A Polynesian Rhapsody

I was experimenting with a style I hadn't tried in poetry: experience projection. Describing through somebody else's eyes, not your own. Writing as how they would have felt in a given situation. And I came up with this, inspired by "Pioneers of the Pacific" a recent article in the National Geographic Magazine (Roff Smith and Stephen Alvarez, March 2008) about an ancient race of Native Pacific explorers who discovered and colonized almost all of the hundreds of then uninhabited, scattered Pacific islands east of Australia, including Fiji, Tahiti, Easter Island, Polynesia, starting 3000 years back. Their daring voyages in those ancient times have been equated to lunar landings of 1900s in terms of their relative boldness at the time they were undertaken.

They used to undertake long voyages on their hand-built and hand-rigged canoes (no fossil fuel power 3000 years ago :) ), searching for new islands to settle upon. It wasn't like they were forced to move, or that there was pressure on the land. They numbered only a few thousands and the islands were way too many, nearly 300 in Fiji alone. They did it all just for the sake of exploring new frontiers. Researchers now say that one of the reasons why they were able to undertake such long and daring voyages was that they went against the direction of generally prevailing wind currents, so that even if they did not discover any new land, they could just turn around and the wind would take them back where they started from.
Eventually, in a 1000 next years or so, their descendants perhaps reached South America also, eastward from Australia.

So I kind of got inspired from the concept and the wonderful photography in the article and wrote something. It captures a particular moment in the life of two of these people---a couple. The man is setting out on an indefinite voyage to the sea, not knowing when he will be able to return, and even if he will return or not---because after all it's going to be him against the ocean. Here is what his beloved says to him before he sets out.

Go forth, mariner
The blue stretches to infinity
Discover a new paradise
For the two of us...

May the gods guide your way,
The heavens steer you right
And when your spot new land
Marked by towering banks of cloud
Beyond the dusky horizon
And billowing fumes from boiling lava
Oozing into the ocean,
May the guardian spirits
Protect your canoe from the heat..

But if you do not find it
Ride the trade winds back home soon
I'll be waiting
In our moss-hung cave beneath the cliff
Obsidian will shimmer
Vivid tropical blossoms will sparkle
In my soul
Getting a whiff of
Your intoxicating scent of the sea
Paradise wherever you will be.

*Obsidian is a kind of beautiful natural volcanic glass used in that culture for making ornaments and stuff.

This collage was complied by me for the poem.



The text of the NGM article can be found here.
Pics courtesy Google Image Search, Corbis and Stephen Alvarez for NGM.
Poem (c) Sanyukta, March 2008.

Wanderlust

At times, I want to talk about the unchronicled-by-me events of my perfectly-chronicled-by-God life, but then something else crops up and I forget all about doing that.

You know how it is. Imagine a child's reaction when you dangle a candy right in front of her, but just out of her reach. She tries catching it jumping up, standing on toes, praying, pleading, whatever. But the candy is pulled away each time.

The thing is that my school is organizing an excursion to the North-East. Now I have an incredible obsession about that place. Since the time I returned from there after a 20-day holiday last year, I've been yearning to go back. The place, it's picturesque-ness, it's beauty…uh...just CALLS out to me. So obviously I gazed in rapturous attention at the notice that proclaimed the announcement of the tour, while those little 1st-graders around me must have been thinking "Hey, that girl just went crazy. Sheesh, she's staring dreamily at the notice-board!!"

Anyways, this tour thing is the fabulous part.

The not-so-fabulous…correction: absolutely disappointing part is that two of my friends, actually, best friends aren't likely to be going. There is a non-missable function in BestFriend's family. So he isn't gonna go. And there is coaching classes and stuff for Ank. (She was really slaughtered in chem this year, and her mom isn't taking any chances for the next.)

Sigh. And without them, I ain't going too.

Let's hope this thing gets worked out and the tour gets postponed to sometime later. That would be so, so good. All the time I was in NE, I terribly missed my friends. And now the opportunity came along for some quality-time, and there it is, look, going away right before me. Blah. Life can be really pathetic.

Just for the heck of it, I made a list of all that I had missed out on that time, and which I might be able to do now.

· Coffee and muffins with friends at Glenary's, Darjeeling. I wish I had a pic to show you how cozy that bakery looks. Mmmm….

· Walking in the rain to that old bakery, Darjeeling. Just when we set out, it began to drizzle, and like the super-caring mom that my mom is, she dutifully directed dad and me inside the hotel. Sigh. That place made great cakes. Imagine this: a slight drizzle, a partly cobblestoned street, and the aroma of fresh-baked bread. Oh, and darkening sky.

· Buying new lacy umbrellas. Sorry, friends, this has got nothing to do with you. The one I had bought broke sometime ago. :P :D

· Re-visiting the Tibetan Refugee Center. There is a story behind this. I'll tell you sometime later.

· And this time I want to see the sunlight-bathed golden mountainscape from Tiger Hill, Darjeeling, which is a breathtaking sunrise point. Or so we have heard. The fog blotted out everything last time I went.

· Seeing the beautiful Teesta River again. River-rafting, maybe!

· Spending time to my heart's content in Oxford bookstore. Yes, I'll show you a pic from the outside. It is a very sunshine place in Darjeeling, filled with rows and rows of books-laden shelves. Love it. Pity that I discovered it only on the morning of the day we were supposed to leave Darjeeling.

· Somebody perhaps buying me trinkets at Malik's, a wonderfully quaint jewelry and antiques store night next to the bookshop. [This idea originated only because Malik's is pretty costly. BestFriend, if you disagree, feel free to talk to me. ;) ]

· And the most coveted of all, an evening walk on MG Marg, Gangtok. This road is pretty picturesque at the time is the evening when it's closed to vehicles of any kind; little streams of fog and mist swirl around and warm steam rises from the little bakeries/cafes along the road. And the streetlights shine warmly yellow. Oooooh. I'm in love with the ambience of that place.

A pity the school isn't including Shillong too in the itinerary. But then, one mustn't ask for more chocolate when they are already being offered candy by The Supreme Being Up There. Oh yes, I meant You, God. And I don't think you could be that unfeeling so as to blatantly refuse a candy to a kid, even to a terrible kid. Do let this thing go as I wish, and like the kid, I "promise to be good."

:D

And now the pics:

Our cozy hotel room at Darjeeling.

Darjeeling: A view from the hotel window

Darjeeling: The foggy misty road leading away from town

Japanese Shrine, Darjeeling. The lush greenery is amazing, right?

Tea Gardens

The entrance to the bookstore I was talking about. Malik's is towards the left of the pic.

The Teesta as seen from the Darjeeling-Gangtok route

How could I miss taking a pic of this side of the road… And oh, that pretty hand towards the left is mine.

Butterfly Pond, Botanical Gardens, Gangtok

Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim

Prayer flags

The Tashi View Point, near Gangtok. The time we visited, there was a small live concert. It was charming, kinda: listening to guitars in the wintry air, with a cup of coffee…

Gangtok: from the hotel lounge

MG Marg. Trust me, this street is more magical than it looks in this pic.