Finally, the long awaited summons came
from the Ministry of Utmost Happiness.(1)
Relayed via Meenachilar(2) to a cemetery
in Ayemenem (2) and via Jamuna to
Jannath Guest House (3) in Delhi,
to Sarmad- Hazrat of Utmost happiness, (4)
‘Saint of the unconsoled and
Blasphemer among believers.’
The summons declared with a bugle-cry
Tilothama, you have committed the gravest of crimes,(5)
speaking like a traitor about our Hindu nation
deserving incarceration without trial.
Major Amrit Singh, the encounter specialist, (6)
cocked his gun and kept it ready,
quoting himself, “I am the prick of the nation
and to rape is my fundamental duty.”
Meanwhile Tilo walks with Revathi and Moosa (7)
in the everywhere forests of resistance and resilience, ( 8)
‘the smoke of her into the solidness of him,
the solitariness of her into the gathering of him.’
Tilo sent a messenger hawk back to the Ministry
-an unarrested writer is a shame in any criminal nation,
come and haul me to the torture chamber.
A parliament of owls headed for the Parliament.
A pandemonium of parrots blocked their way.
(1) The novel ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ by Arundhati Roy.
(2) The river and village where the ‘God of small things reside.
(3) The grave yard where all dead people assemble , renamed by Anjum and Tilothama in the novel.
(4) The Sufi saint who when ordered by Emperor Aurangzeb to recite the Kalima “La ilaha illallah” ( There is no God, besides Allah), recited only the first part and said he needs time to think about the second part, and was beheaded for Blasphemy.
(5) Main character in the novel, besides Anjum.
(6) The Chief interrogator in the novel.
(7) Characters in the novel fighting the high handedness of the system.
(8)Arundhati’s essay- Walking with the Comrades)
Ra Sh ( Ravi Shanker.N) is a poet and translator based in Palakkad, Kerala. He has published five collections of poetry, Architecture of Flesh (Poetrywala), Bullet Train and Other Loaded Poems (Hawakal), Kintsugi by Hadni (RLFPA), In the Mirror, Our Graves and Buddha and Biryani, a chapbook with Ritamvara Bhattacharya. He has also published a play ‘Blind Men Write’ ( Rubric Publishing.) He is also a translator whose English translations include Mother Forest (Women Unlimited), Waking is Another Dream (Navayana), Don’t Want Caste (Navayana), Kochiites (Greenex), How to Translate an Earthworm (Dhauli Books) and The Ichi Tree Monkey and new and selected stories of Bama (Speaking Tiger).
