The Urchin In Dr Radhakrishnan Road - Part Two

Part Two a hardly flickering oilwick open trough lamp lighting limply other framed coloured pictures of Ganapati two half-empty troughs of kunkunum and vibhuti on the half-opened cicatrised shrine gate traces of twirls of white chalk on the road reminders of mandala and disrespectful feet a bleak reminder to the departed donor's culpability To the boy now awakened looking through dazed poolai-stuck eyes the obeisances of hurrying office workers and the coins they reverently pressed in a cement platter at the saffron-robed shrine's feet strewn with fading frangipani and shrivelling kernel in split coconut-halves all these were on a reel spun high on a screen the lad could neither fear nor partake of the proferred fare his only Right was his right hand stretched long but never touching the deadened fury of his looks softened only by the lowered eyes The day was long or short depending on his cavernous gastric growls and according to how he laid himself out in some public place to shut out the important world of poets and politicians shout-shooting around him into the Twenty-First Century towards wild parties and fun-conferences to shore up their sagging petty images to bombs and cars that fly to other worlds won on stars to shrines adorned like filmstars and filmstars adorned like shrines Just a privileged lingerer allowed to watch a while the magic lantern show behind burning fearful eyes that dreamt of steamy coco-shavings-crusted puttu a second stomach thunderbread and chapati ladiesfingers and drumsticks pumpkin in hot sambar stringhoppers in coti masala tosai and a tumbler of buttermilk Notes 1.Dr.Radhakrishnan Rd.: Boulevard in Madras (Chennai, India) where are to be found some posh hotels 2. mallikai: Tamil for a variety of the jasmine. 3. splodges: a blend of "splotches" and "lodges" (in the sense of “to serve as a receptacle for”), meaning a great heap of splotches 4. kunkunum and vibhuti: Hindus streak their faces with these powders either for customary or religious reasons 5. poolai: Tamil for rheum in the eyes 6. magic lantern show: a reference from Omar Khayyam’s Ruba’iyat. 7. puttu, sambar, coti, stringhoppers, masala tosai: Indian Tamil cuisine, usually taken as part of breakfast © T.Wignesan 1993 (January 4, 1993) , from the Sequence/Collection: "Words for a Lost Sub-Continent".