Readers Write In #782: April, May
- Trinity Auditorium
- Mar 9
- 2 min read
By V Vijaysree
A group of roadside Romeos are cycling through the dismal city streets. They can barely pedal. Their leaden feet refuse to do their bidding, but at one point, they start dancing out their angst. Next, they get on a bus. Like a gymnast on the apparatus, the lead dancer casually executes a back flip using the overhead grab rails. The only people on the bus, all grey-haired, are having a good time amongst themselves, while the young men’s target audience – the young women of course – are nowhere to be seen, and oh the agony of it!
These are scenes from the item number, April Mayile in Idhayam (1991). Prabhu Deva, the lead dancer, was young then. My friends and I took Ladies Special buses to go to Ladies Colleges in Madras. We did not realize how essential we were to the cityscape till this song broke it to us: we were a breath of fresh air, a splash of color, a sight which brightened people’s day. This love letter to young women of the city – at once heartfelt and silly – still makes me smile.
Vaali, poet-lyricist, one ups the British poet T.S. Eliot and says both April and May are the cruelest months. Colleges and convent schools have shut down for the summer in Madras. Women do not grace the streets in these months, at least not in gaggles, as they might have during the school year. Their absence makes the place seem unbearably sere for their male counterparts – turning the city into a “waste” land in Madras lingo.
Check out the lyrics:
April mayilePasumaiyae illeKaanji pochudaIndha oorum pudikkaleUlagam pudikkaleBoru boruda
Stella Mary’s-umQueen Mary’s-umThendral veesidum poonthottamVanji paavaigal thondrum pothuNenjam poduthae aattam
But it is only the not male students who are pining away, the song says. Bus conductors, taxi drivers, traffic constables – in short, every hot-blooded working male in Madras is miserable in April, May. Lyricist Vaali, who at that time must have been around 60 years old, clearly counts himself among the afflicted. The singers, Illayaraja & Chorus too have sung this with plenty of feeling.
The disconsolate young men remind themselves that the months will pass, seasons will change. After April/May comes June/July. School will start once again. The young women – in their skirts, kurtas and jeans – will be back. Take it easy, guys!
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