MUMBAI THE GREAT METROPOLIS
Metropolitan culture flourishes here
By road side shops and squatter:
They trade and eat and drink
And foul and pee and defecate forever
The land and waters and raise
Generations of the unwanted.
Defying ancient ways of land
[and waters] that give man
The sustenance and culture’
Modern civilization develops
Wealth and waste endless
To leave behind desert and craters
All over the earth and heaven
And the posterity left to live
The life of hydroponics.
They treat the posterity
As their personal property
To pamper their ego-flights
In being instrumental at will
Or whim procreating
Their Offspring at the price of dignity
While perpetuating possessions
That rise by greed and perversity.
(4-3-2000)
~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Monday, 25 August 2008
Tata's Nano car (Modern Haiku)
Tata's Nano car (Modern Haiku)
Behind your car
I am dragged –
fallen leaves.
(For a farmer even fallen leaves are precious. They burn them to keep warm. It is used as (compost) manure. But in modern India (call her Bharat or Hindustan) modern maharajas – the corporate – like Tatas – have emerged. What value do they have for - whether farmers or fallen leaves? Read more)
(Translation by the author)
-----
पाचोळा ( आधुनिक हायकू)
तुझ्या मोटारीच्या मागे मागे
येई मी फ़रफ़टत ....
पाचोळा।
(शेताकरयाला पाचोळा फार मोलाचा असतो। त्याची शेकोटी होते। त्याचे शेतासाठी (कम्पोस्ट) खत होते। पण आधुनिक इन्डियात [वाटल्यास भारत म्हणा किंवा हिन्दुस्तान म्हणा] टाटा सारखे आधुनिक राजे महाराजे तयार झाले आहेत। शेतकरी की पाचोळा, त्यांची त्याना काय किंमत ? पुढे वाचा )
२४.८.२००८
~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
Behind your car
I am dragged –
fallen leaves.
(For a farmer even fallen leaves are precious. They burn them to keep warm. It is used as (compost) manure. But in modern India (call her Bharat or Hindustan) modern maharajas – the corporate – like Tatas – have emerged. What value do they have for - whether farmers or fallen leaves? Read more)
(Translation by the author)
-----
पाचोळा ( आधुनिक हायकू)
तुझ्या मोटारीच्या मागे मागे
येई मी फ़रफ़टत ....
पाचोळा।
(शेताकरयाला पाचोळा फार मोलाचा असतो। त्याची शेकोटी होते। त्याचे शेतासाठी (कम्पोस्ट) खत होते। पण आधुनिक इन्डियात [वाटल्यास भारत म्हणा किंवा हिन्दुस्तान म्हणा] टाटा सारखे आधुनिक राजे महाराजे तयार झाले आहेत। शेतकरी की पाचोळा, त्यांची त्याना काय किंमत ? पुढे वाचा )
२४.८.२००८
~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
God's acre
----------------------------------- God’s acre
When I was born someone smiled –
a dew drop on a tender blade of grass
draped in rainbow attire,
a sparrow picked a grain and flew.
From morning always moves to dusk
on the pathway walks the Sun, along
hear a call from Goddess Night –
Life hangs until the distance ends.
Remi, if you could cut / graft the roots
of beliefs would the twist between
the ends – Birth and Death –
ever remain the same?
(Translation from original Marathi by the author)
a dew drop on a tender blade of grass
draped in rainbow attire,
a sparrow picked a grain and flew.
From morning always moves to dusk
on the pathway walks the Sun, along
hear a call from Goddess Night –
Life hangs until the distance ends.
Remi, if you could cut / graft the roots
of beliefs would the twist between
the ends – Birth and Death –
ever remain the same?
(Translation from original Marathi by the author)
~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
CREATIVITY: to create problems to create solutions to create…
Creativity is to create problems to create solutions to create…
WHY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KEEPING AWAY from the institutionalized formal schooling even to this date? Without mincing words, it is because the prevalent British-made education isn’t relevant and/or the system is not appropriate for their sustenance.
Homo sapiens have a powerful weapon of language over other hominids and species. As script and writing were discovered with rise of civilization, the powerful classes or castes monopolized them and kept ‘the other’ – their subjects away; perhaps they promised them the physical and spiritual protection in the return of the exploits.
Over the centuries this majority, which still persists and is increasing, had known that the scriptures and the script have not been essential for the survival in real life in real world. Perhaps that is why Gautam Buddha, the rebellion, speaks to people in Prakrit – vernacular!
Those who go through the British-made western-style education become alienated from the people and society, from real life, and embrace ‘virtual reality’ of market, money and media. The people inevitably turn into a mass society, and subsequently face identity crisis.
Fortunately none of the ethnic and tribal communities and their members suffers from identity crisis. They are acutely aware of its irrelevance in their real life, and therefore cannot afford it, and opt to drop out.
The identity of Britain and the British is “East India Company” – the international Baniya – the traders. The East India Company baptised the elite India with trade and replaced clergy by traders who are invisible rulers.
It is not a discovery that a language or a script is ‘virtual reality’. With the development of science and technology more and more languages and scripts are emerging, such as, binary. This pushes the society to further fragmentation and chaos, and the powerful move to further alienation. Thanks to the progress of Electronic Technology/ Information Technology in leaps and bounds that perhaps a million odd persons are now marginally computer-literates. The brighter ones end up in silicon valleys to slave for the likes of the Gates.
An annual Union Budget may use Hindi language, but even the educated may not be able to comprehend its means, meanings and ends, or how economic language changes political equations, or who shall hijack its benefits by hook or crook. Then they need the modern-day gurus to interpret the scriptures of the country’s budget. Such monopolization of languages leads the experts to alienation from the real world, and pushes the ‘other’ members of the society to oblivion. Can anyone take a word of the rulers at its face value? The same could be said of all the fields of specialization and expertise; they remain exclusive but not universal.
See more
¬¬¬¬
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
WHY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KEEPING AWAY from the institutionalized formal schooling even to this date? Without mincing words, it is because the prevalent British-made education isn’t relevant and/or the system is not appropriate for their sustenance.
Homo sapiens have a powerful weapon of language over other hominids and species. As script and writing were discovered with rise of civilization, the powerful classes or castes monopolized them and kept ‘the other’ – their subjects away; perhaps they promised them the physical and spiritual protection in the return of the exploits.
Over the centuries this majority, which still persists and is increasing, had known that the scriptures and the script have not been essential for the survival in real life in real world. Perhaps that is why Gautam Buddha, the rebellion, speaks to people in Prakrit – vernacular!
Those who go through the British-made western-style education become alienated from the people and society, from real life, and embrace ‘virtual reality’ of market, money and media. The people inevitably turn into a mass society, and subsequently face identity crisis.
Fortunately none of the ethnic and tribal communities and their members suffers from identity crisis. They are acutely aware of its irrelevance in their real life, and therefore cannot afford it, and opt to drop out.
The identity of Britain and the British is “East India Company” – the international Baniya – the traders. The East India Company baptised the elite India with trade and replaced clergy by traders who are invisible rulers.
It is not a discovery that a language or a script is ‘virtual reality’. With the development of science and technology more and more languages and scripts are emerging, such as, binary. This pushes the society to further fragmentation and chaos, and the powerful move to further alienation. Thanks to the progress of Electronic Technology/ Information Technology in leaps and bounds that perhaps a million odd persons are now marginally computer-literates. The brighter ones end up in silicon valleys to slave for the likes of the Gates.
An annual Union Budget may use Hindi language, but even the educated may not be able to comprehend its means, meanings and ends, or how economic language changes political equations, or who shall hijack its benefits by hook or crook. Then they need the modern-day gurus to interpret the scriptures of the country’s budget. Such monopolization of languages leads the experts to alienation from the real world, and pushes the ‘other’ members of the society to oblivion. Can anyone take a word of the rulers at its face value? The same could be said of all the fields of specialization and expertise; they remain exclusive but not universal.
See more
¬¬¬¬
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
THE CITY OF GOLD
THE CITY OF GOLD
Shunting between
South-North North-South
Air-conditioned dreams inhale
Cooled air from human excreta
Infested with virus a-plenty
along the roadside
in the city of gold.
Oozing carbon monoxide
with safety belts fastened
At 40 km an hour by the side
of the urchins dark-skinned
Unaware of impending slow dying
Gleefully playing
in the city of gold.
Between South and North
It is the dark tunnel
of pipe-in music intoxicating
Noise of airliner competing
along up-right hi-tech architecture
shuts itself off silted air
in the city of gold.
Homecoming birds go afar
In the search of shelter away
From rootless rickety trees
Thickened with dust carbonised
Happy chirping sparrows no more
No night shelter for birds any more
In the city of gold.
Shunting between South and North
As weary nights descend
Pavements and railway platforms
along the corridor of power
And the poverty dozes off slowly
for a few hours of dreams
in the city of gold.
------
Mumbai [7-4-1998]
~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved।
Shunting between
South-North North-South
Air-conditioned dreams inhale
Cooled air from human excreta
Infested with virus a-plenty
along the roadside
in the city of gold.
Oozing carbon monoxide
with safety belts fastened
At 40 km an hour by the side
of the urchins dark-skinned
Unaware of impending slow dying
Gleefully playing
in the city of gold.
Between South and North
It is the dark tunnel
of pipe-in music intoxicating
Noise of airliner competing
along up-right hi-tech architecture
shuts itself off silted air
in the city of gold.
Homecoming birds go afar
In the search of shelter away
From rootless rickety trees
Thickened with dust carbonised
Happy chirping sparrows no more
No night shelter for birds any more
In the city of gold.
Shunting between South and North
As weary nights descend
Pavements and railway platforms
along the corridor of power
And the poverty dozes off slowly
for a few hours of dreams
in the city of gold.
------
Mumbai [7-4-1998]
~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved।
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