THREE POEMS ON THE KANYAKUMARI BEACH
-
Naganandhini N.R. (India)
1
An Ode to the Kanyakumari Beach
Waves, Waves,
Waves
Rolling blue-wrapped Divine Bouquets
aqua-laced bunches
their ringing and singing Choir
of Godly Anklets and Bracelets
Break, Break, Break!1
Waves that tremendous change
in Multitudinous Myriads
curtsey elegantly
to each other and us
Embracing, Welcoming, Sweeping away
Earthly nuggets of Negativities
What a cerulean comely Grace!
Salt of the Soothing Earth!
Racing Waves, Gazing Waves, Waves O Waves!
Tasting, tasting, paces gazing agape!
In marvellous shapes, colours and dimensions
Its voluminous Breath heaved
off the Sublime Blue Infinite Chest
O their Eternal chanting
melding with dusk and dawn
the noontide and the evenfall
lends to our fleeting feet
heavy pleasurable crashes
nourishing burdensome draughts
a pharmakon2:
happy panacea
if we laugh along, guffaw and beat
our hands against the congregated jaag3
otherwise: Blue Melancholia,
where the memories of the dead and gone silently haunt
from the corridors of your corroded mind
multi-coloured sands have a mythological back story4 : Shivan-
Parvathy5
scattered shells washed ashore
“She sells no sea shell!
But collects them for her beloved ones
“13” she counted, her date of birth!
Molluscs6 : Kingdom Mollusca…”
and all the Children of the Ocean
chuckled from the core
of their bosom, clapping hands
sweeping away sand-drenched shoes
Waves, Waves, Waves
these Manes of Waves
Fatherly, Motherly, Brotherly, Sisterly
mollycoddle the Sweet Child
long -orphaned in us
achild that would effortlessly smile
showing his or her teeth wide
dearth of adult- anxieties
profoundly moved by the evening
O Lord Byron7, the poet who sung
Praises of the cosmic aquatic hues
I am able to foresee
Your Shadow penetrating underneath
It rises fore ruffling the sandy pages
where I stand sand-grit- shell encrusted
with my feet submerged deep
leaving footprints only to be washed away
and replaced by many who would come
to worship and thank Thee
cheers to many such coastal memories
to Thine reverberating echoes
from Thy deep dark blue-green caverns
whose folded Envelopes splash
naval letters with evanescent codes
their Tongues lick at us lovingly
loveable, to be loved neither too little nor too big
but of the length we deserve to be,
we earnestly prostrate fore
The Holy Kanyakumari
invoking the Spirit of the Sea
I miss Estha8 and Rahel9
as I remember Ammu10 and Velutha11
they part from me as I would part
someday from everybody
The God of Small Things12
powerfully hits
by shores and coves.
2
Sand-Grit
Encrusted Extremities: Awakening the Kanyakumari Consciousness
When I
had my feet submerged
slightly shallow, slightly deep
subsumed under the Vast Dun Carpet
studded with Disproportionate Gems
beyond paragons of Beauty
as I stood on the marge of the beach
experiencing the collective Holy Aureole: The Kanyakumari Consciousness.
Playmates
groped over and around
those from an unknown spiral of my Past or Pasts
unrecognizable yet
melding
with their Being
soothed, my body sighed.
Mother
Sand and its Innumerable Children
pecked at my extremities
their Family ever embiggening
greater than the Kauravas13 Clan.
Little
stones, grit, shells; fragments
premature pigments swelled with Persistence
all gathered brimming with Mirth
singing “Ring around the Roses14”
palliating nostalgic sickness ingrained
deep in me and many who had often
clutching
their chests Repressed
repressed, repressed, depressing
falling, bottomless.
But the
Great Giant -Father- Hard- Rock broke in
Barked, Gawked and Chomped heavily
sundering our union apiece
aggrieved, I had to withdraw
sadly they too retreated to their
“ a la plage15!”
towards the centre
submitting to the Centrifugal Spokes of Terror
His Gnashing Violent Masculine Imagery
For the Father Giant since time immemorial LORDED over them.
He
Commanded them to Reign Sovereign
Holy brown engirdled by the Etheric Religious Blue
in a non-anthropocentric zone
hearing the Ocean swinging
to the Rhythm of Eternal Oneness
Humble,
Down-to-earth Layers
endless deposition of Brothers and Sisters and Fathers and Mothers
their Sedimented Excellence
attuned to the Sea-God Alone
“God- mud, God-water, God-bed…”
As the
sun slowly did set
staring at my Sand-encrusted extremities
A divine Revelation opened my heart
the trisection point where the Sun-God, Sea-God and mud-God
Lording over all Human Consciousnesses
Let their Peace Reign in our Troubled hearts.
3
Sri
Kanyakumari Bhagavathi Amman16
When I
set my foot
boundlessly flummoxed,
I peered into Her Supernal Threshold
sensing a limpid wave
which stately balancing surged over
inculcating a Rigid- Divine Concentration
it flowed in and through my Mind
channelling Energies
of an Unheard and Unfelt kind.
I was so
taken aback
when they flowed unbridled,
unobstructed by the gates
that had once turned their backs
to the Hindu Gods
“They don’t exist
In none of the forms!”
then I
embarked with no second thoughts
outwitted by my Material-conscience
engaged, enrapt in a Deep Communion with the Goddess
who gleamed Infinitely Pure
surchargeable of an unearthly Godliness
Ideally transcending barriers of Humanely-Illusive Beauty.
Adorned
in a Sacred Red vastra17
Bordered with Golden zari18
Her Torso emboldened in Dazzling Gold
Purified the Hanging Impurities;
Abstract residues corrupting our human spheres!
Her mookkuthi19 made
of Diamond
Cut across in us several shards
Strikingly touching the surface
Gracing our God- afeared Bodies.
There
were hundreds of diminutive deepam20
Guarding her Spectacular Abode
Illuminating the Ignorant-minded like me
if I have to recount a historical portion of Her Radiant Immanence
“The light emanating from her mookkuthi21
once served as a cynosure
a compass bejewelled to guide
the sailors who would sea-voyage
in the night…”
As I
meditated over her marvellous earmarks
The Word was sent
Cognizant that she descended to save
All of us from the evil forebodings:
Mythical, Symbolic, Allusive
all that have nettled us
in dreams, nightmares and reality.
The
Revelation was so surreal,
“Her Nose was originally a territory
to the Nagamanickam22 which
the Britishers looted
with unabashed impudence
So we had to replace it with a lower equivalent: Diamond…”
I remembered the priest’s narrative,
shivering, cupped my hands
with my mouth agape, I stared confounded
and prayed and prayed and prayed
uttering no words, no sounds, not even a murmuring note I am taken to…
sinking into an Impenetrable Cave of Silence
which She had carved into
For Her Child, me.
Notes:
1.
Break, Break, Break alludes to the elegiac poem by Alfred
Lord Tennyson, where he
grieves at the loss of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. The allusion underscores
the philosophy of life ruled by the transient law of nature.
2.
Pharmakon is a Greek
term used by Derrida in the essay Plato’s Pharmacy. It is a paradoxical
term that can be inferred as either cure or poison.
3.
Jaag means foam in
Hindi.
4.
According to a legend, Lord Shiva wanted to marry the virgin teenage
goddess Kanyakumari, who was pursuing penance to destroy the demon Banasura.
Unfortunately, the marriage scheduled before dawn is called off when Narada, in
rooster’s disguise, announces the break of dawn in advance. Narada executes so
as he knows that marriage could waylay the destruction of Banasura as virginity
is an innate feminine power whose dimension is necessary to kill the demon.
Hence, Narada’s ruse tricks Shiva into believing he is late for the marriage
and retreats. On the other hand, the goddess, enraged with Lord Shiva, vents
out her frustration by scattering the sacred arrangements made for the wedding.
Thus, the pebbles engraved in the sand are multi-coloured.
5.
Shivan-
Parvathy refers to the divine duo of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathy.
6.
Molluscs are a soft-bodied invertebrate of the phylum Mollusca. Snails
that bear hard-covered shells belong to the same species. The shells on the
beech are the fossilised remnants of Mollusca.
7.
Lord Byron is eminently remembered as the writer of the long narrative
poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
8.
Estha or Esthappen is Ammu’s son and Rahel’s fraternal twin brother in
the novel, The God of Small Things.
9.
Rahel is Ammu’s daughter and Estha’s fraternal twin sister in the novel The
God of Small Things.
10.
Ammu is the
mother of Estha and Rahel in the novel The God of Small Things.
11.
Velutha
is a pariah, an untouchable man whom Ammu is attracted to in the novel The
God of Small Things.
12.
The God of Small Things, won the 1997 Booker Prize, is a family drama novel by
Indian writer Arundhati Roy. The book explores casteism and criticises British
colonialism in India.
13.
Kauravas are the descendants (100 sons and one daughter) of Kuru lineage
in the Hindu holy epic Mahabharata.
14.
In this context, “Ring Around, the Roses”, does not allude to the
infamous plague but hints at themes of friendship, celebration and harmony
amongst the stones, grit and fragmented shells.
15.
A la plage means ‘at the beach’ in French.
16.
Sri Kanyakumari Bhagawathi Amman is one of the 108 Shakti Peedas
dedicated to the virgin goddess Devi Kanyakumari.
17.
Vastra in Sanskrit refers to the piece of cloth covering the idol of the
Goddess.
18.
Zari in Persian refers to embroidering with gold threads.
19.
Mookkuthi
is nose-ring in Tamil.
20.
Deepam is a clay or mud oil lamp with a cotton wick used in religious
ceremonies.
21.
Ibid (xix)
22. Nagamanickam is made of two words: naga (snake) and manickam
(stone); hence,nagamanickam is a legendary snake-stone believed to emerge from
the heads of snakes or nagas as mentioned in classics like the Garuda Purana.
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