`
I am small and insignificant.

Yet, when I laugh
In the timbre of that laughter dances all the happiness of the world;
And when I weep
In every teardrop lies concealed all of its sorrow.

I am small and insignificant,
Yet my master has entrusted within me all the vastness of his creations.
`

Bengaluru, KA,

April, 2007

Barefoot

`
Early summer.

Along the slums
It is a little shrubby,
And as always, grimy
With black dirt.

With two blackened bananas
Discovered by the gutter
My little girl flits
Happy and barefoot.
`

Bengaluru, KA,

April, 2007

Grandfather

`
2000 kilometers away, today morning
He died.

I felt sad.
I loved him
And even wanted to cry,
But of course, I did not.

I remembered
How he had worked
Days and nights on end
To sustain the family,
Educate my father;
I remembered –
What I was today was because
Of all that he had been.

Today, in the evening
We friends met up
As had been decided
And had a gala time.

2000 kilometers away, at home
They wept all night.
I loved him
And I did not cry at all.
`

Bengaluru, KA,

April, 2007