Saturday, November 1, 2008

Advocate for the oppressed



Poets are unacknowledged legislators of the world. V.M.Sethuraman functions as an active legislator of the mankind and an advocate for the oppressed. The poet is optimistic and at the same time is conscious of his mission when he declares thus:

A thousand gates, with wide-open arms

Have gladly welcomed me;

But I have come to sing and spread over

World’s thought- rays of verse.

Most of his poems are metaphysical and are a proof to his philosophical outlook. He is a dedicated devotee of a saint, by name Sadhu Gurusamy.The ascetic nature of the poet is clearly expressed in the following lines:

The garlands that fall around my neck

Are thorns that prick my frame:

The arrows that are shot at me

Are soft as petals of a flower.

V.M.Sethuraman who has visited U.S. many times to attend various conferences, is very much attracted by the individual freedom existing there.

Individual freedom

Exists unimpaired, unparalalled!

It is for all eyes to see!

“All for All” is practiced

With an eagerness to help those in want

Could behold - Freedom and Liberty

Keeps all hearts happy!

As a poet Vaa.Mu.See.is overjoyed to see the individual freedom existing in an unparalleled state in U.S. and he wishes to share his feelings with his readers.

Degrading meanness

Never crosses their mind of thought!

Rule of the mind

Not that of fate

But one deep thinking

Removes all cares and worries from them

Moral obligations rule their hearts

Strength of convictions in American’s might!

V.M.Sethuraman has got a clear and open mind and appreciates various countries with a view to exhibit their special characteristics. He has written many poems on almost all the countries he has visited and he is the only poet who has written travelogue in verse.

Of course it needs an elaborate volume to illustrate the poetic genius of V.M.Sethuraman.Briefly speaking he may rightly be called as “An Apostle of Humanism.”

He works for the emancipation of mankind from the clutches of oppression, religious fundamentalism and racism. Not only India but also the entire mankind should be proud

To have such a poet who always acts as a missionary with a zest and zeal to redeem the mankind from all sorts of evils.

(Translations of the poems: Dr.Krishna Srinivas)

Buddha’s Tears



“Buddha’s Tears” is a play written by V.M.Sethuraman as a spontaneous response to the genocide committed on Eelam Tamils by the then Jayawardhane government

in Srilanka.The anguish and agony of the innocent people infuriate the poet who angrily questions thus:

Why kill innocents?

Why rape lovely belles?

Why crush baby flesh?

Why all these holocaust?

Unable to find any suitable reply these questions tour around the world. Be it Chechneya, Serbia or any other place where genocide and bloody massacre occur

These questions have to be asked in a suitable way to put an end to the mass-hysteria aroused by racial discrimination.

When the poet sympathetically cries in a desperate mood after seeing the plight of the helpless creatures, massacred mercilessly, the outpour has a universal appeal. The following lines not only depict the empathy of the poet but also bring to the reader’s mind, the cry of the mankind suffering everywhere.

What harm they did

To court this deadly end?

What harms maids did?

To have their limbs madly raped?

They are struck dumb

Speechless in pain

All solitaired

And ignobly orphaned.

The poet appeals to the people who remain as silent witnesses to these atrocities committed in the name of religion, race and ethnicity.

See their blood rolling in rills

See your cities entombed in dark

You have lost all.

Lost all my sympathy.

The poet longs for a noble soul to come forward to wipe their tears.

Cries and shrieks

Sieve your skies

Agony…agony…agony everywhere

Not a noble soul to wipe their tears!