A postgraduate in English, the author taught in colleges in India, before joining the finance sector. Currently employed in an multinational bank as a deputy Chief Operating Officer, the author has been writing in English and Tamil since college days, though quite a lot of them remained on the paper he wrote on (that is, when not consigned by him to the waste paper basket). Nuances of relationship between individuals, mental pain and cruelty we inflict on each other and ourselves are his obsession. Interests include finance, Sri Aurobindo and mythology.
Married to Rama, he has a son Ganesh aged 16. Lives in Bombay.
A flowing continuum
The lowly little worm came up
From somewhere within the soil
Moving in no hurry and
Hurting all about itself from the roughs of the earth
Picking up water and succour from the same rough
Climbing up to the leaves of the grass
Which it helps to grow
Eating its spoils and
Diseasing its live leaves too..
I could hear it calling anyone
And asking what is this
Is it selfish and cruel
Or otherwise ?
Can I go on like this in the endless chain
The ever green virgin land
Calls for the farmer’s sowing
Making it paste for buds, blooming into fruits
In the ancient ever alive trees
A flowing continuum….
So, You Know What To ...
They say if you look at your own shadow
you will get sick-avoid shadows altogether..
don't flirt with him during the day
and with her during the night-
But if flirt you must, when do you?
They grow larger & smaller
depending on him or her
and how close you are
to the where you see your sahdow
And they are not there if you turn your back
So you know what to do-
Don't ask me - I am your shadow, pal
and I can't tell you anything
when you don't open your mouth
I can't see when you close your eyes..
I can't do what you don't do,
Therefore there's every reason for you
to take care of me...
So you know what to do..
Song for You
I looked for words
To sing for you
A song of
Self-liquidating self
When all was
Self
For you-
Looked and looked
And I found
Words..
But was liquidated
My love,
Of what to offer.
But lovely you were
The effort
Was all for you
And You looked for me
When Songs stopped
Looking elsewhere
And becoming speechless
Friend of the night
Poor friend
of the night
in the water
that falls
running in length
that
runs
bearing life
that's like
lightning-
runs
wearing
white-patterns
Son becoming friend
His son, baby-son
The anchor of the flying kite of the skies, in storms-
is growing, in minutes, and seconds
in pain (for whom?)
in knowing (whose?)
Is it the hours that matter
or the passing of the mindless
into the mindly that is minded-
son.. becoming a friend-
that saps
the charm
of love.
Gandhiji
The Gandhi statue at Marina knows all people.
Sometimes as tho' dead he closes his eyes-
He sees through all- the young and the old
the masses who fret and fume smoke and drink
talk and talk waste themselves away-
On days when crowds gather from far and near
to celebrate, protest, strike work, fast etc
he looks away with eyes fixed on the skies-
Once, alone, an evening on a rainy day,
I found Gandhi crying
with protesters striking work for something
And blocking traffic and throwing stones..
Left him to commune with his "small voice"
Rains stopped & the crowd started gathering
Upcoming earth-smell & the heat it had -
I couldn't forget the tears for days & days
Until another evening, I looked up at Gandhi
I saw him looking at me- not recognising me.
Questions & Answers
Q- Do you want to break free?
A- …
Q- Want to be on your own?
A- …
Q- Want the sun and the moon?
A- …
Q- The sea and the stars?
A- ….
Q- You understand?
A- ….
Q- Won't you come out of the silence & shout?
A- …
Q- Don't you want to take & give the water of life?
A- ….
Q- Don't you want the feelings of love, pain…?
A- …
Q- You have nothing to communicate?
A- …
Q- Nothing at all?
A-I don't speak, but not mute.
Q-But who?
A- I am only a seed
Q- Of what?
A-Or perhaps the seed of a seed
Or the seed of a seed of a seed of a…
Q- So?
A-I only produce you
Q- So?
A-And all you are
Q- So?
A-And all you want
Q- So?
A-And all you are
Q- Ok Ok..and all I will be, so what?
A- So that's it..
Q- That is not it- But we produce each other, right?
A-OK,Ok,
Q- And you are what I give you
A-Let it be so, Let me be seed & silent.
Q- And?
A-You be .. whatever..
Q- I can outgrow you, you know?
A- Yes, rather ingrow..
Receive Each Unto Each
Years ago you and I set together
and did some exchange together,
till one was not there and the other
A reflection in the still waters of life.
The other was not there,
the body pulled away in the currents &
the under and cross currents of life with
numerators and denominators many.
Aloneness was the result & the remainder.
Now years later, the waters still flow
I see visitations and reflections-
but voices unclear in my son's prattles.
Before going into nothing to be away
Drop faces to be fed to the currents
and what is that cross or under currents,
to be faceless to receive each & other
Into other and each.
COPY CAT
It's all over.
I have just put fire on the cowdung cakes
spread across my father's chest.
This is something that i can not help
But we nowadays use electric crematorium and with such cakes like that they
send the body
into it and a few minutes later
I collect my dad in an urn of his ash..
It is me next who has to take his place
Eldest and be responsible
to keep the family together..
It is not ended
We continue
He lives in me
and I discover over days
That even my features are almost like his
The chin, the shape of the shadow
the walk and the voice
At least that's what my son says
You are a copy cat.
awaiting my daughter-in-law
and thereafter....
You, my child..
You walk naked.
To you
The Sun
is
Sun
To you
The Moon
is Moon.
On your left
dream
is real
On right
real
is
dreamlike.
Tomorrow
and yesterday
are not
for you.