My Kerala Home
The House I Lived In
Part 1
I lived in a house
Surrounded by trees, birds, and insects:
Morning birds beginning their day
Evening birds coming home to roost.
Chirping crickets
Torrential rain, thunder, and lightning
that scared us
not at all:
The sound of ripe mangoes falling from trees
On windy nights
And the anticipation of biting into juicy mango flesh
The next day.
No need of knives:
bite into the mango skin
Teeth tearing through it,
laying bare the flesh
And after,
flinging the seed on the ground
To grow into another tree.
‘Giving back to the earth’,
Long before we knew what the phrase meant
And while we were there,
We looked at the jackfruit tree,
Wondering how soon the fruits would ripen,
So we could have a feast again.
Part 2
We had our own rooms,
My siblings and I:
We populated it with books of all kinds
And in the corners of the rooms
lived the dreams and fantasies
That were born out of the books we read.
My parents, avid readers,
Allowed no religion or politics to invade
These sacred domestic spaces.
Part 3
The noise of traffic as they roared by
On arterial roads
Was distant and dreamlike.
We seldom closed the doors of our house:
There was nothing to fear.
Afternoons were siesta time:
And through windows and doors, ajar,
Breezes laden with the sharp aroma
Of piquant curry leaf plants
And languor-inducing flowering jasmine wafted in.
And when it was time to wake,
Evening temple bells rang,
Calling the faithful to light the dusk-lamp
In their own houses…
This is the house I lived in.
ⓒ 2022 Suma Narayan. All Rights Reserved.
Shoutout to this sublime piece of poetry by Ilis Trudie Palmer:
