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Waste Land



This is a silly post though I dare to call it a poem.  Read it at your own risk.

“In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.”

T S Eliots’ Prufrock had at least the consolation of women coming and going talking of Michelangelo.
 
I’m back to regular routine tomorrow.  And women will come and go talking of duties, workshops and seminars.  They call themselves experts.  They will dictate the terms and conditions.  They have the backing of a religious sect.

And I will sing along with T S Eliot:

Weialala leia
Wallala leialala

The winter break is over.  The real break is going to begin. Religious break?

Or feminine break?

I’m looking forward to Madame Sosostris with her Tarot cards.  She will determine the future.

The future of her staff.  She has started by terminating the services of the redundant. 

Who is not redundant in this world?
Is the expert essential?
Is the Swami ji essential?
Is the Manager essential?

In this “Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,”
the crowd is thinning down the sullied Yamuna’s banks.

Old Delhi.
Too old.  Dying. 

Dying in Khooni Darwaazas.

Died long ago at India Gate and Raj Path.  Only Jan Paths may remain open.

At Jantar Mantar.

Sighs, short and becoming infrequent, are still exhaled.

Sita lila. In Ram lila grounds.

Satis.
Satis coming as sirens.  As queens. And then?

Back to square one.
Back to duty. to life and its routine obligations.

To patriarchy?
Or promised matriarchy?  Where paternity will be an opinion
and maternity will be the only fact of identity?

Nevermind.

Life is.

I am not at all a masculinist.



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Comments

  1. Deepak KripalJanuary 12, 2013 at 2:00 AM

    somehow i loved this chaotic poem or what you call.. i favour disorder sometimes.. that's what you got here.. it says much more between the lines that the lines themselves... wonderful effort..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 12, 2013 at 6:27 PM

      When our life has been thrown into chaos, what can we do, Deepak?

      Order has to be discovered, I know. This is an exercise in the course!

      Delete
  2. AmitAagJanuary 12, 2013 at 11:58 AM

    I liked this surrealistic piece!
    We sometimes need raw things without make-up:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 12, 2013 at 6:29 PM

      Raw, exactly, Amit. When it's cooked, it will become a regular post - like what I normally write :)

      Delete

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