“Moon Light English Coaching Center; O Lebal to Standard Lebal”
~ Sign on Kedar Ghat, August 2009
Lebal One
There shall be
no collisions
as long as every cow sports
five heads
twelve legs
eight wheels
ten bicycle bells
and one moo.
Lebal Two
This pundit with the Cheddar cheese voice
has scratched his tummy
as long as that dog has dreamt
of transmigration.
Lebal Three
No board exams here.
The living are coached on dying,
the dead on rebirthing,
the priests on parody.
Manikarnika blazes
in an endless semi-final.
Lebal Four
Pizza Hut
is just one thousand years old.
Lebal Five
[lineate]Each time he spits,[/lineate]
[lineate]he unleashes a torrent[/lineate]
[lineate]of juice,[/lineate]
[lineate indent=3]snot,[/lineate]
[lineate indent=5]stomach enzymes[/lineate]
[lineate]and a Veda.[/lineate]
[lineate](Incredible India, you say.[/lineate]
[lineate]The universe[/lineate]
[lineate]in a globule of paan.[/lineate]
[lineate indent=3]Profligate with[/lineate]
[lineate indent=3]mucous and metaphysics.[/lineate]
[lineate]Sparing only[/lineate]
[lineate]with our semen.)[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]Lebal Six[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]Paul arrives from Kerala with brandy.[/lineate]
[lineate]Returns with Gangajal.[/lineate]
[lineate](His sadhu friend and guide is ex-Naxalite.)[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]Lebal Seven[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]Maanya calls.[/lineate]
[lineate]She asks where I am.[/lineate]
[lineate]I am blank.[/lineate]
[lineate]Before me, the hotel wallpaper –[/lineate]
[lineate]a palm-fringed sea –[/lineate]
[lineate indent=3]grey with the effluents[/lineate]
[lineate]of those that have lain here before me[/lineate]
[lineate]contemplating death[/lineate]
[lineate indent=3]and room service.[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]That evening[/lineate]
[lineate](Lebal Eight)[/lineate]
[lineate]we hunt,[/lineate]
[lineate]we thirst,[/lineate]
[lineate]we ache,[/lineate]
[lineate]desperate pilgrims,[/lineate]
[lineate]fevered seekers,[/lineate]
[lineate]for just one millimetre[/lineate]
[lineate]of riverbank[/lineate]
[lineate]we can call[/lineate]
[lineate]god-forsaken.[/lineate]
~ Arundhathi Subramaniam
Arundhathi Subramaniam is the author of ten books of poetry and prose, and has been widely anthologised and translated. Her recent poetry collection, ‘When God is a Traveller‘ (2014), won the inaugural Khushwant Singh Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. She has worked as critic, poetry editor and curator for several years.
Editor’s note: ‘Benares’ first appeared in ‘When God is a Traveller’, (HarperCollins India, 2014), and is republished here with kind permission from the poet.