Kankhowa and J. Alfred Prufrock

Kankhowa and J. Alfred Prufrock

(at Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts)

I was sitting under a Vata tree

With a cup of tea, it was free.

I was not feeling like going inside

To see the exhibition, I lost appetite.

The ladies come and go, with chips, kurkure or Lays

Talking about someone, she was student of Ramkinkar Baij

Seeds were falling from the tree

One by one

Drop by drop

An ‘untitled’ winged bud

Falling on the ground

Was suffering

Being upside down

Its tiny wings were flapping and making some noise

LET us sit a while then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

One can disturb the world

Doing nothing

Just sitting beneath the Vata tree

And listening to the unison of the falling seeds

Do I dare?

Do I dare?

To prove myself not but a Corpse, 

Prufrock, do I dare to count the drops?