From the sequence:

From the sequence:

Words for a Lost Sub-Continent

“Krishna’s advice to Arjuna”

14: If the soul meets death when Sattva prevails,

then it goes to the pure regions of those who are seeking truth.

15: If a man meets death in a state of Rajas,

he is reborn amongst those who are bound by their restless activity;

and if he dies in Tamas, he is reborn in the wombs of the irrational.

The Bhagavad Gita, XIV, transl. Juan Mascaro.

« It is incorrect to assume that Hindu thought strained excessively after the unattainable and was

guilty of indifference to the problems of the world. We cannot lose ourselves in inner piety when

the poor die at our doors, naked and hungry. The Gita asks us to live in the world and save it. »

S. Radhakrishnan, The Bhagavadgita.

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When Thodti was born at Nelveli in the latter half of the XXth century

his ancestors had been living out-of-right

for the past XXX centuries

hovering

on never-never land under villages with-out-back twenty-hutments

now overgrown to two one-thousand hovels in towncentre marshalling yards

no sewers gurglecourse under their feet

nor piped potable water flush their long-curdled alimentary canals

nor showers chase the clinging cloaca stench

nor even un-broken drains

tarred roads

garbage removal vans

find mouth on election platforms

the towncentre = the bus-terminal churning flipping putrid mud after three-day

drubbing storms

and bulging humanfleshed trains

run on forgotten time

the lav’s stinging week-long turds splashvomits the feast of flies

temples carved with mantric-mouthed hands from the VIIteenth & VIIIteenth

gopurams in congested tiered runaway curlicue rococo-baroque fantasy

rose chalk kunkumam ripe mango yellow pitch black indigo

bulging fuming thick mascara eyes Zapata moustaches dangling over

burgeoning bellies

lithe white cows gracing Ganesha’s flanks

garlands of roses hibiscus jasmine

identical buxomy lasses ballooning commodious backs ample thighs their sarees

a deliberately clasped transparent veneer of pudeur

the jingling nautch girl anklets

vain reminders of Kannagi

bangles bracelets armlets tiaras talis earrings noserings fingerings toerings kolusus

the prancing stained eyelashes the full lascivious lips

and that eternally round-eyed vacant supercilious stare

past the invisible sanctum sanctorum

the vast sinking steps of the holy tank murky with blodok

torn bookmatches ceremonial paper ferns water-lilies lotuses and centuries-old ooze

caked ulcerous washing feet and tick-milling matted hair

see how trailing reams of wishes and private wants

rise in pre-paid puja-thin mantric magic smoke to high heaven

for Thodti trailing barefeet his dried coconut-stick broom on cracked macadam

in the gutter festering oozing fresh month-old drying turds urine remains of fed-up banana-leaves skins withered jasmine garlands drained motor-oil from scooter-taxis overfed flies lean stray kids fowl cows

all that was wonder from afar

magic mythic mystery the lingo of gods on earth

the brahmin vegetarian clattering-pans over order shouting eating-hotels

as though the heavens deigned to camp down on his doorstep

derailed on their celestial inter-galactic circuit

his mind if he cared to exercise one was of little use to him

nor were they to his ancestors

called upon only to clean the bottoms off those who

shat upon his forefathers for ages

his only use for his intelligence

is to know his place

minus the alphabet

minus arithmetic

minus the patinenkilkkanakku

minus the grandold Vedic mystic gods and rishis

minus the right to think for himself

only the dullard’s right to die daft dull damned

and be reborn in the womb of ignorance

So much for your Godly advice Charioteer Krishna

For don’t Gods only talk to Gods on Earth

Detach yourself first then

KILL

Do not feel for those you kill

For what lofty ideal the Mahabharatha

pitted mythically gambling polyandrous cousins

Is India today a magical-realist myth

or a cranking up Indo-Pak Armageddon

Sattva Rajas Tamas

Sattva Rajas Thodti

Notes

Sattva: pure intelligence and goodness

Rajas: impure mental energy and restless passion

Tamas: dullness and inertia

Blodok or belodok (also beluduh): Malay for large-eyed goby, found in tropical or

equatorial muddy flats

Gopuram: the tiered, sculptured towers over the main entrances to Hindu temples

Kannagi: heroine of the medieval Tamil epic Cilappatikaram

Kolusu: ornamental anklet chains with bells worn by Tamil women

Kunkumam: saffron ( yellow or red) powder serving as adornment marks of

auspiciousness on women’s faces

Patinenkilkkannakku: the traditionally collective name for eighteen Tamil classical

works

Tali: usually gold chains worn by married Tamil women round the neck or tumeric-

stained cords in lieu of

Thodti: a caste name for Night Soil Men

From the sequence “Words for a Lost Sub-Continent” in longhand notes (a binding of poems). ISBN 2-904428-14-3