Bruised, but not Broken (poems)
-Challapalli Swarooparani
9. Need to Speak
My dumbness reveals
No human is seen to speak
It took a long time
Even to speak to myself
True interaction with a man
Is possible only after
Leaving all inhibitions.
It is indeed
For the union of true souls
The interaction between you and I
Is only to relax from fever and fret Generations ago
I had such experience.
It’s a rare incident
To see the smiling faces
For combination of true companions.
Where there was no mind without fear.
It is my true desire
To get back to my country school days
To go from home to school
And school to home staring at flowers Listening to twitters
Drenching with fragrance
With my innocent peers.
(Telugu: “Matlaadaali”, translated by Dr G Chenna Reddy, Dept.of English, AcharyaNagarjuna University and published in Chinuku monthly, March, 2007.)
*****
(To be continued-)
Challapalli Swaroopa Rani hails from a village, Pyaparru, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. She is one of the five daughters of Mariyamma and Mantraiah. Went to Govt school in her place, completed her college at Guntur, the District head quarters. Then shifted to Hyderabad Central University and involved in student politics as a founder member of Ambedkar Student’s Association. She had her master’s in History & Archaeology, M.Phil in Medieval History and Ph. D in Regional Studies. Swaroopa has obtained Gold Medal in her Masters Examinations. She has got her first recruitment as Asst. Professor in History at Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Srisailam and got selected as Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies in Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur. She lives in Vijayawada. Presently she is a Professor of Buddhist Studies and Director, Center for Women’s Studies in the same University. She is specialized in studies on Buddhism, Caste, Religion, Gender, Tribal Studies, People’s Culture and Literature.