Agraharam I Lived In
Sun broke the night five decades ago
Sanctified the cow dung soil to glow
An Agraharam woke up
Fabulous brahminical kolams rounded up
Prototypic in two rows adjoined
Houses erected, front and rear entered, exited
Uniform with a semi open porch
Unique style spoken on a stone bench
My train of memoirs unfurls...
Flips off a feather; pass by walking Iyers
Ahead to Balasubramanya temple devout Maamaas
Back from river ablution some Maamis
Throne on me their blessed smiles
An exquisite feather down drops
Lo, the western ghats
A tiny cut trident over the ranges
Farther though glitters; hurrying up pupils
Footing on further, mm...tomato rasam
Meenakshi maami's mess; gastronomy awesome
In goes one cup; then Mess Mahadevaiyer's home
Fill up my belly soft idlis some
Now seeing a bullock cart
Lub-dub lub-dub pats my heart
Pappa to the civil court
A day I join him up to the spot
Back in the Agraharam...
Women fuss over a 'nine yards' theorem
Iridescent; Yet an unlikable tradition-syndrome
All for a wedding tantrum
A wedding I'm invited too
Vratham, Kasiyathra, Oonjal...ooh
Nagaswara band and mantras boost
Finally a new lif's debut; Tying the sacred knot
Modernisation, untouchable to our 'Vaadhyaar'
Remains tufted within his vedic structure
Move on I to 'Bhjanai Madam' a prayer-culture
And a school of triumph over there
Flaps a butterfly on my dancing train
Watches lawyers, doctors, teachers..a changing brain
Waltzs around 'Pavalamalli' trees
Flips away enjoing the Agraharam fragrance
By now feathers recollected dusk
Radiating Kalahasthisa and Varadharaja temples prismatic
Night-break, kolattam and karakattam aesthetic
Agraharam then closed, poetic
Extinct and absent some say
In mind mine does stay
Fresh and extant
Agraharam now and again unfurling out
poem by Indira Renganathan
Added by Poetry Lover
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