Bring out the Indianness in the Poem by A.K. Ramanujam

A.K. Ramanujam, born in India in 1929, was a famous linguist, poet & translator. His first book of poems

"The Striders" was published inn 1966. A second volume "Relations" appeared soon. Most of his poems have their origin in recollected personal emotion. They deal with the poem memory of his relations & ambiguous freedom that life confers. The theme is made clear in one of his translations from Tamil:

"Like a hunted deer on the wide white salt land a flayed hide turned inside out, one may not escape

But living among relations binds the feet".

Ramanujams exile in Chicago has made him consider "search for one's root" which is the integral part of his poetry. This search is poetically realized in two ways. One through the exploration of the racial past with its myth and tradition and the other, through the repossession of his familial past. The poem Small scale reflections on a large house depicts the hindu joint family. The images presented in the poem delinneate a matrix of human relationships and a life with its private joys & sorrows. The