TWISTED

I simply had to stop. I glared at my friend happily walking/ running and envied his physique. What wouldn’t I give to have that level of fitness!! Well! Actually not much!! Who wants to be on a diet and run everyday YUKKKK. Sweat was pouring in my eyes and though I tried I could not admire the scenic vista around me..at least not while I was unelegantly trying to catch my breath!! I called out to my friend to stop and he reluctantly came back by my side. “I can’t go on…I am thirsty and by the looks so are you” I grumbled. “Yes” he said, giving me a wet kiss “don’t you have water?” “Water??!!” I almost screeched “who was in such a rush to run up the road without waiting for me to grab anything. We have no water, no food..nothing”

The road had looked so tempting from the quaint inn we were staying in. Not much more than a dirt path actually, winding its way between the tall and majestic Deodars. Turning and twisting in almost a serpentine fashion before disappearing behind a rise. The day was a perfect summer day, blue skies, a gentle breeze smelling of a thousand flowers, birds and butterflies, almost out of a Wordsworth poem minus the daffodils!! It had seemed a good idea to go exploring then, to see what lay behind this twisting road and without thinking my friend had just started off. Huh!! What do these guys care or even know?? They are so useless when it comes to matters of heart or hunger!!!

“Lets head back. This doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, just a stupid old road I guess” I said. But my friend apparently wanted to continus as he had already started walking ahead. “Allrrrrrrriiiiiiigght” I shouted “15 minuted and if this does not lead somewhere bbbbbbeeeeaaautiful and breathtaking we are going back” my friend nodded agreement. Thank God, I was saved from killing him…did he realise how close he had come to dying today?? I wondered.

I was just thinking of 101 wonderful ways of slowly killing him when I heard his gleeful shout. Following his voice I turned a corner and there it was…the most beautiful glen I had seen. It was quite shallow with rocks on both the sides. Infact, as I looked around I saw my friend had found a path leading all the way to the bottom and he was bent drinking water out of the running churning white water. “How beautiful” I gushed “isnt it beautiful, how peaceful, I can hear myself think” “yes it is” he said already busy looking at the various insects and butterflies around. The river was imitating the road in form…serpentine, twisting in and out of the boulders, running here and then quickly hiding behind a rock!! I was mesmerised by its foaming churning white water…’WOW’ I thought “it looks so pure...so frothy” “It looks like bloody foaming BEER” my empty stomach viciously growled “A milk shake” I corrected and my frined endorsed his agreement by a vigorous wag of his tail and happy yelp!!

It was time to head back and tend to more important matters of life and death….FOOD and DRINK!!!

Rain

It was another cloudless blistering day

Is this the end then? In despair he wondered

There was no sign of any relief

He was tired, his spirit had long since surrendered

Two long dry arid years, two years of no rain

He looked at his 3 children and he saw their stcik like hands

He saw his haggard wife, their gaunt faces and sunken eyes

He saw their swollen bellies and he saw his drying lands

The debt was ever mounting with no scope of ever paying

“this is for the best, I am doing the best I can” he thought

The last 10 rupees he had borrowed, he sat in the corner

with the bottle of pesticide he had just bought

“Tomorrow morn with breakfast shall I give them”

He decided giving a last hug to his kids and wife

It was a tired defeated man who walked in the dark

And than sat alone in the field thinking about his life

Clutching the bottle of relaease to his chest he sat.

He prayed for courage, for relaese from this hell

He closed his eyes and thought of his dying kids

And it was on this thought the first drop fell

The clouds had creeped on him and were letting loose

He looked up at the darkened sky and let out a joyous cry

He could see his family running to him in the field

He stood up, a farmer who did not have to die!!

Jai Shankar Prasad: Kamayani: Lajja

Kamayani depicts the interplay of human emotions, thoughts, and actions by taking mythological metaphors. Kamayani has personalities like Manu, Ida and Shraddha who are found in the Vedas. The great deluge described in the poem has its origin in Satapatha Brahmana.

इस अर्पण में कुछ और नहीं केवल उत्सर्ग छलकता है,
मैं दे दूँ और न फिर कुछ लूँ, इतना ही सरल झलकता है।
"क्या कहती हो ठहरो नारी! संकल्प-अश्रु जल से अपने -
तुम दान कर चुकी पहले ही जीवन के सोने-से सपने।
नारी! तुम केवल श्रद्धा हो विश्वास-रजत-नग पगतल में,
पीयूष-स्रोत बहा करो जीवन के सुंदर समतल में।
देवों की विजय, दानवों की हारों का होता युद्ध रहा,
संघर्ष सदा उर-अंतर में जीवित रह नित्य-विरुद्ध रहा।
आँसू से भींगे अंचल पर मन का सब कुछ रखना होगा -
तुमको अपनी स्मित रेखा से यह संधिपत्र लिखना होगा।"