Summer 2024: Avantika Vijay Singh

Avantika Vijay Singh

Pride of India/ Jarul/ Queen’s Crape Myrtle

 

A palette of purple

Displays the Queen’s Crape Myrtle

Blooming like the silver mist

Amidst April’s hues from light to deep amethyst.

With petals that typically crinkle.

 

Lilac hues adorn

Hushed whispers on the morn’…

A tea brewed from its leaves…

Holds the cure for diabetes.

Such power to it is born.

 

Its heart holds a calyx

of a star with points six

A Shatkona…

That in Hinduism has grown

To symbolise balance in its mix.

 

Between Shiv and Shakti…

The unity of opposing energy.

Between heaven and earth…

A balance convert

The symbol of balance and harmony…

 

Is it any wonder then

That gazing upon the Jarul brings content.

Aligning the mind, body and soul,

In a complete whole…

At peace immense.

***

 

Jacaranda

 

Lavender trumpets,

Trumpeting spring,

Springing through early summer…

Jacaranda.

 

Amethyst arbour

Lushly loom

Storming sapphire skies

Amaranthine…

 

Eternal… wisdom brought from the moon by a priestess

On the Jacaranda she lands with the Mitu bird

According to Amazonian legend,

Shares her knowledge with the people and then returns

From the Jacaranda

The staircase to the moon…

 

Violet in the vault of heaven

Trumpeting His glory.

A sigh from the soul

Peace. Tranquillity.

 

A native of South America,

but now a global traveller.

Travelling continents,

creating a tropical storm.

 

A tropical storm that calms…

Calming is the effect it generates

Generating a cosmic symphony

Breezing through my consciousness.

***

 

Gulmohar

 

Flames of fire

Dressed in a flower’s attire

Rise higher

With summer’s ire.

 

Travelling from Madagascar

It arrived into an Indian summer…

A vibrant stunner,

Is summer’s drummer.

 

Flamboyant in their ferruginous

With gold-tipped filaments numerous

Waging wars illuminous

On the morning mutinous.

 

Crimson tongued-petals converse

With the universe

In heroic verse

And I in their glory immerse.

 

A crimson lake increases

Beneath the trees

With the morning breeze

As the flowers fall with ease…

 

My feet carry me through this tapestry

That remind me of a soldier’s gallantry…

On the battlefield for his country

And the subsequent honour in a grand pageantry.

***

 

Rangoon Creeper/ Madhumalti

 

Madhumalti…

A dressy flower

Changing colour…

white to pink to red.

 

Shy and demure…

flowering in bunches.

Gazing downwards

On the vine she grows.

 

Madhumalti…

Reminds me of the

ashta nayika –

the eight types of heroines

in ancient Indian literature.

 

Bedecked in vibrant hues

she is Utkanthita nayika …

the one who awaits her beloved

in shringhar rasa

 

Her long tresses perfumed

with flowers beaded amongst them

and jewellery adorning her…

Her face aglow with expectation.

 

Like Radha waiting for Krishna…

Incidentally, ancient tales

Compare the pink flowers to Radha

And the white ones to Krishna.

 

And together they dance the raas leela…

celebrating the eternal bond

of love

in the sea of devotion.

***


Gulmohar the dancer

 

Tak dhina dhin dhin

dhin dhin tak

The sound of the mridangam

resonates in my ears as I see

in full bloom…

the Gulmohar…

 

The flowers

sway gently in the wind

decked in brilliant crimson and gold

like a Bharatnatyam dancer

tak dhin dhin 

dhin dhin dhina tak…

 

 

The five-petalled gulmohar

with its four crimson petals

and the fifth one cream

with splashes of red

akin to the pleated fan of

a bharatnatyam dancer’s saree…

 

The red magnifies…

with red petaloid sepals

below the red petals

like the underskirts…

While their undersurface

remains green.

 

Their sinuous scarlet stamens

like maidens in multiple mudras.

I am enchanted

with their beauty and grace

and their innate rhythm

as they dance upon the breeze…

And my heart dances with them.

***

 

Bio: Avantika Vijay Singh is a writer, editor, poet, researcher, and photographer. She is the author of two solo poetry books i.e., Flowing… in the river of life and Dancing Motes of Starlight (her debut ebook). She is the winner of the Nissim International Award Runner Up 2023 and has been published in national and international journals. She also writes the blog “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives” in the Times of India.

 

3 comments :

  1. Beautifully written with lot of emotion. Deep philosophical thought portrayed in a simple manner.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous, i loved and liked Gulmohar the most ЁЯОЙ - Anju

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful imagery of the nayika waiting for her lover.
    All the poems are radiating positivity and pulsating with vibrant hues

    ReplyDelete

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