Unfit to live in the modern times, the European Lions have enlisted themselves among the extinct species. How did these roaring jungle kings turn unfit? While the dog and fox keep barking and yelling why did the king perish? The modern man who does not even think of this extinction, has no regrets over it.There are taxidermists. They even seem to know a special mime language to communicate with the dead animals. They even make by frozen-dry process the dead animals look alive. And the jungle kings, on this reanimation, appear to be challenging the modern man. The lions which were caged by man have stopped roaring and are on display in the museum. Now none could see the European lion alive. You could even announce a prize for getting species alive or dead.
Creatures anxious to be enlisted among the extinct species are countless. Modern man’s eyes are now set on birds and animals which have crossed the endangered stage nearing the end. The recent explosion of knowledge which touched the peak in the present century is also the origin of the danger. These animals refuse to live with the self-seeking man who never gets tired of his shameless encroachment. They were charred to extinction by his so called act of conservation. This selfish man forced the royal power kneel down before him. They vanished. Not satisfied with this, he even clipped the fluttering wings of the hovering birds. While they still managed to survive, the vultures hounded them to death Besides Andril1 and Annam2 there are many birds and animals which are extinct today. Now the European lion has joined the list. Who forced them into extinction? Who lamed them?
Time ?
Or
Man?
Why could not these creatures win over man in the current of time? Even if they could not top the list, couldn’t they atleast manage to find a place in the hierarchy like the dog or the fox? Were they ashamed of even being pitted against man? Or is it that they sought an end, the way they lived respectable to the core? As if not content with burying theses species, Time seems to be enjoying itself over burning their effigies. Why so cruel is this Time? It is then inevitable that the sad end which the European lions faced will come upon some men too. The lesson taught to man by these dead lion is;
Learn to live with the Time!
Don’t swim against the current!
Who is this man swimming against the current of Time? He is now and here, anywhere and everywhere; he roars on the so called conventions; is proud of keeping up the tradition.
If it is poetry,
he demands grammar, meter and other aspects of prosody. Paradoxes find themselves pitted against his verbal jugglery.
If its is music,
he mourns over the absence of Thala and Laya8; and he is severely critical of the misbeats and variant rythms even when found effective otherwise, for they deviate from the conventions.
In painting and sculpture,
he considers aesthetic only the representational works which by convention, compare feet to lotus eyes to spear. He feels haunted on seeing Pablo Picasso and runs for life as if chased by a witch on seeing Salvador Dali.
The astounding abstract human figure of Henry Moore is just a disfigured one to him. Modern Art is to him nothing more than a lump of clay. This traditionalist who cannot keep aside the Bible or Geetha sees in all these innovative experimentation only.
"An evening flower
Reaching God’s shoulders
without a bath
after a congress
with bee4 "
Even the flowers meant for worshipping, he feels, are terribhly stinking. Poor man!
He shuts his mind against the liberated forces of creativity!
When
Impressionism
Expressionism
Cubism
Fauvism
Surrealism and
Futurism
managed to reach the time’s shores, why does he try in vain to swim against this all –consuming current? Time, out of sheer pity, has only sent him to the cage and not to the scaffolds yet. He will face the same end as the European lions., if he continues to keep mourning over the dead and the dying. Taxidermists are there to process them to be exhibits.
Annam
Andril
the European lion
with these, the hardcore traditionalist will also embellish the list.
Let this swimming-against-current be a severe and cold warning.
- - - -
Notes
A mythological bird of the Cangam Age known for an inseparable companionship with the mate.
A mythological bird of the Cangam Age which could take in milk leaving out water.
A strictly regulated rhythmic beat and the aesthetic awareness of it.
A Tamil poem entitled Unorthodoxy by Neelamani (Dheerka Ragaigal an anthology of New Poetries in Tamil).
The essay : translated from the Tamil original by Sri. G. Venkataraman
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