Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Mosquitoes

The incessant buzzing pounds my temples
cutting my head into violent shapes
with a child’s heartless scissors

Summer’s oppression in the diminishing noon
beckons Darkness like a simpering mistress

Darkness in its wake drags in horrors

little misshapen heads with drooling grins
ghostly silences lone whistles
an icy finger and coagulating blood

and mosquitoes.
Frenetic urgency in buzzing pincers
and piercing wings

Lewd egg eyes stare blackly
like black on blackboard
The creature alights on my hot skin

And sting.

The needle point pain surprises me
With its sheer impertinence.
Drunk like a fool, M sits, blissful, delirious, numb

Dumb.

With one swat and squelch,
I feel much better.

Monday, October 11, 2004

Wind

My paper
Flutters, whitely
Holding on
To grim earth
Swift
Lifting clear
Rolls upwards slantly

Stuck in a soggy branch
Lightly shivers, sagging

Then quick burst of wind
Up it flies gaily
And away with my body
My paper

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

India Poems No 1

Travelling in a crowded bus

We almost miss it you know
The bus arrives in a huff and leaves in a puff
Storming in, slowing down, barely stopping
You have to hop to it and amble up
Nimbly, even if you’re ninety five

You’re lucky if you get a window seat
But any seat will do
Just cover your nose
Sweaty bodies have sweaty armpits
That rise like an inner sanctum over your face
Blessing you in whiffs of stale despair

But we usually go standing
Palms slipping on greasy rails
Bums swaying over potholes and speed bumps
Lechers rubbing themselves on us
Unsuspecting schoolgirls, honourable matrons
Even crummy old fishwives
Lechers are usually undiscriminating diplomats
They tell you politely to take an auto
If you have a problem with their rubbing

You are extremely lucky if you get to
The steps in time to get off the bus at your stop
It’s like swimming against the current in
A wild choppy sea in the middle of winter
With grinning sharks jostling by
And with no clothes on

And it’s no small achievement to get off
The bus and land on your feet without stumbling once
You might wish you’d taken an auto
But wait till I tell you what that’d be like.

Friday, September 03, 2004

LOVE SONNET NO. 3

When I imagine you in someone else's arms
this heart shivers like a wet puppy in the rain
Looking for a fireplace in the night that warms
a shelter from icy blasts of memory, but in vain
Real or imagined, the very thought of another with you
Mowes my spring lawn, tearing fragrant grass to bits
unrelenting teeth do, my heart felt desires undo
plunging it in a deep chasm that only darkness emits
I wonder with a pang what charms she might posess
surely dark and sinister binding you to her will
when your back is turned all sweetness undress
and her true face reveal gloating evil
But in the dead night soft angel she must be
Or wouldnt you rather be here beside me?

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Sogamana Sonnet no. 2 - The Bardess in Distress

When love hurts, time is a gleeful torturer
Every waking hour, every waiting moment piles
On this my heart as a shroud in a funearal pyre
As staring phantom in my mirror mockingly smiles
Oh my heart but breaks like brittle glass
The shards rupturing the soft insides every time
I look up at a shadow that might by me pass
And that is not you, not you, my temples chime
Molten wax moulds my eyeballs hardening fast
As I try not to blink for fear of missing you
The tortuter time in slow motion slinks past
My lips parched, wither, smiles being few
Without love, they say, life isn't worth living
Without you, this blessed love is my life force draining

Saturday, August 21, 2004

SEX-PEARES SONNET

To love it seems is making an appointment
Not of heart but of the head is made
Has grey hair outgrown the age of sentiment
That which young lovers seek and old forbade
When passion comes knocking hard at your door
You do but chide and send it away scampering
Like a naughty child's prank father can stand no more
So to bed without supper, banished whimpering
While I, in my youth's passion, have no eyes but for thee
Keep them closed against sight drowning senseless
While you kiss with eyes open, shut only to me
Searching for voyeurs as dignity and propriety press
Emptying my entire day, I await an embrace from you
That would steal away caution and let us love anew

You think? Think again, and read again. Hasn't it redpolka stamped all over it??
So Polka stands up and takes a bow! For her first attempt at a sonnet.
(applause applause applause) Thank you ....Thankyou..... (sob) Im overwhelmed by your appreciation. (sob) NO NO NO... I surely can't accept this... NO not even as a token of PURE appreciation... NO surely not a diamond!! (faint)

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Shakespeare Sonnet LXXIII

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

How does, or did he make all the words fit together so beautifully, considering he had to stick to the form (sonnet's) iambic pentameter, and rhyme scheme on top of that!!!!
And Im not even starting on the meaning, emotions, comparisons, similies, metaphors, internal rhythm, blah blah blah..... The man ist mein gott!!

Friday, August 13, 2004

LE MONSIEUR SANS MERCI

How shall i punish you for ignoring me like this? Shall i write a song bemoaning my helplessness and bewailing your cruelty, shall i refuse loftily to talk to you ever again, shall i rush into someone else's arms seeking solace that i will not find for you have spoilt me for anyone else now... or shall i beg you to show mercy and let me be a slave circling your feet till you tire of me? The last few days, I have had cellphones growing out of my eyes and ears growing out of my heart. The last few days, my clothes have been my enemy, teasing me with their insinous touch and caress. The past few days have been hell. For who am I to you, that I can complain... what hold do I have over you, to show feiry eyes and threaten you with my silence. Your silence, for just a couple of days... has wrung dry my being, like a good washing machine; would my silence, my hapless pitiful reproachful silence, be even noticed?

Thursday, August 12, 2004

A PARALLEL CIRCLE

'As you sow, so you reap', goes the old saying. But in this world of pragmatic brutality, where sensitivity is deemed senseless and false pride and ruthless greed rule the roost, are the people punished for their sins in time? The answer to this question is complicated, ambiguous and paradoxical. Yet, it is quite true and right. People get punished for their sins but they don't feel the punishment. In the course of their continued actions of immorality, their skins have turned thick, their set of values non-existent, morals-killed, Regrets- none. Teh punishment is no longer a punishment to them; it is a part payment or let us say, a small inconvenience to be sustained for winning the mega booty. This is only one way of looking at the scenario; no only a part of the scenario. The whole system of unethical acts, their fruits and resulting liable punishements run on a much wider, deeper, more massive scale. The acts are like numerous branches of a big tree, the cause being the desire to obtain exotically flavoured, different sized types of fruits, invariably juicy ones, resulting punishments a variety of insects, birds and bees pecking at the fruit but the root causes remaining the same for all - erosion of values, corrosion of attitudes and an over-whelming mind boggling greediness. The stick in the colossal neck of the rapidly depleting morality is that these people believe fiercely and resolvedly that their cause is justified interms of their wants, in their own perverted, twistedly strait-jacketed way. Nothing can shake them. Not even punishments. To cite an example...........

- I wrote this 03. 01.98. Got my old stuff out today to get inspiration, and saw this. Funniest piece I've read in a long while. Didn't get any inspiration though. Wondering whether I should post more of my real old stuff, that make me either cringe with embarassment or laugh out loud now.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

A SUICIDE NOTE

Dull would be these bright ones
light stolen, sight bereft
lively warm brown laid plain dark
lashes no more needed, so staring unheeded.

Never as smooth as butter
but soothing warm nevertheless
no more would be necessary
to exfoliate to unearth luminesence
no more would be smooth
this that will become cold, parched husk

moist succlulent slice of orange
will you turn blue or green or just pale?
this one permanent kiss will be
for you forever

shiny, waving in whispers
like whiffs of perfume
dark as heart, sinful as soul
abundant as lust
and gathering in bunches,
oh willt never wilt
remain long after i become
remains of yet another

ha

yyyyaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnnnn.............. is my general state of being.

Saturday, July 31, 2004

Eine Woche dans l'hopital.

My dad had a heart attack , and i was pretty much in the hospital for a week, except to come home to sleep and take my mom clothes and stuff. Now that he's back home and well, I can look back and retrospect. Actually, it was fun, this last week. I met so many of my relatives after some 6-7 years... and literally EVERYONE had come coz my dad is very liked and he's the last person anyone would expect to fall sick. I discovered that i actually liked one aunt and uncle and a couple of my cousins, and these stayed with me the whole time, and we spent many happy hours bitching, fooling around and making my mom laugh. And yeah, now I know Apollo like the back of my hand, and all the parking attendants are my friends and so are the cafeteria guys and now i have many short story ideas, so im gonna give everything to finish the first one tonight.
ps - pardon my franzoideutsch, or allemancais. i ve forgotten all my french, and am not very profiecient yet in german either, hence the mix up.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

anaayyaawwnalysis

wrote some analysis of the next edition of my story myself (coz no one else would) but it vanished mysteriously before i could post it.
 
it more or less goes like
"Why didnt she feel thrilled to the tips of her toes on seeing him, why didnt her heart flutter like a butterfly when she saw him smile and wave and quicken his steps towards her? Where has all the romance gone to? "
 
- i dont know what its supposed to sounds like, but sounds gaudy and millsandboonish. and that ist nicht gut.
 
"After half an hour, when she had eaten the dinner her mother had made in her destined career as a cook and maid for her busy husband and unsympathetic daughter (She could count on one hand the times that the daughter hadn't frowned after one glance at the dining table) she felt things could be worse. "
 
- whew!! tiresome. cut it short, woman!!!
 
thats enough. now to answer mr kanjus unnikrishnan, if u click on the title of the post below (Published writers...) , it will take you to the site where your book "Coffee stains on camel tea cup" is showcased. so that makes you a published writer full of fart (just like sharat, not the published bit, the other bit) and u still havent sent the whole story.
 
and, btw, he gave me ur name and the link for ur book voluntarily long ago, but i didnt think u were the same person and author till last night. So you can now with a free copnscience go play with his t... whatever..

Monday, July 19, 2004

Published writers shouldnt sound depressed

kanjus unnikrishnan, send me the whole story.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

WORK IN PROGRESS cont'd

When she saw him, she couldn't help but feel a small pang of disappointment. Why didnt she feel thrilled to the tips of her toes on seeing him, why didnt her heart flutter like a butterfly when she saw him smile and wave and quicken his steps towards her? Where has all the romance gone to?

He spent about 5 mins with her mulling over the hideously expensive clothes (fancy buttons, no buttons, fancy straps, no straps, shimmery hardly there material, hardly there), before she steered him to where the swim wear lay. Pick one, he said. She thought the one in white would flatter her. He picked it up and rubbed the material between his thumb and index fingers right between the leg holes. As he did this, he looked at her and smiled. He had really kind eyes, so his look and smile didnt really go with his action. It made her feel a bit funny, like you would feel while watching a perfectly turned out gentleman digging his nose while opening the door for you.
After promising to go swimming with him from 'next monday', she started home. By the time she reached home, she decided to ignore his calls. It made her feel a little relieved, and very sad. And very tired.

Her mother was fluttering near the door when she came home.
Where did you go, why are you so late?
I told you I was going to meet Yamini to have coffee. I was only gone for two hours.
Why do you have to go out to have coffee? As if theres no coffee at home.

She wished she could scream till all the panes in all the windows in all the city shattered and all the parents in all the city went deaf. After half an hour, when she had eaten the dinner her mother had made in her destined career as a cook and maid for her busy husband and unsympathetic daughter (She could count on one hand the times that the daughter hadn't frowned after one glance at the dining table) she felt things could be worse. Her father could have been her mother. If her mother drove her to the wall, her father would have driven her over and under it. Thank god he works 20 hours a day 7 days a week. She hated those rare sundays that he stayed home the whole day. He spent his free time at home, arranging and rearranging pens and magazines on the coffeetable, bellowing instructions to minions on the phone (2 phones), peeping into the monitor every ten minutes if she was on the internet, asking her who what when why where before she went out and calling her every one hour to tell her to get home before "It gets dark." And yes, picking his nose.

It never ceased to amaze her that they could find completion and happiness in each other. But then, their definition of happiness and completion were very different from hers. Her mother felt she was complete because she was married, married to a husband with a decent amount of money, married to a man who didnt smoke or drink or cheat on her, and was still married. Her father felt complete because he was a man, married a pretty girl his parents chose for him, married a girl who gave him a child and managed the house with whatever he earned. They felt complete because they got exactly what they expected out of life. Nothing more, nothing much less.
They definied happiness as a state of no sorrow. If no one important died, no financial disaster occured, if they could buy a house and a car and have babies, they were happy. The word love did not exist in their beings. After getting used to each other, after so many years of marriage, they were extremely comfortable with each other, and agreed on everything when it came to their daughter. Which was to disagree with and disapprove most things she said or did.

They did not understand how they could have produced this creature. That went out of its way to disobey them. they did not understand why she wasnt happy staying at home, learning how to cook, wearing pleasing salwaar kameezes and sarees, and looking forward to getting married to an Engineer settled in the USA. Mostly, they didnt understand why she wanted to Buy so many books, when there were perfectly good lending libraries all over town. Or why she wanted to Spend a 1000 rupees on a handbag, when her mother bought 3 for the same price and even gifted one to her sister, or why she wanted to learn french or have boys for friends.
(to be cont'd)

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Wah Wah Wah

I won't lie, I was asked by a friend to read your fledgling short story, and comment on the same;............
.......without being asked to shut shop.I could swear I hear the world crying, "Please!Mercy."
-anonymous

(the full comment is the second one under the post titled "lernen deutsche bitte')

oh man, i didnt understand half the stuff Mr Anonymous wrote. well, pls do tell me who you are. one thing i did understand is that.... i thought i was cynical... Mr Anonymous is grandfather of cynicism.

Anyways , i dont agree with u that my posts make better reading than the story. but i do agree with the let the pen fly thingy. anyways, im going to namma uuru bengaluuru tomorrow early in the morning, so i shall stop here, and continue when i get back on monday.

pls do send me something uve written Mr Anonymous. I promise i won't comment on it.

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

POP ANALYSIS

Pretty enjoyable, most of your work seem to stem entirely from yourself and your experiences (just an observation). I keep seeing you, as i read what you've written. I know you won't post whatever u wrote before, but is there any chance you might publish some of your old work ?

- 362

P.S Kings of all the possible brands ?


WELL, since my mysterious friend 362 and another friend requested old works of moi, im seriously considering obliging. ill do that once i know where im going with my story. coz that decision is vital to acknowledging whether i can move on and write more for the rest of my life... or if i should give up...

anyways, heres my own analysis of the 700 words.

1) plot. theres no progressive action (actually its still to early. only 700 words. so ill let that be).
2) Mono character. Mono lougue. no dialogue. no spoken words. just narrative. a trifle tiresome.
3) no colour in descriptions. VITAL VITAL VITAL IS COLOUR.
4) lugubrious sentiments for a young woman, and a little too judgemental and assfaced to be likable. (but thats the character's characteristics!!!!!)
5) too much mindscape description. actually thats ok, but theres too little landscape description. read stephen king to find balance.

aside- is 362's remark about seeing too much of the writer in her works a snide comment? well author is forced to acknowledge that the same thought has been nagging her since the time she started to write. Author finds herself incapable of dreaming up characterisations alien to her nature. Which is why she has stuck to confessional poetry till now. Well.... the 700 words is a start of something fictional... if one doesnt consider the author's brilliant story for 7 yr olds called "Woof and Poof". and about the kings.... well that bit is definitely fiction coz author has changed brands very often and doesnt smoke kings currently. and author wishes to remind snooty yuppie NY friend 362 that this is bharatmahan where kings is no.1 brand.

WORK IN PROGRESS

She stared intently into the mirror. Probably half an inch. But sparse. Sniffed gingerly, nose turned down sideways. No need deo. The stuff stinks anyways. She lowered her arm and pulled on a t-shirt and jeans. Too young. Naah. Probably old one digs it. That thought sent a small ripple of distaste just under her skin that went almost unnoticed what with her general feeling of complacency about the entire situation.

The afternoon sun beat mercilessly upon her head like a drunken schedule caste husband. She felt listless as she walked toward the autorickshaw stand. The heat always made her feel so. Give me freezing cold anyday, she muttered, upperlip to lowerlip. Not that I'd know what any temperature below 28 C feels like, she added with a wry half chuckle.

The autorichskaw was just a paper overhead and paper underfoot. Hot salty wind burned away at delicate forearms from either open side. Felt like sitting in a cardboard box that was crumpling under the pressure of the fist crushing it from all around. Her attention though, was diverted from her browning forearms by the godlight. Yes, it looked like godlight, surreal to the point of being mystic, the light streaming from the most unlikely of places, a place one's imagination can't even stumble at, the one being in an auto behind an auto driver. The Godlight, from where she sat, was streaming from the hole in the autodriver's left earlobe. The Sun was up at 60' in the front slanting its rays through the cheap glass, maybe plastic of the auto. The bulky dark form of the man in front of her steering the three legged vehicle was blocking the dazzling light effectively, but a strong, sinous ray got through. Through the dark lumping form, through all his darkness, streaming through the 1 mm pierced hole in his earlobe. Still the goosebumps refused to rise.

She wanted to laugh at herself, but it seemed such an effort. The feeling of lethargy was overwhelming. She hoped she didnt do anything bizarre, like falling asleep or yawning in his face when she met him. Why was she meeting him? Did she really think he wanted to buy her a swimsuit because it was a nice gesture? Did she really think he wanted to teach her to swim because he felt that swimming is a good exercise and everybody should learn it? No she didnt. She knew exactly what he wanted, and that was exactly what she had expected from the beginning. Swimming was an adequate excuse, and teaching her how to swim would provide ample opportunity to touch, fondle, grab, etc. Oh, and rooms were available in the same club. And he wanted to buy her a swimsuit because he thought it would be kinky, the choosing, speculating, imagining her in styles, colours, maybe even peeping in the dressing room for a quivery nod of approval.

She smiled. Her contorted reflection in the driver's mirror smiled back uglily. One of her constant sources of amusement was to look at strangers as she caught them staring at her, and imagine how shocked they would be if they really knew what all she was upto. Another source of entertainment was to imagine how her parents would react if they knew. They would probably not recognise her if they saw her with a cigarette in her hand. They wouldnt be able to even imagine that their daughter smoked. Female promiscuity was a known even if disapproved of concept. But a female smoking was unthinkable, unimaginable. That reminded her that she had to get rid of the empty Kings pack from her handbag.

The auto charged through the streets like a knight in shining armour, all steel and sound and fury. Enemies from all sides scattered in the wake of the all conquering hero. Their blasts of righteous annoyance at being humbled scraped at her trembling eardrums. She stuffed a finger into her right ear, which had started throbbing. The posh grey tones of the department store was stylishly letting in the suckers through slick automatic doors. Middle aged women badly dressed and brightly lipsticked were consiously picking out clothes that made them look classy to other badly dressed brightly lipsticked middle aged women in the store. Slightly smarter women, and some men, with a studied casual air about them were glancing at displays lazily, as if shopping in a big store didn't make them nervous.

POETRY OF THE MASSES

Looks like annie has taken mercy on less poetically inclined people like me and put in this poem. I guess now even i can start to write poems and find the poet in me thnx to found poetry.
-anonymous.


hah! you never know what inspires whom to become what all! To borrow a line from Tagore, "Now my cup is full."

Monday, July 05, 2004

COMING UP

The Public demands that I post some of my old poems. (proof- check the comment on the bikini post). this is disheartening. public knows poet is unhappening and unprolific and uninspiring and generally worrrssst. but poet refuses to regurgitate her old poems (ITS ACCEPTING DEFEAT).

anyways, im writing my first wholesome shortstory. 700 words down. 3000 odd to go. all await with bated breath for it. The subject is S-C-A-N-D-A-L-O-U-S. so there...

ENOUGH POETRY

friend of mine said she really wanted to leave a comment on the blog, but didnt coz she didnt think she could say anything intellectual to suit the blog!!! Brrrrrrrr..... what can I say?
Poetry is not intimidating. Shouldnt be intimidating
AND EVEN SHAKESPEARE WAS NO 1 on the bestseller list in his times coz he wrote SLAPSTICK. which we now consider as great art.

oh yeah, i have to mention something soothingly mundane to bring the blog down from the branches. I got 2nd best marks in german class in the first test of my course. yaaay... i got 89 on 100 and was taken aback to to learn that the paavam dude who never opened his mouth in class got 98/100. i mean... its a language for chrissakes. how can anyone get 98 in it? then i learnt he's an iitan. ah ha, alle ist clair now. i used be friends with some iitans myself. about 10 of them. all of them wrote GRE and all of them knew the meaning of EVERY SINGLE WORD in the vocab list. and i can guarantee that the GRE vocab list is a deadly monster developed in secret labs under the desert sands in Nevada, USA by the govt of USA to leech out the braincells of all smart 3rd world kids.

anyways, iitians dont belong to the earth. 8 of the 10 ppl i knew got something like 3390/3400 or something like that in their GRE. sheeeesh!
anyways, i topped among the non iitans in class. he he

Saturday, July 03, 2004

MY BLOG IS NOT A FLOP

oh my! After opening my blog twice everyday and getting disheartened everytime seeing not 1 comment, im doing flipflops in the air now after receiving a mail from my old prof. She READ my posts, SENT her poems for MY perusal, and also GAVE SUGGESTIONS for posts!
yaaayyyyy....
heres a stanza from a poem she sent me..

The touch, the smell and the sound
You talk about…
Let me tell you…
I have lost the fragrance in it and for me
For days to come…
Unless you are the moon
Or hold the sky….

- Sashikala Gurpur-Murphy.

I quoted this particular stanza because I identify with it, with the concept. Let me see how id write it if i wanted to express the same idea...

I wish your touch would send shivers
running down my spine
Leave quivers across my lips and
fingertips tingling as they leave your skin.

I dream an aching dream where
i sink in your musky fragrance
and your face looks a thousand times better.

In hazy afternoons, as my eyes swim drunkenly,
they weave a simple design- you hold up the sky
and im ur blissful slave, you are the moon
as I look up.

Afternoons are brief,
long are hot summer nights
when the real you
is bearing down on me,
rushing breath in my ear,
sticky fingers in my hair,
your gaze melting the man in my eyes
as I look up at you

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Foundlin Poetry

>Another modern form of poetry is Found Poetry. It is composed of text found by the poet in signs, grocery store aisles, overheard conversations, or advertising. If you are in an environment where there is little textual material you may be severely limited in producing found poetry. Our environments are generally so rich in such material that it is fairly easy to write.<
My attempt right away is as follows:

Document wordpad
the best of bob dylan
JVC the new touch keyboard
interact in english malaysia
calendar 1996
panasonic Dax Eminem
Casio Senorita's Supreme
Polyester Saree Falls
Baby wax matches
B E Happy V Vallabhan
Srinivasamoorthy avenue
moment mal! Lehrwerk fur
Deutsch als Fremdsprache


(Well all this is all that I can 'find' in this 10*10 room at 11.53 in the night)

TAMBULINA WAN

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'.
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun,
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.


- BOB DYLAN
Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, he legally changed his name to "Bob Dylan" on August 2, 1962. It's generally accepted that "Dylan" is derived from "Dillon" after Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke fame. He has denied throughout his career any link to the controversial brilliant poet Dylan Thomas.


The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.


-DYLAN THOMAS

Dylan Thomas was a neurotic, sickly child who shied away from school and preferred reading on his own; he read all of D. H. Lawrence's poetry, impressed by Lawrence's descriptions of a vivid natural world.
Thomas did not sympathize with T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden's thematic concerns with social and intellectual issues.

Interestingly, this brilliant poet has actually plagiariased from an unknown poet. In some school publication early in his career, he had submitted a poem which was actually already published by another kid. This was discovered only long after his (Dylan's) death at 39 from alcholism.

I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam ceu chelidon—O swallow swallow
Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih


-T S Eliot
This guy is just tooo much. I love him to death, to distraction, to distress, to damnation!

BUT THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST::::

"`I grow old... I grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.` What does that mean, Mr. Marlowe?"

"Not a bloody thing. It just sounds good."

He smiled. "That is from the `Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.` Here's another one. `In the room women come and go/Talking of Michael Angelo.' Does that suggest anything to you, sir?"

Yeah -- it suggests to me that the guy didn't know very much about women."

"My sentiments exactly, sir. Nonetheless I admire T. S. Eliot very much."

"Did you say, 'nonetheless'?"


- The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

Monday, June 28, 2004

BIKINI WAX

WOW! This article is very enlightening and very entertaining!
why woudn't it be? The subject is bikini wax!!
http://www.salon.com/health/feature/1999/09/03/bikini/

I remember in Manipal, the friendly neighbourhood beauty parlour akka telling me once in hushed horrified tones how this one girl walked into her shop and asked if she would wax her.... there....!!!
I suggested that she hire studs for the job and said that they wouldnt even demand to be paid.., even suggested a couple of guys i knew for the job. ofcourse, she thought i was kidding.

Also, my friend prabha mohan (who was soon to be getting married) and I searched the whole of banglore onve to find a parlour that ll do the deed. but no, neint, non, zilch, nay. nothing. so we settle on ready made cold wax strips, that i tried (lucky mohan didnt) and regretted immensely. shall not go into gory details keeping in mind reader discernment (yeah right!).

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

WALKING THE BLOCK

When i sit to write, i instantly feel a heavy sort of weight descend quietly on my shoulders. I've been suffering (read really suffering) from a writer's block the last 2 years. long time. a promising ass-kicking career crushed, even before it began.

Now Im faced with the great difficulty of finding a subject thats easy to write about. Coz I usually have deep and varied thoughts about everything, thoughts that are so fantastic and flighty and flitty that they are impossible to pen down, what with this stupid block thats almost like a physical handicap.

Like for example, as Im writing whatever im writing now, my mind identifies each half-second, atleast 2-3 better ways of saying the same thing im saying (metaphors, similies, allusions, choice of words etc), but i actively disregard all but the easiest, most mundane, most simple, most untaxing way to express myself. Coz the pressure on the part of my brain that nourishes the writer becomes almost a physical pain if I tax it too much.

So now Im kind of coming to a decision on how to break this curse. I'll start writing whatever happens everyday, since the time i wake up. that should be easy, cant put too much pressure on the creative part of the brain. Then slowly, Ill get more comfortable with writing and words and the flow of ideas and their conversion into words, then I can get a grip on myself and start to really write.

Whew, even writing all this has taken a lot of wind from me. Im exhausted! So in the next post, Im going describe my daily activities starting today.

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Aching Poetry

About my other constant interest (other than myself that is) poetry, here are a few provoking lines...

SHAKESPEARE SONNET XLIX

To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.

-This u have to read the whole sonnet. Its all there on the net for ur perusal. Just do a google search. My lawyer friends wud like these lines!

VIKRAM SETH: UNCLAIMED

To make love with a stranger is the best.
There is no riddle and there is no test.

To lie and love, not aching to make sense
Of this night in the mesh of reference.

To touch, unclaimed by fear of imminent day,
And understand, as only strangers may.

To feel the beat of foreign heart to heart
Preferring neither to prolong nor part.

To rest within the unknown arms and know
That this is all there is; that this is so.

-This is how I lead my lovelife right now, but 'Preferring neither to prolong nor part'should be in my case, 'Preferring not to prolong and to definitely part' and 'To rest within the unknown arms and know' should read in my case, 'To ache to rest within unknown arms but know'

lernen deutsch bitte?

I started learnen-Deutsch last monday. Went with moderate expectations as regards classmates, but even the moderate expectations were dashed!! class is filled with rural folks from all sorts of rural places in Tamil Nadu. Don't wanna sound like some urban snob, BUT THIS IS THE CITY FOR BAGVAAN-SAKE!!!!

Not one city bred (read dressed in jeans, t-shirt and reasonably friendly kind) person. About 20 men and 4 women including yours truly. girls sit together and boys sit together. Girls talk mostly to girls and viceversa. Girls dress in salwaar kameez and have their hair oiled and tied up. Boys avoid catching girls' eyes and look away while blushing furiously if they do so accidentally.

One boy acted hip and tried conversing with yours truly. What happened is as follows: First day after class, I was standing in the bus stop for a ride home, when this dude Balasubramanium walks to same stop and stands next to me. He is from this town in interior Tamil Nadu called Madurai. He starts a conversation with me, and after one or two banal exchanges ('Does 24C come here?', 'Yes', 'Where you working?', 'Nowhere'), he asks, "Can you understand Hindi"? to which I reply "Yes, sort of." Then he says, "Yagan bike negi ai tho boguuth muchkil ai." This is a horrible south-indian accented hindi "Yahan bike nahin hai to bahut mushkil hai."

Why do tamilians have to impress fellow tamilians by trying at all cost to speak in any language expect their mutual mothertongue? This used to happen in Bangalore too, where in the area i lived in, every single ayya, anna and akka were tamilians. But each one, from shopkeeper to neighbourmaama to milkman, would insist on speaking to me only in English even if I only talked to them in Tamil!

Coming back to German class, I cut quite a sorry figure everytime I crack a joke and the only response I get is a blank stare of incomprehension from each of my classmates! eeeuuuugggghhh!!

Time to kick off

Enough stalling. Im sputtering like the choked engine of a Feat 86 model. Time to start building the blog.
first, i've to clear my mind. What do I want to write about? What are my interests? My top interest is myself. Surprise! Apart from that and poetry, my other top interests keep changing every month.
Right now, my top interests are myself, poetry and german. I'll start with learning Deutsch coz thats what i do with most of my time these days. So in the next post, I'm gonna give a complete description of my course, and more importantly, my class.

Saturday, June 12, 2004

stuck in my throat

trying to writing a poem after long
is like trying to feel a new person's touch
decades after your lover died

the words seem like sandpaper on my tongue
nervous grating rubbing of unfamiliar love
clashing with a new body on a hard bed

like speaking an unfamiliar langauge
after just three four beginner's classes
to the director of the foreign language school

how do you whisper sweet nothings
in the brink of rush of love
holding close in breathing distance
a total stranger

when a multitude of words rush from the stomach
traffic jamming your crushed throat
the mouth gapes slackly.
no exit.

Friday, June 11, 2004

RedPOLKAChaddi

er... what can i say? Now that I set up the blog... Im tongue tied. And sleepy... And not to mention... or to mention... wanna go to the bathroom...