To Raja Ravi Varma
Oh, Ravi Varma, you are a legend!
When I look at this Indian postage stamp
(brought out in your honour),
a miniature of your self-portrait
with the inset of your painting
of the legendary Damayanti
with the mystic swan,
I am of course reminded
of the well-known little narrative,
the episode from the grand epic—the Mahabharata:
Princess Damayanti interacting with
the soothsayer-swan, which,
at the moment, is suggesting to her
to take King Dushyanta as her spouse—
in the ensuing swayamvara, the moment of choice
(of a husband from among the suitors),
and Damayanti listening,
with bated breath, to the mystic bird.
My stream of consciousness takes me
to the originals—oil on canvas:
the strikingly common feature in both the portraits,
I must observe, are the observant eyes—
Your bright, beady, artistic eyes
And Damayanti’s glittering eyes
that nearly give away the excitement
surging in her, the bhava;
and her bhava, too, her posture.
My thought stream takes me further
to the other eyes in your enchanting array of portraits—
of the celestial Mohini with her bewitching eyes
And the legendary Shakuntala with her alluring, lovelorn eyes—
to mention just two.
Your artistic mind visualized the scenes
and your eyes didn’t fail to capture the bhavas,
and the bhavas, that is, the feelings
together with the complementary postures.
Oh legend, you have had your accolades—
national as well as international;
You also had to face turbulent criticism;
you still face it.
But, as we know, it’s not the grounded aircraft,
but the flying plane that faces turbulence!
***
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