Crossing the Threshold [for Gauri Lankesh]
Courageous Gauri ascends to cloud realms, leaving pale visages and desolate grief.
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From ULR
Issue 4 – Lockdown
Ramnarayan Ka Baaja
A joyful folk rhyme brought to life — and then gently claimed — through translation. Ramnarayan and his glorious one-man band of drums, bells, and horns need no plot. The poem is pure sound, pure rhythm, pure delight.
This is a photograph taken by Lina Krishnan in a village library in Rajasthan in 2015; it seems quite prophetic now!
Ramnarayan ka baaja
Ramnarayan baaja bajata
Dam dam dam dam dholak bajata
Ramnarayan baaja bajata
Tan tan tan tan ghanti bajata
Ramnarayan baaja bajata
Po po po po bhonpu bajata
Ramnarayan baaja bajata
[folk rhyme]
Ramnarayan blows his trumpet
Ramnarayan goes twang twang
His drums go bang bang bang
His bells go tring a ling ting
Ramnarayan’s horn is like a town crier’s call
He’s really on a roll, banging away
Oh if you could only hear Ramnarayan jamming today
Lina Krishnan
Lina Krishnan is an abstract artist and writer in India. Small Places, Open Spaces is her chapbook of nature verse. Her poems can also be seen in sixteen anthologies, among them the Black Bough Poetry Winter Anthology; and three editions of the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English.