Glopowrimo #10 - one third of Glopowrimo done!
There was always a gap
between me and everything.
Reading of London
never having been,
or of American or French weather (terms and phrases)
but what did it have to do with my childhood, all this talk of heather
or gorse in the British countryside
even if it was in 'Wuthering Heights' which I indisputably loved?
It was the same with people
and my own landscape.
I knew the names of things
but the things themselves would escape me
unknowable
or I knew the things
but not their names
(or it was all confused between Malayalam, English and Hindi -
gloriously mismatched misfits -
Had I been sent by my mother to buy 'kakadi' or cucumber or ??????
Ah, yes, vellarikka!)
and people never understood me
that I was sometimes as harmless as the bumble bee
and sometimes as vicious as the ettadi moorkhan (eight-foot cobra)
but then again
I always saw
them
in a light, no different, that they themselves could not see.
Where were we, oh, let me see!
Yes, coming back to the weather
and this damn concept of the prompt
it never rained cats and dogs
in my vicinity
or even puppies and kittens.
As for regional phrasing and dialect
ours was much more earthy
we say "mazha peyunnu
maddalam kottunnu
maaraandachikku thooran muttunnu"
which translates to "the rain is falling
the drum is beating
maaraan's wife feels like shitting"
Don't ask me why or ''what is its meaning?"
We love the kodungattu (storm-wind),
the chuzhelikattu (whirlwind)
We don't have the kaal boishakhi (nor'westers)
of Kol
and every Malayali guy
has this dream of
"it's raining, it's pouring
the old man is snoring
went to bed and bumped his head
and couldn't get up in the morning"
a Spanish Feliciano dream
while the hero sneaks out
the back-door and back-yard
and makes love to the heroine
in the driving, frenzied, wet and thundering-lightning
at or by or near the sarpakavu (serpent shrine)
bitten by snakes and the snake of lust
and love, and longing, and never regretting.
between me and everything.
Reading of London
never having been,
or of American or French weather (terms and phrases)
but what did it have to do with my childhood, all this talk of heather
or gorse in the British countryside
even if it was in 'Wuthering Heights' which I indisputably loved?
It was the same with people
and my own landscape.
I knew the names of things
but the things themselves would escape me
unknowable
or I knew the things
but not their names
(or it was all confused between Malayalam, English and Hindi -
gloriously mismatched misfits -
Had I been sent by my mother to buy 'kakadi' or cucumber or ??????
Ah, yes, vellarikka!)
and people never understood me
that I was sometimes as harmless as the bumble bee
and sometimes as vicious as the ettadi moorkhan (eight-foot cobra)
but then again
I always saw
them
in a light, no different, that they themselves could not see.
Where were we, oh, let me see!
Yes, coming back to the weather
and this damn concept of the prompt
it never rained cats and dogs
in my vicinity
or even puppies and kittens.
As for regional phrasing and dialect
ours was much more earthy
we say "mazha peyunnu
maddalam kottunnu
maaraandachikku thooran muttunnu"
which translates to "the rain is falling
the drum is beating
maaraan's wife feels like shitting"
Don't ask me why or ''what is its meaning?"
We love the kodungattu (storm-wind),
the chuzhelikattu (whirlwind)
We don't have the kaal boishakhi (nor'westers)
of Kol
and every Malayali guy
has this dream of
"it's raining, it's pouring
the old man is snoring
went to bed and bumped his head
and couldn't get up in the morning"
a Spanish Feliciano dream
while the hero sneaks out
the back-door and back-yard
and makes love to the heroine
in the driving, frenzied, wet and thundering-lightning
at or by or near the sarpakavu (serpent shrine)
bitten by snakes and the snake of lust
and love, and longing, and never regretting.
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1 comment:
Well...well...this blog is extremely interesting. I just wandered and came in. I will peep in again to read more.
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