The Story of the Suggars and the Wotters

This is the prose version of The Suggars and the Wotters. I’m just taking my baby-steps into the world of poetry, so I’m sure I may not have made much sense there (not to mention the desperate attempts at rhyme). I thought I’d do a prose version of the story as well

The Suggars and the Wotters

Certain actions make us think. Some of them even disturb us. Some disturb us so much that we start to think. Here’s a little poem-like thing (I’m just beginning to write such things; bear with me for a while, please) about how our ignorance makes way for arrogance, and we fail to see the bigger picture. This is a small attempt at metaphor. Call it science, or call it philosophy; let me know if it makes sense.

On being a man in a patriarchal world

I recently read a news report on how the fans of one of South India’s leading actors stooped down and trolled the editor-in-chief of a very popular news outlet in South India, who made a remark on the actor. Tonight, I read an article by Sowmya Rajendran, about what a woman goes through in our society, since the time she hits puberty.

Chaos within fort walls

Upraised guards.
Unsheathed swords.
Upright batons.
Unconquerable corps.

Yet, there’s terror; chaos.
Yet, everything is an attack surface, everyone is an attacker.
Yet, somehow, everyone is a victim.
Yet, everyone cries.

Cries.
Cries for peace.
Cries for quiet.
Cries for order.

Cries.
Cries from everywhere.
Cries and chaos, and,
Cries are all that’s there.

Nudging Towards Mass Dissatisfaction

Journalists, they say, have a very important role to play in a democracy. The press is the fourth pillar of democracy (the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary being the other three). In a way, it is also the journalists that keep crime in check. It is them who ensure corporations don’t become too greedy—greedy enough to step on the shoes of the masses. It is them who ensure that the politicians do their job. It is them who ensure the citizens live a good life. At least that’s what all this is supposed to be.

Migrating my blog

Change is necessary, even though the statement sounds like a helpless cliché. Today, I decided to migrate my personal blog from Blogger to Jekyll (just like how we migrated Meraki Post).

Keep the change

Every Facebook frequenter (at least in India) comes across this post every now and then, which bashes our government for being hostile to the farmers. It goes something like this:

At the vegetable market in the morning:

‘How much is that cabbage?’
‘Twenty rupees a kilo.’
‘That’s too expensive; how about I give you fifteen?’

What ticks storytellers

Just like I’ve mentioned in my upcoming book, the time we became a storyteller was probably when we narrated something that happened to us, to our mother. The moment we became fiction storytellers was when we lied for the first time in our lives. So, basically, we’re all storytellers.

Being a writer is something very closely related to storytelling. Except that story-telling is about speech and hearing, whereas writing uses a whole different kind of input—visual. When you want to tap into that part of the recipient’s brain, you use a different technique. Some of us also would like visual feedback for what we write.

Bringing back focus

As the revolution continues, I see that some of us have lost focus. And then there are some of our usual politicians doing and saying stupid things. And this has distracted some of us fighting for the cause. Also, obviously, there are a lot of misunderstandings about Jallikattu, about the “South Indians” (such a relief there’s no usage of the term, “Madrasi”). So here I am, contributing my two cents to clear some air around the issue.