Rain in June

Rain, like cold tears
Evanesced from a hot face,
Stopped for a while.

മൂന്ന് മൂന്നുവരിക്കവിതകള്‍

                            

വല കോരിയെടുത്തത്

ഒരു മീനിനെ മാത്രമല്ല,

അവള്‍ക്കുള്ളിലെ കടലിനെക്കൂടിയാണ്‌.

വീടുവിട്ടവര്‍ക്കറിയില്ല,

ഒരു വീടുണ്ടായതും,

അതില്‍ കുഞ്ഞുകൂടുകളുണ്ടായിരുന്നതും.

അന്നു കാത്തിരുന്നത് അമ്മയായിരുന്നു.

ഇന്ന് കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നത്

അമ്മ പറഞ്ഞേല്പിച്ചുപോയ വീടും. 

A Dress-down Friday

by Suresh Nellikode


Another Friday to idle away!

Normally Friday mornings are dedicated to the cruciverbalist in me. But this this time it was destined to be framed in a different way.

The rich aroma of fresh Brazilian Santos cup. That was lovely enough to start with a lustrously coloured holiday. Life, at times, look iridescent!

Nanda was telling me about the incorrigible flirt of her husband in the drama school, which abruptly got switched over to the Tudor Architecture, tucked away down the main streets.

I, in fact, loved that grey page she dedicated to her son for a legacy he has to cherish in future. He was resting peacefully on top of his father's tummy.Both slowly slid down to a snooze serene.

Many a wakeful night was leading her to a host of barren days where the other one had to face the rough realities impeding life.

I consoled her, " sorrow is always the twin sister of joy; and it was only to be looked for that we, who just now were over-rejoiced, should next have something to make us sad."

We were planning to lunch out on the patio, along with my Friday guests, a broad tailed cardinal couple.



.

The Advent of Spring

It's been a long, hard winter - I was told. Ice melted away. Green sprouts everywhere.

Gary says, "Winter is like that last drunken-party-guest who just doesn't know when to leave." Gary is a self-proclaimed travel nut, with apt observations and inferences. He reasons well and his wits are bold.

Suja likes spring. The rebirth of nature. The hide and seek of rain. She's in love with the lilac that stands in front of our house - drowsy, leafless, with a faded wintry smile. Every morning she tries wakes her up.

"Laila, my Miss congenial, lazy bum, get up. It's time to put your shoulder to the wheels. Don't think that you are the only plant that carries the agonising pains of winter."

Like a coy bride, Miss Lilac doesn't even look up. She nods to sleep again. But Suja forces her way into a sunlit world. Finally, under allround pressure she slowly wakes up to the rough realities of this not-so-lit world. Green sprouts like goose pimples. Lilac answered to Suja's calls. She even gets up before Suja does, like an early to rise tot waking up her mother. A few days, and it's green everywhere.

Sapsuckers landed on white birches and they rustled their leaves in response.

The slender, hardy asked, " where've you been all these days when everything was falling apart?''

For a while he bowed down. Then said, ''winter was so harsh and turned my marrow frozen red. Couldn't stand and flew.''

''What brought you back over?", asked the tree.

''The sap... and sap alone in you makes me oblivious of the miles I flew'', said the bird.

A tear had slipped down from the birch.
''Still you held me in fond remembrances. You're a guest to my immobility, and I'm honoured.''

Once barren, ice-coated and frozen branches now brimmed with life and started waving their leaves.

The bird started hammering away, excavating cavities in the trunks.

Tuk ......Tuk ......tuktuk.....

''Haven't you still got the right wood for your ship?"

Woodpecker raised his head.
It's none other than the Saw Whet Owl.
He does not like the round eyed who always act like a spy and question all others. He's lazy, never makes a nest and always use the cavities or nests made by others. He's always prying into the personal matters of others with a scornful look. Other birds are even scared to look into his round round eyes. When they call him 'Snoopy', he gets irritated and offended, follows them and shouts back to a peck of troubles.

Woodpecker stopped his work and flew away, telling the birch that he would be back after some time.

The hooter angled his looks down here and there, couldn't see anyone to tease, also flew back.

A little away, a column of smoke winds into the sky.

It was the advent of spring! Hope it's eternal.




Suresh Nellikode

A Momentous Moment

by Suresh Nellikode

Behram Darukhanawallah is more than a customer to me. So soft-spoken, omni-smiling, unfailingly patient, unassuming, a Canadian retiree took all the strain of coming to my office to hand over 2 Canadian Dollar-coins to me to use it in the trolley-slot to get a trolley released at Lester Pearson Airport, Toronto, when I land there. I couldn't but stand still for a moment with flooded eyes! Behramji is a new friend of mine, who stays alone at the Canadian side of Niagara, comes to Abu Dhabi every year to stay a few days with his son.

I'm no one to him. But I stood lost and surrendered to his kind gesture.

And I resolved not to destine these coins to a trolley-slot, but to preserve it as a token of love towards Behramji. Small things one would never want to forget...It's incapable of being obliterated. It has that intensity, as deep as earth!

Eyeful

He outstretched his arms and told me,

" I know her.This is the creation of your imagination. But where's the other one?"

Sadness, spreadeagled like a wall between our gardens.

My sheep are not back from the green pastures.

Child is still asleep.

I'm on the last line of my poem, short of a word.

She stood behind me, veiling her face with a smile,

Being my root, like a flower opted to be disdained.

"Give me an ear, I shall give you a word."

And I replied, "She's infallible and not visible!"

Cooking With Stella

Talmiz Ahmad's comments were quite inappropriate and untimely, utilising his official position, when the majority of the film viewers took it to their heart. As Deepa Mehta says he has all the right to express his opinion against the film. But what led to his attacking on the film so severely? There is nothing in the film that generalises or justifies a bad deed which as he fears would destroy the images we built up so far. There is nothing derogatory to the clan of diplomats who seldom feel the pulse of a common man. He could take the story as a one off case. Has he or his core of diplomats done anything to stem such incidents back at their fort? I strongly feel that he belongs to a group that went againt 'Pather Panjali', ''Fire'', ''Water'', ''Slumdog Millionaire'' etc, claiming that they all had exposures on India's underbelly. Rough realities make a few who believe in window dressing unhappy. Why a majority of the film viewers did like the film? Why do we want to come out fully and elegantly dressed when we have burning issues snigger on us? We are in front to cover our shortcomings and appear swankily, covering all holes with darkness! One has to see more films and climb down to the realities that pull us back from getting on to goosebumps as the biggest democracy.

I represent a group of serious filmviewers who certainly believe in responding to injustice and unjustifiable social practices and deem 'Çooking with it Stella' is a mode of self criticism brought out by Deepa Mehta Dilip Mehta through their own medium.