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Surpanakha Complaining to Ravana

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जो उलझ कर रह गई है फाइलों के जाल में

Jo Ulajh Kar Rah Gayi Hai Phailo Ke Jaal Me

Adam Gondvi
1 min read 4 versesCorruptionVillagePoverty

4 verses · ~1 min

जो उलझ कर रह गई है फाइलों के जाल में गाँव तक वो रोशनी आएगी कितने साल में

बूढ़ा बरगद साक्षी है किस तरह से खो गई रमसुधी की झोपड़ी सरपंच की चौपाल में

खेत जो सीलिंग के थे सब चक में शामिल हो गए हमको पट्टे की सनद मिलती भी है तो ताल में

जिसकी क़ीमत कुछ न हो इस भीड़ के माहौल में ऐसा सिक्का ढालिए मत जिस्म की टकसाल में

इति

Adam Gondvi

The Poet

अदम गोंडवी

Adam Gondvi

1947 · 2011

If poetry exists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, Adam Gondvi was Hindi literature's most uncompromising voice. Born Ram Nath Singh on October 22, 1947, in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, he lived the quiet life of a farmer while writing verses of fierce revolutionary anger. Gondvi took the delicate and traditionally romantic form of the Urdu ghazal and turned it into a weapon. He used its strict meter to expose the hypocrisy of the caste system, the cruelty of feudal oppression, and the deep corruption within Indian politics. When he wrote that he would take the reader to the alleys of the Dalits, he was challenging mainstream literature to abandon its comfortable illusions and confront the starving reality of rural India. He rejected political patronage and lived his entire life in modest circumstances before passing away in 2011. Adam Gondvi remains the fearless conscience of the marginalized. His words strike with undeniable force.

Surpanakha Complaining to Ravana

Paired Painting

Surpanakha Complaining to Ravana

This profound canvas brings to life a pivotal and dramatic turning point from the Aranya Kanda of the epic Ramayana. Here, the mutilated demoness Surpanakha, having suffered humiliation at the hands of Lakshmana in the forest of Panchavati, approaches her powerful brother Ravana to demand vengeance. Raja Ravi Varma captures the raw psychological tension of the moment, the sorrow and rage etched upon Surpanakha as she recounts her ordeal, and the smoldering fury awakened in Ravana, whose ornate crown and pensive yet dangerous posture foretell the impending tragedy of the abduction of Sita and the cataclysmic war of Lanka. Through rich textures and masterly handling of light and shadow, the artist elevates a mythological encounter into a deeply human drama of pride, grief, and destiny.

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