Two hearts.....

My blog and FB friend Kavita Saharia of Guwahati, in the North Eastern state of Assam in India, participates in a Friday blog ritual called "This moment ".

As she says " A single photo — no words — capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."  This is what you post on a Friday; no words, but just a photograph that has touched you.


This is something she posted today.   


Those who are no good at photography, must often make do with words.


(photograph by Kavita Saharia)

Clutching
his best friend
close,
he quietly bends
to rub
his running nose
against his fingers,
as he runs
down the path
to the fields.

He has seen his ma
carrying his baby brother so.

Somewhere
below a tree
she unwraps
the rotis and onions,
and sets out another plate
as she watches him
arrive,
eyes bright,
the pup against his heart....

Meowing Times....

My FB friend and photographer Nandan Tavanandi,  posted these wonderful photos of cats, in his FB album called Waghachi Mavshi.  Which means "the aunt of the tiger", in my language, Marathi.  (To read a story that explains the relationships between animals and their attitudes read this .)  

Tiger's-aunt or no, the cat moves with a great sense of attitude and seems to be thinking about something important.

While the cat seems to be on some kind of reconnaissance/fact-finding round in the woods, it wasn't very difficult to imagine what was going on through the smart cat's mind.

Given the election atmosphere in India, sudden alliances, understandings and changing of loyalties ,  diktats by the Election Commission (at a huge cost) to cover items like statues(presumed) advantageous to certain candidates,  and remembering a long gone politician (of my youth) who gave up electoral politics to do social service,  the following lines happened.....

(Originally thought in Marathi, then made in English...)  

रानात निवडणुका,
कोणावर विश्वास ठेवावा ,
समजत नाही ...
निर्वाचन आयोगाने " उंदरांचे सापळे
हिरव्या गवताने गुंडाळा ",
म्हणून फतवा काढला ;
वाघोबा बोलणी करायला येउन गेला,
माकडीण सारखी झाडावर एक बोलते,
माझ्या समोर दुसरं;
रानडुक्कर टोळी सभा उधळ्त्ये,
आणि
अस्वल मधेच माझ्याबाजूने बोलतं,
मधेच वाघोबासमोर मान डोलवतं..
मला वाटत , आता
कोणीतरी काहीतरी बोलायचा आधी
माझ्या सारखी ज्येष्ठ मावशीने
"मी पक्ष्यांचं काम करण्यासाठी रानाच्या बाहेर पडत्ये "
असं सांगितलेलं बरं! ...

She tours
taking stock
of the land....

Election season,
and the Election Commission
has decreed
that
all rat-traps must be covered
with green...

So difficult to decide ...
Such unreliable colleagues,
untrustworthy, fake;

Tiger has been in
for some strategic talks,
Lady Monkey has been campaigning
and speaking
both ways,
everywhere....

Then the Wild Pigs
keep creating a ruckus
in meetings,
and Old Bear,
sometimes smiles with me
and
sometimes drinks with the Tiger...

Maybe ,
I should,
in the highest tradition
of Indian Politics,
retire myself
with great fanfare
from the field,
and declare
that
"I am doing this
so I can serve the people better"....

Garbage in, garbage out....

The first time one heard the term "Garbage In, Garbage Out" , was when one worked in software projects. Turns out that the principle is more widely applicable in the real world....

In the beginning
of the world
there was garbage,
hissing
with methylated DNA's.

By leaps and bounds,
happened,
quadrupeds,
bipeds,
and
hypothalamised
cerebral cortexes
bursting,
with evolving abuse
for another biped..

Vicious expletives,
comparison with
female dogs,
rats,pigs
and wishing
a cursed stay
in a garbage pail...

She wondered
if pigs
call each other
rats
when angry,
or rats wish garbage on each other,
since humans did...

An ulcerated
bleeding
mind,
pock marked with abuse,
and
as she lay
breathing her last,
she willed
her body
to be donated
for research.

No false tears and
obituaries...
just a shameless
visage of
one who inspired the move.

A fine cutting up,
and a return
to garbage,
but enriching
some minds
and learning
in the bargain.


Enumerated as garbage,
treated like dirt
and now,
back to garbage........

And the pigs
dogs
and rats
look on,
at the humans,
and wonder
what happened to evolution....

Encounters of the fluid kind.....

Encounters at Aquariums. Noticed by my friend Sylvia, in her post, as a part of the Weekend Reflections series .


(photo by Sylvia Kirkwood)

Some,
sitting with their mothers,
held safe
all wrapped up and fed
on the counter
of the
aquarium display,
unaware of their
luck....



And some,
separated at birth,
to live
alone,
in a small
watery enclosure
with fake trees,
artificial lights,
and
piped air...

A moment of
realization
as a vision
of mother
appears
fluid,
in his memory,
a gift
from the little one
watching from outside....