Day 11 Napowrimo
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| Image - India Post (Wikipedia) |
Dear P
Once you said that I look like an angel. I remember that very well like the carving on our college stone. You went on to mention that only the angel fell on her face first. Splash! I thought and laughed. I laughed a thousand laughs. It amused me so much that I used to remember it and laugh – in the class, in the street, in the rickshaw, even in Ashok Bhavan once while having medu vada dipped in sambhar (by the way, Ashok Bhavan is no more. They closed it permanently, why the hell I don’t know! I feel sorry thinking about that so much so that my stomach sometimes aches. I loved the vadas there, also the *thenga barfi, paniyaram and modakam) Sorry for the distraction, I went another way. But I must tell you that I laughed so much that my stomach and cheeks ached. (This is a different kind of ache). I still think of it and smile and smile do I. Oh! how I remember Shakespeare here. It’s been so many years now like the pages from The Suitable Boy that I kept losing track of. How have you been all this time? Have you made someone else laugh so much as well?
PS: in case you are craving for some sweet delicacies after reading the above, do come home. I shall prepare some for you not the things mentioned maybe something simple.
Friendly
D
Dear D
I am surprised that you still think of it and laugh aloud. Now, I laugh and laugh thinking about your laugh. I must confess that I borrowed it from some magazine that I came across in the barbershop while waiting for my turn. Hair cut those days were a thing back then. It was a place of storytelling and story-gathering. It was a foreign magazine that Somu (the barber) got from a second hand book shop not far from his place. No, he didn’t buy it. Where will he get that kind of money from?! The shopkeeper had given it away as it had missing pages and pages were torn. He told this tiny story while massaging my hair. So many little stories from so many of his massages. Luckily for me, I saw that line there that caught my attention and sent it to all my friends. I think I sent it to 10 of you. Only you remember that. It’s funny right, all this about life.
PS: thanks for the sweets and savory mention. I would like that sometime someday when I come. Sorry to hear about Ashok Bhavan as I have eaten so many nice nice things from there.
Friend
P
Naowrimo prompt:
for our (optional) prompt. This is a twist on a prompt offered by Kay Gabriel during a meeting she facilitated at the Poetry Project last year. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a two-part poem, in the form of an exchange of letters. The first stanza (or part) should be in the form of a letter that you write either to yourself or to a famous fictional or historical person. The second part should be the letter you receive in response. These can be as short or long as you like, in the form of prose poems, or with line breaks – and of course, the subject matter of the letters is totally up to you.
Here, I have just tried my hand at Indian English poetry with a colloquial-humourous strain. Let me know how you find it? I have found Epistolary poems always interesting but had never tried it before. This one surfaced when I was trying out today's prompt with some historical artist whom I am much fond of and failing at it. I wasn't feeling satisfied when this sentence - " You look like an angel...." popped up in my mind. I remembered receiving this postcard while I was in college from a friend of mine in 1997, the situation completely different from what is mentioned in the poem. Some of us were in the habit of sending postcards back then with a funny quote or some short text. When this quote popped up, I decided to create a story around it. Ashok Bhavan was a popular vegetarian restaurant in Palakkad which closed on 31 May 2019.
*Sweet and savoury delicacies
Do let me know your views. You can click on the Napowrimo tag to look at my earlier posts.
PS: Poem posted as part of the 30 day poetry challenge for the month of April NaPoWriMo2021
