OPERATION MERMAID

A Siamese twin was born with one head and four limbs each, in Bangalore two years back. It took two different surgeries; The second one took twenty-seven hours and thirty-four member surgical team to complete it successfully. Hence a tribute to the surgical community in general.

Siamese, oft they refer, a birth so rare and indeed sporadic,

Fused twins aren’t they, union ever cephalic or podalic,
Creator confused and blind, so cruel and painfully funny,

A head with limbs bare, counted one too many.

A torso in comic fusion, the limbs in all counted eight,

Supernumerous at first sight, serving the child none right,

Locomotion awkward and tardy, towing on an uneven keel,

A fairly tale isn’t on view! its a mermaid so, so real.

Such quirks of fate evoke ripples in a quizzical delight,

Spare a minute in thought; share the hapless kid’s plight,

Mostly perish, a few flourish, even under a learned scalpel,

Decisions unsure only ensure free trips to gloom or hell.

Surgeons pondered so long, mayhem or marathon in mind,

Twenty seven hours under blade, revelation rare of this kind,

Heads and fingers in precision, under the ever glaring light,

Hours of sweat and toil, surgical dilemma ends in delight.

Invalid in look and motion, resurrected by surgical largesse,

Thee sever masses by tones; serve the masses with finesse,

Gods own tent on earth, surgeon’s tribe will fill with ease,

Thee, Surgeons are twice blessed, May their tribe ever increase.

MUMBAI MASSACRE - A HOMAGE

Clocks chimed once, loud and clear, indeed at half past nine,

Fragiles and frazzled seeking and sinking in early slumber,

Bustling like a bee, Mumbai night refreshing in wine and dine,

Succumbing to the chilling spells of a late November.

Guns set ablaze all around, a shooting reign and a rain of carnage,

A flash of thunder growing louder rocking its might and night,

Array of militants in veiled shooting, revealing rancour and rage,

Men and women felled in heap, many maimed without a fight.

Under fire and siege were motels, in stake were nation’s prestige,

Their attacks clandestine, surely,barbaric outlandish and freak.

Swathed in sooty flames, the shooting melee in onward surge,

Many a human life mangled, muffled and benumbed in wreck.

Nation, fettered and trembled awhile, swung into speedy action,

Army moved in a trice, trapping the devil’s demonic tread,

Firing spree in retaliation, saving innocents of the nation,

Militants in hasty retreat all but one of the ten falling dead.

Mayhem was far from over, memories do taunt and live longer,

Tremors of trauma, beyond words of solace or swords in valour,

Upsurge of civics imminent , rampant, clad in anguish and anger,

Spotting the venomous and tricky, the hands of a faulty neighbour.

Callous threats, heinous deeds, we pray, should cease for ever,

World needs peace, we, selfless citizens should oft remember,

Salute all martyrs, by their sweat and sacrifice, we do swear,

Anywhere, anytime on earth, no more September or November.

கருணைக்கு அணையுமுண்டோ

 

FUNDUS OCULI - A BIRDS’ EYE VIEW

 

Sight, sharp and full, indeed a sheer bliss so divine,

Colours all hues and shades, in form and sheen,

A joy to cherish and behold, sightless peev in pain,

Oculists, the licensed prophetics, views so preen.

Privileged, aren’t they ?peep through pupil so small,

Magnified though, see and profess in light or blight,

Direct or indirect, media permitting, at beck and call,

Images differ yet enthuse, often beyond one’s sight.

Sinuous vessels, pairs of purple and red, silent and still,

Radially wading, fading and thinning out of sight,

Novice confused in thrill, cyanosed, blinking at will,

Opinions often in fights, experts port a common plight.

All in delight he navigates, views around and rewind,

Neophyte in duress, sees nothing groping in vain,

Watching the disc in awe, colour, cup brimming in mind,

Focus fleeting in despair, ending often in no gain.

Pink in health, in sustain, pallor in atrophy and disease,

Cup differs in depth and size, sight in appalling gloom,

Larger or deeper, notches up or down, opinions fleece,

Shifts nasally or an override, bayoneting not so bloom.

Spots of red, dots and blots, spots of bother and alarm,

Trails of weeping, bleeders, tiny or large all in red,

Splinters, Roth spots, flame shaped, all differ, do harm,

These don’t augur well, in fundus, feared, often ignored.

Twigs profuse and bizarre, frail, bleed and, leak for ever,

Proliferate in stress, Eales or veins blocked in thrombosis,

Vitreous in bloods, the looker, the looked, all in dither

Nightmare insight, threadbare sight, then amaurosis.

Leaks seldom in youth, yet profound in aged, yellow or white,

Hard or soft, in Coats, or diabetes, guests uninvited, ingress.

Circinate or in scatter, dyes summoned, lighting the leak site,

Drusen, dry or wet, macula under threat and broken truss.

Newborns spared not, preterms, in pounding distress,

Plus, preplus, rush in disease, retinal insults, all savage,

Lattice or snailtrack, myopes beta noire, flashes, a mess,

Breaks or holes charging retina in perilous cleavage.

Nicknames galore in excess, ocular jargon, funny with epithet,

Avagadros, animals, avians all queue up in health and disease,

Silver, copperwires veil the red, cotton and ink blot the carpet,

Birdshots or cats’ eye a rarity, tigers and bulls seen with ease.

Streaks of angioid, Seigrist, lacquers or horse shoe break,

Tobacco dust or smokestack, cherry reds, salt and pepper,

Gunns or Salus bemuse all, beguiles beyond one’s partake,

Connoisseurs delight and differ, victims sorrow and suffer.

Disease in doubt, adage for ages, Retina the clue and the tale,

Clinicians light in the tunnel, Oculists’ sole, soul and supper,

An organ on view in still and in motion, in stale or hale,

An art so simple, bewildering,yet fascinating indeed for ever.

ARRESTS IN LIFE AND A REST IN LIFE

 

 

Rose in Splendor, beautifully pretty,

Dangers lurking in near proximity,

Thorns surround n vigilant guard,

Thwarting the eager militant ward

Life in simily, Grace and in bounty,

Thorny says ahead, more in plenty,

Treading uneasy, indeed a venture,

Route always a vacillating adventure

Sperms in wriggle, periodic in race,

Nonchalant in speed, swift and grace,

Escape plugged in uterine exit down,

Trail ragged, upwards, hence in frown

Burdened and stamped with male trait,

Searching an eager ovum in long await,

Sliding along the undulated fallow,

Copulating in gay at its fimbrial hollow.

Mating in rejoice in corner very remote,

Slating a name, fame and new, the zygote,

Embedded in a safety, engrossed in growth,

Hormones in guide, control so smooth.

The maiden arrest in a maiden utero,

Forty weeks in sustain, in prenatal halo,

Here begins the arrest more in chain,

Many in store and pursuit with disdain.

Infancy, intriguing ever, ever inquisitive,

Eager in enthuse in enthrall, educative,

Toddlers life, indeed a pack of cards,

In grizzle always with slips and retards

Kisses so countless in repeat and shower,

Tendered with care and love, like a flower,

Mothered and nested, watched in close vigil,

Shielded with caution, saving many a peril.

Lullabies in exit, rhymes stammer and ring,

Ballads in wings, sonnets on song,

Newtons on view, mendels in constant surge,

Titles in need, laurels in converge.

Nghts indeed bright, oils often set on fire,

Sleep on vocation, burning in desire,

Eyes endlessly sore, tears in arrest,

Learning with lust, never given a rest.

Exuding vigour, exciting sweet in teen,

Organs in pink, blooming with sheen,

Androgens in sight, set out in flight,

Search for oestrogen with all might.

Blowing hot in love, minds in unrest,

Binding and blending, like or detest,

Wedlock aims a lick in love forever,

Arrest or eloping, or a flee, over.

Bathed in Love, couples, all over the moon,

Honey is bitter now, sure, sore too soon,

Hassles follow in suit, tussles, tears galore,

Rows and tows more ending in furore.

Ego and love can marry, never so good a pair,

Days in turmoil, peeved in lives in despair,

Family worse, split, divorce in mental rift,

Forget, forgive, these passwords in drift.

Three scored of years soon do evanesce,

Frames frail, ail and in aged convalesce,

Lost in valour, minds in dull and adrift,

Limbs writhing, limp, no more swift.

Senescence in rule, motions in slow retard,

Body in all arrest, in utter disregard,

Crippled, crumpled, wrinkled like a dry leaf,

Pundits, pauper alike, everyone in grief.

Years in swift roll, sunset certainly imminent,

Evenings in count and convertly evident,

Sunken, shrunken plight, trunk, often in wail,

Sepulcher in wait, laments no avail.

Call from skies surely not very far,

Creeking wheels halt, doors open ajar,

Final arrest in process and alas over,

Souls set free, body resting forever.

THE SINISTER TSUNAMI

Wading into the clouds,sun in ascendant creep,

Blistering in heat day,indeed bright and warm,

Boisterous the shore,decibels rising in steep,

Gay being the password,sea serene and calm.

Soothes,braces and chills,surf dies at the feet,

Tides rose and fell, in slow routine gear,

Beach swelled fast and full in Boxing day meet,

“My last Sunday”,screamed the dying year.

Quirkily pebbles bared,the shores receding fast,

Squirming fishes flapped,trembled and lame,

Scenes unprecedented,the silent alarms at last,

Speeding tsunami follows,sinister thy name.

Quakes in high Richter,struck miles far away,

Shocks far and wide,threatening in pace,

Sea shook in tremor,jumped and spat that day,

Wildest in any dream,indeed it did race.

Tides grew wild in froth and struck all with fury,

Rolling in steepling height, in ominous might,

Slashing,swiping,speeding,swallowing in hurry,

Cattles,cottages and castles swept from sight.

Tsunami in full cry ,monsters followed too soon,

Frightening,sickening,shellshocked one and all,

Benumbed and bewildered, blinded and blown

Beneath the waves breathers none could stall .

Stunned in eerie silence,shores no longer seen,

Everywhere was the sea,surely all were at sea,

Heaps of dead splattered,mangled and strewn,

Wails,tears unabated,in spate yet another sea.

Bracing with timely care,embracing the forlorn,

Racing with time,tracing the wreck and needy,

Charity in flow aplenty,handy for all the reborn,

Pacifying with love to restore the tranquility.

Days may roll,dismay hard to forget and bear,

Battered,bruised hopes,shattered in numbers,

Sorrows run deep, morrows never, sans fear,

Nights may vanish, nightmare still lingers.

O! Sea,thou in future cease to charm my sight,

Thy beauty tainted,I vouch, thy hunger greedy,

I retreat in haste,violently hate with all might,

Swear not to face thee or thy sinister tsunami.

THE RAGING MOBILE AND THE RANGING MOBILE

Raining melody beat the ear, I presume the tone,to be near,

Searched around my parked car,a buxom lady not far,

“Hello”,a mellifluous tone in lip,meant not me even by slip,

Eyes in inviting sensuous wink,engrossed in a new link.

A hand glued to the ear,laughters profuse,peeling from her,

Breezed past my looks in style,bewildering me awhile,

Cologne mist in her surround,as I stood still on the ground,

In sudden it flashed in my mind,this lady is not a rare find.

She was in serious converse,receiver somewhere in universe,

Cell phone the scientists say, mobile,the commoners way,

Connecting people of all race,amazing everyone by its grace,

Connecting organs of Corti,anywhere,anytime,its forte.

Owners proud in its proximity,others envious in anonymity,

Thousands queue and swarm ,glueing one in their palm,

The best of Betz in brains,inventions flow down their drains,

Science in triumph and victor,mankind always the benefactor.

“Mobile”, indeed , a boon,covering anywhere under the moon,

Roaming sensation raging in air,to be honest and fair,

From Mumbai to London or Paris,from Tom,Dick or Harris,

Catching the instant news hot,watching messages on the spot.

Dating with the beloved mate,darting for the aid before late,

A palmtop clutched in hand,is worth two phones on land,

Newer sayings come and flood,older ones drowned for good,

Tread with the times always, lead along Bluetooth ways,

Devils mobile on heels,danger lurks with mobile on wheels,

Perils prowl,not yet overt, safety in query and covert,

Raving,for this mobile age,roaming for broader coverage,

A mobile ringing in ones ear,frolic or tragic,not sure,my dear.

HAVE A HEART

Excerpt from the news: A Teacher suffering from heart ailment seeking help from his old students through newspaper, Pupils obliged in plenty. This is the inspiration to this poetry.

 

Benevolence is truly divine,source or route ever irrelevant,

Its expressions never clamorous,sighs and signs in grace,

Thrusting hands in instinct when a fall is so imminent,

An arm or a word in solace when emotions set ablaze.

He was a teacher, a peer,pupils held him in esteem and cheer,

Many aseason did he teach,kind and love he did preach,

A swallow isn’t a summer,he wasn’t an autumn either,

Kindness in full reach his heart never once breach.

His pupils,some unheard and unsung,many brought laurels,

Yet he tainted none or taunted none,praised or raised either.

Neverthless his heart once did breach,surgery beyond barrels,

He called all whom he loved,his pupils never did dither.

He looked up from his couch,with arms folded in a humble wish,

“I need money for my ailing heart,thy help”, in husky tone,

All held him in high esteem,tributes flowed in with a rush,

His heart was stitched with love,stitches that’ll never be gone.

HEADACHE-AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Senile,yet alive, agile,my salvo in ideosyncracy

Thou shalt believe my confessed immortality,

Sun, moon,even the skies may nod in privacy,

I immured them all,eclipsing with impunity.

Doubting Thomases,aren’thee?,lend me thy ear,

Ask God in thy solemn thought and prayer,

He may sign in disgust or indeed sigh in despair,

Creative nightmares hadn’t He, so much to repair

Strolling with splendour, beauty unfolded in rejoice,

Flora glittering in bloom, littering the Eden campus,

Fruit on view, forbidden, the lady slighted the voice,

Aboard my sojourn, abode Adams’ hippocampus.

Expedition earth, in relegation, thus smote my exile,

Mission in human or inhuman, I’ll never be humane,

Men may flee or let free in silence, yet I revile,

Relentlessly, perhaps forever, ruthlessly I remain.

Schools invaded with disdain, inflicted with pain,
Barons or morons come alike, tremble with my advent.

A guest uninvited in office, my visit oft a revelation,

Work in evasion or shirk with periodic intent.

Doctors,divine though,thy coffers surely Ido fill,

Seldom abjured anyway, seldom disliked, all fine,

Sobriquets, on me, many, baptizing me at will,

Sweat and toil mine, rewards sans doubt thine.

Badgering at times aren’t they? gloating with pride,

Vouch to oust me for atonement or a re-exile!

Their alter ego, I surmise, insults never ever subside,

Actions so perverse, these thankless men in profile.

My reign in ensconce sans the scepter and crown,

Vanquishing at ease, languishing, probing at will,

Probing with demonic ecstasy, throbbing with pain,

Unhindered, unconquered, anyone on the prowl still?

Victor in pursuit at last, a successor or servitude?

Unruffled in soul, and skill, unrattled in repulse,

My defeat replete,I admit,I retreat in decrepitude,

Marauder, any guess? the wily politician, who else?

FRIEND WHO KNEW HIS NAME NO MORE

The chill in constant embracing sweep,

Tides in gigantic aerial leap,

Spectator extraordinary in mute stare,

Unfettered by chill,unfazed by scare.

Listless,endless,meandering everyday,

Thoughts deranged,emotions on holiday,

I follow in pursuit,my mind with sore,
My friend who knew his name nomore.

Dad,mom,mistress,friends and all,

He loved in depth but now not at all,

Neither in dream nor in thought,

Grey in decay ,slow to say in short.

Kids,his own personal thrill and pride,

Now strangers ,none now by his side,

The past,all in shadow,cloudy,in disarray,

Stuttered in gait,larynx in mute anyway.

Tussles insurmount,tantrums in furore,

Memory in loss,pronounced in store,

In shambles,shame and manslaughter,

Yet another life consigned to Alzheimer.

CRASHES TO ASHES

                        ~Simmering thoughts on Mangalore Tragedy 

On 22 May 2010, a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet operating Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore, India, crashed on landing at Mangalore. 

 

Skies serene and clear, indeed brighter in flash,

Monsoon unsighted yet,now not a drizzle in dash,

Shedding the murky dawn, blazing in mightly bash,

Sun in unleashing heat, in relentless early slash.

Shrugging slumber, passengers on board all afresh,

An await in eager, to meet near and dear in flesh,

Greets for a brighter morn,reminders did flash,

Crew all in advice, for a touch down never in harsh.

Boeing descended onto runway,Oh what a dash,

Past the table top way,speeding for a summit clash,

Deafening noise thudded, all around with a mighty bash,

Smouldering smokes and fires shook all in a flash.

Crafter split into two, amidst glowing fire and crash,

Crushed into the valley down, burning all with gash,

All but eight of eight scores and more died in a mash,

Split second blemish and a whale of tragedy in rash.

Crashing beyond recognition, the dead in hapless splash,

Many a life,cut to size,mangled,burnt alive and in trash

Probes,Black box,may prove and die down in eyewash,

Dead ones all unto dust,kins cajoled and drowned in cash.

Excuses and enquiries follow and float,no moral lash,

Shameless to say the least,all drained down in wash,

Ridiculous to replace the dead,their dreams with cash,

Hopes shattered,battered and burnt to be a mere ash.