TSL Pandorathon's prompt The Cauldron Speaking in the Nocturnal May 17th Santosh Bakaya May 17th
Mack and his Beths
To the wood of Indian English poetry then I came
"Where a cauldron of unholy loves sang about my ears."
'Wicked wizard in white', I watched with unholy glee
Them cook up the broth and brew of so-called great Indian English Poetry
On the top will float Gitanjali in translation, they cackled
He is the only one who got a Nobel, see
Not that they had read Gora, unlike me,
Or understood it
But only that they came from the same neck of the woods or tongue
The cauldron hissed and sputtered. The fire under it grew warm
They threw it in, as it was light enough to float to the top
We need a Dalit for seasoning, so Namdeo Dhasal in translation is in
We need a kind of Christian, so let us have Jayanta M
A Brahmin convert stews well
The semi Anglo or Catholic can be Jerry Pinto
We need a Muslim, it can be Sahir in translation, presently
We need someone to talk of tribals, like Mahashweta Debi, though that is prose
We must look and speak like democracy. The fire now grew real hot!
And a couple of foreigners who quote the Gita, please!
Rest can be Left, or Centre or Right, or might
Throw in a few women to stir the pot with a little blight
Call one the Nightingale of India and the other behind her back
A Nympho and also say she lost it, you know, at the end
When she became a Muslim, so let's still call her Das.
Add a few Parsis for garnishing
And a Jew, measure for measure!
But as for the main set
Make sure they are all Brahmins
Kshatriyas and Vaishyas
Who think they know English
Better than the rest
(Only that they don't!)
-Don't you know that democracy is majoritarian or the minority with power? -
But don't forget, ne'er forget
"We are Siamese" multiplied, "if you please."
The three witches, or muses
Laughed uproariously
Double trouble cause now, cauldron, to boil, and bubble
They evilly cackled
Deaf, Dumb and Blind their names
And the cause of the death of poet-kings
No queens, they can only be witches, except for one or two
What of the songs of the Odiyas
Or Kashmiris
Or Tamils
What of the other states of India
Don't they have their music too?
What about the Sikhs and Buddhists and Jains?
Sikhs are accounted for, we have Gulzar and Khushwant (more prose)
Ambedkar (Buddhist prose), Jain; no idea
Or of the LGBTQIA? Hoshang will do, yaar.
He adds to the Parsi set too. And, yeah, Seth.
You think they don't have their spin and spiel?
The witches of the canon say
Koshy, don't worry
You, like King Peter Pevensie, will remain
The High King of the Clear Northern Skies
Of Narnia, where there's place for you
Where the magic of fantasy reigns!
Leave the cauldron to the deaf
Blind and dumb and let it steam and simmer
The chickens will be broiled
The others will be soiled
All will be eaten
And forgotten
Time will do it spoil, so toil
For whom the bell tolls
Tomorrow and forever
Is written on the sands of time
And most of the names get lost
Washed away by the waves of centuries
Only one or two shall remain.
Rightly, or wrongly,
The rest are just pawns in our game.
While Ramanujan sells his Vedic grass/gas
I remember Nakulan
Who broke his twice born thread
Coughing out his life, lungs, and poems
And the spittoon (kolambi)
Full of blood.
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