tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3438288076008887512024-02-19T07:18:14.659-08:00Soibam HaripriyaSoibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-16421037737503705582016-07-02T06:25:00.002-07:002019-05-21T00:28:54.107-07:00Acche Din: Four Poems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #993300; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background-color: white;">Dystopia or Acche Din</b></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A meat for a meat<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />That is the new law<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A meat for a meat<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A slaughter for a slaughter<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />That is the new law<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ram’s rajya is dystopia<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Sita’s blood is the colour of earth<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ram’s rajya is dystopia<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Mohammad’s blood is the colour of meat<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ram conjures up the menu<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ravan weeps: all ten heads<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />wishes he guarded Sita better<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Averted her ignominy<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Now, not even Gujarat’s vegetarian earth<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Swallows her whole<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Come to Lanka, Sita<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ravan will ask the ocean<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />to<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Swallow you whole<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Have your death of the ocean<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />It is your ancestral fault<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Your collective ancestral fault<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />to have chosen such a king<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />March towards the ocean<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Part the waters<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />if you can<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />or walk into it</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ram’s rajya is dystopia<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />What consummates his appetite?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Meat cooked by torching of houses?<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Ravan, the ten headed demon king<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />weeps with all ten heads<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Nowadays<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Everything gets called a revolution<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But never it was before<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />That a king’s deed<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />was called a revolution</span></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #993300; font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; font-style: inherit; text-align: left;">Untitled</b></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hear Hear<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Election is near<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Call to arms<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Armed one<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Armed all<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The enemy is here<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Quench your blood thirst</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nothing is a mystery<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />For those who see<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />This is not a prophecy<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />From the Indus on<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The enemy should recede</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is easy you see<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Burn a train, plant a bomb<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Call it development<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And we will be blinded<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />By dreams of blood drenched gold<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But it is only a dream, the gold<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />But it is only an excuse, the blood<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Plant a rumour<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Let it sprout<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The enemy is beloved of your daughter<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Love jihad<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Jihad the jihadi then</span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The republic drowns<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />in riots<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Summer is freezing<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />In silences of history<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />In the sky<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />One band of the rainbow is blood<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />One is shards<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />One is tears<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />One is saffron<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The rest is silence</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #993300; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background-color: white;">Common Objects of Our Times</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You are common<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Your body is common<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />You are as common as a corpse<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />We will turn<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />your body into a corpse<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Money is paper<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />crisp but common<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />One common object<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />can be exchanged for another<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Your nakedness is common<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />can be exchanged for another<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />We will parade you<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />one common naked body<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />followed by another<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Naked bodies with orifices<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />We will put common objects<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />into common orifices<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A stone, A twig<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A stick, A baton<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A muzzle<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Common objects<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />of our times</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">http://indianculturalforum.in/2016/06/08/achhe-din-four-poems/</span></div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-25403166182746244982015-10-28T05:07:00.001-07:002015-10-28T05:07:30.034-07:00Finitude<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I closed the <span class="il">door</span></div>
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with the finality</div>
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of closing a read-book</div>
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Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-49052732221984019052015-04-17T11:12:00.002-07:002015-04-17T11:15:29.525-07:00I am a living God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I am a
living God<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I drink
the night<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> down my throat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The pale
moon I shatter into stars <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Stars I
crumple into star dust <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Mortals
burn other mortals<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">but only
in an effigy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I
extract the hearts of men<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> put it in a blue ceramic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">With
your soul incarnate, you stumble in darkness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Your
life is a mere glimmer, between void and void<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I taught
you in parables, but you do not heed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Now I
write you a tragedy and called it an oracle <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">10<sup>th</sup> April 2015 </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">https://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com© </span> </span></div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-17825004273334153312015-01-26T05:21:00.002-08:002015-01-26T05:21:50.849-08:00Not yet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The lover contradicts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the beloved’s wishes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Don’t wish<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Not Yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Prescribe me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">A wish-able wish<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Inevitable<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the incommensurability of
wishes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Don’t wish<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Not Yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">He wishes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">of us drowning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">What would he do<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">when he hears about me
drowning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The news of drowning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">will drown itself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">What weeping?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Not Yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Tears drown<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In the waters I drown in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">PS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">You didn’t break my heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Not yet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I broke mine over you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Wishes perish?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Perhaps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">https://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com©<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-86050088865319706422014-10-13T10:29:00.000-07:002014-10-13T10:29:35.808-07:00Separation, a love poem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">What could I do <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">to shield myself <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">from the words <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">you choose to strike me with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I am at loss for words;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">you have no dearth of it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">razor-sharp as the edge of night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Yet what I recall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">of conversations<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">is abrupt laughter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">intense wants<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">and love,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">newly sprung <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">after anger subsides<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I’ve been waiting, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I’ve been waiting <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">thus, handcuffed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">by your disdain <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">for affection <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">What words do I choose<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">to speak to you about my loss? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">About your loss,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">you choose not <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">words in times of calm, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">but unleash them, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">as if untamed monsters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">in moments of your choosing,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">while I yearn the soothing balm <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">of a lover or a friend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">You fear imprisonment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">by rituals of love, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">perhaps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">you fear<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">remnant souvenirs of love <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">as lovers disappear <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I could promise you <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I put my heart <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">in the things I do<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">and when I say <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I love you deeply,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">When I say so, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">through the distance, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">it is not a chain <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">to tug you <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">as you strain against it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">When I say<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I love you deeply, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">I do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">When you strain against it <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">or I do, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">there will be nothing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">to break<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">or shred. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Our lives <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">separate again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">We would shed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">each other,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">a pool of clothes at our feet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">and wear another attire, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">another self. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">It will be <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">just a separation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">a just separation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-72309673659936958412014-08-12T21:45:00.000-07:002014-08-12T21:45:22.383-07:00Rage, a pyrrhic victory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /><br />The secret defeat<br />of a pyrrhic victory<br />the reward itself<br />a silent solemn object<br />Perplexed, the victor<br />He, a naked light bulb<br />illuminated and alone in his victorious terror<br /><br />Thinking,<br />what good was his rage<br />against the maladies that afflicted her<br />what good was his rage<br />against his own grieving heart<br /><br />Could he subtract from the pale floor<br />the dark stain<br />she, coughing up<br />the bile of his rage<br /><br />In his fist he held<br />history’s sorrow<br />yet grudging tears<br />his eyes remain dry.</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-71672057386559054892014-07-04T10:04:00.001-07:002014-07-04T12:05:45.781-07:00Abandoned Chapters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">I visited the abandoned chapters;</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">they had grown sullen and strange. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">The scribbled notes</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">as if a morose,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">neglected lover </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">wait for me </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">to decipher his bitterness. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">I coax</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">the words </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">to enlarge their meanings. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">I cajole the mundane </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">for a missing clue.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Persistence’ </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">says the law of writing, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">yet, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">another hour</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">or, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">perhaps two</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">lie folded </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">amongst escapade tea breaks, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the loneliness </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">of losing words </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">and thoughts,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">I pour over words </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">and words. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">A leap years' pact hung above </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">-Damocles’ sword. </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: start;">
<br /></div>
<br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; text-align: start;" /></div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-85735818711870806782014-04-27T00:06:00.003-07:002014-07-04T12:05:10.402-07:00Keeping War: Stale-mate on a ‘Durable Disorder’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Sudeep Chakravarti</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">, Highway 39: Journeys Through a Fractured Land,
Fourth Estate, 2012, Rs 450, pp. 388<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Highway 39 snakes its way through
three states –Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, its winding path could be a metaphor
for a river though it is literally a slush in the monsoons especially the part
of the highway that fall within the territory of Manipur. The title of the book, Highway 39,
gives the picture of a road trip. However, the book is refreshingly nuanced
unlike other recent books on the still persistent idea of the ‘northeast’, many
of which for various political reasons juxtapose the two states –Nagaland and
Manipur as two antagonistic entities. It was another book reviewed in the same
paper ‘<i>Che in Paona Bazaar’</i> that led
me to look at the books published in the past few years on what one might
provisionally call ‘the same terrain’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Highway 39 is not disappointing, and unlike
the former it is non voyeuristic in its gaze. One may find the writer’s views
critical but he gives convincing arguments and anecdotes in support of his
criticism. Rather than brush aside the responsibility of the state and its
complicity in what ails the region and many other regions in <i>periphery/ies, </i>Chakravarti is clear on
the role of the government and the mechanism of governance. In the introduction of the book he says ‘Governance
plummets if the place is both far enough from New Delhi and lacks the heft of
population to contribute sufficient numbers to the equation of government
formation in New Delhi’ (ix). The idea of refusing to engage with some of the
most pressing problems that the region faces, most important among which is governance;
and insurgency being propped up as an easy answer to all that ills the region
is part of many writings both academic and other non-fiction accounts. To link
both –governance and insurgency, the former leading to the latter and the
latter as both encouraged and fragmented by a certain investment in it as part
of governance strategy is alluded to by him. What marks the two books as
starkly different is that ‘<i>Che in Paona
Bazaar’</i> is a book that seems to make a passing casual remark at issues that
should be dealt with more seriously, for instance insurgency is callously
referred to by Bhattacharjee as </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">‘Insurgency is complex, at the same time boring to elaborate’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I am afraid that there is no escaping the
comparison of the two books published just a year apart as they more or less
describe the same region but in ways which are starkly different, not to
mention that some of the informants are common to both the writers. The latter
fact perhaps points to larger issues of using the same laid out routes and
there being a set pattern in understanding an issue. However, this also points
to the fact that the same event may not necessarily convey the same to
different people; the ‘ways of seeing’ is definitely different. Chakravarti
does not use any protagonist, fictional or otherwise, running through the book,
it is him and the people he encounters and yet he offers more than an insight
at each experience of meeting people or being there where truth collides with
lies and conspiracies – ‘Travel here means confronting the truths, lies and
bloodshed that have shaped modern India. It means confronting the reality that
people whom I was instructed to revere since my childhood, names we as Indians
read as streets, stadia and institutes of learning, faces we saw in history
books and on increasingly rare postage stamps, treated other citizens –with
brutality that rivalled any other in these modern times’ (p.4).</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The book also raises pertinent
questions of the reconciliation and peace processes; the inter-linking of faith
(in one particular religion) and enmeshing it with identity especially on the
Nagaland-Nagalim questions that perhaps those involved need to ask of
themselves. This and the intrigues played out by the state had been largely
ignored by Bhattacharjee. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Chakravarti
says this and most people would endorse that ‘It is indeed no secret that
India’s intelligence services and the home ministry play the game every which
way with each faction, and try to tap into separate points of leverage within
each faction by using those with political ambition’ (p. 61). Many other such
facts that characterise what is called ‘the economy of conflict’, politics of
doling out ‘package’ has been discussed at length. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The book is in parts a juxtaposition of
different events that lend an unmistakable air of irony – a billboard of a
Manipuri film –<i>Bomb Blast</i> in Imphal;
Mohandas Gandhi on a truck that reads ‘Sanitation is more important than
independence’ brings to mind a statement by the C.M. of Manipur who once in an
interview with <i>Tehelka</i> magazine said 'Education
is more important than right to life' or the most poignant irony of the pomp of
building a martyrs’ memorial on the one hand and Luingamla’s grave ( a young
girl killed for resisting attempts to rape in 1986, a story which the writer followed to and fro
–from official gazettes to different villages) unkempt and without a marker
just as the official gazettes hovered between life imprisonment and acquittal
and finally the gazette itself abruptly ended without a closure. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-62179620343981574032014-03-03T23:37:00.002-08:002014-03-03T23:37:43.057-08:00Marginalised within the Margins: Meitei Muslims in Manipur<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Ever
since childhood I remember being in highly homogenous groups of friends and
familial circles. Such circles have the tendency to numb us to differences, an
easy sedate living insulated from those different from us. It was not a shock
though considering the direction the country and the state is heading when a
friend narrated to me in a series of conversation the travails any muslim girl
growing up in Manipur would have most probably undergone. “‘Amina Begum’ is one
of one such verbal harassment thrown at anyone wearing the hijab or have
wrapped herself up in a scarf or chaddar,” she explained. People like us who
are not subject to such particular harassment and targeting based on religious
affiliation might even state that such harassment is to be taken lightly.
Harassment of such kind is mildly called <i>laknaba</i>,
a term as innocuous as eve teasing, a term which could include an array of
other activities which are indeed innocuous and thereby makes it difficult for
women to argue that <i>laknaba </i>is verbal
harassment also, or perhaps what is required is to coin another term which
would encompass the ordeal that such an act embodies. While it is more often
than not understood and (hopefully) a consensus built around the fact that
women undergo harassment at most public and private spaces such harassment of
the minorities should be understood as of much more virulent an attack and the
fear of being small in numbers is not to be underestimated. The point here is
not to compare the degrees of ordeal that women undergo but to state that women
belonging to different communities are marked out differently, the minorities
always bearing the brunt and in the case of Manipur, the muslims become the
other. Just as we are in other parts of the country marked out by our features,
they are in their own land marked by other visible markers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Sites
that we as “mainstream”, at least in Manipur (by we, I mean the majority
community of Manipur, the Meiteis regardless of being hindus or followers of
Sanamahi religion) have taken as sacred if looked at through a different lens
gives quite an altogether different picture. For instance, Kangla (in the news
for quite some time now) has easily morphed from being a site of kingly
subjugation to a site of resistance, if only, for the Meiteis. Manipuri muslims
or <i>meitei pangal</i> is the category in
the census and such colloquial words –<i>pangal</i>, <i>hao </i>have in time acquired prejudices by what the majority community
prefix and suffix with these words that most people with political sensitivity
prefer the English replacement –muslim, tribal. A series of conversation with
this friend from the meitei pangal community revealed for me the many flaws of
my own community. Her research interest being sacred spaces she interviewed
some of the priests in Kangla. It is difficult to identify her as the “other”
from her name or her “looks”. She was entertained with her queries for a few
days after which she was told in no uncertain terms that she has polluted the
space. As a political move there has been many feasts organised in the space of
Kangla wherein people from other religious and ethnic communities have been
invited, if only for political correctness. The priest also gave her some of
his own opinion on how such moves pollute the space of Kangla. Are we to think
then that it is only on such marked off days that “the others” are invited,
allowed inside the so-called sacred space? It is to be remembered that spaces
only become sacred by exclusivity, an exclusivity that more often than not is
built on an exclusion, an exclusion that marks certain people as unpolluted and
thereby those who are so. It is time we look at such spaces and understand that
in the exalted histories of such spaces lie narratives of subjugation/
discrimination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
meitei hindus of Manipur certainly pride themselves as being separate from
hindus of the rest of the country. This is on the basis of the erroneous belief
being that they are innocent of discriminatory practices like that of caste.
However the notion of purity and pollution has seeped into the very core of all
practices. Women are aware of how they are denied access to certain spaces
during their menstrual periods. Practices like these have become banal enough
to pass unnoticed. We have equally bizarre cases like Municipal Corporation workers
sweeping roads being physically and verbally harassed; something as innocuous
as the broom has become a potent inauspicious symbol! This idea of purity and
pollution also comes in our conduct vis-à-vis the religious and the ethnic
minority. My friend was shown the door by a well known meitei intellectual. She
has polluted his sacred texts was the reason attributed. That we still live in
a time where it is possible to make such disparaging statements and not only
that, in effect actually rendering certain areas of research inaccessible to a
community and also getting away with it is nothing less than shameful and is to
be pointed out as a practice of untouchability, an illegal act. She narrated to
me an incident wherein she with her sisters travelling in a bus bound for <i>Mayai Lambi</i> was address by an old meitei
lady, “Ebemma will you hold these flowers for me, I got them for a puja, the
person next to me is a muslim”. I would have been stunned to be address this
way. My friend growing up in an everyday of such acts of shunning directed
towards her nonchalantly replied “ Ema eisu pangan ne” (Mother, I am also a
muslim). A remark to which the elderly woman nonchalantly said “Phare adudi, ei
adum pairage” (It is okay then, I might as well hold the flowers myself). Would
not we see this as an act of untouchability directed towards a community? If
this anecdote is amusing I should consider it a failed project to attempt to
draw attention to such discriminatory practices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While
the name meitei pangal do suggests the indigeneity of the muslims, the term
prefixed as it were, with a meitei, yet the question of indigeneity is a
growing and a highly contentious issue. The muslims seems certainly marked out,
not only in the state but going by the decade that we live in, in all parts of
the country. More, so in the north eastern region of the country, due to its
proximity to Bangladesh, muslims have to prove their indigeneity and
non-Bangladeshi origin again and again. The meitei pangal in spite of their
indigeneity seemed forever set apart because of their religion. As in other
parts of the country in the regressive times we live in the religion seem to
question their authenticity as indigenous people of Manipur. All other
ethnicities following other institutional religion or those aspiring to be one
(Hinduism, Christianity, Sanamahi-ism) at least in the case of Manipur no not
at any point of time have to prove themselves as being indigenous population of
the state. In fact for those following non-institutional religion, the question
does not even arise. At any point of them one can see that there seem to a
mortal fear of people who do not constitute even 10% of the population
(according to the 2001 census). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Not
too long ago an incident of muslim villagers lynching a muslim couple in Sora
Awang Leikai occupied print and screen space for a weeks. This was used as an
illustration of the “otherness” of the meitei pangal. This is strange in a
violence ridden place where sporadic killing could be seen anywhere regardless
of the religious affiliation of the place. However, the ways in which media
possess video recording of the killings and questions of media ethics in such a
scenario was not questioned. What was questioned was the ethics of the
community and not the ethics of policing mechanism and the manner in which the
entire process was video recorded and shown in news bulletin erasing only the
most incriminating part.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">It could be said that
issues like the movement asking repeal of AFSPA, resisting acts of violence, resistance
to racialised targeting of women from the region in the capital and our
indignation against it occupies our time and attention. One should not desist
from that. Along with this however it is to be noted that we treat our own
minorities with the respect that we demand. While I write this the news of Haji
Abdul Salam, first ever Muslim MP that the Manipur state is going to see is
doing its rounds. The Congress has woken up rather late in the day to the fact
that they need to have some secular credential. It is left to be seen if this
would translate into any palpable changes in the way we view the </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">meitei pangals</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: left;">.</span></div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-22856011934010224542014-01-15T09:15:00.000-08:002014-01-15T09:15:54.977-08:00Lazy Stereotypes of an Uninspired Mind <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">A review of Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Che in Paona Bazaar, Macmillan, 2013, Rs 399, pp. 241</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Paona Bazaar lies in the heart of
Imphal, Manipur. One can describe this place by its proximity to Bir
Tikendrajit Road which had seen the infamous fake encounter case in July 2009.
In fact many of the landmarks of the town would tell a story of it being part
of a constellation of political violence. Che, I would presume, needs no
introduction here. The attempt here is to understand this curious juxtaposition
of ‘Che’ and ‘Paona Bazaar’ as seen through the lens of a media practitioner. The
book ‘Che in Paona Bazaar’ largely discusses (but not exclusively) two states
–Manipur and Nagaland - of what is unproblematically called the North-east. These
two states are not only connected by a common border but also by it falling in
the category of ‘disturbed area’. The infamous Armed Forces Special Powers Act
of 1958 has been in place in these states, it is often argued that the
enactment of this act is partly related to the peculiar and coerced manner in
which these states become a part of the Indian Union. One would therefore expect
some amount of nuanced understanding which captures the complexities from a
book that claims to deal with the <i>region.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This work of non-fiction with a
fictional protagonist whom the writer claims as ‘not representative of any
community or culture’ is named Eshei (Meiteilon word for Song) which is a dead
giveaway. She is a typical native informant in the book that reminds the reader
of dated anthropological writings. The book is to a large extent a narrative
mediated through Eshei. The writer does not shy away from beginning the book
with racial stereotypes that abounds in the mainstream Indian imagination of
the so-called Northeast. The oldest armed group in Manipur – UNLF – mentioned
in the initial pages of the book is referred to as ‘working towards a
unification of Mongoloid armed groups’, is just one of many such unabashed
stereotypes. Comparing <i>cultures</i> on the
basis of exotic curiosities –for example, comparing Manipuri and Korean culture
based on the practice of putting family name before given name; comparing
Sanamahism to Shamanism. Perhaps meant to be amusing, but rather than being
funny it ends up carelessly taking down a language especially as in one
sentence the protagonist’s fetish for Moreh bras is strangely morphed into its
seeming importance among a whole community. Unbelievable as it might sound; the
author states that bra (brassiere) is an important word among the Meiteis due
to the interrogative pronoun ‘bra’ suffixed at the end of a query. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Moreh, the border town, described
as a Manipuri Malgudi in the book of course is a terribly wrong metaphor. Using
the metaphor of Moreh being a Manipuri Malgudi, the writer was not even
romanticising the town but describing the dirt, grit, ‘prostitution’ and
smuggling of drugs which is typical of many border towns in conflict zones
across the globe. The writer takes himself too seriously, if the name of the
book ‘Che in Paona Bazaar’ itself is not enough indication of that, sample
these sentences – ‘my ‘motorcycle diaries’ brought me to Paona Bazaar’; ‘I was
the Pirate of Paona Bazaar’! In the start of the book itself the writer
expresses his disdain for one of his native informant as <i>he had to do his own research</i>, he seem to want everything on a
platter and does not shy away from expressing this. This is one of the kinder
expressions he uses; he describes people scathingly leaving enough hints to
identify the people populating his book. Even a superficial analysis of the
choice of qualifiers used in the book reveals much. For instance, Manorama Devi
(though her name is not given it is impossible to miss out on the clues) is
described as an explosives expert but she was <i>allegedly</i> raped. <i>Allegedly</i>
raped? What about her real murder? The protests that ensued after the rape and
murder of Manorama Devi have been offhandedly described as creating ‘another
stereotype of naked protests’. One is at a loss as to what the statement is
supposed to mean. Did it lead to a chain of naked protests throughout the
country? No. Does the country recognise rape of men and women in <i>peripheral</i> states by the armed forces?
No. Or did he mean that yet another stereotype has been added to those
currently proliferating on the northeast? A second or a third reading does not
make this clear either. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What is worst than this racial
stereotype interspersed in the writing is the lack of any nuanced political understanding of the
region from someone who was at the helm of news from the ‘North-east’ as a
Resident Editor for a national news channel. In a rather bizarre juxtaposition he
narrates two incidents together – the protest by women who stripped themselves
outside the headquarters of Assam Rifles; and another incident six months later
where a ‘Meitei girl’ ‘made love to a young army officer’ inside the
headquarters of the Assam Rifles. The former was a protest by women, now known
as ‘nude protest’, against the rape and murder of Manorama Devi by the Assam
Rifles: a protest which also demanded the repeal of AFSPA (though mentioned
nowhere in the book). It is unsettling to see the two incidents being described
in the same paragraph –protest against a rape where the woman was killed and
had gun-shot wounds in her vagina and a woman making love to an army officer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The lack of respect for his
subject is clear from statements like –‘Meitei homes have a confusing front and
back yard’ or referring to avoidance of eye-contact as a gesture ‘typical of
people in Manipur’ or proffering his idea that a dinner shared with two
Tangkhul cousins in Ukhrul which consisted of hot pickle is somehow the cause
of ‘their violent streak’. Sample this statement ‘In fact, there is a
possibility that every detail in this account will be challenged. That is also
quintessentially Meitei.’ What this statement attempts to do is refute any
possibility of disagreement. Prior to the disagreement being made he already
stereotypes it as a trait of a community. The style of writing is reminiscent
of dated writings on the lost innocence of the native, the only difference
being that according to the writer the natives are to be blamed for the current
state of affairs. It is rather strange that a work of non-fiction that
discusses so much on the conflict attributes the loss of personal liberty only
on civil society and ‘armed nationalist’ and does not extend the same to the
police or the army presence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What one would have wanted was
honesty with the times the book dealt with. The book covered a series of
politically charged events and people involved. But the intention of the narrative produced
about these events seems to be ridicule rather than looking at the everyday
travails of the people. For instance, while trying to take a critical stand on
the Assam Agitation, the writer could not come up with anything better than
dismissing the leadership as an ‘uninspired bunch’ and describing the years
spanning this movement as being a time for young couples to have sex in
closed-down schools. The gaze of the writer is definitely voyeuristic. Without
explaining much, he also gets away with statements like ‘Insurgency is complex,
at the same time boring to elaborate’; calls the NSCN-IM as armed Naga
guerrillas and later qualifies his statement and calls them organised dacoits
which is a notch lower that the colonial misrepresentation of ‘Naga hostiles’. The
writer describes human rights organisations as frontal organisations of armed
groups who pick ‘up cases of army and police excesses and drumming up public
outcry against the state’. This is quite a painful erasure of the fact that police
and army excesses still continue with an alarming regularity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The problem with the book is not
just that he sees the community as a collective without individual thought,
trait or agency: a narrative which builds upon easily into the many stereotypes
he offers on people as a whole, but also the seamless traversing from one state
to the other almost playing with the idea of the ‘Northeast’ as a chunk of
landmass conjoined like Siamese twins. It is clear whose side he is on
especially as he mentions all the players in the field of conflict and yet
conveniently refrains from referring to the State as one of the main
beneficiaries of the conflict. The reproduction of existing clichés is however
not as damaging as the superficial narration of various events that have had
far reaching consequences in the politics of the region in the guise of some
sort of social narrative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-37710636479424752292013-09-27T13:19:00.000-07:002013-09-27T13:19:50.427-07:00For my still-born poet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For some days<br />
I've let words die,<br />
die between utterances,<br />
die without being etched<br />
You said "My metaphors sank<br />
as if a wrecked ship<br />
to the infinitude<br />
of the ocean"<br />
I've come<br />
to bait your words<br />
clasp them<br />
by memory<br />
and poetry<br />
<br /></div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-66170654220751207992013-02-21T07:05:00.003-08:002013-02-21T07:05:48.483-08:00Raping the Other<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="blg">
Articles in local newspapers in Manipur for the past few months
have been bordering on a misogynist strain of thought. Many of the articles
expectedly commented on women opting out of the traditional phanek, some
pointedly on the loosening of morals (of women); some even came up with a thesis
of sorts, a strange hypothesis of a conjunction of mobile phones and young wives
leading to the latter eloping from marital homes. This would have been laughable
if not for the endorsement by many. The idea that whatever women do can be
commented upon and be given undue space in the name of promoting a debate
(actually too one sided to fall within the purview of a debate) is frightening.
A person (I refrain from calling him a writer) bemoaned the Manipuri women
choice of clothing which to him does not indicate her as an exotic being. Do we
want to be looked at as exotic? The visual that his article evokes is of being
caged in a zoo.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
Actually his chagrin was over women who chose to wear attire of the
other viz; sari or salwar kameez thus looking like the other not his own and
therefore not giving visitors to Manipur the expected visual of the exotic. He
sounds like a disappointed anthropologist but that is beside the point. That
women can choose what to wear and what not to, has escaped this person. While
this is just one of a series of articles which uses highly problematic words
like chastity, morality (of course all of it referring solely to women) though
he beat the others at it by using a phrase - "It does not serve the ethical
purpose of their karma". All these while talking about the attires of women!!!
We've given up trying to understand what ethical purpose of their (women's)
karma means.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
Of course as usual the one sentence either of Nupi Lan or Manipuri
women being the pride and up-keeper of Manipuri society and culture has to be
mentioned. We are also still not sure what upholding Manipuri culture means
though we are disinclined to spent time trying to sort that out. Opinions like
this in the present repression that we suffer under a repressive state and under
repressive multiple authorities (who somehow by some logic) seem to have an
authority over us is an extremely unpleasant experience. The latter's article
was shot down by many men and women in social networking sites and other forums.
Many were however of the opinion that one should just remain silent over such
absurdity.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
The compliance of silence as a recommendation is even more
unpleasant but one that we've received since our childhood and to which we have
no reason to heed to. Silence is complicity.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
While New Delhi and many other cities burst into protest against
the incident of gang-rape, many parts of Manipur too saw a similar protest not
against the same incident but against the man-handling, molestation of an actor.
The incident -a Manipuri Meitei actor was allegedly man-handled and molested by
an NSCN (IM) cadre - one Mr. Livingstone on 18th of December 2012. In the
aftermath protests that followed one thing was clear - the crime itself have
been put on the backburner and the ethnicity of both the victim and the accused
become one of paramount importance threatening the already fragile relationship
between two communities.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
The protest that followed left a journalist dead. No water cannons,
here it is bullets (The only aspect of India Shining that we see here are the
silver bullets). The discussion however was not directed against the utter
failure of the state to promote and ensure a safe environment for women (and
important to emphasised at this point of time is) -women of all ethnicity. One
of the first demands at the beginning of the protest in the latter incident was
absurd -an apology, not a prosecution of the perpetrator. The absurdity didn't
remain there. Now, absurdity is oozing out of everyone -the state government is
confused with the Meitei community (not for the first time though), a decision
to ban Manipuri films! harassment of individuals heading home of Christmas,
maybe all heading home for Christmas were thought to be the other and worst
still attempt to rape a minor by suspected KCP cadres on the 24th of
December.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
Was a crime being committed on both the occasion? If so, the
recourse should be the legal and policing mechanisms nor the widely practised
shengdokchaba (an apology of sorts) and izzat dabi. (Widely used, the term
itself smacks of a patriarchal attitude, compensation for taking away the izzat,
the context of which varies but the central idea of lost of honour which is to
be compensated monetarily is to be questioned.) The dishonour, being tied to the
woman not to the perpetrators, and therefore rape is being used as a tool in
communal fall out too, you dishonour our community by doing this to our women
and so we dishonour your community by doing this to your women. The idea of
ownership of women and therefore their honour conflated with the honour of the
community is the problem. Therefore anyone who write/speak with the idea that
what women wears, how she speaks, how she should uphold culture should not be
seen as innocuous but part of the underlying problem. And men and women who
subscribe to this idea would not be offended, outraged when women of another
community is molested, raped -after all its raping the other nor yours and
perhaps endorsed if this is believed to be done in retaliation. The tragedy of
the current protest -each community says the other has blown it out of
proportion.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
Perhaps we could choose to see the larger picture, question the
lack of security of women and men both, remove our ethnic-tinted glasses and
maybe optimistically join the protest at the capital and put forward our agenda
-to pressurise the government to remove the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
1958, an act using which many rapist army personnel go scot free in the
peripheral states of the country. Perhaps I am hallucinating. The fact is that a
number of rape victims and families have to forego any hope of justice because
the perpetrators happened to be army personnel and uses the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act as a ruse to escape punishment (and considering the fact that police
commando personnel in Manipur also regularly eve-teases, molest, sexually
assault and rape women faultily thinking themselves to protected by the same
act).</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
Maybe the same Act had encouraged the state government to use
bullets, yes, live ammunitions to suppress the agitation. All these would be
quite lost to the protest at the capital, the moment of protest in the national
capital could never be anticipated to be utilised for a protest against acts and
laws that make violence against women possible. For the mainstream we are the
other, a small number to be feared, who make insidious insinuation against the
national army or perhaps the idea of the nation itself, for the ethnic other we
are the mainstream that choose to protest when it doesn't make us look at the
mirror to reflect our ugly selves. Now, we are all lost in a hall of
mirrors.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
Newspaper and internet discussions and reactions to the 18th
December and 24th December incident seem no different from how the Indian state
view any collective agony of people - they pitch one victim against the other,
one incident against the other, one mass rape against another. We've learnt a
lot indeed from the BJP and the Congress hurling 1984 and Gujarat violence
against each other. No rape, assault, molestation is any better or any worst
than the other, and our frayed emotions at why one incident gets more 'coverage'
than the other could provisionally be one reason why we as a collective are not
able to demand for a safe environment for everyone or maybe it is the other way
around. This is not surprising because women as opposed to what we would like to
believe, is not a collective and where we draw our primary identity from is not
uniform. Yet, at times like this when one see the opportunity to steer the
momentum of the protest (both in the capital as well as in parts of Manipur)
towards a conspicuous change one will have to conclude with the dull but
familiar tinge of disappointment. The attempt to rape on the 24th of December
(under Lamlai police station, Manipur) by suspected KCP cadres lead to a similar
mass outrage, the victim, a minor who happened to be on her way home for
Christmas seem ethnically identified with that of the accused of the 18th
December case. It is however very improbable that the two different protests
could ever become a collective one to denounce violence against women. Our
selective anger and our mobilisation on lines of ethnicity, religion and other
such constructed formations reveal the lack of an intention to engage with crime
against women.</div>
<br />
<div class="blg">
For instance one can see that in the case of the mentally
challenged minor girl of Moirang, the mainstream identity of the so called world
of sane seem to dictate against the victim and thus the highly moral and
offensive retort of the victim being tonsured and paraded by women's groups.
That the incident happened inside the INA Memorial, a guarded museum complex
does not have any bearing on the people's anger or rather the lack of it. Rather
the nature of response to the act seems to say -Don't get raped. However, to
state cases like this would be ironic, it would be to compare and contrast one
incident against the other, why one was picked up for protest, why not the
other, it would be analogous to why/why not this rape/molestation. But one could
see in the case of Manipur the other raping your community member seems to be
treated with more seriousness as compared to an incident where the victim and
the perpetrator are from the same community. One can question whether the motive
is to truly resist such crimes or rather the potential of the incident to be
used politically is what drives them, people appear as if ready with a chisel
trying to give shape to a stone of offence. Ethnic colouring of such incident
shows the lack of collective will to address issues of safety and provision of a
safe environment for women and other sexual minorities. One hopes that the
protest would demand justice for all victims of rape/ assault/ molestation, more
so when the culprit are in the police forces, armed forces and non-state, the
first because they are supposed to be the one upholding the law, the second
because we hope that our elected representative believe that the army is
hierarchically not above them in our so-called democracy and the last because
they claim to be working towards a nation, a nation we hope that respect women,
though one cannot be too sure. The current phase of the protest gives us a
claustrophobic feeling of living in Topsy Turvy land, once again.</div>
<div class="blg">
</div>
<div class="blg">
This article was webcasted on 4th January 2013 (The North-East blog)</div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-29347089359629913172012-12-26T04:00:00.000-08:002012-12-26T04:03:34.430-08:00Diurnal City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Night is </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">not the enemy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Says </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">the dense diurnal city</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">yet at dusk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Stalks me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shrill-voices</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">family</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">puppet-strings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fractured straw-cotton</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">clay puppet</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pulls a string</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Before I leave</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Warning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Taunting</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Chaste, safe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">to remain</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Insidious</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">sibling</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">sneers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">His face</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">dark sunset</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">over my thighs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Open the gate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Outside, they</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">with pitchfork awaits</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bolt the door</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I am done for</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com©</span></div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-39096012223700715992012-11-29T23:59:00.002-08:002012-11-30T00:00:17.886-08:00Stroke, by midnight<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Your left</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">didn't speak</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">too your right</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">anymore</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Stroke,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">by midnight</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You were</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">two halves</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The morning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">a splattered</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">sunny-side up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The day smeared </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">thick rancid butter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">on toast</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Your smile</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">distorted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">as in </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">a hall of mirrors</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the sanitised</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">white room</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">silver mercury</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">like flowers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">quivering in a vase</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">pronounces your fever</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">in degrees</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The monitor</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">a melon-red cacophony</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">drew </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">a long straight line</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">https://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com©</span></div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-57572278694166857272012-10-31T05:18:00.001-07:002012-10-31T05:21:52.828-07:00Cacophony and Concrete<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The city</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">lingers without</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">a sense of closure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Each day relentless</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">and endless</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Like a rehearsal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">without a finale;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">left me shrivelled</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">like strands of marigold;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">aftermath of festivities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A night of barsati monsoons;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I wept</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With numerous eyes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">of moist patches</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">staring</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">from moss eaten walls</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The city gnaws</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">and nibble away</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">the sprouting tender roots</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">of belonging</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I belong somewhere,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">elsewhere;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Elsewhere</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That bring</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">news of death</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">of loved ones,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">of tedious living and silent dying.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">https://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com©</span><br />
<br /></div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-63727906600102389882012-10-07T03:20:00.000-07:002012-10-07T03:20:56.941-07:00Ode to fever<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The fever<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">exude itself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">from these numerous pores<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The marauder's left<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">drawn blood on my flesh<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I lick my wound<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">in my four legged retreat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Wishing to drown<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">in winter blankets<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Love's ravaged me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">My ruin is complete<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I fan myself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">with the hemlock's leaves<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com
© <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-43049262539479637032012-09-18T01:54:00.001-07:002012-09-18T01:54:38.755-07:00Rave on<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">A digression
from my usual preoccupation, was provided by a recent invite to talk about ‘being
in the northeast’. I have been trying to talk about poetry for a long time, because,
well, because I love poetry, I write poetry and I think it is because of poetry
that I am still alive today. I can
recite poetry at the drop of a hat, well.. especially my own, though I can also
recite Sylvia Plath’s lines </span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So we could rave on,
darling, you and I,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-GB">until the stars tick out
a lullaby</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Yes, I like lines like that too,
though blood and thoughts of killing and being killed tops my list of favourite
poems. I also like Irom’s lines </span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-GB">For born with lips, For
endowed with thoughts/</span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<span lang="EN-GB">How can I leave without
protesting?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"> not the least because it was translated by me
and of course the many poems which will be lost or not amenable to translation.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">And all they ask
me is to speak on how <i>it feel.</i> That
too, will be lost in translation and yes, the feeling is lost in transition
too, a transition I did more than a decade back. I tried to push my luck, “You,
mean how does it feel to be a poet and coming from Manipur, you mean, how does
that landscape inform my poetry?”. “Oh!, you write poetry? Had no idea.” No, no
all we want to know is –How does <i>it feeeel.
</i> So there again I am put in that
pointless box and asked to think – Northeast vs India. I don’t even know what
the term Northeast means. I am asked to think of the comments I get when I walk
down the street and what will they do with that. “Nothing”, we just want an <i>insider</i> to talk about it. “So, you want
to hear how bad it was and thats it?” and all these will be given a patient
solemn hearing. Could I just recite a poetry which expresses all these? Hmmm “We
will get back to you shortly”. Quite a considerable length of time shortly is. </span></div>
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Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-12773173939324302632012-09-12T01:00:00.001-07:002012-09-18T01:56:46.852-07:00Ode to the Ear<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="font-size: small;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 13px;">Two whorls</span><br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">complicated </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">as a corolla</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A funnel</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and words</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">collects </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">like rain on puddles</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Monsoon mosquitoes </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">comes abuzz</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">nagging for a earring</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The lover </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">dart a lizard-like tongue</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">collect grains of salt</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">or nibble </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">on the cartilaginous mushroom</span></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<u><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://soibamharipriya.</span></a><a href="http://blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">blogspo<wbr></wbr>t.com</span></a> © </span></u></div>
</div>
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Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-72513656288787351682012-08-26T01:50:00.002-07:002012-08-26T01:55:11.008-07:00For born with lips/ For endowed with thoughts/ How can I leave without protesting? : The Poet as a Witness <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Let me stretch
out my hands</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Beloved friends</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Welcome me in
your midst</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So unquenched
that I am</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Unable to voice
in words</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I desire to tear
open my chest</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">and show the
bland empty smile within</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I desire a voice
of that laughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">be struck by
shrapnel of bombs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">for the
aftermath cheap tears</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">to reduce all
filth to cinders</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Let every face
be radiant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">with the hope of
a new era!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">This one weak
step</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Wants to leave a
hundred footprints</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">And become
chants of courage</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Come, open your
door</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">For born with
lips</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">For endowed with
thoughts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">How can I leave</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">without
protesting?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The Untitled
Poem, (translated from Irom Sharmila’s Maming Thondaba Seireng, Translation
mine)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The idea of
poetry is not an unchanging one but a continuum or rather a contestation of
meanings. I look at the ‘poetic’ as an element whether it be in a dramatic
text, performance or poetry (i.e. I look at words - spoken, written or sung,
chanted, performed according to a pattern). The above poem translated from Irom
Sharmila’s <i>Maming Thondaba Seireng</i>
reflects a certain resistance to the ‘times’. This suggest a certain condition
of the triangular nature of the existence of poetry — a triad consisting of the
poet, the audience and reality/truth/environment/context as the third point<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>.
The lines which connect and form this triad is what I want to analyse. That
poetry as witnessing a certain reality may either reveal a situation where both
are almost coinciding at a point whereas the audience seems far removed from
both. I am afraid that the poets and poetry that I wish to discuss here might
all fall in the category of distorted triangles. The reality that the poets speak
of seems far removed from the insulated politics of the metropolitan cities.
However, this reality is growing in various parts of the country. There is,
therefore, a disjuncture in our interaction with the state in its most visual
and ironically camouflaged form. In the disjuncture itself, there are many
islands of disjuncture in spite of the interconnectedness of the infliction,
there is a disconnect in the perception of the state. Thus, women and poetry
for peace or women as peace brokers might, as I see fall, in the narrow limits
of looking at women as tools towards a political end, the vision of which she
does not form a part. Arambam Ongbi Memchoubi had written in her “Goddess of
Lightning<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>”
–</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">Even if your soul listens or not<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">Even if you agree or not<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">I am <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">The answer to your age old questions<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The poem
construes women as the Goddess of Lightning about to strike the rotten arms of
men who preserves the old world. The Goddess burns the old and creates anew.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I have not
quoted Memchoubi to club women’s work together but to contradict and point at
the wide and varied nature of the work of women. One can but discuss the work
together for reason of interconnectedness in the landscape of their poetry and not
the ways of expression. Firstly, the attempt to look at Irom Sharmila’s poetry
is the elements that separate her struggle and the consequent expression of
that in her poetry. In Irom’s writing, it is a woman writing but it is a woman
who is no longer a woman but rather a deified or “iconified” woman. A woman who
is not depicted now without the nose feeding tube; wherein her struggle has
become an organic part of her being and thus the attempt to “give her life”
through the force intrusion of tubes, creating them also as parts of her being.
She and her work occupy a space that no other can occupy because of the nature
of her struggle. There is no doubt the struggle to appropriate her as a freedom
fighter, as a poet, a feminist, a champion, woman leader and so on thus
embedding in her a symbolic sisterhood which is strategically evoked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Secondly that
she must have and she has written poems since the beginning but it is the
nature of her struggle that elevates her poetry to being a witness of her
times. There is no doubt that the above two are inextricably linked together.
For the fact that she is living her poetry and her ideals it is difficult to
look at her poetry apart from her struggle and vice versa. And it is important
to view both together because there is an inherent vulgarity in knowing or
reading a poem as separate from the landscape that informs the poems. For this
reason one can also explore the works of other poets like Thangjam Ibopishak
and Robin Ngangom to point out how certain landscape colours the poetry in
spite of the range and variety in the work. There is an interconnectedness
between poetry as witness and poetry as resistance but for both then is the
necessity for poetry to come out from within the confines of the poets’ thought
and be read, be seen and talked about. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">‘what good is
poetry is destitute times’ (Heidegger, 1975). Heidegger refers to this question
of Hölderlin’s (in Bread and Wine) by talking first about time –That the time
is the era that we still belong to and that era seems to be asking to us the
need of poetry. The genre or rather the styles of the poetry that I choose to
discuss might be said to fall in the category of the poems/writing choosing to
express certain things. I refer to the act of writing (such) poetry as being
the witness. It is then here that the necessity of the creative work getting
read/ seen/ comes in. Stating the unsaid or unsayable is then the function of
such poetry. When Thangjam Ibopishak wrote “I want to be killed by an Indian
Bullet”, it was censored out </span><span lang="EN-US">of an India International Centre publication<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>.
In the act of being a witness and testifying for the unsaid/ unsayable there
are indeed many who wants the unsaid to remain unsaid who believes that the
unsaid is left unsaid because of the presumed vulgarity of the unsaid. Thus,
closing one’s eye on the vulgarity of the act played out in the landscape means
that one is consenting to the continuity of the act of indifference. </span><span lang="EN-GB">The vulgarity here
can be seen in two ways, one being what I have just mentioned above and second
the vulgarity of discussing only the poetry as removed from the landscape. Of
course the act of seeing poetry alone and not placing it in the context of the
landscape is what leads to the poetry being termed as unsayable or rather
unprintable (and therefore unreadable). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The introduction
to Irom Sharmila’s collection of twelve poems, “Fragrance of Peace”<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
also refers to her as she who “speak out the unspeakable without losing the
essence of humanity”. Of course the act of witnessing and testifying requires
that the work comes out in the form of being said or read. The genres of poetry
or poet celebrated now have gone through the process of being obliterated not
only because of the language in which it is expressed but also through a
deliberate attempt at obliteration. There is a certain curiosity in the works
but it is only celebrated when it falls in the realm of the exotic whereas the
mundane banality of political violence finds no space. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The landscape
that evokes poetry of the ‘unsayable’ also evokes the mundane desire of
belongingness. Robin Ngangom had explored this in his collection, “The Desire
of Roots”<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>.
The collection depicts a desire, a longing for the labyrinth terrain of the
'known' by the same roots. Irom’s collection “Fragrance of Peace” is also
engrafted with a desire, the desire of letting the roots seek its home of soil,
to foster and nurture not the idea of territorial belongingness but one that is
rooted in the crises of the ‘canes of policemen’ and yet as a mother exhorting </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">What gain you by torching an effigy?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">for a scrap of land you cannot take with you<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Irom’s
collection of twelve poems seems a conscious choice on the part of those who
has put in the collection. The poems reflect a certain role – that of a mother,
a sister. That the collection is a political act is beyond doubt however this
begets the question — “Is the gendering of women’s writing inherently problematic?
In the particular context of this collection is there an attempt to look at the
poet vis-à-vis her relation as a sister to a man / (or even in solidarity to
the idea of sisterhood); Is there an attempt to embed in her the ideals of a
universal mother in the choice of poems? It is indeed difficult to begin
analysing Sharmila’s poems given the self imposed overarching political
correctness of those who choose not only to read but also to publish which works
are to be read. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> Stead, “The New Poetic” <i>Continuum</i>
. New York: 2005</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> Robin S. Ngangom; Kynpham S. Nongkynrih, “Dancing Earth” <i>Penguin Books, </i><st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country>: 2009</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> Tarun Bhartiya, “</span><span lang="EN-US">Liberal Nightmares: A Manual of Northeastern Dreams” http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/06-turbulence/02_tarun_bhartiya.pdf
(accessed on 15th January 2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> Irom <b>Sarmila</b></span><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-GB">“Fragrance of Peace”, Zubaan, 2010</span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US">The
cover of the book and also the contents refers to Irom Sharmila as Irom
Sarmila. When the publisher was asked on the peculiar spelling I was told that
the pronunciation of ‘Sh’ does not exist in Meiteilon. This was in spite of the
poet signing her work as Irom Sharmila. Referring to Sharmila as Sarmila seemed
to be more due to the problem of translating of her work from the Bengali
script to Meitei Mayek and to English. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/1234/Desktop/priya/The%20Poet%20as%20a%20Witness%20-%20final.doc#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> Robin Ngangom, “The Desire
of Roots”, Chandrabhaga Publications, Cuttack, 2006</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-2275465094907168502012-08-13T12:37:00.000-07:002012-08-13T12:37:19.235-07:00Unfurling You<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #222222;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I unfurl</span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">you in my head</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">like a roll of film</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">exposed to light </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Picture fade</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">into smudgy outlines </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">and you, lost </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">to eternal darkness</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">With deaths</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">like these </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">I am well-acquainted</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">I live</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">in fringes </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">beyond frames</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Diffused</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">like an ink drop </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">drowning </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">in crystal water</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">I’d once arranged</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">life like pebbles </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Stacked up nimbly </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">the jagged edges</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">neatly filed </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Pictures such as these</span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">Torn </span><br style="color: #222222;" /><span style="color: #222222;">left two serrated cliffs</span></span></div>
<div>
<u><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></u></div>
<div>
<u><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://soibamharipriya.</a>blogspot.com © </span></u></div>
</div>
Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-41762455738695721572012-08-02T21:31:00.002-07:002012-08-02T21:37:26.867-07:00Ellipsis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">They say</span><br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">my sting</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">has lost </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">its venom</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">my rancour </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">its acid </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My wound</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">has become antique</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Hot metal</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">a fouled alloy</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The rage of peace</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">threatens</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the lesion</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I nurse</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I have cast off</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">grief's golden harvest</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Coaxing </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">luminous fingers,</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">my armour</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">infiltrated</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">He's </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Humoured</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">my heart</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">back</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">from its exile</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Tempered</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">my malice</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Corseted me </span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">in a sequinned cage</span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://soibamharipriya.<wbr>blogspot.com</wbr></a> © </span></div>
</div>Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-4473860623506013372012-07-24T23:00:00.000-07:002012-07-24T23:00:02.425-07:00Eternity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />The season</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has changed its tide</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A horizon of irretrievable anguish</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">has splintered the streets</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with the sorrow of sunsets</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A thrown-away ring</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">leaves a pale band</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on a lonely finger </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The inescapability of death</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hovers like an inevitable storm</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shielded in you</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I find some solace <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the strength to conceive eternity</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An occlusion of nothingness</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And rejoin</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Gaze by gaze</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">Skin by skin</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a href="http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://soibamharipriya.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.com</a> ©</span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span>
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<div style="font-family: arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
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</div>Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-31552597057866493052012-07-20T09:04:00.003-07:002012-07-20T09:14:22.856-07:00Love's demise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How inevitably</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sorrow sneaked up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After the rains</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Squandered the night</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Like bitter families and logic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Extracting dreams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From our happy slumber</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Serpent of knowledge</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They’d offer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Enticing pleading</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Familial fruits</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">will erode our love</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And trample the remnant</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">smooth brittle pebbles</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’d prefer a poisoned dart</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rather than the gradual death</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">as if natural</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But love’s demise</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is less dramatic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He succumbed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I survived</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://soibamharipriya.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.com</a> ©</span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span>
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</div>Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-31516296100919758962012-06-28T22:08:00.001-07:002012-06-28T22:10:12.963-07:00Ode to my bookshelf<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was between amber and brown, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">between fire and earth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The rich dark chocolate</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of dusk had set in </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A wave of dust</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">had colored the wood </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I took contemplative miniature steps </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">–feeling every</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">wood, seasoned or un-aged,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Knocked</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on the planks, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on open doors </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Finally, I found you. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From your feet</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to the brim, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">heavy and bright, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">my fingers had</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">brushed against you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You left an oval of dirt ,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on my fingertips.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I knew you were salty,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a fruit that the seas of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">my emotion had chosen. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to stand against the</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">wall of the house, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">open to me </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">like a mouthful of kisses </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I had mourned and perished </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and grew with the books in your bosom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Naked in your skin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I will dismantle you slowly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Take down</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">books of poetry and prose,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">books clothed in their glory jackets </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">books naked and threadbare.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I wish I could depart with you,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to another life </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">but for now I kill you, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with pain that stabs me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">when I stab you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I will bleed my knuckles over you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I will leave coffee mug stain on you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> – a circle like a ring, a circle</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">akin to handcuffs you’d think.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sometimes a house lizard will run over</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">leaving padded footsteps </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">marked in dust. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Your death will reduce to</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ashes and the wind will powder me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with your gray remains.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I will lose my companion, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one autumnal summer of amaltas </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com © </span></div>
<br /></div>Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343828807600888751.post-19765151546069551492012-06-14T09:25:00.002-07:002012-06-28T22:11:10.532-07:00Reconciliation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a veteran </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of goodbyes</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a dream</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a dimension</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">lost </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in the blackness of eternity</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sometimes</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">happiness</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">stuns me</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with the immobilising fear</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of a fleeting hope</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">more reconciled </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to sorrow</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">without the messy paraphernalia</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of dreams</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">promises</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">dangling</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">like a noose</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">like a beaded pearl</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">http://soibamharipriya.blogspot.com ©</span><br />
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</div>Soibam Haripriyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11393602184064758160noreply@blogger.com0