-Brian Mendonca
After an initial network glitch on my part, the reading started with great promise. The Poetry Society Hyderabad along with Aruna Bahugana, President, were all there to welcome me on Zoom. Nikhil was patient and making things happen once we were in meet mode. The sun was going down on another week in the pandemic. It was poetry to the rescue.
Lakshmi Chandra, my mentor and friend, introduced me with great aplomb. She began from the time I first walked into her room in the then CIEFL, Hyderabad and asked her to be my Ph.D. supervisor almost three decades ago. She spoke of how she knew me as a student, a professional and now a family man. She alluded to the research papers I had written, the choice we made to leave Delhi, and my current job teaching in a college in Goa. She shared my credo, viz. Believe in yourself; walk the line; and walk the talk.
Nikhil did a great job spotlighting the speaker so the rest in the meet could see the person on the full screen. As she spoke, Lakshmi looked poised and graceful, bedecked in a pastel salwar with work on it. It was difficult to believe she was talking about me.
Thanking the organizers, I recalled the time I had read my poems in the Secunderabad Club (also organized by Lakshmi) in 2006. We were unable to call Prof. Isaac Sequeira, a great patron of the arts, for this reading as well. But if he were there he would have certainly said, 'Kator re bhaji!' (Konkani, idiomatic for 'Go for it!')
I opened with Hillsong (2009) written at Morni Hills, Haryana. Hillsong is a Christian praise and worship music group. I felt that if one actually visits the hills one experiences the beauty of nature for its own sake. I dwelt on the signboard by the wayside about one tree being equivalent to ten sons and read it in Hindi. Today with the rampant cutting down of trees in Goa, the words are very relevant.
Diu (2009) was the next poem I read. The vestiges of Portuguese colonialism still exist. I read the quotation at the end of the poem in Portuguese by the Portuguese poet Sofia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919-2004). There are so many things unfinished in life. One has to return after death to realize them. The affinities between Spanish (Neruda) and Portuguese were spoken about.
Hosting my poems on my blog repurposed them. The blogposts carried photos which provided the context for the poems. 'Photographs help me to write a poem,' I said.
After travelling to Diu we travelled to Rajasthan. Lake City (2009) dwelt on the visage of Udaipur reeling under drought. Touristy takes on places in India are misleading. Rather than dwelling on royalty it is the safa-headed mahout pondering survival who interests me The obeisance to the sun prompted me to mention the rakhi I received from my sister on Raksha bandhan last Sunday. It had a golden orb which to me stood for the sun.
Listeners could imagine that they were listening to the incantations on the Narmada Ghat (2009). Rivers, water and sea have always fascinated me. The poem is developed from a chat with the boatman when we were boating on the river.
Kundun (2000), written at Tibetan Children's Village, Dharamsala, is about the tension between China and Tibet. To make one poem sum up the culture and ethos of a place is very challenging.
I like to provoke the reader of some of my poems by not making them too easy. The poem is like a tangram which you have to decipher to get a partial sense of its drift. I do provide glossaries for my poems to explain the references - which otherwise may be lost - as in Kundun.
In conclusion I read Ebb Tide on the Zuari (2007). Life has its ups and downs but one must not lose heart and learn from the rhythm of the waters.
Replying to a question on how many languages I knew, I said I write in English, though Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa (2006) has an amalgam of seven languages. I shared Fugitivo (2001) - the poem I wrote in Portuguese.
Most of these poems were written in the past, and compiled in my book A Peace of India: Poems in Transit (2011). Yet I felt it was necessary to also host them in the digital space on my blog which I began in Delhi in 2008. The reading hosted by Poetry Society, Hyderabad gave me the pretext to sift through all my blogposts (over 800) and generate a list of all my poems on my blog. It made me more organized. I also took the opportunity to change the design of my blog and opt for something more
adventurous.
Nikhil had shortlisted the 5 poems for the poetry reading with 5 to 6 minutes for each. His advice was spot on. When his message came in the afternoon about the selection, I heaved a sigh of relief. I saw how the poems showcased the diversity and depth of my writing. During the reading he shared the screen displaying the poem uploaded on my blog, so viewers could follow the poem as I read it.
On demand I played Goan dulpods like 'Undra Mhojea Mama' on my guitar. I even turned my laptop to portrait mode so they could see me playing the guitar - sideways!
Mithi Chenoy gave the vote of thanks. Thank you Poetry Society, Hyderabad!
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Updated 30 August 2021.
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