According to my grandma  

Posted by Ashutosh

When I was eight
My grandma told me something about hell
The colossal tub of sugar syrup
For sinners
Its hot fangs take fancy to your skin
And semen swamps for the sexually free

She also said
Vishnu’s Avatar would come
The Hindu version of Judgment day
Riding a donkey of all things

A man on a donkey
Is this what salvation had come to?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2, 2009 at Friday, October 02, 2009 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

7 comments

One of your first experiments with obscurity?

October 17, 2009 at 12:55 AM

Well, It was/is an experiment but not with obscurity

October 18, 2009 at 11:24 AM

It wasn't intended to, you mean?

October 21, 2009 at 8:05 AM

Yup not intended. Yaar, its so weird, the response I get for a particular poem by an Indian audience is at times so different from what I get from an American audience.

October 21, 2009 at 9:51 AM

Yep. Biblical expression of heaven hell/heaven and salvation is hard to connect with.

October 28, 2009 at 3:09 PM

To disagree with you, I think "hell" isn't completely a biblical expression. Dadi often use to use "narak" and she was convinced Vishu's Avatar, Kalki, would purge the earth of evil. True story. I wrote the poem because I found it fascinating how Christianity and Hinduism connected in a way.

November 8, 2009 at 8:36 PM

Abey saale. That's exactly what I am saying. 'Narak' is a Hindu expression, while 'Hell' is a biblical expression. Heaven/hell (English terms) bring about different connotations to Indian readers than the Hindi terms we subconsciously associate with religious/scriptural afterlife.

November 11, 2009 at 3:48 PM

Post a Comment