the past. Alegalalli Antaranga is a compilation of Vaidehi's short stories written over the last three decades. In the 80-odd short stories, spread into six collections, Vaidehi steers clear of jingoistic feminist positions, but presents the perspective of a woman as it affected her, from the politics of everyday life. Therefore, the stories mostly capture the woman's real world, her real experiences, and the various aspects of self-fashioning, without taking overt, ideological stances. Vaidehi is one of the most unusual voices we have in Kannada today, who also opened up a new worldview with a refreshingly new spoken language. Even in being strongly rooted — in a specific geographical location with a distinct language dialect — Vaidehi's stories achieve a pan-Indian sweep.
From women being passive narrators of stories, women now tell stories that emerge from their lived life experiences and memories. As Vaidehi herself puts it, there was a clear demarcation between the outside world; with its loud, authoritative voices (the Chavadi and beyond), and the inside world; entrenched in its poignant, disquieting silences (the kitchen, the backyard and a little more). Most of Vaidehi's narratives are invariably set against the backdrop of these two distinct worlds — the outer realm with its imposing voice and the inner realm shut into a silence. The tension in negotiating these two worlds, often perceived as infringement, seen as protest by the patriarchal order, make for the plot of most Vaidehi's stories. Vaidehi's women are almost always a product of their situation, hence their negotiations are unstated. Akku from her collection Antarangada Putagalu is one of Vaidehi's most haunting story. It is the story of Akku, a zany middle-aged woman, who takes on the world in her state of madness. Akku's good-for-nothing husband suddenly disappears, and Akku goes around imagining she's pregnant. Vaidehi's akku, the "dark double" gives a hearing to her simmering anxiety and rage.
Akku, appears as strong case of insurrection, in her not being normal. There hangs an air of uneasy silence with Ajjaya's iron fist controlling the breath of every occupant of the house, but nobody can put a stop to akku living life entirely on her terms — a man's prerogative. The vigilant Akku and her indomitable spirit refuse to be suppressed by the heartless wounds inflicted on her. So much so, in her version of the world around her, the distinction between Akku as a conscience-keeper and a tattletale is blurred; the distinction between truth and untruth.
In "Sougandhiya Swagatagalu" she attacks the basic construct of femaleness itself. Docility that is regarded as a high virtue for the woman gets cleverly turned into a vice, an inability to attract the opposite sex. Much that Sougandhi desires to scream from rooftops that she wouldn't even mind being raped — contrary to what the world thinks of her — she is trapped; in a devious traditional society that has a suit-yourself attitude to modernity.
Resistance in Vaidehi's stories is at once subtle and powerful. Subtle because it doesn't gratify in celebratory feminist positions, powerful because it attacks the basic construct of a traditional society, even as she recognises that modernity is not complete in itself. Vaidehi is clearly a product of her times: the seventies with its "second wave" of feminism. Therefore one finds in her works the smell of jasmines, tinkling anklets, dark kitchens as well as a movement into thresholds marked "strictly for men". There is an awakening of desire and an awareness of sexuality. If multiple ambiguities exist, even that is true.
DEEPA GANESH
Surapalana Vrikshayurveda by R.P. Hegade
Ankita Pustaka, Rs. 60
The side effects of allopathic drugs make people think of alternative-Indian systems of medicine. Similarly, the havoc of fertilisers are taking farmers back to natural/organic farming.
Vrikshayurveda in essence is vanaspathika jeevana vignana — the science of growing trees. It is a discipline said to have been well-established even before sixth Century A.D. Surapala's 60-page Sanskrit manuscript was procured from a library in England and got translated, first into English and then into Hindi and Marathi. The present work is a Kannada translation.
In the preface the author refers to the contents of Varahamihira's Brihatsamhita, sixth Century and Sarangadhara's Shangadhara Paddhati, 13th Century. He opines that, while the period of Surapala's work cannot be established exactly, it is an independent and complete compilation nonetheless. Direct translation from Sanskrit or though Hindi would have been better. Though there is a two-page Kannada glossary, the plant index should have been in Kannada also.
The efforts of Asian Agri History Foundation, Secunderabad, in bringing to light the manuscript and Dr. Nalini Sadhale in rendering it in English are commendable.
Further study, research and investigation are essential to establish the rationality, scientific basis and adaptability plant protection measures and cultivation methods prescribed here. Ancient agriculture did reflect the culture of those times. The book makes for an interesting reading. However, religious beliefs have to tested for rationale, affordability and suitability.
H.S. MANJUNATHA
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