The House in Pudukkottai That Woke Up at 5AM

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By 5AM, the house in Pudukkottai was already awake. The old tape recorder would be blaring Pithukuli Murugados songs somewhere inside, and above everything else you could hear the steady creak of the wooden swing moving back and forth. My athai paati — my grandfather’s sister — would often be on that swing, singing “Gopala Krishna Swamy Gokulathiley,” a soft Krishna lullaby . She had been widowed young and lived the rest of her life in that house, and to me she always felt like someone straight out of an RK Narayan story. For us, summer meant Pudukkottai and Gobichettipalayam. A couple of days after the final exam, we would take the overnight Trichy Express from Bangalore, then a bus onward, and by the next morning we would be inside that long, bustling house full of cousins, relatives, and noise. Athai Paati with the kids on the swing The house itself stretched from one street to another, a lon...

Short Stories...

In the middle of the night,
I woke up with a fright,
There it was, a lion;
Chasing down my spine,
Thankfully, my friend was ahead in the line

He was a thief of Bhagdad
He snatched everything on his way
Finally the officials had their prey
He had nothing to say
And now, all he could do was pray!

A bus driver it is I wanted to be
Carrying people with all their load
But today, immersed in a sea of code,
It is just not clear, my road!

He was a romantic fool,
Portraying himself to be cool,
Spending all he could for her,
Thinking all the time that she was his
But soon, he had to find another Miss!

An exam I had to write,
A lot of questions filled the page,
I knew none I could get right
Fixed on others, my sight
I just could not end my plight!

After a long time, a movie,
How I wish I didn't see
All the time, the hero,
Behind the lady, he zeroed,
Oof! It blared, the stereo!

I did it for the first time,
The feeling was great,
It was the moment of ectasy,
I knew I had to do it again,
A perfect balance on my cycle!

Comments

  1. Whats going on these days? First you come up with that e^x stuff out of blue.. and now trying poetic skills? Things fine? :-)

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