Aathmaanaam: Translations from Heaven and Hell

A movement Sound arose Slowly it moved It was possible to follow the sound In a while it merged on the main road In noise the sound lost form and started shouting and rolling like a round ball with the other formless sound particles Kasa Pisa Kuka Keke Pike Dakku Pukku All the round balls from the various arterial roads came together and circling over the city they scratched the sky and were exiting New new sound particles turning into round balls were going to the Celestia I caught hold of a sound particle snatched it and swallowed it like a tablet Everywhere within the sound particles were running and playing I entered into the main road with veins bloated I became like a ball Rolling and bulking I rose up Scratching the sky scratching the space beyond the beyond I was travelling With light and darkness as two eyes I was able to be at the back on the front on both sides on all four sides Body of light Vast space Everywhere ...

The talk I can drive a cycle I can drive a bus I can drive an auto-rickshaw Caught between the buses the auto will topple I can drive a car Hitting the bus the car will crumple I will run and sit on the driver's lap Oh yeah accept it let's all go in a bus Note : What a playfully beautiful poem

The foreigners The foreigners have arrived said the helper Let them inside I said Removing their hats two came in I asked them to remove their footwear and come in Switching on the A.C. I asked them what they wanted Whiskey they said I told them it is all local here They turned around the letters on the table and said what are these Indian letters I told them those were all translations Laughingly they asked who was he who asked Can the prosperous Tamilians suffer What for that now I asked In Estonian language and Swahili we have come here to translate that they said From the paper bundles that lay like garbage I took out it's translation The local arrived

The suburban A day when no one is expected no great work to do was able to turn a few pages The audio player played time went by Evening siting on the stairs the world was moving in sweat A woman of the Kurava tribe picks her firewood the schoolgirls without their uniforms the cows that eat papers the humans who have skewed faces from their crumpling work on the returning buses Some clear faces on the starting buses my radio is heard With the small organizations peace prevails The evening dailies roam around in furore In the tea stalls politics is served hot with no partiality to any party The common man is satisfied Apparent riot confusion mystery with nothing of this sort The suburban crawls in peace

Truth It has been ages since the old lady who said when you speak the truth God is within you has died When I speak only the truth for this world You are a liar You are an opportunist You are an antisocial You are a traitor and several other The only lie I said was There is God

Achievement Have you achieved asked a question I do not have an answer now When my body dies before the tombstone that arises ask this

Two Poems Near the library desk a man is reading a book He is reading a different book You are reading a different book Some day you both all will read only one book That will be your book      With the fluttering pages      the letters morphing as words      the words morphing as sentences      the meaning was realised      After the meaning was realised      the world ruined      and a new world was in vision      The meaning was realised in a moment      when that moment too was lost      I see the same world which I saw before      with the fluttering pages Note : Two poems in a single poem which could have been made into two poems with a connection ... That said language, meaning, books and interpretation is a consistent subject that is beautifully debated here