Sridhar M
Yawning Effect
When little Vishal asked me,
“Mama, why do we have tears
when we yawn,”
I did not have an anwser.
Then or now.
But
come to think of it
a yawn
like the stone dropped on water
produces ripples
till its effect extends
to the last person in the room.
14 November 2011
***
What’s it that has four legs but can’t walk?
What’s it that has four legs
but can’t walk?
The Telugu teacher asked.
Pat came the child’s reply—
“Vishal.”
The teacher became
speechless.
Little did she realize
she should have thought
not twice,
but a hundred times,
before asking this question
of a child
who had been disabled
suddenly by a stroke of ill luck.
Perthes struck at 6
the child who had just the previous day
won the second prize in running race in school
was told of this disease,
to walk on crutches,
till nature rebuilt his hip bone.
Crippled in his mind
the child awaits
each quarterly review
for the day when
his doctor will say
that he too like his friends
can take a jolly ride on the camel’s back.
Nobody understands me—
Cries Vishal—
not parents,
not sister,
not teachers,
not friends,
not even doctors.
Only Thatha
who is no more.
09 April 2014.
* * *
Summer School
I’m so thrilled
the school has ended.
Vacation has at last begun.
A break from the boredom
of class work and homework.
I want to go on playing…
Uninterruptedly.
I come home
with great expectations.
High hopes.
When I reach home
I find my parents busy.
Very busy.
They find time
where there is normally none
to fill in applications.
for my admission.
Now
from regular school
to summer camp.
This ad from
the neighbouring school says—
Let’s say goodbye to school.
Let’s have fun.
A happy coalition
of parents who don’t know
how to keep me at home
when they are at work,
and schools who want to make some extra money
even during vacation.
A different school.
But the same drudgery.
Perhaps
More co-curricular activities
than the regular school.
But they have thrown in
Quick Mathematics and
Spoken English
to assure parents
they don’t have to work too hard
on hard subjects
when I am back in school.
Summer camp
Or a school in summer!
When will you give me a break?
A real break.
29th April 2014
***
Young Siblings
They can’t stand
not seeing each other
even for a single day.
What’s more
they can’t stand
being together
without fighting
for a minute either.
Older sister riles him no end
younger brother keeps
punching her in turn.
*
Neighbour Narasimha
Yesterday
Vishal explained to me what beat-boxing means
demonstrating several sounds
as well as strange configurations of the mouth.
Together
for some time we practised the sounds as kids would
imitating the bus, the car and the aeroplane.
All on a sudden
from the depths of my memory
welled up the childhood experience of
sitting like a driver
on the first of a flight of steps
imagining the staircase to be a bus
with one of us
making the bus sound,
seating our passengers on the
higher steps
announcing Mopur,
Padmanabhasatram,
Kodavalur, Rajupalem and so on,
letting the passengers get down and taking on new ones.
Competition amongst us children
as to who would drive fast.
Etched in my memory still is
neighbour Narasimha remaining unconquered each time
his indicating the speed of the bus
with the lengthiest sound he made.
Perhaps Time who was hiding behind was envious of him!
About twenty years later
Narasimha’s being crushed under the wheels of a bus
is the ironic morality that governs His ways!
August 22, 2019.
పెద్దన్న
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కృపాకర్ పోతుల
తిలక్ బొమ్మరాజు
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