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Another Spectacle

He ascended the hill along with his team mates, reaching to a height, waved at  others to stop, dismounted from his horse and walked up to a distance towards the edge of the cliff. From there he could see the city far away. Columns of smoke emanated from various parts of  the city. He could hardly see any soul moving, for he had vanquished them all. This was pura number one hundred  his clan had destroyed. He used to keep an account of the activities of his clan, for he didn’t want the narrators to miss much; at least they should have the numbers correct.

It was sunset. An ethereal setting. The smell of burning flesh intoxicated him.  Standing there, bathing in the glory of his own achievements the conqueror was suddenly overcome by a feeling he had never felt before. He felt like god. It was much much different from what he used to feel invariably when his sword sliced through the flesh of the Dasyus— an electric pulse that originated from the tip of his sword the moment it touched the Dasyu skin and through the sword that pulse went through his body and finally into his brain neurons and when it reached there the sensation was near delirium and he would howl so loudly that the entire valley would reverberate with the sound.  It was also much much different from what he used to feel when he hysterically vibrated and oscillated atop the brown and oily skinned bodies of the Dasyu women.

This was something new, a kind of experience when you no longer desired anything;  it was as if he had fulfilled his life and nothing more was needed; he felt as if he was no longer a body but a spiritual entity.  A light surrounded him and he wanted himself lost in it.   He heard some one calling out his name.  He heard it from far away.  A timeless call.  To him the echo felt like a series of calls issued forth from many mouths.  He felt somebody shaking him slightly as if to wake him up.  The conqueror in reply said in a low voice:   “Indra is not asleep, Indra is awake”

A Spectacle

He gathered a disk from his chariot, cupped it from above in his right palm and to gain momentum for throwing swerved his torso sidewards  and said: “I repeat, if you willfully handover your kingdom to me I will see to it that history will praise you as the greatest king ever lived and once every year people will sing encomiums attesting your greatness to no end. Otherwise you will go down in history as the cruelest king ever lived; your very name will become a synonym of vice, generations will spit on your figure and they will celebrate this day by cracking fire-works. You decide.”

The King stared at history: “I am not going to gift you my kingdom on a platter. As for history, no!  My prajas will never believe what you and your people will ever say; they will praise me as a great king who gave away his life defending his people, who fought against those people who plunder their own people teaming up with those new people who came from elsewhere”

“Lets see”

He deftly swung the disk towards Kamsa who tried to swat it away with his sword but to no avail.

********************************

Comment by Ajayshekher

  It is indeed a work of immense critical and creative significance. Krishna became a lad of Vedic Hinduism through his mercyless butchery and instant executions. The henchman like Yadav thus became a close associate and protector of Hinduism and its priestocracy. His phallic power also lured the patriarchal core of Brahmanism as an indigenous agent of sexist conquest over the desires and erotic fantasies of queens and feudal ladies. The same juncture dramatized in the work makes parallels with the sacrifice of Mahabali. The threat by Vamana the icon of Brahmanism was also something similar. Bali yielded, lost his kingdom and egalitarian state to this moral hijacking cunningly used by Brahamnical forces even today with its successive triumphs in the nationalist movement as in the Poona pact. The same agenda of annihilating your opponent through elemental moral pressure which is actually a form of violence is booming in the youth for equality campaigns and in Anna Hazare mode of event management. The threat to democracy and egalitarianism comes from the same sources of ancient and modern fascisms that could be described as the reactionary ideology and hegemonic discourse of Brahmanism in India.The work is resonant and vibrant with all these references and suggestions.

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Resonance and Wonder

The treasure reeks of a thousand stories
Of men deprived
Of children unfed
Of men unenlightened
Of men kept in bondage
The resonance of a million cries
That we choose not to hear
And construct stories
Of benevolent kings and their sacrifices

The wonder of it

They see, they interpret

and are never free of the gaze.

They live their gaze.

Their genetic lens see, interpret and chronicle

A mass, whose history they had trampled upon,

Whose land they had stained with blood.

They fail to see the history of their own gaze

They are the victims of their own gaze.

A drop of ink once thought:
I won’t stain this sheet of paper.
A poem died before it was born,
And the poet became a grain of sand,
And the world became a desert.
 
A drop of ink once thought:
I shall spread myself on this sheet of paper
It did not become stains on paper
but filled the sky with stars.
The world became a lake;
The lake was like a garden,
With stars sprouting as flowers.
 
 
*A poem written by our beloved Narendranath sir in reply to my email imploring me to get married. (I publish this in my blog with out seeking his permission)
 

Silly
To think
“Keep it simple, silly”

Why worry, just buy
“Keep it simple, silly”
Let’s just erase all identities
Make your DNA the most pliable thing on earth
Let the corporate creatures code your DNA
It’s safer
“Keep it simple, silly”
Submit yourselves to the black-hole for an orgasmic buying experience
“Keep it simple, silly”
Let the juggernaut roll on
The black-hole
It’s so simple, silly
Let’s worship those who have come to plunder us
After all are we not doing the same for centuries?
Worshipping those who have killed our forefathers
Plundered our wealth and self
And appropriated our temples.
Aren’t we the bearers of a false nomenclature?
Still celebrating annually the fall of our forefathers.

Let’s sing a bhajan
Let’s re-enact the divine lilas of whom who has sanctioned everything possible
And let’s revel in the innumerable possibilities of the present
That’s safe
It’s all complicated
“Keep it simple, silly”
It’s a hydra-headed monster
Consumes everything in its path
Self-procreating, self-growing
But entertains you all along
And simplifies your identity
Effaces your memory to a delightful amnesia
No point resisting
Keep it simple, stupid
Since there is no escape it’s better to yield and enjoy
“Keep it simple, silly”
*Tata Docomo ad slogan that demands you to keep everything simple

Genetic Anxiety

a flag
a song
a book
books
fiction, illusion, imagination, construct
lies
my DNA refuses the coding
and the anxiety of it

a cup
two teams
and my genetic anxiety
the anxiety of not being able to support
a-little-more-genetic -near-and-dear!

കളിക്കളങ്ങള്‍ കളിക്കാരുടെതാണ്
ഒഴിഞ്ഞ ഇടങ്ങള്‍ കമിതാക്കളുടെതും
അവിടെ റൈഡ്‌ ചെയ്യുന്നവര്‍ ഫാസ്സിസ്റ്റ്കള്‍ ആകുന്നു
അവര്‍ പ്രഖ്യാപിക്കുന്നു:
കളികള്‍ നമുക്ക് മാത്രം
വഴങ്ങേണ്ടത് നമുക്ക് മാത്രം

I see my life in tatters, strewn around.

Falling down, each part animating itself

Into a queer little form;

Scampering away, looking around;

Amid the vast fabric of space and time,

Hardly recognizing their master,

And instantly gobbled up by a black-hole;

But not before squeaking a metallic cry:

When are you going to die?

Solo Men

Don’t you feel horrified?
Walking alone those strange landscapes;
Uninhabited, deserted, untrodden…
Don’t you get bored sometimes Sachin?
To eye the sky and watch the stars shine,
And feel the wind around,
And see the seasons change around you;
While all along standing like a statue,
With no one to keep company.
It’s the fate people like you are doomed to–
The solo status!
(Perhaps I may be wrong:
The muse of cricket might pay an occasional visit,
To have a communion with her most beloved son.)

Stray a little Sachin.
There you see a pinnacle.
Ascend it.
And give company to another man in the planet
Who suffers the same loneliness–
A certain man named Roger Federer!

Just out of curiosity may I ask you a favour, Solo Men?
Tell me immortals how do you experience the unknown,
That we mortals dread and covet at the same time!

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