Culture & Society

Four Rhapsodic Poems By Simrita Dhir

Poet Simrita Dhir dives into childhood and teenage, compiling sights, smells, tastes, sounds and fantasies into four confine-breaking poems, free of structure and highly perceptive.

‘Guardians in a Dystopic Garden’ Duratrans print, mounted on light film 34.5
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Your Art

I was 4; I loved scribbling and making stick figures in바카라 웹사이트
notebooks. I could draw the sun and stars, daisies and apples바카라 웹사이트
too. My tools were pencils and paper, but thanks to you, I knew바카라 웹사이트
of the astonishing world of easels, oil paints, brushes and바카라 웹사이트
palettes. Never did I miss a chance to watch you as you worked바카라 웹사이트
for hours on a stretch, etching new realities on canvas, making바카라 웹사이트
bizarre shapes in outrageous colors, sometimes giant flowers바카라 웹사이트
too. I would stare at your brushwork to derive meaning out of바카라 웹사이트
it, my mind soaring in a million directions. Time has sped since,바카라 웹사이트
but all it takes is visits to museums to conjure memories of바카라 웹사이트
your art, colors rioting in my mind, the smell of turpentine바카라 웹사이트
flying in to drench my senses, a zillion unanswered questions바카라 웹사이트
cascading me towards exorbitant possibilities. In introducing바카라 웹사이트
me to art, you introduced me to myself.

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Mango tree and children I Photograph: Nirala Tripathi

Her Mango Stew

The kitchen window opened to a young mango tree; it would바카라 웹사이트
burst into yellow flowers in the spring. Come summer, the바카라 웹사이트
blooms would make way for glittering green mangoes. 바카라 웹사이트Every바카라 웹사이트
so often, I would pluck a couple and she would cook them into바카라 웹사이트
stew, the aroma of jaggery and roasted cumin infusing the바카라 웹사이트
enclaves of my childhood. Barely would she have pulled the바카라 웹사이트
sauce pan off the fire that the two of us would pour ourselves바카라 웹사이트
heaping bowlfuls of the stew, gulping it down ecstatically with바카라 웹사이트
toast, glazed mango slivers melting in our mouths, euphoria바카라 웹사이트
seeping our senses. Many years have flown since then, the바카라 웹사이트
house is lost, she is dead, her mango stew a perennial바카라 웹사이트
reminder of all things fleeting - summer, childhood, human bonds.

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Sewing machine I Artwork by Sudarshan Shetty

When Grandma called the Old Tailor In

When Grandma called the old tailor in, he took everyone라이브 바카라바카라 웹사이트
measurements and got working in the verandah. Day after day바카라 웹사이트
after day for two weeks, he stitched clothes for the바카라 웹사이트
family, the clunking of the sewing machine slipping from the verandah to바카라 웹사이트
resonate through the house.

He was focused and diligent, seldom did he talk. When he did,
his words were clever. Succinctly, he’d offer insights on careers바카라 웹사이트
and marriages, family feuds and bonds, success and failure, life바카라 웹사이트
and death. I was in my teens, precarious and perceptive; I바카라 웹사이트
drank it all in - his wisecracks and anecdotes, old sayings and바카라 웹사이트
grim jokes.To this day, they sit lodged in my mind, springing바카라 웹사이트
from the blue to counsel, console, encourage and inspire.바카라 웹사이트
Grandma, did you ever know that when you called the old바카라 웹사이트
tailor in, a messiah walked in to aid me through life.

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Members of the band Beatles Getty Images

Oh for those Boy Bands

If I could revert to seventeen, I know exactly what I’d바카라 웹사이트
do - I’d take a gap year from school, travel back and forth in time,바카라 웹사이트
following boy bands around. From Beatles to One Direction,바카라 웹사이트
Rolling Stones to Eagles to Coldplay, I’d jump right into their바카라 웹사이트
space, mind and millennia, tap into their rhythm and energy,바카라 웹사이트
drink in those high notes, dance my way into the cosmos. And바카라 웹사이트
yes, I'd tell Niall Horan that he really is fantastical - singer,바카라 웹사이트
songwriter, hunk and that I’d wait forever for him to tweet me바카라 웹사이트
back because a tweet is a sliver of reality in the metaphysics of바카라 웹사이트
music where sounds shimmer like moonbeams바카라 웹사이트
and symphonies swirl in stardust, illusions rising, colliding,바카라 웹사이트
dispersing, melodies swaying past Jupiter and Neptune, boy바카라 웹사이트
bands sustaining through cycles of moon and dust, more real바카라 웹사이트
than quantum mechanics. Oh for those boy bands!

(Simrita Dhir is a California based academic and novelist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel “The Rainbow Acres”.)

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