Karithandan
Life lays mines of challenge on his way,
but Karithandan is a tough warrior.
An English engineer whirls in the current
of confusion at the foot of the mountain.
Enchanted by the white smile,
Karithandan climbs down slowly.
The tribal hero scrapes through the mist,
which looks like death, and unlocks
the padlocks of the shrubs and the wild roots.
The engineer follows him, uttering, ‘Wow!’
A familiar knock. She opens the door
of the tribal hut, when a dark shape,
clad in white dhoti, disappears in the distance.
A deep love works transient miracles
even under the eaves of death.
Columbus discovered America, I studied.
Karithandan’s discovery of the way to Wayanad,
but I read nowhere, for the engineer
bartered his two bullets for that credit.
Bullets could shatter the chest, but couldn’t the truth.
Pendle War Poetry, U K has published this poem in Selected Poems Anthology 2013
(Wayanad is a natural paradise and a bio-diverse wild region among the
mountains in Kerala, India. During the British rule in India, a
British engineer discovered the way to Wayanad with help of a
tribesman called Karithandan. To take the credit of the discovery, the
engineer killed Karithandan.)
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