At an almost-dawn one February, I tell you how my parents had almost named me after a Mahadevi Verma poetry collection (twice) निहार(इका)। नीरजा before the Russians invaded the familial decision-making, and I was christened Никита| Nikita “Funny how poetry finds ways of coming back“, I chime. Like Gulzar and so many others, I want […]
sky train it’s difficult to say what we are fleeing: the city is far below. on the front seat, people read or sleep, their faces suggest peace. but something dark curls around my shoulders. blue must be the colour of fear. this is my precipice of impressions – twirling tree- tops, billboards. yesterday on the […]
To preserve formatting, Hummel’s poems have been maintained in a PDF. Click here to access.
CALANGUTE For R.D: In memoriam On the beach, wind-blown tendrils of yellow gritty sand: reminiscent of the joss sticks garlanding your photograph with their tremulous, teary smoke and sickly-sweet fragrance. My five-year-old son decides to delve deep into my past. Hoping to excavate oysters from this Goa beach, he exhumes boyhood memories instead from this […]
Cabbage Moth Mother is watching a video about raagi flour and how to knead her way into father’s heart. I’m sure it’s why she makes gooseberry pickles now. I am reading about sloth bears eating mahua flowers. My mind, matryoshka doll-like, forgets things. I am mouthing “ursine”, “scat”, “crepuscular” so I will remember to tell […]
From a schoolgirl’s diary On Saturdays I went to Buddha’s house where he sat in lotus position, eyes closed, filling the circular room that was earth, his conical head touching the arched sky. Saturday was holiday for school. Papa would be at his office. Mama was always absent; she was in Dubai nursing an Arab’s […]