PARDON ME FATHER

I could not rescue him from the clutches of that nymphomaniac and vampire. There may be an exception or two but an average Indian woman desires from the depths of her soul that her husband should live long and she should pass away before him. She performs prayers and fasts on auspicious days for this purpose. She in spite of being 3years elder to him did away with my father in a planned and premeditated manner and I was a silent and helpless witness to it. He suffered 1st Heart attack in November 1997. Cardiologists performed angiogram and advised open heart surgery. Because there were blocks in vessels and one valve was damaged. But she successfully thwarted it and without my knowledge or informing any one got angioplasty done in Mediciti (Hyderabad: AP; India) her plan was to do away with him and live long, and establish herself as his wife through his books. He was succumbing to her blackmail. My overwhelming hunch is that she was threatening him with social insult and humiliation if he parts ways with her. Between 1997-2007, she played football with his body. He used to be hospitalized every now and then with swollen body and heart pain. Because of damaged valve pumping was impaired and water used to accumulate in the system. Every time I used to force her to hospitalize him. He used be in ICCU for a couple of days and recover marginally. After each visit to hospital he was getting debilitated gradually. He was put on wheel chair. He was virtually under house arrest. He was not allowed to speak to friends and family members. Visitors were kept away. He was taking Lasix (Tablet: is a diuretic that is used to treat fluid accumulation, caused by heart failure, cirrhosis, chronic kidney failure, and nephrotic syndrome.) to flush out water accumulated in his body. This creates a painful dilemma in me whether my interference in his health matters was just. As his son it was my moral duty to protect him. But I sometimes feel if I were not to interfere she would have put him to death long ago and thus he would have escaped from physical and mental torture quite early.

Towards perhaps end of the month of March she withdrew medication. He got swollen suddenly and that condition continued till the last day i.e. 30th may 2007. Each time I visited I used to tell that witch to take him to hospital. But after a couple of visits I got convinced that she made up her mind this time to do away with him. I requested a bastard who was feigning to be a friend of mine, who incidentally happens to be a legal luminary of this region to send a doctor friend to that place and ascertain the exact condition of his health. But of no avail.

I kept on telling him to come out of that place and lead a normal and healthy life. Her blackmail gained an upper hand and I lost in my efforts to restore health to him and bring him back to civilized society. O God pardon me for not being able to outmaneuver her machinations. Pardon me father.
http://seshendrasharma.weebly.com

Seshendra: A multi-faceted littérateur

A poet, free verse writer, lyricist, critic, novelist, story-teller and a theatre artiste – it is very difficult to find a personality with such versatility in literature. But one would find this quality in Guntur Seshendra Sarma, an unsung hero in Indian literary world. Not many from this generation is aware that he was a trend setter in all genres of literature and that he was the second person to have been nominated for the Nobel Literature prize for his contribution to literary field from India, the first being Rabindranath Tagore. As we observe his eighth death anniversary on May 30, Madhuri Dasagrandhi recalls the unusual talent of this great poet from the Telugu land.
He was a man who communicated with the catchy vocabulary and the emotion which made every being mesmerize to him and his work. He essentially communicated his expression through expressing ideas in a literal sense metaphorically. He had written poems in all genres of Telugu literature – prosody, songs, free verse, long poems, Kavyas, epics, poetics like “Kavi Sena Manifesto,” literary criticism, stories and dramas.
Born on October 20, 1927, in Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh, Seshendra Sarma developed interest in many languages since his childhood. He completed his graduation from Andhra University and Law from Madras University. “I have developed poetry in the childhood itself as I felt that human life is the basic source and reason for writing poetry. Life has given me the chance to write poetry. I always believed that the poet always plunges into the life in its ups and downs. Only a poet can feel problems and sufferings of others as his own with kind heart,” he said in an interview.
Seshendra always believed that poetry instructs the goodness. It has the power to change the society in a good way. “A good book gives mental peace and moral power and it attracts the reader. Reader then heart-fully accepts the words of the poet. A person who is strongly attracted by the words of the poet does not bend towards bad things and deeds. Willfully, voluntarily he changes his life style in a right path. Poets are visionaries and a poet means a saint indeed,” he said.
Seshendra never believed in “isms” influencing the poetry – whether it is feminism or “Dalitism” or “Minoritism.” According to him, 90 per cent of the people in the world are poor and downtrodden and poverty is common in all sections of people. Once poverty is eliminated, all these differences disappear and only poetry remains. Poetry emerges only from kindness,” he said.
Seshendra’s books have been translated into English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Greek and were widely read including Bangladesh and Pakistan and other countries besides India. His first book was a translation from Mathew Arnold’s ‘Shahnama’ the Persian epic, as ‘Sorabu’; in Telugu and was published in 1951. His renowned works also comprise of ‘Sheshajyotsna’. ‘Burning Son’, Poet’s Note book ‘Arc of Blood’(Rakta Rekha), ‘Turned into Water and Fled Away’, Gorilla, ‘Me and My Peacock or The Peacock and My Me’ and notorious ‘Love Letters’(Prema Lekhalu).
Epics like ‘Adhunika Maha Bharatam’, ‘Jana Vamsham’. They give the highest place to Sheshendra in Indian literary field. He is famous for the best literary critic for writing, ‘Shodasi’, (A Tantric Commentary of Sundara Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana), ‘Swarna Hamsa’ (Commentary of Harsha Bhatta’s Naishadiya Charitam), and ‘Kavi Sena Manifesto’ Adhunika Kavya Shastra. Late His prominent book ‘My Country My People and Selected Poetry’ was nominated for Noble prize in 2004. He received several prestigious awards including Central Sahitya Academy Award in 1994 and Sahithya Academy Fellow Ship too. The Prime Minister of India, Dr.Manmohan Singh felicitated Sheshedra at Sahitya Akademy on its 50th Golden Jubilee Year in 2004.
Besides poems Seshandra Sarma wrote short stories, plays and novels. His most controversial novel is ‘Kamothshav’, which had been serialized in one of the popular Telugu newspaper two decades ago and was published as book in 2006.
On a personal front Seshendra Sarma was a contented man he always said “The seed of vision of my life had lead in my childhood. Gradually that has grown up and became a vast tree.” Until the literature exists his poems and work towards the literature field will be remembered.
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with inputs from S Laxmi Narayana’s interview with Seshandra Sarma in 2004
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Metro - India : English Daily : 24 May 2015