Skip to main content

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.



Labels:

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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...
12 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...
7 comments
Read more

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...
6 comments
Read more

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...
8 comments
Read more