Interview with Uma Devi

It was in the rebroadcast of Tamilkkoodal at night on 11-Sep-09, I watched the interview with Uma Devi. My exposure to Tamil literary magazines has been reduced of late and hence I failed to notice this name. As usual, Gajendran was driving the interview. As being an observer, I noticed that she identifies her with dalit writing. Few key points of her point of view are as given below:

1. A writer must involve in field work for the evolution of the society. If the writing is not reaching commoners, then the bookish work is not useful to the society.
2. The media is driven by male chauvinists and is utilizing the modern female feminist writings for commercial benefits. The so called feminists who imitate male in every activity like dressing, smoking, leading a bar life are only victims of emotional writing utilizing the identity of self and using feminine language that expresses body, mind and loneliness of women which may have commercial success but do not have any value to the society.
3. What is useful to the society is to write about the majority of the people and invoke them socio-politically to raise their standard of living.
4. Buddhism is one religion that saw feminism as equality of human beings.
   

So today, I tried to find some of Uma Devi’s writing from the internet and found one at http://www.keetru.com/visai/july05/umadevi.php. But I am not sure, if this Uma Devi is the same Uma Devi I saw at Makkal Tholaikkaatchi.

The untitled poetry that starts as மலர் சரத்தின் வாட்டம் போல் has the following lines:

நா விளாசி புணர்ந்த
இரக்கமற்ற ஞமலிகள்
கோரைப் பற்களை நீட்டி
கொழுத்த என் மார்புச் சதைகளை
குதப்பிக் கொண்டு
வெளியேறிய பின்னும்
தலைக்கு மேல்
காளி
உக்கிரத்தில்
நர்த்தனம் ஆடுகிறாள்.

May be if Kutty Revathy wrote it she would have written கொழுத்த என் மார்புச் சதைகளை as கொழுத்த என் முலைகளை, but they do not make any difference. மார்புச் சதை or முலை are but words when visualized do show only one physical part of the body.

Do you find any social value? Ultimately, human beings need fame and recognition; ideologies are second to fame.
I just remembered Ellsworth Toohey from Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead