The
Last (3rd September 2002)
Have I, somewhere along knowing this student politics,/lost
the sense of the sunlight receding from bare mountains?...
silence
too is a canvas (27th August 2002)
psalms keep ringing in the valley / we climb up the
stairs to hell / treetops glinting green are too high to offer shelter
/ clouds hold pitifully their empty bladders...
Chadwick
House (20th August 2002)
A moment dribbled/from the past/and clung to the rods/on
which we played/all day...
The
Jungle (13th August 2002)
Few dare to mess with it./The brave or the desperate./Like
the hostel boys who probed/Deep into the woods...
So'ham
(6th August 2002)
On
the water tank/I stand/and ask,...
Rain
(30th July 2002)
Three days in a row/it rained hard./The sun went missing./Umbrellas,
raincoats, waiting/all soaked...
Gyration
(23rd July 2002)
On the ban/sits the ape/and wonders,/Who coloured the sky...
The
Crossroads (18th June 2002)
Then suddenly/riding the two headed serpent/like Ivan the Tsar
born...
Mithhuchalisa
(11th June 2002)
On a leaf rests/a drop/and from within peeps/the sun...
The
Escort (4th June 2002)
A chir grips/its only cone/in a numb hand;...
Jayasurya
(28th May 2002)
A sleepy sun/shakes off the slumber/and rises/over the latent
town./An army of fallen snowflakes
resurrects...
Religion
(21st May 2002)
Always somewhere/ I had something to repent of...
Dadiji:
The Last Recollections (14th May 2002)
She went./And I didn't realize she was gone./Curled in the
spotless white chãdar/her golden locks I used to pull...
Nemesis
(7th May 2002)
Brown. Earth brown. Jaggery brown. Her eyes were a shade of
brown I could never identify. My eyes too were brown. The usual...
Tenochtitlan
(30th April 2002)
Long ago,/where these ruins of a house/vexed by the looking
glass/stand today,/a potter’s wheel/worked day in and day out;
Two
and Two Three (23rd April 2002)
Translation of a poem by Paash, the legendary Punjabi poet...
I
Will Be Back (16th April 2002)
You say I should bear it. I will./Pinnacles of glory snatched
from my hands,/depression imposed upon my near triumphant heart...
Kolkata
(9th April 2002)
Fatwas don’t cure faith./Nor do dead kings return/to whip
their men back home...
Lesson
(2nd April 2002)
One day/I’ll learn to call by name the hawk./Slicing pieces
from my sun-baked skin/scatter in all four directions...
The
Tunnel -II (26th March 2002)
He shifted his bag onto his other shoulder to relieve the aching
one, and tried to whistle a pop number to lighten the gloomy ambience;
but gave up the idea lest it should awake the hidden and undesirable life
around him. The things around were a lot clearer now...
The
Tunnel - I (19th March 2002)
Raju had now been wondering for months what lay in that dark
tunnel; but it was only today that he had finally decided to enter it
and discover the truth for himself...
The
Making (12th March 2002)
And the clueless boy who thought/winter was his alone/looked
through the window all night/hoping fervently the moon/would visit some
day his room...
