Now for today's verse, a love song from Avvai in 'Kurunthogai.' The love songs of the Sangam era are some of the greatest love songs ever written. But, more importantly, they are highly modern in nature. They are about almost every shade of love and are written with a subtlety that is missing even in contemporary poems. The poem we have taken up is one such.
The surface meaning is apparent. The girl's lover is not around; she is pining for him and is angry that the town sleeps peacefully. An excellent contrast is made between the girl's turmoil and the town, which is not worried about her. The poem casually tells us how deeply affected the girl is, being separated from her lover.
This poem makes me think: Is love a synonym for loneliness? Does a person feel lonelier than when they are in love? During this period, there is a constant sense of loneliness and a need for communication, not just with the lover but with the world at large. They somehow want to make the world realize the depth of affection they have for each other and want the world to participate in this enchanting new world they are building. (It is also during this stage that a person slowly realizes that it is almost impossible to express what they feel in words. ) Despite all the external manifestations of love, doubt remains about whether society really understands the person's feelings. This heightened sense of joy, coupled with the inability of words to express it, makes a person feel lonely. It is not the loneliness of a sad person. It is the loneliness of a person who has climbed the summit, is exhilarated but finds no one around who can understand the joy they are experiencing at that particular moment.
It also brings to the fore the question of our Indian society's troubled relationship with love. Bharathiyar wrote a poem wherein he was very angry with people who praise love when it appears in literature but completely oppose it when it happens in real life. We read about khap panchayats and their diktat against love regularly. Why is it that our society is so scared of love? I think it has to do with the fact that 'Love is Blind.' I know it is a cliché and is generally used in a derogatory fashion, but I use it differently here. What I mean is that when people are in love, they are blind to the ways of society. They cannot see the various divisions in society: divisions based on caste, race, religion, class, and whatnot. For them, these are unnecessary divisions; in a way, it is during this period of love that human beings return to their primal state. A state wherein another person is just a human being, and there need not be any other identity. This notion challenges all the divisions society holds dear, hence the clash and intolerance towards love. A community that wants to protect its identity will always be at loggerheads with love which wants to destroy such identities.