306. Bees, pollen, female angst Plaintive yet self-aware, the Sangam heroine's voice is prominent in poems like these, where she (or the poet) explicitly shares her exact emotional state with the reader. The hero is continuing to meet the heroine secretly, without making any firm offers of marriage. She is miffed. She thinks should should act all cool and reserved around him to get him to wonder what's going on 😁 And so she tells herself before she meets him: no sweet talk. no friendly banter. Let him figure out that she is, you know, a bit annoyed. But all that pretence is thrown to the winds when he does come to meet her! She probably rushed into his arms with a big goofy grin, like bees madly capering around flowers. Our movies and songs make much of male angst, the anxiety of meeting women, the what-will-I-say-to-her and how-will-I-impress-her phases. This poem props up a fine tribute to female angst, something I wish we heard about more often! #Ammoovanar #Thinaineythal #kurunthokai #thalaivikootru