'Coonalamma Croons'

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Dear RadhaChinnayana Garu:

I am truly touched and overwhelmed by your response to my idle rhymes.

Before I could read other pages, my eyes fell upon your ‘Coonalamma Croons’. They simply fascinated me. The meter is new to me and I haven’t met with anything like this in English. It is very tight and suits my satirical instincts. I will explore it further.

Below is my impromptu rendering of some of your beautiful ditties. Please don’t treat them as ‘translations’. They are more like ‘idea-stealings’. Telugu (The Italian of the East’) is full of ‘Ajanthamulu’ unlike English which bristles with ‘Hulanthamulu’.

So, ‘O Coonalamma!’ goes over into something like:
’O Radha Radhey Shyam!’.

The ‘Raadhaa Rhymes’ booklet is almost ready and you will receive a few copies soon.

More later;

Best Regards

gps

Hyderabad
16 july 2009

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O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Let me give today’s
Big & Breaking News,
Strumming Readers’ hearts;
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Stringing facts along
With a wee satire strong
As I see them belong
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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School Bags & Lessons
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Hardly three years old
Their bags 10 KGs hold
To LKGs they are sold
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

‘Sumathi Satakam’ banished
‘Vemana Satakam’ vanished
‘Pussies and Puppies’ brandished
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

‘Amma’ becomes ‘Mummy’
‘Nanna’ ‘Daddy’s’ dummy
‘Uncles & Aunties’ rummy
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Gouries and Dowries
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No groom without a dowry
Willing a virgin to marry
Brides’ lives are ever sorry
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Unread even in alphabets
Groomed only in cosmetics
Crores they demand: fanatics
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Along with their dowries
They demand other ‘sundries’
Or else you get nooses
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

In kerosene you get a soaking
Match stick for a little lighting
Saris are there for hanging
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Assemblies or ‘Dissemblies’?
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Better than our Assemblies
Are our Dhobi’s Washeries;
Debates become Debaucheries;
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

‘I’ll slash your hand
And wash away your stand’
That’s today’s brand,
I can’t anymore withstand;
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Movies & Heroes
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Clad in suit & boot
Mouthing vulgar s**t
‘Duets’ in an ugly ‘shoot’
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Songs by play-back fakes
Dialogues by other ‘takes’
Fights by Duplicates
Our Top Star fabricates
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Rung by rowdies a dozen
Swung all of a sudden
Our Hero flings them anon
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Offices & ‘Offers’
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Even a parent’s ‘papers’
Won’t move without ‘offers’
Or else they come ‘croppers’
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

‘Offers’ make ‘papers’
Waft like ‘wafers’
Or else ‘flying saucers’
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Advent of TV
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Small screen’s recent advent
Hastened viewers’ cataract
Illiteracy is its impact
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Tamil-dubbed episodes
Run for unending decades
Tear-jerking parades
O Radha Radhey Shyam!
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Leaders & Bleeders
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Eat while in Power
All that you can cover
Bloat like a lubber
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Share Market scams
Sugar-Telecom deals
Gas Agency wheels
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Bogus visas
Bofors’ Hawalas
Stuffed suit cases
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

Fodder-Fertilizer scams
Stamp paper reams
Land-grabbing schemes
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

All of us are frauds
There are no more Lords
Virtuous are now fools
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

He that is enthroned
Crams ere dethroned
The God that sentenced
Surely has swooned
O Radha Radhey Shyam!

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