Ashwani Kumar is a poet, author and professor at Tata
Institute of Social Sciences-Mumbai. Widely published, anthologized and
translated into several Indian and foreign languages, his major poetry volumes
include ‘My Grandfather’s Imaginary Typewriter’, ‘Banaras and the Other’,‘Architecture of Alphabets’ . Recently he has published Rivers Going
Home, a major anthology of poetry from Indian languages. He is author of
the acclaimed non-fiction ‘Community Warriors”( Anthem Press; London), and one of the chief editors of ‘ Global Civil Society’ at
London School of Economics. He has served on the jury of fiction for Tata
Literature Live 2020 and co-founded Indian Novels Collective, an initiative to
popularize translation of classic novels of Indian languages. He is also a visiting
fellow at leading global universities and think tanks including London
School of Economics, German Development Institute, Korea Development Institute,
University of Sussex. In leisure, he writes for several newspapers
including a regular book column in Financial Express.
The Death of Pluto
No body is in doubt.
No body is sad.
No body is grieving.
Parts of body descend into
oblivion.
Parts of universe slip into some
strange customs.
Somewhere in the burning tunnel
thousand Astronomers conspire
Against spiritual corridors in
our existence.
The inventory clerk of celestial
bodies
Writes with the left hand; “We can’t live
together,
We must free our children from a
cosmic mistake”.
I am not sure heavens believe in
humility but they pretend as if arrogance does not exist
I am not sure dog bites are
tasty But I often chase senile animals…
The end of a long poem is always
a relief
But the untimely death of a
small verse is media hype.
Do you know?
The woman we love accidentally explode randomly?
Do you know why?
All fixed stars in the solar
system go for circumcision?
Oh, how blind is naked truth?
How dangerous is underground
literature?
Can I exchange my trivial
explanation for a profound lie?
Comets are in wrong places,
Married grooms are waiting for wrong brides
What is present today may not
become your horoscope tomorrow?
Still you, I and my children
love fresh juice, garlic bread and footloose planets…
@ In
2006 the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto from its position as
the ninth planet from the Sun to one of ‘ dwarf planets’.
Without Friends
The uncivilized cackles of
children playing in the park disfigure my
Window glass beyond recognition.
Peace hackles me like a beggar…
War batters me like a debauch…
The past haunts me like an
unsung hero…
Once again, I am outrageously
helpless.
Once again, I quarrel with my
family doctor.
Once again, I bury friends into
the shallow waters of ambition.
Rejoicing in the vanishing
freedom, they dance without any footwork or art.
Her nose-stud frowns at my petty complaints and I hide behind stammering whimpers.
A loud thud…
And the lonely river stops
flowing.
Busy deciphering secret scripts
coded in the marigold flowers in my lawn
I stand looking dazed at the
Sudden fury on the freckled face
of my ageing mother…
Like ugly black magic
She persuades me to come home…
I see moons dangling from the
corners of her cataract eyes.
I see a silent fear planted on
her forehead.
I dream of caterpillars singing
noisily.
It is time I return home.
It is time I get angry! It is
time I get angry!
O Kunti’s Sons!
I smell the blood of an
Englishman.
I hear warbles of the mangled
dragons.
I see Colonial Queens giving
birth to unwanted progenies.
Nothing is more divine than the
Magna Carta
Fluttering across sterile
continents like pornographic calendar.
O Kunti’s Sons!
I still feel the ancient
arthritic pain in my knees
I still fear the moist bayonets of alien
soldiers
I still dance in the acid rains
on the foothills of Shivalik.
Nothing is more revolutionary
than eunuchs destroying all famous men and women.
O Kunti’s Sons!
Sanskrit is high scoring, French
is fashionable,
Memory is a birthday gift and
Land is ultimately a chocolate
factory.
Yet you fear losing the Berlin
Wall…
@ Kunti,
mother of Karna and Pandavas is a prominent figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
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