Algorithm for converting a Shudra into a Brahmin

And dusty greyThe sky begins to blush.Some sleepy careless charm welcomesDaybreak.Even SongAzureAnd pink gold huesThe smug sky at twilightA final flush of fulfilmentNight falls.

Thin, stark-naked and with fire for eyes.Killing men whom I despise.Bewailing the woeful life I led.Casting dark spells, makin’ them dead.Thronging ghettos, to unbend bent backs.Handing them knives, ‘least an axe.Lot later I fly to temple streets.Our men firm, I show my feats.Haunting oppressors to shave their heads.Cutting all their holy threads.Experiencing joy as they…

She teased and tormented his celibacy, so Miss Success-Village was thrown into a well by a wandering socialite-godman.She was inaccessible and unattainable, so, Durga was put in an iron trunk that settled on a riverbed and even the men and women who tried to approach her were informed in a prerecorded voice that she was…

the water sees a parched throat slaking thirstbut the teacher sees a girl breaking the rulethe doctor sees a case of medical emergencythe school sees a potential embarrassmentthe press sees a headline and a photofeaturedhanam sees a world torn in half.her left eye, lid open but light slapped away,the price for a taste of that…

Of pain, or even plain indifferenceShe has her winsome wicked ways.Some day, years later,Life requires you to unearthSome event long past and youSet about browsing your brainLike a desk-full of office files and then—Come across a resounding emptiness.Memories drizzle-fragileAre not to be found. WhatGreets you instead, throughThose yellowing sheets of typed matter isThe blank and…

the earth in flesh and blood.”—Albert EinsteinWho? Who? Who?Mahatma. Sorry no.Truth. Non-violence.Stop it. Enough taboo.That trash is long overdue.You need a thorough review.Your tax-free salt stimulated our woundsWe gonna sue you, the Congress shoe.Gone half-cuckoo, you called us names,You dubbed us pariahs—“Harijans”goody-goody guys of a bigot godRam Ram Hey Ram—boo.Don’t ever act like a holy…

in puffing jet black soot;few flashy cameras recordglimpses of destruction(for tomorrow’s papers) …Our huts are burning—Regular huts in proper rows.Dry thatches (conspirators-in-crime)feed the flames as we rush outshrieking-crying-moaningopen mouthed hysterical cursesand as if in an answer—when the blazing work is doneFire engines arrive…Deliberately late.These feverish cries continuein the same shrilly pitchecho, echo, echo andfinally reach…Up…

since I dreamt of sunlight and the sky’sembrace. Even a woman’s lush vanities —scarlet silk and shining gold — have been loston me. I am snared in a world of aqua, fuchsia,and lime set dangerously against black and white.Words tightly wrapped,and imprisoned in a cluster ofhighlighter colours, share my slavery.Rattling loud, the colorized intrusionshave pickled…

in our landeven the monsoons come—leisurely, strolling likedecorated temple elephants(the pomp, the paraphernalia)—after months of monotonous prayer,preparations and palpitating waits.my darlinghis silence(those still shoulders)but his eyes dancehis eyes dance(so wild, so wild)so i think of ragingsummer storms—like uncontrollable tuskerstrampling in mast(the madness, the lust)—across the forests of our land. . .(First published in Thanalonline.com)

Like knowledge, is a traitor,Erase every hoarding of your horrible past.At last, when you enter her worldOf fraying edges and falling angelsDon’t barter words where touch will do and be the truth.For once allow her silence to sear, strip your life-layersBecause she who knows the truth will not know the tale.

No more. I have blotted out, like a thick cloud,Your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins.My strength is made perfect in weakness,There is but a step between me and death.I’ll be exalted among the nations,I’ll be exalted in the earth.I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.Today, you’ll be with me in Paradise.I am the…

And dusty greyThe sky begins to blush.Some sleepy careless charm welcomesDaybreak.Even SongAzureAnd pink gold huesThe smug sky at twilightA final flush of fulfilmentNight falls.

has something to do with dharma and karma.‘Dharma’. ‘Karma’ two good appetizingand rhyming words they may come in handy for classic poets.Dharma they say is indefinable,it is all encompassingand yet untranslatable.Dharma they say meansJustice, Integrity, Veracity,Righteousness and Legitimacy.Almost enough meaning for a word.And you carry it on with yourself.Dharma makes a versatile lucky-charm.All your life,…

And yet, you want to be heard.I want to tell him that I haveClosed and sealed my skin.Baby, I told you, love can hurt.I have exiled my heart.This is a lonely, lonely world,Even with a lover.Since I know the differenceBetween believing and being in loveOh! you know nothing.I have stoppedMy frantic searchFor the BuddhasOnly they…

She teased and tormented his celibacy, so Miss Success-Village was thrown into a well by a wandering socialite-godman.She was inaccessible and unattainable, so, Durga was put in an iron trunk that settled on a riverbed and even the men and women who tried to approach her were informed in a prerecorded voice that she was…

at mealtimes, her tender-as-tomato breastsbruised to touch, her heart forgot its steady beat.Floundering at forty, she twisted safety pinsinto spirals, chewed on pencil-ends, tore downcalendars, became a hurricane about the house.That wetness, with its lunar reek, never came.Her monthly drip had disappeared.Her no-money man was back home by then—ditched and duped by his dancer mistress.She…

frightened with forceand locked away, she conjured him every night.her emperumaan, her emperor-man.recklessness on speed-dial, she becamea rape romantic. he, a bodice ripper.their bootleg shadowsburst out with the sun. people pointed fingersat parted curtains, a scandal of shape-shifters.her hair undone, silver-grey lips, skipped meals,and nightmares of a thousand elephants…she learned to nurseevery rumour like a…

a word that waits and weepsand hesitates, that knowsof other words I kill, andgrows afraid to take its place.Find me a word that has heardof a woman afraid of losing a manshe does not have, find me a wordthat flinches at the thought of beingtrapped, a word that shows mestealing time, not men.Find me a word that…