Written piece
Resplendence and simplicity
Christina Dhanasekaran
India
About this piece
A small poem that commemorates the great Indian saga. A nation of various dreams and flavoursome aspirations. A land that fuels the imagination and sates the spiritual thirst.
Resplendence and simplicity
A land of mystics, a land of rational minds.
A land of resplendence.
A land of simple ascetics.
Poor in means, yet so rich in spirit.
Humans are strewn about this sacred land.
Plants and animals are worshipped along with our favourite deities.
Sewage sludge the myriad histories of ancient kingdoms.
Greedy politicos adorn her broken crown.
Yet a young democracy yearns.
A nation always thirsty and thrifty.
Many tongues, many towers of Babel.
One emotion gilded on the pitch and toss of the Colonial game.
Gold, abundance of theft, broken statues, exhausted judicial system.
Animated people and revered gurus.
Street food that fills the bottomless abyss.
One golgappa, two mango slices, little pickle and a large gravy boat.
Bangles, dance and music that is flavoured by spices.
Bylanes ruled by lazy cows, dogs that roam the big streets.
This is a land where History and Geography are at odds but maybe indulge in a hot affair sometimes.
Tigers, crocodiles, crowd and cardamom.
Tumeric hues against a blue sky.
This is a land...a land is this!
India, an incredible contradiction in operation.
India, beyond the imagination always.