One more blog has arrived. There is no particular purpose except to share my thoughts. Ideas. Opinions. Insights. If I may call them.

'Insights' - now that I have said the M word (M word = management jargon!!), let me spend a few sentences on this. Perhaps the most abused word. I have heard guys argue on what is an issight and what is a mere observation. There are arguments on what is an 'understanding' and what is an 'insight'.

To my mind, insight is that which somebody can see - which most others would be able to see only with hindsight! Now, this might seem as playing with words but then all thought process is inextricably linked to play of words.

Philosophers and liguists have often seem to have wondered on what came first. Thought ? or Word? It look obvious : thought must have come first. Only when thought comes first, one tries to find a 'word' for it. Right? But then when you look at babies, this great 'understanding' gets blown away. The babies seem to babble away to glory. Lots of words. They might seem mere babble to us but to babies they must be words right?

Abirami andhadhi says " Sollum porulum ena nadamadum thunaivarudan pullum parimala poongodiye". It means, "The Goddess Abirami is in a devine embrace with the dancing Shiva - and you cannot see them apart - just like words and their meanings are".

The great sanskrit poet Kalidasa also has said something to this effect - which I just am unable to recall right now.

Talking of poems, I saw a cute tamil poem as I was coming to office this morning :

" Netru Tholaitha ennai
Indru nan thedikondirukiren
Nalai kidaithu viduven enra nambikkail" (By "SendanAmudan")

Roughly translating:

" I was lost yesterday
Trying to find that 'I' today
In the hope of finding it tomorrow"

It is very difficult to translate poems. Poetry takes many short cuts and uses language a lot more succinctly than prose does. Translating that without losing the soul of the poem requires an acute understanding of the poet's thoughts, mastery of both the languages and then some...

The great poet Bharathi talks about this : "Aazndhirukkum kaviyulam karkilar..." : "you guys learn so many things. But you don't know how to understand the depths of the poetic heart"...

In this poem I saw this morning, I see lots of depth. Lots of sorrow. Lots of faith. Lots of pain but lots of optimism too.

Not sure whether I translated properly.

The name of the poet : SendanAmudan - that is an interesting touch. I remembered Kalki and Ponniyin Selvan by that name. That has to wait till tomorrow!