What is a reader to make of these stories set (innocently) side-by-side? Is the Vedic/Puranic Aditi, who birthed Indra and thirty-three other gods, like Trishala, the mother of the Jain Tirthankara Mahavira? Is Lal Dedh like Surdas? How do we think about Amir Khusro’s devotion to his human pir in comparison to these bhaktas and their obsession with God? Myths
The storytelling is expansive and both the parts of the trilogy are replete with stories, not just popular tales of Murugan’s birth, his leaving Kailash to Pazhani in anger after losing the competition for the Fruit of Wisdom, the war with Surapadman and his victory and his marriage to Theivanai, but stories of how everything emerged from a dark, endless Vast to begin with;
Hauser also provides fascinating accounts of the various remedial methods adopted by people across centuries: from devout prayers to throwing out of earthenware, inhalation of aromatics to wearing beak-shaped masks and more.
A head-on collision with injustice, oppression, inequity, discrimination, etc., do not a good poem make. The language may be rousing, the rhythm may be seducing, yet, in the ultimate analysis, whereas the poem may delineate an injustice of history, it may not be an imaginative tour de force like Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’ or Mona Zote’s ‘What Poetry means to Ernestina in Peril’.
This verse reflects on the endless passage of time and the gradual wearing away of moments. In solitude, a chance encounter symbolizes a sudden, unexpected connection or escape from the ordinary. Amidst the turmoil, love remains patient and hopeful, waiting to embrace the boundless, timeless essence of the beloved.
His deceptively simple imageries stand as some of the finest specimens of poetry affirming his enduring legacy in a rapidly changing art world.