Showing posts with label 202411E. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 202411E. Show all posts

Quotable Quotes by Anurag Sharma

Anurag Sharma
At times, an idea strikes me suddenly and refuses to leave. The only way I can quiet such persistent thoughts is by tucking them away in my notebook, hoping they’ll fade once written down. Often, I’m disheartened by the harm caused by a familiar saying or widely held belief, and I feel compelled to challenge it. That’s how most of my one-liner quotes come to life. I’m sharing a few of them here FYRP. - Anurag Sharma

Anurag's Quotes 1 (Setu, January 2018)
  • Truth doesn't age.
  • Love shares, hate hides.
  • Love means happiness.
  • Love unites, hate divides.
  • Selfish fish is fished first.
  • Secrecy is the enemy of love.
  • Man is a social media animal.
  • Love is selfless, hate is egotist.
  • Hard work carries heavy weight.
  • Love accommodates, hate secedes.
  • Don't sell your garage to buy a car.
  • Only Comrades deserve 100% Marx.
  • It’s not love if you’re not receiving it.
  • Love is spontaneous, hate is scheming.
  • Efficiency is passion, life is compassion.
  • It's better to judge than defending the evil.
  • There is science behind every piece of art.
  • Being at ease is another name for expertise.
  • Success is a bad leader, but a good follower.
  • Loyalty isn't love, it's generally the opposite.
  • A man can't experience the pain of childbirth.
  • Firewood of today is the diamond of the future.
  • Daydream: Sweet memory of a future endeavor.
  • Ignorance is magically exciting and entertaining.
  • I suffer from bad memory; I can't forget anything.
  • Those who look down upon others never grew up.
  • Relationships are neither good nor bad, people are.
  • Take a chance, no life is too short to cross a galaxy.
  • It's better to be unsure than having false confidence.
  • Happiness is meeting an old friend for the first time.
  • Life gets less annoying when you learn to live with it.
  • When you joke, you joke, but when I joke, you choke.
  • Freedom can't be imposed, what is imposed is slavery.
  • Happiness is when you see children jumping with joy.
  • Future was always there, even when there was no past.
  • Happiness is not trusting a shallow quote about happiness.
  • The elixir called friendship can breathe life into deadbodies.
  • You are only as much credible as your Facebook friend list.
  • Humans correct their mistakes; poor robots have no choice.
  • I sing from heart because my throat isn't melodious enough.
  • Life cracks many more jokes than my capability of laughing.
  • Being good (at heart) makes you good (at everything you do).
  • Search for startle effect in predictable stories is waste of time.
  • Love connects, lack of love disconnects, deception reconnects.
  • Bad relationship is to personality what a loan shark is to finances.
  • Clear communication without frustration isn't so easy as it sounds.
  • What is accomplished cannot save from the wrath of what is pending.
  • Beware of your strengths, because those are your biggest weaknesses.
  • Nature kills artificial quickly. Nature also kills natural, sooner or later.
  • Stress tells less about lives, more about (open) files (aka uncertainties).
  • Think twice before turning into a billboard for your favorite politicians.
  • Timid minds need a book to follow same way as a train needs the railroad.
  • Even the most precious pearls don't get recognition while lying in the ocean.
  • Love can turn evil into good temporarily, understanding makes it permanent.
  • Good guys may doubt their goodness often, bad guys never make such mistake.
  • Everyone can complain, anyone can share misery, friends share (and multiply) joy.
  • Past fascinates because of memories, future fascinates because of infinite possibilities.
  • Best people are invisible until needed. Their absence is noticed more than their presence.
  • Adopting a vegetarian diet would do more for the environment than burning less oil and gas.
  • Good guys fix the problem; Average guys assign the blame; The worst blame imaginary 'other'.
  • Not that bad things don't happen to good people. But more often than not, good people happen to bad things.
  • Embarrassment is the bad keyboard which types mother when you actually meant to write significant other.
  • Irony is when you intend to watch a cultural program and end up watching cultured people (standing between you and the program) instead.

A Limited Open Call for Setu: December 2024: Sweet-bitter Farewells!

Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

 ---Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Brief Description of the theme:


Bidding goodbyes can be both sweet and sorrowful!

Lot depends on the contexts of saying goodbyes.

 

Farewells can be liberating also.

They can also cause suffering and take a psychosomatic toll.

 

In life, humans come across such shared situations where farewells become inevitable with their attendant consequences and emotional binaries.

 

Time to say goodbye!

How do you say that in real time to your friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, strangers (on a train, bus, plane, etc.)?

That brave attempt at turning around, hiding unbidden tears in red eyes and overcoming a choked voice at the inevitable parting.

The final parting!

The meaning of being human in separations, ad-hoc or permanent.

 

Well!

So many ways of recalling those moments.

 

Please send your works around this theme.

Interpret your own way.

Send us the best ones for review.

 

We are waiting.

 

Details:

Theme: Sweet-bitter Farewells!

Deadline: December- 25th, 2024 (strict adherence)

E-mail: setuedit@gmail.com

Subject line: Submission for the Special Edition

Title: Only the first letter in the uppercase, not the full title in uppercase and without underline or fancy decoration (full title in Bold)

Author Name: Immediately below the title (Bold)

Word Limit: 40 lines maximum (poetry); 500-1000words (prose)

Instructions:

---Please send poetry (three poems of 20 lines, maximum), prose piece of max 1000 words, themed-painting/drawing (three-five), with a brief bio of 100 words only, along with a recent pic, as two separate attachments, for the editorial evaluation.

---Text in the Word format, font 14

---No PDFs

---Mention, in the brief cover note that it is an original, unpublished work

---Only the best works will be featured

---Non-compliance will lead to the summary rejection

---No notification of the rejected pieces will be sent.

 
Meanwhile, take a quick dive here:
---https://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html

Setu Special Edition: November 2024

The Dying City (Robert Maddox-Harle)

Special Edition: The Dying City



Special Edition Authors: November 2024
Contributing Authors
***


Setu, November 2024


Setu

Volume 9; Issue 6; November 2024


Setu PDF Archives

Editorial

Poetry

Young Talent

Bilingual Poetry

Trilingual Poetry

Critical Study

Exclusive

Author of the Month

Photo Essay

Short Fiction: Long Read

New Titles

Aphorism

Book Review

Setu Special Edition

Setu Video Series of Literary and Critical Conversations/ Poetry

Setu Initiative: Setu Series of Virtual Readings (Facebook Page)


Ills of Urban Growth

Sunil Sharma

Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves.

― Jane Jacobs


Are cities dying?

Or, already dead?


A planned centre of commerce and convenience with facilities and allied comforts and luxuries, the contemporary city, everywhere is showing the classic symptoms of a deep rot, decay and terminal illness. 

The signs of the universal malaise are self-evident: high-levels of pollution; unbreathable air; smog and its attendant effects on living and movement; traffic congestions of long durations; flash flooding; reduced tree cover and soil erosion; depleted water tables; increasing respiratory ailments, these combine together to make the megapolis, a smaller city or town or even a village on the periphery, a complete hell.

This is the standard narrative of the urban development and growth for you. Cities are divided into various sections and zones. Towers and slums mark the story of such a lop-sided development; an uneasy co-existence between the elites and the poor, and the tensions between gated and non-gated communities can be a problem for the citizens and planners alike.

Every city in the world battles with common devils---over population; poor transport and medical infra; lack of potable water; shrinking green and other open spaces, and, the growth of extended suburbs that serve the working classes who cannot afford a decent house in overheated real-estate market.


The Dying City (Robert Maddox-Harle)

Living is non-living, as T.S. Eliot famously declares:

Unreal City,

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,

I had not thought death had undone so many.

Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,

And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.


When every city turns into Detroit, you can imagine the silent suffering of the helpless folks. Noted author Jane Jacobs diagnoses the problem so well: “Detroit is largely composed, today, of seemingly endless square miles of low-density failure.”


This month’s call was themed around eminent Australian artist Robert Maddox-Harle’s powerful oil painting “The Dying City”. It captures the angst of a philosophical painter-poet so well, the angst of living in an urban desert, a dystopia happening around us.

Talking of the motivation behind the painting, Rob confesses:

This artwork started life as an oil painting which I painted in 1972. I digitised

the piece about 10 years ago and made an archival quality gicl├йe print.

The image shows a life-less, grey-blue modern city – devoid of all plants, animals and humans – a cold

dystopian impression of most soul-less cities. The reference to Monsanto is not especially to do with their

glyphosate chemical but their genetic modification of food seeds which they then patent. This neoliberal,

extreme example of American capitalism spells doom and death to the diversity of life on our planet.

Further the dying has spread to the moon which is in an advanced state of decay.


The select responses explore the nuances and realities as conveyed by the painting.

Like the rest of the edition, these add further value to this month’s Setu.

Our thanks to Rob and all the featured writers for their support.

Please enjoy!

Sunil Sharma,

Managing Editor, Setu (E)


Fiction: The Wedding

-Richa Shirish

Pihu and Mini were having their elaborate “tea party” in their makeshift house on the terrace. Mini poured the “hot tea,” which was only sugar water, from a little play kettle into tiny tea cups while Pihu arranged the snacks on the side, the pakoras and other yummy delicacies retrieved from Mini’s mother’s actual kitchen downstairs.

Pihu and Mini praised the tea and spoke of the weather just as their mummy and papa did. Pihu’s baby sister Chunmun, who happily tagged along with them was busy playing with her toy train track that her big sister had set up for her in the “house.” The schools had shut for summer holidays, and so, it was important to enjoy the happy days to the full by playing all day on Mini’s terrace, until Pihu’s mother returned from work in the evenings and took her girls back home.

While the sun burnt outside, it was nice and cool inside the “house,” the girls made from standing two charpois[1] facing each other and spreading an old red bedsheet above to make the roof. The long branches of the big neem tree outside Mini’s house provided cool shade in the hot summer afternoons. Inside their “house” they put many things—picture books, board games, and a little treasure box filled with old pieces of jewellery, bright reflecting buttons, seashells, bird feathers, stamps, old coins, and a pair of red-tinted glasses.

Sometimes, other neighbourhood kids also joined them in their play. Then it was always more fun because they all could enact complex stories and play different characters. Pihu loved enacting her super strict Math teacher who always asked everyone the times table of 13. Little Chunmun was fond of playing the doctor and gave shots and syrup to everyone who she believed had fallen ill. Mini loved playing her grumpy grandfather. She stole his thick glasses when he went to take a nap. When she made the gud-gud sound enacting her grandfather’s hukkah[2], everyone broke into peals of laughter.

Pihu’s beloved doll, Rani, which had sadly lost its one eye long ago, also played many different roles. They even had a pet—Kalu. Kalu was a stuffed toy camel about as tall as Chunmun. He was made of velvety soft black cloth, and was adorned with golden lace in places. Chunmun the doctor, rode the camel to visit her “patients.” Riddhi, who did not want too many dialogues, had to contend with playing “Papa” against her wishes. But she agreed to it only if she was allowed to ride the camel to her “office” and then there was always a tiff between her and Chunmun.

The role of the sabziwallah[3], was a tough one for many little children as they kept forgetting the names of the vegetables they were selling, and so Pihu had to help them with cues while also playing her own part.

But today, it was all very quiet with just Pihu, Mini, and little Chunmun and their tea party.

As they sipped their “tea,” Pihu told Mini about the wedding she had attended the previous day with her parents. She and Chunmun had even participated in the long wedding procession! She told her about the bride, how beautiful she had looked. And how the bride had smelled of flowers when Pihu and Chunmun sat with her for a photograph. And afterwards, there was such a grand feast for the guests!

“Let us also have a wedding feast then!” Mini said with excitement. “Rani can be our bride! We can all pool in some rupees from our piggy banks and buy a real feast for us.”

Pihu loved the idea and giggled.

Mini’s older brother, Rahul, who was loitering outside with his new bat and ball was asking Mini and Pihu to come out and play cricket with him—the game he thought was for the smarter children and was much better than their silly “House” game. The girls ignored his plea because a., everyone knew he wouldn’t really let anybody use his bat for long and b., it was just too much fun inside the “house!” He sulked and threatened to complain to mother. But in reality, he just continued to linger around the house since he could not resist watching the curious activities unfolding inside.

“But we would need one more doll for the wedding—the groom,” Pihu said to Mini.

“Oh! You are right!” Mini said and sighed.

“I don’t think my mother would buy me a new doll soon.” Pihu said.

“Mine neither,” Mini said sadly. “Wait! But my mother knows how to stitch dolls!” she suddenly remembered. “We could ask her?” she said with excitement.

They all went downstairs and sat in front of Mini’s mother waiting and praying for her to agree. She smiled and nodded. Pihu and Mini screamed with happiness.

“But, shouldn’t your groom doll be wearing some bright-coloured sherwani for his wedding?” Mini’s mother asked. “And all I can spare is an old white cloth.”

“Oh! What do we do now?” Mini wondered, “Where will we get bright-coloured clothes for the groom, mother?”

Pihu looked at Rani’s torn frock and said quietly, “Even Rani needs good clothes for her wedding. She is the bride! But aunty, I don’t think my mother would have any spare cloth of that kind…”

Mini’s mother thought for a while and said, “You could perhaps ask tailor Ramadeen for help. He stiches many wedding blouses and salwar kameez. He would have a lot of left-over pieces from such clothes. It should not be a problem for him. If he allows you, look for some nice pieces of bright-coloured fabric. Look for reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges. Look for the ones with gota (gold) border.”

“That would be great, mother! We can then also take out a wedding procession.”

“Yes, we can call other friends too. We can have a proper wedding for Rani.”

Mini’s mother smiled at all the excitement around her.

Rahul who was playing cricket by himself now, was intrigued. He had heard the whole conversation and didn’t want to be left out now. He asked if he could come along too, please? Mini rolled her eyes at him first, but then allowed him.

Pihu, Chunmun, Mini, Rahul, and a few more children reached the tailor’s shop and peeped inside from the big glass door. The old tailor Ramadeen looked very busy marking and cutting clothes with a huge scissor and ordering around his two young assistants. The children entered the shop and hesitatingly told him about the wedding. They told him about the scraps of bright coloured cloths they needed.

Ramadeen looked at them for a few seconds. He seemed irritable. It was too hot and he had too much work left to do. The children thrust forward their doll, Rani, to lend some weight to their words. “This,” the children said, “is our bride. It’s her wedding.” Rani looked at Ramadeen quietly with her one eye. But she shut her eye as the doll got tilted. Pihu quickly gave Rani a good shake so it opened its eye again. Busy Ramadeen had little time to engage with the party. He vaguely pointed them to the two small cardboard boxes outside his shop. “Those are filled with scrap cloths. Take what you need. But don’t spill them around. If you make a mess, I will have you clean it up,” he said looking very serious from behind his glasses. The children nodded and instantly turned toward the boxes outside. They started digging into the scraps full of beautiful cloths of different sizes, colours, patterns, and textures.

After some time, Rahul pulled out a shiny white piece of cloth with chequered golden design. “Look what I found! This could be made into the groom’s sherwani?” Pihu nodded. He then dug some more and found out a green velvet piece. “This could be used for pants! Or shoes!”

Chunmun found a pink muslin cloth with tiny stars sequined in it. She asked in her soft, shaky voice, “Pihu, can we make Rani’s dupatta from this?” “It’s lovely, Chunmun! That’s very nice!” Pihu said to her sister, “I’ll look for something matching to make Rani’s main outfit.”

Mini pulled out a golden lace that was loosely stitched on to another cloth. “This can be made into jewellery for the bride!” Riddhi found a silver lace. “We can make jewellery out of this for the groom,” she says.

Rahul found a large piece of very colourful printed cloth. “I don’t know what this can be used for, but I like it very much.” “May, be this can be used to make the stage and the tent?” Mini wondered.

Pihu had been searching for a long time but had not found anything suitable to make Rani’s outfit. The yellow silk was too small. It could either be made into the top or the skirt, but not both. The orange with red printed flowers looked too dull. She finally dug out a big piece of shimmering aqua blue with a little embroidery. “Ah! This is so pretty for the bride’s dress!” she exclaimed. But then she saw a small tear right in the middle of the cloth. “Oh no!” she cried. “I can’t seem to find anything good for Rani!” She put the piece back and started digging again.

Ramadeen stopped his work to watch the frenzy outside his shop. He came outside and looked at the boxes. By now, they had been emptied out of their contents and the cloth scraps were rolling all over the floor. At his sight, children suddenly began putting all the scraps back into the boxes. Pihu looked at him distraught with Rani in her hands. “Come with me,” he said to the children and stepped into the shop.

He took out a rectangular box from one of the drawers under his big table. The children gathered around him eyeing him curiously. He cleared the dust off of the box and opened it. Inside the box was a gleaming, neatly folded Benarasi[4] silk of radiant pink colour. Ramadeen held the piece in his hands reverentially. Tiny yellow paisleys woven in the cloth shone brightly when light fell on them. He continued to hold it silently for some time. Then, he took the scissors and cut out a big enough portion of the cloth. “Here, have this,” he said and gave it to Pihu. “I had been keeping this for a special occasion. I don’t think I would need it anymore.” Pihu wondered if Ramadeen looked a little sad. But he instantly changed his expressions. “Will this look good on your doll?” he asked with a smile. Pihu took the revered piece of fabric from him, unable to believe what he did. “It will look perfect!” she said and smiled.

Happy with their collection, children returned home skipping and jumping, relating to each other tales about how they chanced upon their treasured pieces. They emptied all their collection in front of Mini’s mother. Mini’s mother smiled looking at all their hard work. She brought out her heavy Usha sewing machine and a long-nosed bottle of machine oil. She oiled the machine and stitched the body of the groom doll. Then, with a black thread she crafted his face: eyes, nose, and a mouth. She even made hair on the groom’s head with black wool.

Rahul stuffed cottonwool in the doll. He then tried to make the doll walk. But he could not balance it properly. “Mother, its one leg is smaller than the other!” he said in dismay. “You must not have filled the cotton properly.” But Mini already picked it up and adored it. “It is perfect!” she said. Mother agreed. “Once we dress him up with the sherwani[5] and shoes, he is going to look wonderful,” she tried to assure Rahul who sat with a long face.

By next evening, fully dressed up in the beautiful white and golden sherwani and green velvet shoes, the groom doll looked very charming. “Mummy, I’ll call him Raja,” Mini said. She put it next to Pihu’s doll. “This is Rani. This is my Raja,” she pointed at each doll as she said, and both the girls giggled.

The following day, Pihu brought out the pink Benarasi silk fabric to Mini’s mother, “Aunty, please make Rani’s lehenga and blouse with these?” Chunmun held out the soft yellow fabric. “Aunty, please make Rani’s chunni from this?” “Aunty, we have some silver and golden lace for jewellery too!” Riddhi said. Mini’s mother smiled. She loved the little children just as she loved her own. “Come, come, children, let’s make up your doll too.” She stitched a beautiful skirt and blouse from the pink Benarasi silk. After that she tied Rani’s hair in a tall bun, and draped the starry yellow dupatta around her. Then she taught children how to use fabric glue to make jewellery for forehead and arms.

Pihu couldn’t believe how lovely Rani looked! Rani blinked with her one eye and smiled back at Pihu. Pihu was over the moon!

Pihu and Mini decided to have the wedding day after the next, which was a Sunday. Children collected fifty rupees each from their piggy banks. Those who could not, were also happily invited. They gave all the collected money to Pihu’s mother to buy them nice wedding feast. Pihu’s mother smiled and kept it. It was hardly enough, given the huge number of guests the children had invited, but she congratulated them on their effort nevertheless.

***

The wedding procession was a cacophony of sounds. Children brought everything and anything that could make a sound. Sonu, a young boy was trying his best to lead the procession by beating his small plastic drum. Ira was next to him and was matching his rhythm by shaking her round tambourine disk in her hands. Rahul was blowing into the toy trumpet. A toddler held wooden rattles in both hands and rattled them without pause or rhythm. Another little child brought his toy frog that pushed its tongue out and made a squeak sound every time it was pressed. There were shakers, little dholaks, horns, and more such sound toys. Surrounded with loud and boisterous sounds, Mini was happily walking carrying Raja in her hands.

A feast was arranged at Pihu’s home. Her mother and father had made fluffy round pooris[6], potato curry, and kheer[7] for all the little wedding guests. There was cake, imarti[8], samosa, gulabjamun[9], and ice cream too waiting for the little guests!

The procession had to walk only a few minutes from Mini’s home to Pihu’s home. Pihu’s mother and father had spread out big dhurries[10] in the front veranda. The food and drinks were arranged on a big table on one side.

Pihu’s father and mother had already made a little stage fitted with a small shamiana from the bright coloured-cloth that Rahul had found. They had spread out fresh flowers and put up a swing in the centre of the stage for the dolls to sit on. The swing too was decorated with leaves and flowers. They asked Pihu to wait there with her Rani for the procession to reach their house and help them welcome her guests. But Pihu was getting restless from missing out on all the fun of the procession. The sounds of the procession were already reaching her through the air. She could bear no longer. She left Rani on the little swing and ran out to join the procession. The children were dancing, singing, and playing their musical toys. With much clamour, and some fighting and crying, the procession reached Pihu’s house.

Once back at her home, Pihu quickly jumped sides. She turned into a host and quickly helped her mother and father welcome the little guests by showering them with marigold petals.

The children fixed Raja on the swing next to Rani. Then they put tiny garlands on the dolls, showered flowers on them, and clapped with joy! Happy and over with the little wedding, they immediately turned their attention to the big table where delicious food was waiting for them. Pihu, Chunmun, Mini, Riddhi, Rahul, Sonu, Ira, and everyone else surrounded the food table at once.

Pihu’s mother and father served all children with love and asked them to wait for their turn. But the children did not heed to their calls. Little Chunmun was angry that she was served two pooris less than her big sister. She wanted the same number—four—whether or not she could finish them! Riddhi asked for yet more gulabjamun after eating six already. She wouldn’t even look at any other food item that wasn’t the gulabjamun. Pihu’s mother worried if Riddhi would upset her stomach. Just then, Ira spilled her ice cream on her new velvet dress and cried from fear of her mother’s scolding. She had to be pacified immediately. A child came asking for a third serving of the curry when, in fact, there was no more curry left! Soon a fight erupted between a little girl who wanted to pluck all the flowers from the dolls’ swing and Pihu who then pushed her greatly. Pihu’s mother and father pulled the two girls apart.

Running around the children left Pihu’s parents tired. Mini’s mother came to their rescue. “Come now, all of you,” she said. “The wedding will be complete only when you all take both the bride and the groom dolls back. And there is yummy churma[11] waiting for all of you. Keep some space for that too!”

The children once again gathered and continued their procession back to Mini’s house with the same clamour they had begun with. Mini’s mother gave every child one churma laddu. They were Pihu’s favourite and only Mini’s mother knew how to make them!

Mini, Pihu, Chunmun, and Rahul sat looking at the dolls when the rest of their friends had gone back home. They put the dolls in a beautiful cardboard house Mini had made from shoe box. Raja, the groom, kept falling and Rani kept blinking with her one blue eye. Yet, they both looked spectacular, the children all thought. Their new clothes shone and sparkled. Both Mini and Pihu kept looking at the dolls awestruck and giggled.

When Pihu’s mother came to call on her, Pihu asked Mini to give back her doll.

“But don’t you know? Rani will now stay here. With us,” said Mini. “With her groom doll.

Pihu looked at her in surprise.

“That’s why we made that house for both the dolls,” said Mini.

Pihu looked at her mother. Both the mothers were smiling as they watched the two girls.

“No. I want my doll back,” Pihu said.

Mini’s mother laughed and said, “Pihu, Rani is the bride. Should she not stay with her groom? Will you not leave your home one day when you get married?” Then turning to Pihu’s mother, she asked “Isn’t it so with every girl?” and laughed.

Pihu’s mother put an arm around Pihu and said, “Pihu, my love, did you not want Rani’s wedding? Let her live here for a few days, my dear. You can come here and play with her every day.”

“No. Rani is mine!” Pihu said. Her cheeks were flushed red and her eyes had welled up. 

“Come, come, Pihu, my dear, I’ll get you a new doll. It will be much more beautiful than Rani. It will even have two proper eyes,” Pihu’s mother said and hugged Pihu.

“I don’t want any other doll! I want Rani!” Pihu was raging. Big drops of tears were sliding down her cheeks. She looked at Rani standing in the shoe box. Rani blinked at her with her one eye. It looked like it was calling to Pihu. Pihu freed herself from her mother’s embrace and grabbed Rani in both her hands. “My doll will stay with me!” she said and dashed out of Mini’s house. She ran to her own terrace and sat in a corner holding her doll tightly. 

Pihu and Mini did not play with each other for the next few days. Pihu and her sister Chunmun played on their own terrace for a few days. But it was not much fun for the terrace had no spare things to be made use of in the play. Also, it was not much fun without her for Mini.

One day, when Pihu came down from her terrace, she saw mother chatting and drinking tea with Mini’s mother. Pihu hid behind the curtain. But Mini’s mother called on Pihu and Chunmun lovingly and asked them why they had stopped coming to her house to play. Pihu felt shy and confused, but she was also scared that her doll would be taken away from her. She remained quiet but Chunmun went ahead and happily sat in Mini’s mother’s lap. And then she even went off with aunty to play with Mini! Pihu felt utterly defeated watching her sister walk away to Mini. How about some loyalty to your own sister! She wanted to ask Chunmun.  Angrily, she decided to play with her doll alone, by herself!

For the next few days, Pihu played alone on her own terrace with her doll Rani. On one especially hot day, Pihu felt dizzy. When her mother returned from work in the evening, Pihu went and fell in her mother’s lap and lay motionless for a while. Mother hugged her with love. But she found Pihu’s arms and legs especially hot. She checked her forehead. Pihu had a very high fever! Pihu’s mother quickly left Chunmun in the care of Mini’s mother and rushed Pihu to the doctor. Pihu had become dehydrated, doctor aunty said. She would need to be injected with some fluids and would be alright in 24 hours.

Pihu lay in bed sleepily at the nursing home getting intravenous fluids, while her mother sat by her side holding her hand. Next day, Pihu woke in the afternoon. Doctor aunty was in the room talking to her mother. Doctor aunty smiled at Pihu and checked her eyes, tongue, and tummy. Pihu saw Chunmun and Mini sitting next to her bed watching her intently. “They have been here since morning! Waiting for you to wake up. You have been sleeping since last evening!” Pihu’s mother said. All three broke into a silly laughter.

Pihu’s mother left the room to settle the bills at the reception.

All three girls sat silently in the room waiting for mother to return.

Mini looked at Pihu with worried eyes. “When will you come to my home to play?” she asked.

“I want to come home now.”

“…”

Chunmun and Mini handed a cloth bag to Pihu. Pihu opened the bag and in it was Rani.

Pihu was surprised to see Rani. She held her close to her chest and smiled.

“It was a good wedding,” said Pihu.

“The best!” Mini said.

“We had so much fun collecting pieces at Ramadeen’s shop.”

“And aunty’s churma laddu were yum!” said Chunmun.

“So were poori-sabzi-kheer!” said Mini.

“It burned my tongue!”

“Ira spilled ice cream!”

“Riddhi ate only the gulabjamuns!”

“Ten gulabjamuns!”

“No, twenty!”

“Sonu brought his school drum!”

“We danced in the procession.”

“I sang so poorly—aa-aha-ha-ah!”

All three girls laughed heartily.

“Will you play with me again?” Mini asked hesitantly. “I will not ask you to leave Rani at our house.”

“I want to play with you,” Pihu said. Her eyes welled up.

“Me too,” Mini said. They smiled and held each other’s hands.

Pihu’s mother walked in. “Come, come, children, pack things, we are all going home now.” Mini helped Pihu’s mother pack all things.

“Mummy, can I go to Mini’s home to play?” Pihu asked excitedly.

“Yes, in a day or two, when you are well, my dear.”

“Don’t worry, Mummy, I am the doctor from now,” Chunmun said. “I will make her just fine. See, I can give her injection also—just like doctor aunty!” With her finger, Chunmun gave a shot in Pihu’s arm. Pihu winced with pretend pain. Mother smiled.

In the autorickshaw bound homeward, Mini and Pihu sat holding hands. Chunmun sat in mother’s lap. Mini said to Pihu, “I will come to play with you, at your home. Till you recover. And I will bring my Raja too.”

“I missed playing with you,” Pihu said.

“And I missed you!” Mini said. The girls hugged and giggled. They were over the moon, and could not wait to resume their play.

***

Author Bio: Richa Shirish is a freelance content writer and editor based in Delhi NCR.

***

  1.   Charpoi: A bed made of a wooden frame and woven rope
  2.   Hukkah: A type of pipe that brings smoke through a container of water before it is breathed in
  3.   Sabziwallah: Vegetable vendor
  4.   Benarasi: A sari made in Varanasi, an ancient city which is also called Benares (Banaras)
  5.   Shervani: A long-sleeved close-fitting knee-length coat with a stand-up collar worn by men of India and Pakistan
  6.   Poori: A round wheat bread that is deep fried until it puffs up and turns brown
  7.   Kheer: A sweet rice pudding
  8.   Imarti: A sweetmeat made from deep frying lentil flour into flower shapes and soaked in sugar syrup
  9.   Gulabjamun: Sweetmeat from Indian subcontinent; deep fried milk and flour balls soaked in sugar syrup 
  10.   Dhurrie: A thin hand-woven rug from northern India
  11.   Churma: A kind of sweetmeat made of crumbled bread or bread-crumbs (chur) mixed with butter and sugar.

Bilingual Poetry

Ivan Pozzoni
Bio: Ivan Pozzoni was born in Monza in 1976. He introduced Law and Literature in Italy and the publication of essays on Italian philosophers and on the ethics and juridical theory of the ancient world; He collaborated with several Italian and international magazines. Between 2007 and 2018, different versions of the books were published: Underground and Riserva Indiana, with A&B Editrice, Versi Introversi, Mostri, Galata morente, Carmina non dant damen, Scarti di magazzino, Here the Austrians are more severe than the Bourbons, Cherchez the troika. et The Invective Disease with Limina Mentis,Lame da rasoi, with Joker, Il Guastatore, with Cleup, Patroclo non deve morire, with deComporre Edizioni. He was the founder and director of the literary magazine Il Guastatore – «neon»-avant-garde notebooks; he was the founder and director of the literary magazine L'Arrivista; he is the editor and chef of the international philosophical magazine Informaci├│n Filos├│fica; he is, or has been, creator of the series Esprit (Limina Mentis), Nidaba (Gilgamesh Edizioni) and Fuzzy (deComporre). It contains a fortnight of autog├йr├йes socialistes edition houses. He wrote 150 volumes, wrote 1000 essays, founded an avant-garde movement (N├йoN-avant-gardisme, approved by Zygmunt Bauman), with a millier of movements, and wrote an Anti-manifesto N├йoN-Avant-gardiste. This is mentioned in the main university manuals of literature history, philosophical history and in the main volumes of literary criticism. His book La malattia invettiva wins Raduga, mention of the critique of Montano et Strega. He is included in the Atlas of contemporary Italian poets of the University of Bologne and figures ├а plusieurs reprized in the great international literature review of Gradiva. His verses are translated into French, English and Spanish. In 2024, after six years of total retrait of academic studies, he return to the Italian artistic world and melts the NSEAE Kolektivne (New socio/ethno/aesthetic anthropology).

 

 

SE I VERSI NON PROTESTANO

 

Se i versi non protestano sulla natura delle accise dell’Itaglia

tasse su tasse, contro natura, faremo la fine del Brexit della Gran Bretagna

con la benzina alle stelle dovremmo battere in canotto in senso inverso la via extra-comunitaria

e, ahim├й!, saremo noi costretti davvero, ad invadere di nuovo la Tripolitania.

 

Se i versi non protestano sulla natura dei condoni

ante costruisco in modo illecito e post mi trovo una villa a sette piani,

come se Biancaneve mangiasse la mela e, da morta, conoscesse i sette nani,

valuteremo cento giorni a pecora meglio che un giorno da leoni.

 

Se i versi non protestano sulla natura dei referenda abrogandi

con affluenza alle urne minore del giorno d’Ognissanti,

- ogni referendum ├и stato abrogato dall’intervento delle due camere di lestofanti-

dovremo implorare l’importazione svizzera di un referendum destitutivo di 945 delinquenti.

 

Se i versi non protestano sulla natura al parking Italia di milioni d’extra-comunitari

ci troveremo, tra dieci anni, con l’incremento di 60.000.000 di cittadini americani,

e, a Milano, Firenze, e Roma, con 200.000.000 di rifugiati asiatici e africani,

il Presidente americano sar├а un avvocato di Matera e il Papa un beduino del Kalahari.

 

Se i versi non protestano sulla natura delle acque dei mari di Taranto e Crotone

straziate dalle fumate cancerogene dell’iper-capitale,

faremo una gran festa, aperta a tutti, all’ospedale,

invitando l’80% degli abitanti del nostro avvelenato Meridione.

 

Se i versi non protestano sulla natura delle chiappe di Belen,

interesse mediatico con audience alle stelle e conseguente fusione dell’auditel,

l’aumento del desiderio avr├а una contrazione tipo yen,

e saremo costretti a urlare «siamo stati stronzi» a 10.000 decibel.

 

Se i versi non protestano, mi sento un Titanic in una lotta titanica,

morso da una biro bic senza l’antitetanica,

arrugginisco di punta, la punta dell’iceberg,

a secco di inchiostro come un distributore della Erg.

 

IF THE VERSES DO NOT PROTEST

 

If the verses don't protest about the nature of Italy's excise

taxes on taxes, against nature, we will end up like Britain's Brexit

with petrol skyrocketing we'll have to dinghy our way out of the EU

and, alas!, we shall be forced indeed, to invade Tripolitania again.

If the verses do not protest about the nature of amnesties

ante I build illegally and post I get a seven-storey villa,

as if Snow White ate the apple and, when dead, met the seven dwarfs,

we'll rate a hundred days in sheep's clothing better than one day as lions.

If the verses do not protest about the nature of the referenda abrogandi

with lower turnout than All Saints' Day,

- every referendum was repealed by the intervention of the two chambers of swindlers-

we will have to plead for the Swiss import of a referendum abrogating 945 crooks.

If the verses do not protest about the nature at the parking Italy of millions of non-EU citizens

we will find ourselves, in ten years' time, with an increase of 60,000,000 American citizens,

and, in Milan, Florence, and Rome, with 200,000,000 Asian and African refugees,

the American President will be a lawyer from Matera and the Pope a Bedouin from the Kalahari.

If the verses do not protest about the nature of the waters of the seas of Taranto and Crotone

torn by the carcinogenic fumes of hyper-capitalism,

we will hold a big party, open to all, at the hospital,

inviting 80% of the inhabitants of our poisoned Southern Italy.

If the verses do not protest about the nature of Belen's ass,

media interest with skyrocketing audience and consequent auditel meltdown,

the increase in desire will have a yen-like contraction,

and we'll be forced to yell ‘we were assholes’ at 10,000 decibels.

If the verses don't protest, I feel like a Titanic in a titanic struggle,

bitten by a Bic pen without a tetanus shot,

rusting at the tip, the tip of the iceberg,

dry of ink like an Erg distributor.

 

 

 

LEOPOLDUS

 

Mando questa mia raccomandata a Leopoldus von Attolicus,

certo che nel rapporto di forze lui sia Pompeo o Crasso ed io sia Spartacus,

sperando che la risposta non arrivi mediante piccione viaggiatore,

mio nonno, sangue valligiano, aveva dote di grande cacciatore.

 

Chiedo a Leopoldus von Attolicus e alla sua vivace ironia salace

di spazzar via doppielingue e critici letterari, come Traiano con un dace,

senza riuscire a volermi mai essere maestro di dizione,

chi l’ha fatto nascondeva sempre manovre d’addomesticazione.

 

Tent├▓, anni fa, a racchiudermi nella tela che ammazz├▓ Simone il Gran Maestro dei sarti,

l’ultimo fu, invece, doppialingua, il Jep Gambardella de’ noantri,

in mezzo il fl├вneur con l’Alzheimer e l’esito contemporaneo d’una merda d’artista,

oramai sto lontano dai maestri - non soffro i Ponteggi - il fegato amaro m’ha trasformato in etilista.

 

Leopoldus von Attolicus, io, discendente di Villon, arrogante scribacchino,

ti chiedo di dedicarmi un motteggio o dei versi di spirito che mi ubriachino:

meglio, senza mezzi termini, crepare fulminati da cirrosi epatica

che morire, lentamente, confinati in questo star system d’arte apatica.

 

LEOPOLDUS

 

I send this registered letter of mine to Leopoldus von Attolicus,

certain that in the ratio of forces he is Pompey or Crassus and I am Spartacus,

hoping that the reply will not arrive by carrier pigeon,

my grandfather, valley blood, was a great hunter.

 

I ask Leopoldus von Attolicus and his salacious irony

to sweep away doubletongues and literary critics, like Trajan with a dace,

never managing to be a master of diction,

those who did were always hiding domestication manoeuvres.

 

He tried, years ago, to enclose me in the cloth that killed Simon the Grand Master of Tailors,

the last was, however, doppialingua, the Jep Gambardella de' noantri,

in between the fl├вneur with Alzheimer's and the contemporary outcome of an artist's shit,

by now I stay away from the masters - I don't suffer the scaffolders - the bitter liver has turned me into an ethylist.

 

Leopoldus von Attolicus, I, descendant of Villon, arrogant scribbler,

ask you to dedicate me a motto or verses of wit that will get me drunk:

better, in no uncertain terms, to die electrocuted by cirrhosis of the liver

than to die, slowly, confined in this star system of apathetic art.

 

 

 

I MORTI DI FAME STANNO NELLE ACCADEMIE

 

Non mi resta che brindare,

ai maneggioni d’ogni risma (di carta A4),

brindare ai docenti universitari di sociologia del diritto

che ti costringono a elemosinare 45€, chiedendoli a ripetizione,

loro con le ripetizioni ci campano, campano coi libri

sovvenzionati dall’universit├а, e venduti ai frequentanti e non,

eppure – dicono- non riescono a tirare alla fine del mese,

alla faccia del disoccupato, del cassintegrato, del vario tipo di esodato,

che, almeno una volta nella vita, hanno davvero lavorato,

senza trascorrere intere giornate a leccar sederi nei corridoi,

fingendo di stampare volumi, facciate di isbn, in vista dei concorsi,

a racimolare raccomandazioni, a brigare con le commissioni,

in Italia le commissioni d’inchiesta arrivano sempre tardi a rompere i coglioni.

 

Non mi resta che brindare,

coi soldi del sussidio, otto enfatici mesi contro tredici anni di contributi versati,

alla faccia dei filiifamiliae mantenuti dieci anni a fare, nell’ordine sacrale:

studenti, cultori della materia, dottori di ricerca, ricercatori con bustarella, docenti associati (a delinquere),

e, infine, docenti ordinari, fascia 1, fascia 2, fascia 3,

l’Italia, terrona d’Europa, si sfascia, loro si fasciano, neo-fascisti ossia fascisti in fasce,

di corone d’alloro, minacciano, rimbrottano, correggono,

dimentichi dell’abolizione di ogni ius corrigendi e ius primae noctis

(con le ragazzette somare che studiano da giornalista e sognano da velina),

l’idraulico di loro se ne frega, l’elettricista di loro se ne frega, il macellaio di loro se ne frega,

di loro se ne fregano tutti, inclusi carabinieri, finanza e ufficio delle entrate.

 

Non mi resta che brindare,

alle cattedre regalate a vita a chi spende un’intera esistenza inutile,

a discutere di interpretazione autentica della Corte Costituzionale.

L’inutilit├а delle loro esistenze sar├а il nostro massimo, ontologico, successo.

 

THE STARVING ARE IN THE ACADEMIES

 

It only remains for me to toast

here's to the manikins of all reams (of A4 paper),

here's to university lecturers in the sociology of law

who force you to beg €45 by asking for repetitions,

they make a living with repetitions, they make a living with books

subsidised by the university, and sold to students and non-students,

and yet - they say - they can't make ends meet,

in the face of the unemployed, the laid-off, the various kinds of exodus,

who, at least once in their lives, have actually worked,

without spending entire days licking asses in the corridors,

pretending to print volumes, isbn fronts, in preparation for competitions,

gleaning recommendations, hobnobbing with commissions,

in Italy, commissions of enquiry always arrive late to break our balls.

 

All that's left is to toast,

with the dole money, eight emphatic months against thirteen years of paid contributions,

so much for the filiifamiliae kept ten years to do, in the sacred order:

students, scholars, PhDs, researchers with a bribe, associate professors (delinquent),

and, finally, full professors, band 1, band 2, band 3,

Italy, the terrona of Europe, breaks down, they bandage themselves, neo-fascists, that is, fascists in swaddling clothes,

with laurel wreaths, they threaten, they reprimand, they correct,

forgetful of the abolition of all ius corrigendi and ius primae noctis

(with the little donkey girls who study to be journalists and dream of being showgirls),

the plumber doesn't give a damn about them, the electrician doesn't give a damn about them, the butcher doesn't give a damn about them,

they all don't give a damn, including the carabinieri, the finance and the tax office.

 

All that remains is to toast

to the professorships given for life to those who spend an entire useless existence

discussing the authentic interpretation of the Constitutional Court.

The futility of their existences will be our greatest, ontological, success.

 

I GRANDI «POETI»

 

Gli ultimi due anni della mia vita, con estrema noia,

si son scoperti a colmarsi della conoscenza di grandi «poeti»,

nessuno di essi, strano caso, vanta il fatto d’esser nato in una mangiatoia:

meritano tutti una copertina, bianca, dell’Einaudi, con l’arroganza d’esser sommi sacerdoti.

 

Centinaia di dilettanti inconcludenti, distanti da ogni forma d’umilt├а, col motto del «je rode»

uccidono anodini versetti, col veleno dell’inchiostro, come fossero re Erode,

tutti eccellenti, refrattari ad ogni critica, martirizzati sul monte degli Ulivi,

non concepiscono che l’unica nostra salvezza sia infilar loro sulle mani due preservativi,

e, anti-concezionalmente, risparmiare a tutti il torto

d’assistere ogni volta ad un aborto.

 

Scopro che, secondo Goethe, l’«ironia ├и il sentimento che si svincola dal distacco»:

ironia, eir├┤ne├нa, madre di distopia e dissimulazione, resta la lancia di Don Chisciotte,

lancia in resta contro i mulini a vento, avvento dell’attesa dello scacco

contro chi inanella versi tarentini tanto sciapi da condannarci alle garrotte,

svela al cittadino bue come mai un disperato in bancarotta

sia arrivato a assassinare un magistrato e non una mignotta,

indica all’uomo della strada come versi senza neustico

siano in grado di liberare il male cronico di un mondo stitico.

 

Scopro di essere in balia di una scrittura a immagini tridimensionali

che costringer├а tutti i lettori a cambiare in 3d le (tre) lenti dei loro occhiali,

segnalano a me, correttamente, ex magazziniere in blazer

che tra trecent’anni vincer├а i mondiali la Svezia di Transtr├╢mer,

che stiamo vivendo in contemporanea una decina di rivoluzioni copernicane

senza accorgersi che un millennio prima di Transtr├╢mer c’era arrivato Alcmane.

 

 

THE GREAT POETS

 

The last two years of my life, with extreme boredom,

have been filled with the knowledge of great ‘poets’,

not one of whom, strange as it may seem, boasts of having been born in a manger:

they all deserve a cover, white, of Einaudi, with the arrogance of being high priests.

 

Hundreds of inconclusive amateurs, far from any form of humility, with the motto of ‘je rode’

kill anodyne verses, with the poison of ink, as if they were King Herod,

all excellent, refractory to all criticism, martyred on the Mount of Olives,

they do not conceive that our only salvation is to put two condoms on their hands,

and, anti-conceptionally, to spare us all the wrong

of witnessing an abortion every time.

 

I discover that, according to Goethe, ‘irony is the sentiment that breaks free from detachment’:

irony, eir├┤ne├нa, the mother of dystopia and dissimulation, remains the lance of Don Quixote,

lance in rest against the windmills, advent of the expectation of checkmate

against those who churn out Tarentine verses so dull that they condemn us to garrottes,

reveals to the ox citizen how a desperate bankrupt

came to murder a magistrate and not a whore,

shows the man in the street how verses without neustic

are able to release the chronic evil of a constipated world.

 

I discover that I am at the mercy of three-dimensional image writing

that will force all readers to change the (three) lenses of their glasses to 3D,

signal to me, correctly, a former warehouse worker in a blazer

that in three hundred years Transtr├╢mer's Sweden will win the World Cup,

that we are simultaneously experiencing a dozen Copernican revolutions

without realising that a millennium before Transtr├╢mer came Alcmane.

 

 

HAI PERSO LA LINGUA?

 

A Unomattina hanno dato una notizia sensazionale,

a forza di WhatsApp e dei disservizi del telegiornale,

nella flebile speranza che non si estingua

l’homo sapiens sapiens sta perdendo la lingua.

 

Tutto inizi├▓, nel ‘900, dalla caduta dei muri del congiuntivo,

e continu├▓, a cavaliere del secolo, con l’ipertrofia dell’aggettivo,

tutto bellissimo, splendidissimo, iper-mega-conveniente

a noi Sanremi costretti a romolar controcorrente.

 

Consumatori disciplinati a sproloquiare cockney

acquistando vocaboli usurati su eBay,

brevettano neologismi, da una lira, al Gr

alla ricerca del gradimento di un qualsiasi parterre.

 

Casca il mondo, Casca la terra, in scappatelle p├мcare

Bruti intenti a intinger pugi nella lingua di Cesare

seppelliscono lessici senza usufruire di condizionale

accusati di crimen incesti con una ex-vergine Vestale.

 

 

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR TONGUE?

 

At Unomattina they have given us some sensational news,

brought to us by WhatsApp and TV news malfunctions,

in the faint hope that homo sapiens sapiens will not die out,

who are losing their language.

 

It all began in 900, with the fall of the walls of the subjunctive,

and continued throughout the century with the hypertrophy of the adjective,

all beautiful, splendid, hyper-mega-convenient

to us Sanremi forced to romolar against the tide.

 

Disciplined consumers of the Cockney language,

buyers of second-hand words on eBay,

patenters of penny neologisms, au Gr

seeking the approval of any audience.

 

Casca the world, Casca the earth in p├мcaresque frasques

Brute busy integrating pugi into Caesar's langue

bury the lexicons without the benefit of the conditional,

accused of crimen incesti with an ex-vestal virgin.