About 4 months ago, something happened in a campus in Chennai. Some trees were mercilessly chopped off and some were ‘trimmed’. What makes this worse is the fact that the Institution is known for its aesthetic sense and the founder of the Institution- who in fact revolutionised the dance form in terms of breaking the shackles and bringing in some novel ideas on stage - was known for her love for nature. She will surely be turning in her grave as her ideals have been murdered by people who manage the Institution now.
Personally speaking, it
affected me a lot not just because I love nature and trees, but also because I
have a special attachment with that campus, my childhood memories being the
main reason. Though I came to realise this much later, seeds for my love for
nature and also my sense of aesthetics were sown in this campus. I also
remember sowing seeds in that campus on the first day of Aadi every year.
Though the two seeds in the previous two lines are different, there is an
irrefutable connection between the two.
I have always wondered as to
why a majority of humans do not pay attention to trees around them; as to why
they do not respect the trees; as to why they do not love the trees; as to why
they turn a blind eye to the cutting of trees.
In one of the recent books I
read- The Island of Missing Trees- the author Elif Shafak says trees can
communicate between themselves and that the trees have feelings though this may
differ from the feelings of humans. As per Indian astrology too, each of the 27
stars is associated with a particular tree and if there is a defect in the
horoscope, people are advised to plant a particular tree or at least water the
tree. Note also that all major temples have a ‘stala vruksha’.
It is easy to brush all these
aside as blind beliefs and superstitions. But what cannot be and should not be
brushed aside is the fact that trees have the freedom to live in this world as
much as humans have. Therefore, humans have no right to cut any tree.
The song of the day may not
have any relation-direct or indirect- with trees. However, it talks about
shedding violence and inculcating a spirit of camaraderie among humans.
The beginning of Kamsam
Dhwamsam from Keecharallu (1991) itself makes me feel the pain of the trees. The
humming by SPB, Chitra and chorus sounds like the agony suffered by those
beautiful creatures whose language is not understood by humans. The drums,
which play only the second beat of the 4-beat cycle prominently and the claps
which do the same in the next half, show the depth of the pain. The piped
instruments too sound a melody which is abstract.
The MaNipravaLam in the
Pallavi-which has a mix of Telugu and Hindi- is more relevant as it talks about
arts- fine arts at that! The irony here cannot be missed as the Institution
under reference is known for teaching and training students on Fine arts!
The piped instruments continue
sketching an abstract melody in the first interlude with the bass guitar and
the rhythm guitar nodding their heads rather nonchalantly. The short silence in
the interlude and the melody that follows, show images of violent acts.
It is the second interlude
which musically depicts the inhuman act (or should I say ‘human act’ as humans
have become immune to all these and have learnt to accept everything having
lost the ability to question things which violate nature?). In the first
segment, I see the first act of ‘cutting’ with the perpetrators going about
their job with glee, while in the next segment the trees fall one by one. In
the last segment, the trees utter a cry inaudible to insensitive souls.
Nothing can be more
appropriate than the lines in the second charaNam-
You are the Temple of ‘ta ka
tai/ ta tai’.
Naatya, Sangeetam, Shudhdha
Dhanyasi..
Is anybody listening?
