Friday, June 17, 2005

On Vikram Seth...

Many years ago, it was a poem “Sit” by Vikram Seth that became the first post on this blog. It came by email from a close friend (who I still love talking vacuities with), I was amazed at the simplicity of it. After reading it a few times, sending it to a few friends and I knew I had to put it somewhere for the world to discover it at least once.

Years later, I haven’t still outgrown it, I am not 26 yet! I am still amazed at the simplicity and clarity of it. In any city I visit, I think of the verse for a few seconds, and I imagine whether that is the spot where I am intended to live this scene.

Vikram Seth is the master of simple verse. Its difficult to find someone so effortless. The poems are in the face, no hidden connotations, nothing to give students nightmares before board exams. Simple thought process in which alien words are joined together and they become partners in rhyme! And you smile, surprised at the effortlessness and the genius and the intended humor.

Some men like Jack
and some like Jill;
I'm glad I like
them both; but still

I wonder if
this freewheeling
really is an
enlightened thing --

or is it's greater
scope a sign
of deviance from
some party line?

In the strict ranks
of Gay and Straight
what is my status?
Stray? or Great?


After years, I have been gifted a copy of the Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth, a little too late, but its great, still on page three, need some time free! Damn--Mine sounds like a limerick ?
Well, its a novel in verse, and its something you discover page by page. This is about a stud in Silicon Valley:

He goes home, seeking consolation
Among old Beatles and Pink Floyd -
But 'Girl' elicits mere frustration,
While 'Money' leaves him more annoyed.
Alas, he hungers less for money
Than for a fleeting Taste of Honey.
Murmuring, 'Money - it's a gas! ...
The lunatic is on the grass,'
He pours himself a beer. Desires
And reminiscenes intrude
Upon his unpropitious mood
Until he feels that he requires
A one-way Ticket to Ride - and soon -
Across the Dark Side of the Moon.

Are you Smiling yet?

PS: Senthil, Thanks for the gift!

3 comments:

Sinfully Pinstripe said...

In that case, I think you will like Emily Dickinson.

Sinfully Pinstripe said...

Y'know where I had encountered this Emily Dickinson piece? On a mock-CAT paper (remember the month and a half I just dropped out from the world in the 7th term?). The paper was a nightmare, expectedly. Hell, I read this piece five times during the test.
On hindsight, imagine if it would have been on the CAT paper itself?

Sinfully Pinstripe said...

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