Ramanan

There will be no malayali who doesn't know Ramanan. He was the symbol of romantic love and loss and desperation. I like to call him, the mallu Devdas, even though its unfair to Ramanan, because Ramanan is nothing like Devdas in personality. But yea, the the whole idea is same.

The story line is cliché: Lover boy, Ramanan, who is a poor shepherd in love with rich and beautiful Chandrika. Ramanan being a gentleman to the fingertips like to keep his relationship with Chandrika completely platonic. He warns her of the consequences if they want to be together - the not so forgiving society and  poverty. Chandrika convinces him that her love for him is unwavering, and society has not interfere in matters of heart. Her only happiness is to be with him, materialistic pleasures does not bother her. Convinced of her commitment and her deep love for him, poor Ramanan is ecstatic, but his happiness is short lived.

Her family pressurizes her to marry another person (obviously!) who satisfies their status, and she, though unhappy (of course!) agrees to her parent's wishes. A depressed, desperate, angry and broken hearted Ramanan, commits suicide by hanging himself, and of course, on her wedding day.

So, every one know the story. Most of them also know that this is a real story that happened to the Poet Changampuzha KrishnaPillai's closed friend and also a writer Edappalli. Probably it is this, that made this poem a rage at that time, making it one of the bestselling poem's of all time. And yes, Ramanan represented many heartbroken young men, and Chandrika the vicious cold hearted young women.

Even though, I have read some part of this poem at various stages  of my life, for example the description of nature and forest in my school, the romance between the couple in the form of songs of the movie, the emotional breakdown of Ramanan again from the movie song, but they don't really give a clear picture abut what was in Chandrika's mind? Why did she do what she did? I thought it was not given its due importance, the whole narrative is from Ramanan's view point. I thought may be something is more in the book.

That's the reason I decided to read the poem myself to see if Chandrika has something to say. But unfortunately the poem also ends up glorifying Ramanan. How he was the skeptic in the relationship and how Chandrika convinced of her love to him, how her parents will never say anything against her wishes, how she is not bothered about societies perceptions. And yet the only justification that she gives to marry another person is that she cannot go against her parents wishes! She doesn't even meet him in person to tell him.

I mean, yes if your closed friend commits suicide because of a failed love affair, the normal thing to do is to write a poem to express your hate towards society and romance and throw some mud at the person who you think is responsible 😏My problem with the poem is its a bit shallow, and a bit materialistic and superficial somehow, I am not really convinced about the whole setup 😃