Saturday, March 7, 2009

welcome, friends

dear friends,

i am a gujarati dalit poet venturing for the first time to express
on net my thoughts and views and feelings - mostly in poetry
but occasionally in prose too.

i welcome you all to read and respond/react - by posting your
own poetry or prose as you wish. The common concern for
the victimised and despised community called dalits should
be our longer lasting tie as friendly bloggers.

To begin with, may i post a short poem :


The Song of Our Shirt

We are a fashionable caste
or tribe you may call :

our forefather Mayo Dhed
had a shirt of 3 sleeves,

his father had a shroud as his shirt
and his father wore a shirt of his own skin.

I am no less fashionable -
just got a pocketless, sleevesless, buttonless,
Peter England, the Second
from the pavements I sweep.

Every passer-by is tempted to pay his respects
to the label of the lords
but without touching my collar-bone.

Our shirt has a song to sing
of bizarre fashions.

*

Note :

In medieval Gujarat, untouchables were forced to wear
3-sleeved shirt so that caste Hindus can identify them
and keep away from them.
The dalit folklore has a hero called Mayo Dhed who sacrificed
his life for doing away with such humiliating practice.

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Neerav for creating your own blog. 'The Song of our Shirt' is a pwerfully beautiful poem.
    All the best
    for the rest
    of journey

    rajkumar hans

    ReplyDelete
  2. dear mr hans,

    u r perhaps the first to visit my blog and offer comments.

    thank u very much for ur encouraging response.

    neerav

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  3. Hi Neeravbhai,
    Nice to see here. This is a good media to express our thoughts in public. Your poem has a powerful expression. I love to visit your blog.
    Ashok Chavda

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  4. thanks for your visit.
    i also read your sms which was so wonderful.
    let me repeat it here for the benefit of all those who visit this blog :

    the thread ask the candle 'why do you dissolved when i burn'. candle said 'you are in my heart, if you suffer i am bound to shed tears for you'.

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  5. Congratulations!Very happy about your web presence. More happy to see your photo taken by me.Please put more poetry, perhaps your Ph.D.thesis on Dalit Literature, too.
    Dr.G.K.Vankar

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  6. Please excuse me for being so late. In fact, I saw your comments at one or two blogs ownedd by respected friends and was attracted y your views and tried to find you and about you. Here, I would limit my self to the poem on 'your shirt'. Very effectively expressed feeling of suppression. The whole caste system is the result of arrogance and sex was used to show the superiority. The culprits were not punished but the output or the children who were born of such outrageous aggressions were condemned to lead sub-human existence.

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  7. thanks, dipakbhai, for your kind appreciation.

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  8. Neeravbhai.....following your blog to educate myself...
    with regards.

    ReplyDelete