The Street Vendor Lost:

Shouting and barefooted, entered a vendor.
Bargaining her way in, she battles the seller.
    Proud of the deal, my Mom mutters:
    Where do these vendors all vanish?
Is she preparing a list to hit the Big Bazaar?

Saravanan

Poetic Style: Limerick

    

Shitty Nation!

There lives a man who cleans shit,

In the name of Caste, people insist. 

      Left behind in a great nation,

      In deep shit, he seeks compassion.

Call the emperor! Who gave him a clean chit?

- S

Poetry style: Limerick

நீல நிலா

Boxed Existences

Boxed Existences

Ostracized by civilized hearts,
A dalit girl with dark complexion
built a house out of dark nights;
Stayed within it, day in and day out.

Oppression was a daily experience.

Humiliation, a day to day reality.

On the search for herself, people around
Offered a hundred labels, suggestions abound.
Her neighbor next door has an opinion:
That she's a girl with questionable character.
Her ex-boy friend has an 'honest' remark:
That she's a slut, playing the victim card.

Emptied bottles of wine helped;
Kept the whining away, scars remained.

Life tendered no respect;
Death promised no dignity, and so
Sleep was her daily kiss of death- often,
She slipped her way into broken slumber.

Buried between the pillow and the bed,
wanders her mind like a bird
that sits on the tree of happiness
for a moment, on the sands
of disappointment, after few seconds.
Frustration looms and sadness chokes.

As she keeps thinking them all over again:
A theater of internal conflict, inside her mind.
Who're these humans? she wants to know.
Struck by realization, she found
They're, but entrapped beings;
living in their boxed existences.

Chuckled, as she thought of it,
Repaired she, her broken self.
Despite that comeback,
The circus of civilization
never seizes to amuse! Only
that now she has the last laugh!



Saravanan

Delusions of Light

Delusions of Light

No dreams, this Diwali
For my starving stomach
Has long given up
On your false promises
Of ache din and light.

Am I the poverty
You strive to eradicate?
Beat the bloody drum!
Demons are but dancing
In the delusions of light!

Flashing lanterns loom,
Eclipsing our daily gloom.
Your mad rush to progress
Had put us all to distress!

Am I the darkness,
You intend to eliminate?
Beat the bloody drum!
Demons are but dancing
In the delusions of light!

When there is no ears
Listening to our plight,
Sounds of your sparklers
Deafens our senile spirits!

Am I the anti-national,
You're hunting for?
Beat the bloody drum!
Demons are but dancing
In the delusions of light!

Woke up before the dawn,
My dad, a daily laborer.
You paid him with a pittance!
Disappointed, he returned drunk.

Are we the urban naxals,
You were snooping for?
Beat the bloody drum!
Demons are but dancing
In the delusions of light!

Doomed for generations,
We ask for our due, you offer
sweets to sickened hearts?
Land is but our body and soul - not
a Diwali gift for your corporate pals!

No dreams, this Diwali! 
No! they're not for sale.
Beat the bloody drum!
Demons are but dancing
In the delusions of light!

In Agony,
S, an urban naxal. 

Veena- The happiest!

(A dad's tribute to his daughter)

Oh daughter, my dear!
such a joyous being that you are.
 a delightful music,you render.
how you paint your father's heart,
with colors of happiness! Darling!
the umbrella of care you extend
showers me with thousands
of drops of love, every day.
Any language is needless, yes!
for twinned hearts to express.
the beauty of the hills
make us so speechless,
as we see it flash
by the dew that sleeps
on the lap of its grass.
As I walk with you, holding your hands
How I wish, the path never ends!
Moved by affection, feel I,  sometimes
that none has lived a life like this
ever on earth- Oh daughter, my dear!
such a joyous being that you are.
 a delightful music, you render.
how you paint your father's heart,
with colors of happiness! Darling!
Trees, sighted far-away ask
if you're the angel they seek.
how fascinated by you, they blossom.
What use are the temples?
and the gods that reside?
for all our prayers, Oh beloved!
your smiles suffice.
Moved by affection, feel I,  sometimes
that none has lived a life like this
ever on earth- Oh daughter, my dear!
Looking at your face, one wonders
how moon's beauty on the sky, shrinks.
hiding itself beneath the clouds, she
asks you for some light's gleam.
Why don't you take her into your arms?
Lift her spirit up and send her home?
Moved by affection, feel I,  sometimes
that none has lived a life like this
ever on earth- Oh daughter, my dear!
such a joyous being that you are.
a delightful music,you render.
how you paint your father's heart,
with colors of happiness!

Na Muthukumar's ( Anandha Yazhai )
Translated by Saravanan V

Written by one of my favourite lyricists. The song is known for its spellbinding lyrics. He won a National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the same.

Link for the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AqW1YpIR2o&list=PLtMkp_0dp-j3M3gbv6VCiAcmJnjpnLsO0

Trains!
India's moving villages.
People moot dialogues,
talk and depart
Often full of chaos
and conversations.
Sometimes, music.
Otherwise, merely
Cacophony.

Trains!
Temporary communities
From family history
To present polity,
Conversations in compartments.
Soothing, mostly.
Sometimes, controversial.
Exercise care
Lynch mobs everywhere.

Trains!
Carry tales.
Urban legends
In locomotion.
Some are stories of arrival.
Others are fables of departure.
A few travellers have neither;
their journey becomes but a saga.

Saravanan