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Love at the time of my college days (1950) (Stephen Nadukudiyil, Florida)

Published on 14 February, 2018
Love at the time of my college days (1950) (Stephen Nadukudiyil, Florida)
വസന്തകാലമേ മറഞ്ഞുപോയ് നീ
അപ്പൂക്കള്‍ പുഞ്ചിരിച്ചകാലമോര്‍ത്ത് ഞാന്‍ കരഞ്ഞിടാം
കരങ്ങള്‍ കോര്‍ത്ത് നിന്ന്‌നമ്മള്‍ പ്രേമഗാനലോലരായ്
മരങ്ങള്‍ മന്ദമന്ദമാടിനിന്നു കൊച്ചുതെന്നലില്‍
ഉഡുക്കള്‍ നിശ്ചലങ്ങളായ് നോക്കിനിന്നു സുസ്മിതം.

The first five lines of the hit tragic love song of the 1950s Kerala. A song sung with passion by high school and college students almost always at the end of the year hostel socials especially of mixed colleges in the state and hummed by the young at heart across the land in those days. It is the heart breaking lament of a lover whose soul mate was untimely snatched away from by death. The song portrays the agony of the one who had lost the love of his love. The song became very popular because it epitomized the pain of parting too.

In those days Valentine’s Day was not celebrated in the Kerala as it is celebrated today. Few knew about St. Valentine. Fewer knew that the first ever valentine was the one written by St. Valentine himself. According to the legend, the night before he was executed St. Valentine, then a Catholic Priest, was sentenced to death by Claudius the Cruel (Claudius II) for defying his orders banning all marriages in his empire and had performed marriages secretly, wrote a farewell letter to his jailer’s daughter with whom he had fallen in love while in jail and signed it, “From your Valentine.”

St. Valentine, according to the legend was beaten to death and his head was cut off on the 14th of February on or about the year 278. For his martyrdom Valentine was named a saint after his death. From then on Western Christians started celebrating February 14th as Valentine’s Day, on St. Valentine/s Day. Gradually it spread to the rest of the World. Today Valentine’s Day is recognized as a significant religious and commercial celebration of romance in most of the world.

Come February, Love spreads its Wings. Loved is in the Air for people to inhale its sweet aroma. For the young at heart and even for the not so young at heart Valentine’s Day is a day of celebration of love. For the old it is a day of nostalgic memories – of dating, going to propose, proposal, and acceptance. For the unlucky – already in love, sorry I am already booked, better luck next time, rejected, broken hearts.
Valentine’s Day is all about love and celebrating Valentine’s Day is celebrating love. Hearts swelled with love, lovers welcomes the month of February with romantic fervor. Love becomes the music and language of people and the air becomes saturated with love.

Love is blind, it knows no barriers and it follows no rules. When love swells in the heart, no force on earth is powerful enough to stem its flow. Parental ties, family ties, religious ties, nationality ties, all crumble once hearts are smitten by the love bug.
Western world started celebrating Valentine’s Day only in the last quarter of the third century. But the celebration of love started when Dikinesh of ancient Ethiopia (australopithecine Lucy) with girly pink nails and neatly plaited hair, who walked the grassy slopes of Entoto Hills of Addis Abba grazing cattle some 100,000 years ago and had crushes on boys. And the celebration of love will definitely not end with the flirty expressions enacted by the 18 year old Vimala College Thrissur B.Com student Priya Prakash Varrier. And it will not end by Vineeth Srivansan’s singing of the song “Mani..” composed by Rahman.

Love defies all kinds of oppositions be it parental, social or royal. Powerful love stories provide material for romantic poems and captivating love stories. Readers hold love stories in very high esteem. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an adoring love story, a story that is enshrined in the hearts readers of all times past and present.

The love story of Moghul Prince Salim, the son of Akbar the Great of India and Anarkali has no parallel. Akbar was so outraged by his son’s love affair with a courtesan named Anarkali that the father decided to wage war against his son. Defeated in battle, Salim was sentenced to death. Anarkali, to save her beloved Salim from the jaws of death renounces her love and agrees to be entombed alive in a brick wall right in front of her lover’s eyes. Salim and Anarkali are fondly remembered people all over the world and held in esteem by lovers on Valentine’s Day.

The Taj Mahal is a story in marble and precious stones – the story of a man’s love for his wife. But never in the history of mankind did a man love his wife more than Shajahan or a woman her husband more than Mumtaz. Fate was cruel. Death snatched his wife away from him while she was giving birth to their fourteenth child. Heartbroken Shajahan ordered the court into mourning for two years and soon undertook the task of building the world’s most beautiful monument to the memory of his beloved. Taj Mahal today stands as the proudest symbol of eternal love.

No love story has touched the hearts of Malayalees more than the real life tragic love story of Moideen and Kanchana Mala of Mukkom. Kozhikode. Moideen belonged to an aristocratic and influential Muslim family and Kanchana Mala was the daughter of a Hindu Thiya aristocratic landlord. Their families objected vehemently to their love affair. Kanchana Mala lived in virtual house arrest for 22 years while, Moideen led the life of a social political activist. During these years they lived without renouncing their love and communicated through letters in a language they had developed. When discovered Kanchana Mala was beaten mercilessly by her relatives and Moideen was stabbed by his own father. Still they refused to part ways. Moideen miraculously escapes and saved his father from criminal proceedings by telling the police that it was an accident. This transformed his father’s attitude towards him but the father died soon afterwards. Moideen and Kanchana decides to elope but Moideen dies in an accident while returning after collecting their passports. Kanchana decides to commit suicide but was stopped by Moideen’s mother who accepted her into Moideen’s family as an unmarried widow. Tomorrow, February 14th when the world celebrates Valentine’s Day, Malayalees all over the world will remember the eternal love stories of the above mentioned lovers.

Love at the time of my college days (1950) (Stephen Nadukudiyil, Florida)
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Stephen Nadukudiyil 2018-02-14 19:18:58
Kindly note the corrections:  Para 2, line 4 - after Catholic Priest please add "who" - Para 7   correct spelling is ABABA - Addis Ababa. 5th para lovers welcome. Thanks
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