Wars, Warriors and the Phoenix

 

Though, not a frequent movie goer, an unexpected invite to watch Ponniyin Selvan reached last month, on the third day of its release. Being weak in history and remembering dates is a boredom, I decided to know about the movie in advance. Unlike other commercial movies, epic movies contain plethora of characters with tough names. Moreover, heroes are portrayed more heroically having known by different names their valour earned them. So, the attempt was to make thorough the characters and the actors well in advance before the real story took place on the screen. (See the difficulty in watching a movie! Spending an amount of Rs. 200 for cinema ticket, around Rs. 100 as refreshment (ice-cream plus popcorn is much needed), Rs. 50 as travel expense and in addition to the expense part, a painstaking understanding of the plot and characters are badly required beforehand to follow the storyline properly. My family laughed at my 'folly')

The hardest part was that, the actors of the movie were scarcely familiar, especially, the contemporary Tamil and Kannada actors. Oh, my bad! Still, I was ready to brave the attempt. Many names and their heroic lives scrolled past the eyes while browsing for the details. Adityakalikaran, Arulmozhivarman, Nandhini, Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar were some of the prominent characters who caught my attention. Different from all, Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar casted by Sarath Kumar, aroused a different kind of interest in me. Not because he is the husband of Nandhini, the role played by the former Miss World title winner Aiswarya Rai, but the parameters with which he gauges his valour. He considers that his valour rests on the number of scars on his body. 64 scars, he claims! Villains with long marks of stitches on their face symbolising their bravery are quite common in the epics. These scars are not merely healed wounds, but are marks of never forgettable incidents of their lives. The scars that lay dormant and still until they receive a favourable prick! A prick that reddens the hitherto dead and dried up wounds!

If the number of scars decide the number of stars on your shoulder, let us count on it. There had been wars fought between great and small nations. There had been battles fought for wealth, for expansion of empires, for proclaiming the heroism of the ruler of the time and to mark one’s name in the history on his land. These had been wars that severe nations and peoples. These are the wars most often discussed in the chapters of history. These wars and war victims are commemorated by building huge monuments in their names. Semi dilapidated forts, broken weapons of the warriors, the robes worn by the rulers during the time of their death are preserved and studied by the researchers of the times. 

There are battles fought without bloodshed, without monuments and deprived of vanity of celebration, merriment and festivity! There are silent battles fought without hullaballoo, without bloodshed and with fires put off with one’s own tears. Delving deep, we can identify that we are haunted by our past. The past sketched with dark scars, the wounds etched with sharp words, days reddened with horrible incidents, memory burnt with poisoned tongues and deep lies the poor helpless soul. The blistered wounds have been dried up and healed as time passes by. 

There are discourses on marginality in popular. One such area of studies is the life and narratives of Transgenders. The liminal category of people, caught between the ‘she’ and ‘him’! One such narrative that came across recently was  I am Vidhya, a personal narrative by the trans, Vidhyaand. The author draws light upon the traumatic experiences she had since her childhood. Though being born as a boy was a boon during childhood, Sharavanan's life turned upside down once he identified the woman in him throbbing to come out. To be a man or a woman was the question he had to answer. His daunting father and bullying classmates added fuel to the fire. Once a volcano can't be stopped from eruption and so is the suppression and trauma.  Sharavanan wades through thorns and high tides to reach out to his destiny. The story of Vidhya alias Sharavanan is a message to the community on battles that are fought and won. It is the identity and self-respect that won her victory over the brutality she, like anyone of her class, encountered.

There are Sharavanas among us waiting for the right time to arrive. Scars that live with us wait for sparks to rekindle. Let these enemies of ours be defeated every now and then with our constant rising and conquering. May those sparks shine brighter to turn into fire and help one tread on it and relive like a phoenix. A phoenix is a mythical bird that is believed to have existed only one of its kind at a time. It grows old and succumbs to death by turning into ashes only to reincarnate from the ashes that burnt it to death. Let the tormented past take toll on us, burn us down and turn us into ashes. Every such experience shall result in a rebirth, the phoenix in us shall rise and fly higher spreading the newly sprouted wings to the heights yet to conquer.

Ms. Saritha. K, Head, Department of English, Al Shifa College of Arts and Science, Kizhattoor, Perinthalmanna