Showing posts with label Family Tree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Tree. Show all posts
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Sunday, June 16, 2019
His Two Parrots
My dad always calls my sister Rama Chilaka [Green Parrot] and me Pancha Varna Chilaka [Multicolored/Five-colored Parrot]. Chilaka is a used as a term of affection in Telugu, but because it's my dad, he made it so highly specific.
I found these finger puppets (at Whole Foods of all places!) a few weeks ago and I saved them to wish my dad a happy father's day.
I actually didn't get to talk to him for very long--he greeted, marveled, loved, kissed, and blessed me in about 15 seconds because the India-Pakistan cricket match was on 😂.
_
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Monday, January 14, 2019
January
I keep on feeling my thoughts
You too?
It's a knife--
in the shape of a puffy heart.
*
My child is grandmother's.
Her child,
my mother--
serenades every sunrise.
*
I sit here, the sun sets too
an earthling,
lost on earth,
feeling the slide of inertia
_
Thursday, December 20, 2018
In the Old World
I am to reread their wrinkles
search their weeds for memories
even as ancestors' eyes are forced
to close, go masked, invisible.
It will make sense
until you ask about it.
*
They want to open my mind
wrest, twist it wide
then tip it like the overfilled point
of a plate, at the moment when
you're suddenly sated,
free of the desire for it.
*
I mime their scolding for I have no will,
and I am meek. Still they are forgotten
even so, every time--memory by memory
in a language my children will never speak
Aiyo--to think I meant at the start
to hold and shape love
as it pooled its fast and fluid
escape in my heart.
****
search their weeds for memories
even as ancestors' eyes are forced
to close, go masked, invisible.
It will make sense
until you ask about it.
*
They want to open my mind
wrest, twist it wide
then tip it like the overfilled point
of a plate, at the moment when
you're suddenly sated,
free of the desire for it.
*
I mime their scolding for I have no will,
and I am meek. Still they are forgotten
even so, every time--memory by memory
in a language my children will never speak
Aiyo--to think I meant at the start
to hold and shape love
as it pooled its fast and fluid
escape in my heart.
****
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
In Autumn
My hands are birds praying
in time to heart beat, my feet.
Fingers flying across the open
face of my phone, I am looking
for you in a midwestern town
where you have never lived
I am looking for my father
I am looking at my father
I am writing our name in pain
even as the pen runs dry, dies
-------------------------------------------------------
*This was supposed to be a picture of autumn tones in Bakersfield Park, but my phone died as I tried to take a picture. As best as I can tell, it died... from the cold? Apparently winter is coming for more than just tropical me.
in time to heart beat, my feet.
Fingers flying across the open
face of my phone, I am looking
for you in a midwestern town
where you have never lived
I am looking for my father
I am looking at my father
I am writing our name in pain
even as the pen runs dry, dies
-------------------------------------------------------
*This was supposed to be a picture of autumn tones in Bakersfield Park, but my phone died as I tried to take a picture. As best as I can tell, it died... from the cold? Apparently winter is coming for more than just tropical me.
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
à°¤ెà°²ుà°—ు
yes, of course, this is
merely the lisp of lips,
a slip, not apocalypse--
only the clumsy glamor
of Telugu scripting round
tripping slow, deliberate.
Daughter to my mother
and to mother's mother
whose words were fated
to immigrate too. I am
stuttering, I hear kinship
knocking, coming on in.
_
merely the lisp of lips,
a slip, not apocalypse--
only the clumsy glamor
of Telugu scripting round
tripping slow, deliberate.
Daughter to my mother
and to mother's mother
whose words were fated
to immigrate too. I am
knocking, coming on in.
_
Thursday, August 02, 2018
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Babama and Baby NuNu
Recently, I did a meditation that asked me to remember the oldest person (Babama, my great grandmother) and the youngest person (Baby NuNu) I had loved. If they could have a conversation with each other, what would they learn? How would I introduce them? I was in tears then because they would never meet each other as Babama died before my babies were born.
But I was reminded that some things live on. Nu lost her screen privileges this week, and when I was telling Big A about why she had lost them, he reminded me of Babama's principle. Basically, if you enable people to cheat (by leaving valuables around, or being lax about people copying off you, etc.) you are responsible for the crime--not the unfortunates who are compelled by their circumstances to steal, copy, lie etc.
When I trace the timeline of this piece of advice through the generations and geographies it has traveled, it's basically a study of how love connects us.
Now for that difficult conversation with the 10-year-old.
_
But I was reminded that some things live on. Nu lost her screen privileges this week, and when I was telling Big A about why she had lost them, he reminded me of Babama's principle. Basically, if you enable people to cheat (by leaving valuables around, or being lax about people copying off you, etc.) you are responsible for the crime--not the unfortunates who are compelled by their circumstances to steal, copy, lie etc.
When I trace the timeline of this piece of advice through the generations and geographies it has traveled, it's basically a study of how love connects us.
Now for that difficult conversation with the 10-year-old.
_
Thursday, July 05, 2018
Life's Beach-y
It was so hot at the beach today...
Kirk Park Beach allows doggies off-leash,
but Scout Akshaya and Huck Amulya
were a bit skittish and stayed close to mama.
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
Independence Day/#SecondCivilWar
Dinner with neighbors and then off to Adado Park
for the concert band and fireworks.
The enemy suffered a rout because of our optimism
and the extraordinary American dream
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
(Clearly, I spent a chunk of the day chuckling over #SecondCivilWar )
_
Sunday, July 01, 2018
New Calendar
Half the year is done, and I almost bought a new 2018-19 calendar when Amma and I were out shopping today. I've been terrible about putting things in my 2018 calendar, and I've been terrible about making posts here. It's a decades-long pattern of letting summer disappear into heat-induced happiness. But of course I thought buying a new calendar would magically fix that.
I'm aiming for more accountability this summer while I make memories with my mama and bebés, get all the writing done, tackle some overdue decor projects; get pool time and yoga time and book time.
Let's see.
_
I'm aiming for more accountability this summer while I make memories with my mama and bebés, get all the writing done, tackle some overdue decor projects; get pool time and yoga time and book time.
Let's see.
_
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Projections
Today: Big A comes home form a week of conferencing.
Next Week: At comes home from college for the summer
Next Month: My mom comes for the rest of the summer.
Basically, I love summer.
_
Next Week: At comes home from college for the summer
Next Month: My mom comes for the rest of the summer.
Basically, I love summer.
_
Friday, April 13, 2018
Justice for Asifa
I feel a murderous rage coming on. I can't get the story of this child's face out of my head.
My dad was fond of the radical Tamizh poet Bharathiyaar who claimed, “Thani oruvanukku unavillai enil jagathinai azhithiduvom” (If even just one person does not have sustenance, let's burn down the whole world).
And that's how I'm feeling today. No one deserves to be happy, no one deserves to live. Let's just nuke the planet and be done with this.
_
Saturday, March 03, 2018
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my beautiful baby
It has been a year. Some days it feels like yesterday, some days it feels like a distant dream of love. There have been tears every day...
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Friends and old neighbors shutting it down in honor of John Crawford. _
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At had us pose for this pic up at Aunt R's place on Lake Huron so he could put it up in his dorm. "Don't tur...
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I have the feeling that I’m going to succumb to the season and put out a list of resolutions soon. Just wanted to establish this heads up th...