Alankar(Decor)-209 Poem by Indira Renganathan

Misery Overruled(Ovi)

Ovi is commonly known as 12th century folk-songs of the Marathi Region of India
which expressed love, social irony and heroic events.
Two forms of ovi are popular today:
the granthik (literary) ovi and the women's ovi.

The literary ovi is sung without tala (rhythm) by a kirtankar in a kirtan,
a devotional call-and-response chanting form. This is generally used for ovis of saints like Dnyaneshwar, Eknath and Namdev.

The women's ovi is sung with tala, when the women gather for work or pleasure.
It is thought to be in the rhythm of songs sung by women on the grinding stone (jata) .
The ovi is sung while women use the mortar and pestle or the rahat (a manual water wheel) to pull water from the well.
The women's ovis are 'protest songs more than work songs' —
complaints about the hard work, unhappy marriages and 'despotic husbands'.
They contain sarcasm of the patriarchal society. They also contain elements of bhakti (devotion) ,
where the singer implores God to save her from these bondages.

An ovi poem has couplets (called kadva or ovi itself) . Each couplet is generally divided into four charan (parts/lines) .
The first three charans are rhymed and have same number of matras (instants)
composed of six or eight letters (vary from eight to ten syllables) ,
while the fourth is 'open' (unrhymed with the rest) , shorter with fewer matras
and generally has four letters (vary from four to six syllables) .

The Ovi is:
stanzaic, written in any number of 4 line stanzas.
syllabic,8-8-8-(less than 8) syllables
rhymed, with L1, L2, L3 mono-rhymed L4 unrhymed. aaax, x being unrhymed.

Misery Overruled(Women's Ovi)

(Two sister-in-laws' conversational singing bemoaning
their suffering caused by their husbands)


Oh sis in law, sister-in-law
Daughter of my mother-in-law
What brought you here tell me all blah
To each my pounding

sister-in-law, sister-in-law
Oh my mother's daughter-in-law
It's my hubby who breaks all law
My life is crumbling

I'm so sorry but don't worry
We shall carry this with fury
Teach your hubby lesson eerie
With each my pounding

And before that tell me all wrong
Your hubby brat did all along
One by one flat if you think strong
To each my pounding

Oh sis-in-law, sister-in-law
He smokes he drinks, his dirty flaw
Beats me bad by immoral law
My life is crumbling

And he spends lot but saves nothing
Life is a naught by suffering
Dreams are all lost, days tattering
My life is crumbling

Oh sis-in-law pounded, pounded
Your hubby's flaws all are pounded
Aha aha, pounded, pounded
Like these grains I do

But what I feel, yours is better
Than my worst peal that your brother
Worst of his reel eloped bitter
With another girl

And your parents, dear my in-laws
Not transparent but they do toss
My life be rent in silent loss
How I be rescued

For that reason I'm now pounding
Their only son I'm just pounding
Treason, treason I'm now pounding
Your parents too just mashed