The Spectrum

of varying colors
on the steps
at Nukus Art Museum
coaxes you to find
a lateral pattern
while moving up

Enigma of languages

Everyday morning, in high school I awaited for the language classes, happy with the last days homework. When I moved to the high school, all the Telugu I would learn was done. All the later classes had what I had already learnt. I think it was this reason, that gave the chance for experimenting. The homework consisted of using words in forming sentences. Around the same time I got into Hindi class, I had just learnt the letters, while the rest of the class was way ahead. I cried in the class, when I didnt understand the words.
Once we get comfortable with the basics,then there are possibilities!!

A language for a bird

There are more than
8000 bird species
There are more than
7000 languages
spoken in the world*

Eliezer Nowordwoski,
" And how many more have
disappeared over time?
Probably 12000"

For each lost bird
a language lost
for each birds song
a language unheard

#########################

*Resurrecting Hebrew, Ilan Stavans (pg 50)

Big picture

Sipping water with no ice
waiting for white mocha
an article claiming
continuation
of the part I missed
in read-flip of
yesterdays newspaper.

On finishing the whole of it
I realise the main article
on the front page which
my eyes skipped

hijacked by a
small picture of a troubled
child

Donut Peaches

Orange - tomato and basil green - spinach and veggie tortillas are a break from the brown. Ordinary looking Organic onions should come in a fancy form too like Donut Peaches for the hefty price.

8.1.2021

Exactly 12 years after posting this, on Jul 4, 2021, a afriend got donut peaches. I got to taste them.

Last night

I visited a place where

A baby warthog
had hair around
its ear that
could light up
like a glow-worm

A overripe brinjal
in a egg holder
tasted sweet.

why write

Enraged
on being ignored
till the observed
takes the form
of words on sheet
haunts the observer
breaks rules
flashes itself
at the mention of
any image linked
to it.

Chaser Wind

A dried leaf
swayed onto the
ground raising
another forward
half feet above
like a bird
chasing another

Thin cup

a long narrow
white cup
with blue floral
design around

in the center
a repeated tight
floral circle
evoked a saucer
with a possible
cup image

maplewood chopsticks

As I walked into
Sun Dining restaurant
a natural perfume
of custard apple fruit
agreed with the
smooth green colors
of the wide booth

changing fortune

Ideas not coupled with action
never become bigger than the
brain cells they occupied

Education is less expensive
than ignorance

Fortune Cookie, Sun dining.

The secret life of a recipe

The first time we we were invited to our landlord's house for lunch, I do not remember what we had before dessert. One reason, I remember the dessert is, it was served in a small bowl of the cooling glasses brown shaped in the form of a half cut apple with a leaf. And two, the dessert was Gulab Jamun.




With its novelty, you can imagine my mom asking the landlady for the recipe, still better asking her to show how (new word for hands on) to make them. Since this is a dish that just does not depend on proportions but also how the jamuns are rolled crackless, passing on of it, requires patience. May be by hit and trial, one can learn how to make it - like the time my sister and I learnt how to make rose cookies, getting the conistency of the batter right or mar it - like the time I made gulab jamuns which would better pass as tough donuts.



What makes people try recipes? My dad once made peanut brittle. As a young kid, I had a bad experience of having too much of it while travelling. That time also coincides with my forming a tough no-no bond with the likes of soft drinks - thanks to the head stir created by Thums up! Taste the Thunder.



**************************
Or was she flattered that Randolph wanted it?
Eat my words- Reading women's lives through the cookbooks they wrote- Janet Theophano

Thanks Grandma

In a house with a hen
the daily egg is precious
With many in the family
you would wait till
you amassed enough
for a meal for all

Releasing it in the morning
from an overturned basket
where it has been held
the previous night
cutting short the
wanderers trail ignoring
its shrieks and jumps

One such egg was boiling
with the white rice for me
and my sister hidden
from the eyes of my cousins

One of the
first days
of school
or lunches
my grandma
getting me
a tiffin
of rice with
ivy gourd
curry
and water
in chembu

As children
if we knew
and ate well
we could
save our loved
ones, long walks.

little yellow flowers

my brave
peanut plant
has spewed
two little
yellow flowers
with
stems strong
only for a day

from the side
as if to grab
attention away
from the straight
towering post
of leaves and
branches