Skip to main content

Orator

When the orator sees a mike
Words rush out like a torrent.
He’s a good juggler of words.

Juggled words are like
                water drops falling in sunlight;
They have hues indeterminate
                and they dazzle.
I have learnt
                that words can create reality.
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 8, 2014 at 12:07 PM

    Really nice especially words can create reality. I am watching house of cards and can do relate this to Kevin spacey's role.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MeenalSonalOctober 8, 2014 at 1:01 PM

    Orator is like magician which can take in you in different world. Good post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 8, 2014 at 7:43 PM

      There are two kinds of orators: 1. people become frenzied after listening to this type. People can kill, set anybody or anything on fire. 2. People meditate. Here I'm presenting an orator who is a magician. You are right. But his magic may not work long. Pakistan is giving him a tough time. China may be behind it all.

      Delete
  3. Gowthama RajaveluOctober 8, 2014 at 2:51 PM

    Love the way you arranged it Tomichan (Mike, words rushes out, juggle, water drops....). Simply superb. Really enjoyed reading it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 8, 2014 at 7:44 PM

      Actually I'm not a poet, Gowthama. I'm a fool who tries to weave the weft and warp of what politicians leave us fools.

      Delete
  4. Roohi BhatnagarOctober 8, 2014 at 3:08 PM

    I can see for whom you have written this :) Hope and pray this reality is no illusion for juggling words without substance is nothing more than a fiction.. Nice lines, indeed..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 8, 2014 at 7:47 PM

      I know you understand, Roohi. Words carry meaning only when they come from the heart. Politics cannot have heart. That's why I'm fascinated by the Mahabharata and I have written two stories already based on it. Last two stories of mine in the blog. This orator-hero of the poem made me look at the epic once again. I'm afraid he won't take us far. He blamed his predecessor as deaf and dumb, as a puppet, when the latter failed to act impulsively or talk eloquently whenever there were provocations at the border. What is our hero doing now?

      Delete
    2. Roohi BhatnagarOctober 8, 2014 at 8:40 PM

      Hmm.. I read those stories and loved your narration.. I m no fan of him either but I would not comment at this point. Its too early. He has proved that he is not mute like his predecessor. But whether his words carry weight or are shallow will be best told by his 5 year tenure. This is just first year :) I sincerely pray and hope that he will walk all his talks as we as a nation needs a leader with steel spine after so many years of independence and under development..

      Delete
  5. Datta GhoshOctober 8, 2014 at 3:46 PM

    loved the imagery of water drops falling in sunlight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 8, 2014 at 7:48 PM

      We are now living through both, Datta: moist sunlight.

      Delete
  6. Indian SatireOctober 8, 2014 at 10:05 PM

    I am waiting for the orator to be unmasked - Balu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 8, 2014 at 10:33 PM

      Masks will fall one day, Balu. No doubt about it. Even the Tamils' Amma couldn't sustain her mask! Bihar's Lalu couldn't. Bengal's Left couldn't. Now Bengal's grassroots mother with Mother Teresa sari as a shielding mask for her entire body also won't manage...

      Delete
  7. UnknownOctober 8, 2014 at 10:55 PM

    Oh yes, they do create reality.They create magic as well. Your words are powerful too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 9, 2014 at 11:33 AM

      So, Namrata, are you saying I have no right to poke at the Orator since I am also a kind of orator? :) Just kidding :)

      Delete
  8. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 9, 2014 at 11:34 AM

    Of course, how one uses the words, that's important.

    ReplyDelete
  9. PriyashiOctober 9, 2014 at 12:38 PM

    Oh thats absolutely true,words can create reality.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ManiparnaOctober 9, 2014 at 1:55 PM

    Words really have great power...they can create both magic and misery... nicely penned Sir... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalOctober 10, 2014 at 11:43 AM

      Both magic and misery - yes, Maniparna, words have the potential for both...

      Delete
  11. Vinay Leo R.October 10, 2014 at 12:21 AM

    Beautiful :) Yes, I have learnt that too. Reality or fantasy, mundane or magic... words have that capacity to create. Loved this!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
18 comments
Read more

Dopamine

Fiction Mathai went to the kitchen and picked up a glass. The TV was screening a program called Ask the Doctor . “Dopamine is a sort of hormone that gives us a feeling of happiness or pleasure,” the doc said. “But the problem with it is that it makes us want more of the same thing. You feel happy with one drink and you obviously want more of it. More drink means more happiness…” That’s when Mathai went to pick up his glass and the brandy bottle. It was only morning still. Annamma, his wife, had gone to school as usual to teach Gen Z, an intractable generation. Mathai had retired from a cooperative bank where he was manager in the last few years of his service. Now, as a retired man, he took to watching the TV. It will be more correct to say that he took to flicking channels. He wanted entertainment, but the films and serial programs failed to make sense to him, let alone entertain. The news channels were more entertaining. Our politicians are like the clowns in a circus, he thought...
11 comments
Read more

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...
6 comments
Read more

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...
12 comments
Read more