poetry – Page 5 – An anthropologist among the journalists

Tribute to mother

Let me hear your song again mother. That song ridden with pain and agony, Which you have often sung to me. For in hearing it, I can feel the pain Through which you have been all your life. You think I will not understand it, perhaps, For, I have never experienced the same. But IContinue reading “Tribute to mother”

This train runs on blood

Once upon a time, a 5 a.m. monster that would screechingly halt By the local railway station, next to my childhood home In Calcutta, used to be my mother’s morning alarm. The memory of that goods train thundering past our abode, Rocking its flimsy walls is vivid still. Who’d have thought That a day wouldContinue reading “This train runs on blood”

Gitanjali – A Poet’s Prayer

[I had originally written this essay in 2005 for a class on ‘Indian Writing in English’ as an undergraduate student of English Literature at Madras Christian College. The essay is an attempt at an original interpretation of Tagore’s collection of poems ‘Gitanjali’, which fetched him the Nobel Prize in Literature. I am republishing this fromContinue reading “Gitanjali – A Poet’s Prayer”

‘Monotony’ features in Rattle Magazine’s open mic

Please watch me read out my poem ‘Monotony’ along with other poets as part of Rattle Magazine’s (www.rattle.com) Poets Respond series in an open mic session. In this series, poets respond to news events as they occur across the world. My poem was written in response to news reports that Bollywood celebrities are now doingContinue reading “‘Monotony’ features in Rattle Magazine’s open mic”

Eavesdropping

The sparrows twitter; A private conversation is on. The crows eavesdrop. © Vidya Venkat (2007) [This haiku was first published in DNA newspaper’s poetry page in 2007.]