Santa Claus and Dusk-to-Dawn Curfew
- Deep from the Soul -
K. Radhakumar *
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions
which a minute will reverse.
-T.S. Eliot
New Year's resolutions!
I stopped making New Year's resolutions.
There's no point in making
New Year's resolutions
For we are back to square one in no time;
I am what I am
And never am I a changed man.
I vividly remember
How Ganesh bhaiya of Ganesh Paan Shop
Folded a betel leaf into a flattened cone
And filled with supari or areca nuts
cut into pieces,
And Zarda or flavoured tobacco
laced with spices.
The paan queue was long
And inside the dukan a small
tape recorder was playing
Niche paan ki dukan upar gori ki makaan.
My abstinence from strong drink,
smoking and paan!
It's got nothing to do with ethics
Or New Year's resolutions
but with health reasons.
The statutory warning
in a packet of cigarettes read:
Smoking is injurious to health.
It now reads:
Smoking causes cancer.
Cancer kills.
Birth and death!
Why birth and death now
When the morning has the feel
of the new year?
Thousands of babies are born
And thousands of people die
On New Year's Day.
There's nothing that stands out;
It's an ordinary sort of day.
And this is a new experience for me.
New Year's Day is an ordinary sort of day
Unless I make it my day.
Well, it's a new one on me.
I wish you
A Happy New Year
And see if it makes your day.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition)
This poem was webcasted on December 29 2012.
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