spitting

Hi this is my debut poem in English. I wrote this when I was pursuing my M.A. in the American College, Madurai. I still remember those days…Dr. Love taking us to Kodai International School. This poem is special for me not because it is first ever try, but this is my only work that has some social flavor in it. I hate people spitting on the roads, especially when I walk or drive. Now you must have got the reason behind the creation of this poem. The day before reading this before the audience we (my classmates and seniors) all rehearsed articulating our poems. Dr. Love said that we got to say our name and then go reading the stuff. The rehearsal went really well until I came. “I am Madhavarajan SPITTING”, is what I said and there was a thunderous laughter…
Here we go with the poem
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SPITTING


As I walk on the streets,

I cautiously detour and

head for the unused platform.

When I stand at the bus stop,

I jump here and there,

for they shoot towards my legs.

When I see the foamy,

gelatinous splashed out,

My salivary glands explode.

Should I spit on the road

Or on the two-legged beasts?

by,

madhav

earring - cryings!

A thin streak of gold,

dropping down her ears - holding a shinning bead,

like my tear treading down my cheeks!

Wriggled

I have perceived, always perceived, an old saying that diktats a verity that if you do evil to someone in the morning, it vaults back to you the very same evening. For better understanding, I allude to Newton, who says, “for each and every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. It is true I would say for I experienced it. I did (often do) vice and got it back to me the very same day. Do not think that I am philosophic in tone. I am plain, I sense. Read the following anecdote and you will know what I am trying to say.

That morning, a humdrum morning, I went to my class and some how I started talking about disturbances I face inside the bus in which I travel. I was talking about men/women who sleep and become a pest to the co-passenger(s). I talked about its fun part and about the furious parts. My students enjoyed it. Then I said about men who sit at the back of women and about their uneasiness when the shawl (dhupatta, we localize it) of the girl comes to the back seat accidentally with the help of the wind. My students had a roaring laughter when I expressed my thoughts. I never, myself, have experienced facing a shawl, so I was cracking many jokes.

Evening came and I started back to my home in the same college bus. The bus sped in the National Highway and as it increased its pace, my heartbeat increased its lubs and tubs, for a shawl came running towards me from the front seat. At first, the shawl touched my knees and my bag, which I always rest in my lap. I did not mind it. Later, because of heavier wind, the shawl touched my hands and slowly crept to my shoulder. I felt like the game that I play with kids, my two fingers (imagined as the legs of crabs) climbing carefully over the kid’s little arm to tickle it.

The shawl did not tickle me nor did I laugh but I was shunning at the non-living thing that was well animated the hands of the wind. Then it touched my face. Could it be called slapping? No, it could not be called so for it gave a pain; it made me wriggle but not literally and physically. Now, I thought, that shawl be renamed as shovel. Shovel usually gets coal and throws it into a burning furnace but this one takes my face and throws me into a different world – a world of shyness, a world of speechlessness, a world of cowardice, a thoughtless, numb world.

In a spur of a moment, a hand came pulling the shawl away from me. It was the girl’s – the owner of the shawl. The girl chuckled for she was my student who attended my class in the morning, wherein I talked about the pathetic situation of persons, who face the furious blows of a shawl.

Love drama (trauma)

Beginning:

She spoke,

I smiled.

Middle:

She spoke,

I spoke.

End:

She spoke,

I spoke,

But not with each other

Madhav

THE SILVER IDOL - an one act play

The play The Silver Idol by James R. Waugh is about a silver idol that Jack brings from India. The play depicts the Westerner’s view of Eastern countries.

The play takes place in the drawing hall of Mr. & Mrs. Pryde’s home. As the play opens, one could see Mr. & Mrs. Pryde’s family busying themselves to receive Jack. Betty, who is engaged to Jack, is preparing herself to meet Jack. Harold, the son of Mr. & Mrs. Pryde, could not believe that Jack is back. Harold, the youngest of all is much interested in hearing strange stories from Jack who has been to a strange country like India. Jack comes to their home and all the family members are eager to learn about adventurous experience that Jack has had this time in India. Jack though feels reluctant at first, starts narrating an event that he faced in India.

Jack met an old man in India, who was being robbed by three rogues. Jack fights with them and saves the life and the valuables of the old man. The old man presented him a silver idol, which according to the old man was of Tibetan origin having magical power. The old man said that the silver idol would grant three wishes to the person who has it. He warned Jack by quoting two stories about the silver idol, which granted the wishes of its owners, but the ends were very different and tragic.

The old man said that the silver idol’s first owner was a rich man. As he had enough money, he wished for peace in his life. The next day everyone saw the rich man dead and without any worries. The second story the Indian old man said to Jack was about the strangeness of the silver idol was that of a man who had lost his wife when she was very young. The man loved his wife very much and he was passionate about her even after her death. When he got the silver idol, he wished his wife would come alive. Days passed but nothing really happened. He once went to his town and as a kind of remembrance; he went down the lane where he had a store once. To his surprise, he saw a shop that sold the same articles that he sold and the person who was selling things was exactly his wife. However, the pathetic situation was that the woman was of the same age as she had died and the man was too old and therefore she did not accept him as her husband. The man told this truth to all people in the town but nobody helped him. People considered him a lunatic and they put him in jail.

On hearing all these terrible, unbelievable and strange events, the Pryde family gets much impressed. Jack and Betty goes to the theatre. Jack absent-mindedly leaves the idol in the table and leaves for theatre with Betty. On his departure Mrs. Pryde and Harold plans to use the silver idol. Mr. Pryde warns Mrs. Pryde and Harold about not to use it. However, they both wish for a Television. As soon as they wish for a TV set, there is a knock at the door and a Visitor comes and informs the family about their winning a TV set in the competition, for which Mr. Pryde sent a coupon a month ago.

This sudden arrival of the TV set surprises Mr. and Mrs. Pryde but not Harold. Harold says that it happened very naturally and not because of the power of the idol. Saying so he asks his mother to try for another wish and it is to foretell the matches that would be a draw in the forth-coming football cup. Before this wish comes true, Jack and Betty returns home and they come to know about what is happening. Their second wish also comes true, but Harold says that he is not satisfied. He says it has happened in a natural way.

Then the whole of the family, including Jack, starts discussing it and Betty says Harold to switch on the radio for some program. As they are talking, Mrs. Pryde says that she wishes to have a lot of wealth with the silver idol in her hand and that happens to be her third wish. The answer for this wish comes through the radio that gives the summary of the program. The radio voice asks all human beings to be content with what they have, and to be happy with the existing things and not to wish for more on seeing their neighbours and friends.

Listening to the radio talk Mr. Pryde and Jack feel safe and they ask Mrs. Pryde and Harold to follow it throughout their life. Jack by the end of the play on seeing Mrs. Pryde and Harold dissatisfied asks them to turn the silver idol and read what is written on it. To everyone’s surprise below the silver idol are the words “Made in Birmingham”. Jack later says that he has played a trick on them just because Harold asked for a good yarn. The play ends in a good note that we should not be jealous of others and imitate them but to be content with what we have.