{"id":719,"date":"2015-05-18T12:28:52","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T06:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/?p=719"},"modified":"2015-05-18T12:28:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T06:58:52","slug":"the-yogi-and-the-daughter-in-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/india\/the-yogi-and-the-daughter-in-law","title":{"rendered":"The Yogi and the Daughter-in-Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a poem by Bahinabai Chaudhari<\/a>, who, in spite of being an illiterate housewife (from the Khandesh region of Maharashtra), was an accomplished poet. She verbally composed poems during her lifetime – her son wrote them down and published them after her death.<\/p>\n

I’ve attempted a translation of it, and it loses much in translation, but the original is so powerful that some of it still shines through. Here’s I have used Mom’s house<\/em> for the word maher<\/em> (which is equivalent to Hindi’s maayka<\/em>), and in-laws’<\/em> for sasar<\/em> (which is equivalent to the Hindi sasural<\/em>). These are very poor placeholders. You need to remember what life for a woman was like in the days before urban nuclear families – and all the hardships and humiliations in the big, nasty place that was the husband’s joint-family home. That’s sasar\/sasural<\/em>. And that is in contrast to the loving, caring, carefree place that was the mom’s house – the maher\/maayka<\/em>. Keep that in mind while reading the translation. <\/p>\n

If you understand Marathi, skip directly to the Ahirani original below.<\/p>\n

The Yogi and the Daughter-in-Law<\/h4>\n

Yogi:<\/p>\n

What’s this disturbance, as I sit here meditating
\nWoman, stop your mouth from blabbering<\/p>\n

‘My Mom’s-house Mom’s-house’ – this song is constantly on your lips
\nThen why did you come from your mom’s-house to your in-laws’?<\/p>\n

Daughter in law:<\/p>\n

I have cravings, says the soil of the fields,
\nSinging songs of Mom’s-house, means I’m pregnant with a girl,<\/p>\n

Pay careful attention Yogi, listen to what I say,
\nFor the daughter to have a Mom’s house, the mom toils at the in-laws’,<\/p>\n

Where’s God, Where’s God, filled up everywhere and still left over,
\nAnd the left overs have all permeated into my Mom’s house.<\/p>\n

\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0940 \u0906\u0923\u093f \u0938\u093e\u0938\u0941\u0930\u0935\u093e\u0936\u0940\u0928<\/h4>\n

I’ve reproduced the original here for you to appreciate if you
\nunderstand Marathi. (Technically, it is in Ahirani a language from the
\nKhandesh region of Maharashtra – but it’s close enough to Marathi that
\nyou should not have trouble understanding it.)<\/p>\n

\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0940:
\n\u092c\u0938\u0932\u094b \u092e\u0940 \u0926\u0947\u0935\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u0940, \u0915\u093e\u092f \u092e\u0927\u0940 \u0939\u0947 \u0938\u0902\u0915\u091f
\n\u092c\u093e\u0908 \u092c\u0902\u0926 \u0915\u0930 \u0924\u0941\u091d\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0924\u094b\u0902\u0921\u093e\u0924\u0932\u0940 \u0935\u091f\u0935\u091f<\/p>\n

“\u092e\u093e\u091d\u0902 \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930 \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930” \u0938\u0926\u093e \u0917\u093e\u0923\u0902 \u0924\u0941\u091d\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0913\u0920\u0940
\n\u092e\u0902\u0917 \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930\u0942\u0928 \u0906\u0932\u0940 \u0938\u093e\u0938\u0930\u0932\u0947 \u0915\u0936\u093e\u0938\u093e\u0920\u0940 ?<\/p>\n

\u0938\u093e\u0938\u0941\u0930\u0935\u093e\u0936\u0940\u0928:
\n\u0906\u0930\u0947, \u0932\u093e\u0917\u0932\u0947 \u0921\u094b\u0939\u093e\u092f\u0947 \u0938\u093e\u0902\u0917\u0947 \u0936\u0947\u0924\u093e\u0924\u0932\u0940 \u092e\u093e\u091f\u0940
\n\u0917\u093e\u0924\u0947 \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930\u093e\u091a\u0902 \u0917\u093e\u0928\u0902 \u0932\u0947\u0915 \u092f\u0947\u0908\u0932 \u0930\u0947 \u092a\u094b\u091f\u0940<\/p>\n

\u0926\u0947\u0930\u0947 \u0926\u0947\u0930\u0947 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928 \u090f\u0915 \u0915\u093e\u092f \u092e\u0940 \u0938\u093e\u0902\u0917\u0924\u0947
\n\u0932\u0947\u0915\u0940\u091a\u094d\u092f\u093e \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930\u093e\u0938\u093e\u0920\u0940 \u092e\u093e\u092f \u0938\u093e\u0938\u0930\u0940 \u0928\u093e\u0902\u0926\u0924\u0947<\/p>\n

\u0926\u0947\u0935 \u0915\u0941\u0920\u0947 \u0926\u0947\u0935 \u0915\u0941\u0920\u0947, \u092d\u0930\u0940\u0938\u0928\u0940 \u091c\u094b \u0909\u0930\u0932\u093e
\n\u0905\u0930\u0947, \u0909\u0930\u0940\u0938\u0928\u0940 \u092e\u093e\u091d\u094d\u092f\u093e \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930\u093e\u0924 \u0938\u093e\u092e\u093e\u0935\u0932\u093e<\/p>\n

\n

\u0932\u0947\u0915\u0940\u091a\u094d\u092f\u093e \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0947\u0930\u093e\u0938\u093e\u0920\u0940 \u092e\u093e\u092f \u0938\u093e\u0938\u0930\u0940 \u0928\u093e\u0902\u0926\u0924\u0947 (For the daughter to have a Mom’s house, the mom toils at the in-laws’). What a line!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a poem by Bahinabai Chaudhari, who, in spite of being an illiterate housewife (from the Khandesh region of Maharashtra), was an accomplished poet. She verbally composed poems during her lifetime – her son wrote them down and published them after her death. I’ve attempted a translation of it, and it loses much in translation, … Continue reading The Yogi and the Daughter-in-Law<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5,9,124],"tags":[188,51,189],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smritiweb.com\/navin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}