वह एक बूंद
by Meena Mallavarapu
Retired Teacher, Bharatiya Samskriti Vidyapith
Bangalore, India
Born in Tenali ,in coastal Andhra Pradesh in the year 1948, Meena Mallavarapu had her early education in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh and later her college education In Delhi.She holds a Masters degree in English Literature from Delhi University and a Masters degree in Hindi literature from Bangalore University.
Meena Mallavarapu developed, over the years, a keen interest in the study of languages more particularly in Hindi literature and poetry. A teaching career was for her the actualization of her childhood dream and an ambition that never wavered. A parallel interest was a deep interest in crafts and tailoring which came in extremely handy when it came to motivating underprivileged women to earn and support themselves and their families.
She taught till retirement at Bharatiya Samskriti Vidyapith college for women in Bangalore till the year 2002 and continued till recently, her teaching through voluntary organizations like Teach for Change, which have been rendering yeoman service to school going children from government schools. This was for her the most fulfilling and meaningful experience of her life.
Covid unfortunately put a stop to this engagement with children. But at high school level she continued teaching for another year or two. Concurrently she brought out a small anthology of selected poems called ‘Housle’ ( courage) in 2018. This was followed by an active phase of Hindi poetry writing through literary platforms like Pratilipi and Story Mirror. Her poetry engages with Life, Nature, Relationships – with oneself and with God. It makes no claims to either great scholarship or mastery of any system of thought or intellectual competence other than deep faith in a higher power that takes care of our lives, sees us through our trials and tribulations and gives us the strength to cope with life. her poetry follows no rules…yet it is spontaneous and comes from the heart. Her readers relate to it because they have gone through these experiences.
She is specially noted for her optimism, her faith in life and zest for living. Social justice, equality, liberty are not just words…they are synonymous with life for her. Housle ( हौसले – courage) is at all times the theme of her poetry and from it stems every solution for her. With more than a thousand poems expressing her deepest thoughts and emotions she hopes to inspire and motivate herself and a few of her readers to stand tall and face life! Considering her simple, easily comprehensible themes and language, she hopes it would touch the younger generation too! Each one of us ‘is’ a story; there is poetry all around us.. in every leaf, every flower, every life! All it needs is a little perspicacity, love and compassion to perceive it!
by Meena Mallavarapu
Retired Teacher, Bharatiya Samskriti Vidyapith
Bangalore, India