I have very little memories of my grandmother and from whatever I recollect of her, she never told us any stories. But there is one poem, which was always recited by her, as attributed by all my relatives and parents, and it is one of the most influential poems I have read in any language. It was written by Baddena as part of his Sumathi Satakam, which goes like this.

ఎప్పటి కెయ్యది ప్రస్తుత
మప్పటికా మాటలాడి అన్యుల మనసుల్
నొప్పించక తానొవ్వక 
తప్పించుకు తిరుగు వాడు ధన్యుడు సుమతీ

which translates to: “One who always speaks relevant to the context without hurting others’ sentiments and retains enough of himself to escape unhurt from those scenarios is truly a blessed soul”. (The translation does not do enough justice either to the brevity or to the beauty of the original; it is just an attempt to elucidate the poem to my readers.)

I have been guilty of neglecting my mother tongue (Telugu), but I was fortunate enough to be brought up in a family, which quoted these poems, and somehow I’m glad that I remembered them till the date I was able to grasp their meaning. Ever since I got matured enough to put these lines into perspective, I wanted to live my life in the exact way described in the poem. To be an escapist came naturally to me, but that is not why the poem struck a chord with me. It is also because it asks you to be an individual without hurting others’ feelings.  The escapism part may be seen as a weakness at times, but it always has worked for me so far.

The poem also advocates caution on the spoken word, something that can be misconstrued in a number of ways. However, the beauty of it is that it never suggests you to conform to everything that was expected of you; instead the poet implies that getting away with a faith in your belief system was more important.

The last two lines in the poem were particularly impressive, at least for me, since they tell you to view the others and your self on an equal pedestal. This is not about being politically correct, or running away from facing situations. This has more to do with the tolerance one should develop towards different points of view, without compromising on one’s own.

I can’t claim to have followed or of being particularly successful implementing it in every scenario that I ever faced, but the poem has always been a guiding force in my introspection. I know I have a long way to go before I can successfully emulate these great words in every aspect of my life, but as of today, I’m thankful that I found something that I can agree with philosophically, and at times that alone is very calming. Even if I were unable to match these words with my actions, that should not take anything away from their relevance or greatness, and this is a humble effort on my part to make this poem resonate in future.