Krishna's Advice To Arjuna - Part Two

II for Thodti trailing barefeet his dried coconut-stick broom on cracked macadam in the gutter festering oozing fresh month-old drying turds urine remains of fed-up banana-leaves skins withered jasmine garlands drained motor-oil from scooter-taxis overfed flies lean stray kids fowl cows all that was wonder from afar magic mythic mystery the lingo of gods on earth the brahmin vegetarian clattering-pans over order shouting eating-hotels as though the heavens deigned to camp down on his doorstep derailed on their celestial inter-galactic circuit his mind if he cared to exercise one was of little use to him nor were they to his ancestors called upon only to clean the bottoms off those who shat upon his forefathers for ages his only use for his intelligence is to know his place minus the alphabet minus arithmetic minus the patinenkilkkanakku minus the grandold Vedic mystic gods and rishis minus the right to think for himself only the dullard’s right to die daft dull damned and be reborn in the womb of ignorance So much for your Godly advice Charioteer Krishna For don’t Gods only talk to Gods on Earth Detach yourself first then KILL Do not feel for those you kill For what lofty ideal the Mahabharatha pitted mythically gambling polyandrous cousins Is India today a magical-realist myth or a cranking up Indo-Pak Armageddon Sattva Rajas Tamas Sattva Rajas Thodti Notes Sattva: pure intelligence and goodness Rajas: impure mental energy and restless passion Tamas: dullness and inertia Blodok or belodok (also beluduh): Malay for large-eyed goby, found in tropical or equatorial muddy flats Gopuram: the tiered, sculptured towers over the main entrances to Hindu temples Kannagi: heroine of the medieval Tamil epic Cilappatikaram Kolusu: ornamental anklet chains with bells worn by Tamil women Kunkumam: saffron ( yellow or red) powder serving as adornment marks of auspiciousness on women’s faces Patinenkilkkannakku: the traditionally collective name for eighteen Tamil classical works Tali: usually gold chains worn by married Tamil women round the neck or tumeric- stained cords in lieu of Thodti: a caste name for Night Soil Men © T.Wignesan May 26/27, 1997 Revised June 2002 Paris From the sequence/collection: “Words for a Lost Sub-Continent”.