He sits on his haunches Palm over the head. The storm last night Blew away his hut. It was made out of straw And some thatch, It was no match For the might Of the raging monster. In Sundarbans, People become meals For crocodiles &Continue reading “After the storm”
Category Archives: environment
She is falling
[I wrote this poem 15 years ago while watching a tree being cut for widening the road near the IIT-Madras campus. As with back then, even now, my heart aches when I watch a tree fall!] She’s falling. She, who shade gave and fruits bore, For the greedy ones who wanted more Is in aContinue reading “She is falling”
April
April is the cruellest month, indeed. The laburnum’s bloomed, flashing its golden inflorescence, And the cerulean sky breaks into waves of silken clouds. Flocks of sunbirds, iridescent in shades of green and yellow, collude, While the wasps and the bees buzz about aimlessly from tree to tree. And all I can do is loungeContinue reading “April”
Nature finds its way
A swarm of yellow hornets Gather on our backyard wall, As though a conference is on. Nearby, a sunbird perches merrily On the branch of the mango tree, Pecking on a fruit to see if it is ready to eat. Inside, my mother worries, the bird Will eat up the fruits we growContinue reading “Nature finds its way”
The ‘good’ elephant and the ‘bad’ elephant
[First published in The Hindu thREAD on Jan. 22, 2016] Here’s the tragic part about being born as an elephant. Sure, you may get to eat a whole lot of food and grow into a 3,000-kilo giant, but if your fate is to be ordered about by a puny human, how are you supposed toContinue reading “The ‘good’ elephant and the ‘bad’ elephant”
An anthropologist among the journalists 