Young Talent: Poems By Deeksha Vissapragada

ANGEL MANGO ANGRY WITH ME!

Oh, I love India so much!

Though summer in India is so hot!

Yet I love summer so much

Coz it gives me mangoes, lots of them!

I just can’t wait for the mango season;

My mouth waters as I wait for it.

In June six years ago, Dad took me and little sis

To the Fruit Research Station at Sangareddy... 

Yeah, for mangoes!

Wow! The colours! The smells! The variety!

We bought lots of them, every variety – 

Alfonso, Banginapalli, Chinna Rasaalu, Dasheri

Himayat, Langda, Manjeera, Panchadara

Pedda Rasaalu, and Suvarnarekha.

The seller gave us some free; so good he was!  

My best favourites are two – 

Bangin and Dash.

My breakfast was mango pieces;

My water was mango juice;

My lunch was mango and curd rice;

My snacks were mangoes again;

And my dinner too was mangoes with curd rice!

Soon the summer passed!

A good girl, I then ate the other things.

“No, you’re a bad girl,” banged Angel Mango.

“Why?” I protested.

“Coz you’ve forgotten me!” she snapped.

So past that summer, I ate mango jelly

And drank Maaza and Slice

For they are made of the mango pulp.

Since then Angel Mango is happy.

This season too I’m following the same mantra.

***

JOURNEY MORE IMPORTANT THAN DESTINATION

Passing out of Phoenix Green 

With a high in the Twelfth

Is my destination.

But the destination doesn’t simply happen on its own.

I have to go through each class from First upward;

Read well, score well, and lay a good foundation

For myself every term, every year, all the way.

Journey is the process, journey is the hard work,

Journey is the plan, and the plan put into action.

Destination is just the end result.

While one, two, three, four, and five is the journey;

Their final sum of fifteen becomes the destination...

I penned the above lines a few years ago;

And the cycle of seasons since then

Has sieved and sifted my flair and forte.

So I am bidding goodbye to Phoenix Greens

Seeking a greener pasture 

Via the path of humanities

Through another portal of equally great vision.

And, anyway the crucial fifteen is over now.

I’d, however, cherish gratitude to my alma mater 

With which I had a nine-year rendezvous

Having done my first grade elsewhere. 

The way we begin our journey,

The means of journey we choose,

The things we observe on our way,

The experiences and interactions 

We have along the course and make them our own – 

All of them mean a lot.

They add to our sense of fulfilment on reaching the destination.

Philosophically speaking,

Death is the destined destination in everyone’s life-journey

Whether one likes it or not.

But we don’t anticipate or dream of death;

We focus only on our life’s journey.

Sometimes destination determines the journey.

If time is of essence, we travel by air.

If it’s the journey of a close family or a friends’ group,

We may prefer a car or a van or a bus.

If it’s a leisurely affair, we prefer a train.

Once aboard, 

We watch the moving scenes through the windows,

Enjoy a free chat with our co-passengers,

Buy a variety of goodies from the vendors,

And get down for a while and stretch our limbs

Whenever the train halts at the stations in between.

If only we have all the time in the world,

We would love to indulge in wanderlust

By doing it on foot, exploring every inch on the way.

And after reaching the destination, we lie down and relax

Ruminating on the landmarks we have covered.

Keeping on the move like a gaining tortoise is important;

An idling hare going in fits and starts can’t be our ideal.

***

BIO: Deeksha Vissapragada (born in Chicago, Illinois) and living in Hyderabad (India) is on her way to joining Junior Intermediate (11th Grade), having done her 10th from Phoenix Greens International School, Hyderabad. Her hobbies are painting, basketball, dancing and writing.  She actively takes part in all co-cum-extracurricular activities, winning quite a few prizes. Whenever she has time on hand, she loves to watch videos and play games on iPad. A highly energetic girl, she co-compered the four-hour long New Year celebrations in her community on a cold night, along with a lady triple her age.

---

Setu, April 2021