An old man in autumn
or his woman in hers, need
but a chattering child or two,
to feel their spring again.

But small children are few now
and often distant too; so
the old man and his woman felt
a winter seep instead.

Said Vasudeva, the world is
your family, and therefore in
their neighbour's home, learnt they
( Read more... )

Flush the incompetence out
with your vulgar scream on
the dull brown clay court - begin
with the adjective form at
love fifteen, verbalize it
at love thirty, adverbify then
at love forty, before losing it
altogether in the noun form
with game to that lucky fucker
on the other side of the net-
in that regression from
fucking shot to bloody fucked
to what ( Read more... )

In my town, they build
the metro rail for a decade
or two, drainage pipes
half a kilometer long
for five years, maybe
six, flyovers that solve
all our traffic woes, in case
you haven't noticed, and
in those years - two
prime ministers, three
chief ministers and four
councillors impressed
upon me a long list
of ( Read more... )

Varalakshmi

Her uncle died three months ago. It took him six months to die - so while it wasn’t sudden, they hadn’t expected it would be so soon either. He had fallen on a cleaver six months ago and torn something in his liver. Varalakshmi took him to the doctor she usually visited, a general physician who charged less for the less well-off. The ( Read more... )

Let my love run smooth
all the way through the gutter
of your past lovers.

Her mind is full
of children she hasn't met
and never will, yet
they are so very real
with homes, schools, traits
and stories that ring
ever so true,

you are lost

in wonder at this gift
she has given you, this
dazzling little peek
into a magical world

that bursts

upon your modest home
straight out of a ( Read more... )

Do words ever sound
as right as when a little
girl says them all wrong?

Anything, when she
means nothing, anybody
when it's nobody.

The Return of Arjuna

“And this is what I get for my love, Arjuna?”

“Draupadi, please do not be angry. I love you just as much as I did before my exile.”

“You return with Subhadra alongside, and yet you claim to love me!”

“But Vasudeva did tell you about my circumstances, didn’t he? Do you really believe I had any other choice?”

“Don’t you ( Read more... )

It is interesting to see near the sources, even of small streams or brooks, which now flow through an open country, perhaps shrunken in their volume, the traces of ancient mills, which have devoured the primitive forest, the earthen dams and old sluiceways, and ditches and banks for obtaining a supply of water. These relics of a more primitive ( Read more... )

My morning tennis schedule has gone for a bit of a toss of late for various reasons.  First, the borewell motor at the court broke down and it took almost a week to repair it, and just as I have begun to get into the tennis routine again, now the borewell has run dry. It’s all rather frustrating as I do look forward to a couple of sets to get my ( Read more... )