HEY! My little friend! 
Where are you going? 
What is it that you are looking for? 
How is it that you blend wherever you go? 
In the park, during rains, in the sanctuary, on the roof. 
With your majestic crown, dancing feathers and 
A lovely coat 
Do you know?? 
When you spread your wings; the world 
Breaks into cheers, 
The touch of joy and the magic you carry, 
The awe-struck moments you leave us with;
Catching a glimpse of you – the royal you.
You with your elegance, your grace, your cocky gaze. 
The bounties you carry on your back; 
Casually and gently – makes me wonder: 
Why do we humans always rile and rant 
When we have hardly anything to carry? 

I stepped up,

And looked out.

Maids in a circle

Bantering their daily woes.

It feels good

Early in the morning to

Find the world rushing past.

The milkman arrives.

The bus turns. The glass gleaming in the sun.

It takes a U-turn and crawls away.

Some go straight, no matter what.

Some take a U-turn.

Do we all reach our destination?

Are some meant to travel a

Long, long way.

Are some meant to stay?

Amongst the concrete jungle

Life fades away.

 

“Thou still unravished bride of quietness,

   Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

  Sylvan Historian, who cans’t express

A flowery tale more sweetly than rhyme”

The poem – The Ode to the Grecian Urn by John Keats, whose essence still rings in my head, is the best poem ever. It talks about a village that is gathered at the citadel. The poet, way into the poem says how the villagers are immortalized at the citadel and the village is empty. The reason for their celebration is never to be known.

“Will silent be, and not a soul to tell”

I had always wondered what made him write such a poem. Was it his imagination or did he in 1819 really come across such a village? I had being carrying this idea for quite a long while, when I came across an article in The Hindu Magazine Sunday, September 24,2017.

The article talks about a village in Saur in Tehri Garhwal of Uttarakhand. The village is almost turning to a ghost village with the villagers migrating to Mussorie and other major cities or towns.   The significance of this village is about the reviving the culture by a Muralist who leads the Wise Wall Project. The houses of the village are painted with the life lessons. The villagers also paint their traditional attire and their traditional dance Mandan.

Behind these colorful paintings, there is a sense of desolation and isolation, which John Keats paints in his ‘ode to Grecian Urn’. Probably, Keats knew that across barriers of time and place, with the world shrinking – the story of discarding the old community/ village life would be a common norm.

G.Meena

Economics Faculty