War: A desire for more cows

Gavishti, desire for wealth
Nutritious milk
Good for your health
And Survival

Gavishti, most dire for man
Cattle raiding
Murder making
Soul denial

Gavishti, cow or money
Symbol’s the same
For when untamed
Lose what’s vital

Gavishti, know your desire
Share the outpouring
Quit that mouth watering
Balance desire with charity
No need for these bloody cattle raids

Note to the movie ‘Arrival’s’ writers, the Sanskrit word for war is Yuddha, gavishti is cattle raid. Perhaps you were trying to make a point, that wars had turned into cattle raids? But when were they ever anything more? Or perhaps, you meant the root of ‘war’ arises from the word for cattle raid, an evolution of culture and propaganda transforms it into yuddha? It took a while to work out that one little line in the movie… Quite deep! I suspect the word Yuddha comes from the Egyptian heiroglyph for arm… Or perhaps they share a common origin, from some other culture… I’m looking at you, proto Elamites!!! This heiroglyph is today’s letter ‘i’

Ban’s Counter Attack

Ban grows agitated and begins to violently kick
Tam defends himself with shield. Sky Mother’s womb begins to leak
A soothing song calms both infants, and discourse begins once more
Ban, provided additional nutrition, begins to soar

“If men were more than animals
Driven by biochemicals
Then they would be aware
They wouldn’t easily scare

If men were no more than automatons
Moving to commands of instinct programmed
Eating their carrots or fearing batons
Being so easily conned, robbed and scammed
Of their common sense. So moved by falsehood
That they’d sell their morals for things like ‘nationhood’
Murdering each other for a chance at living in Gollywood, or forever screaming about being ‘misunderstood’
Exhibiting the pack behaviour of primates in all their glory
Beating their pecs, savoring the role of King Kong in the story
Obsessed with legacy, mired completely in physicality
Then perhaps I’d have been able to digest your words more easily

The selfless ones are aberrations, not the norm
When we are delivered from the womb you’ll see this storm

Image : https://goo.gl/images/BtTwrP

[Poem] The Demise of Tamilakam

A long time ago, in the land I write in

There were once four great kingdoms

The Chera, the Chola, Pandya and the Ay Velir

They used to elect two kings to reign

For eight year terms, senior and junior

Until one day the senior kings decided to stay forever

They warred against each other. They were vain

The banners of the bow, the fish, the tiger and the elephant

In battle they consumed each other

Driven by their pursuit of power

Making their kingdoms easy pickings

For foreign invasions

And indoctrination

Their clocks had stopped ticking.

(I would not have added the Ay since they started off as vassals, but seeing as how they survived from BCE times till 1950AD, I thought it would be a mistake to leave them out. Also… Chalukyas, Kadambas, Chirakkal, etc I have considered as Ay, but all the dynasties are so intermingled through marriage by this time it doesn’t really matter any more.)

[Poem] Stampede

“Stop,” bellows the young bull,

“Cease,” he cries, but no one cares

No one dares disturb the herd’s eventful

Stampede towards the edge of the precipice.

“Can’t you see where we’re going?”

Shouts the young bull with one eye

“Are you just running without any knowing?”

He gives it another try

“Damn traitor to the herd,” the leader yells

He can hear everything from the front

“Stall our progress and you’ll hear the death knell.

“Look at how awesome we are, how fast we run.”

The young bull is shoved and hit by his companions

“Traitor, pest, moron,” they jeer, as they run without sight

The young bull turns bitter, “Self destruction: our expansions.

Serves us right, serves us right, serves us right!”

Image: johnlund.com

If only the young bull had found a way to break out of the stampede 😦