'Auto' Engineering - The Marma Way

WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?

I awoke -

When the koyals reminded me -
And rushed out to greet a new day
As dawn broke.

Awestruck I watched
the blanket of yesterday lift
From o’er my city by the rising sun
Setting alight the skies above…
And the flames of the forest below
To the accompaniment of
A cathedral choir of bird song.

In harmony did koyal, crow and parakeet
The new morning greet;
Soprano to contralto singing together, sublime, symphony
No bird crowding the other out –
Listening to each other find their voice -
With a shout.

While I sat in Padmasana listening,
To the birds, I wondered…
If each new day,
Every bird no matter size or, hue can find a voice
To perform a quotidian Ode to Joy
Without drowning each other out.
Why do we humans have this need to shout?

Given, the quiet of quarantine
I thought to my question you might listen
Without the din and the noise that each day
Our peace and quiet destroys.
Why Do You Shout? I Ask
We’ve never met… do I know you? You Ask
Yes, we’ve met but know you don’t.


You shout at me…
Every time the light turns green
Within milliseconds your horn screeches,
“Get a move on, Idiot!”
Every time you drive headlong towards me
The wrong way, on a one-way street
and you won’t apologize but glare.
That’s shouting!

You shout at me
Every time you jump the queue
While paying bills, at government office
At airport, railway station, even the bank!
It’s exhausting to argue geometry with you,
That a queue forms on axis-X not, axis-Why
… and you know that!
That’s shouting!

You shout at me
Every time you mention
Your degree and /or pedigree
Is reason why you know so much more than me.
Every time you inflict on me, your ‘expertise’
On urban planning, design thinking
Why the Maldives is sinking…
Genomics, Economics
Davos and the New World Order
Why I am to you “a total loss ...
Ye of little learning
Who’s never earned in pound sterling.”
That’s shouting.


You shout at me
Every time you’re on TV… your argument is weak
Then, you shout louder!
If I were to say, “Let’s talk reason”
You’d be the first to scream
“That’s bloody treason! Arrest Him!
Every time I make a speech
Or, different rendition of the anthem sing
You’ll scream sedition!
That’s shouting.

You shout at me
Every time you believe
You have the divine right to gloat
‘Coz your upper caste with past illustrious
While I’m a product of my poverty
Predestined for depravity…
Lots of holes in a sinking boat.
Every time you believe
Your majority grants you the absolute right
To determine my thoughts, my actions
My very way of life.
Obey! or else?
Unleash the dogs of war… civil strife.
That’s shouting.

You shout at me
On Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Your life’s all glitter… you’ve had it good
Damn! I’m from a not-so-good neighbourhood.
Scarce know the ragas from the Rollin Stones
Never grew up with culture in my bones
And I’m certainly not self-made.
It’s my mother who gave me birth.
That’s shouting.

Why do you ... and I, shout?
We shout because…
We’re trained to feel afraid…to be subservient
We’re all sub-standard… second grade
Who will never see success
If we don’t outdo each other, with excess…
Even shouting!

Why don’t we spare time to listen
To the whispering of the universe
And respond with song, like the birds do?
To the silence between the music notes?
To the sounds within?

If only we for a moment paused…
At each other stopped shouting
We’d sound less herd and more heard.
A diet of quiet… without question
There’s no nutrition finer to feast on
While listening to our sounds within
That together, we produce music without
Create our Ode to Joy… rather than shout
Is what the birds taught me this summer morn

Listening to their singing at dawn.

©2020 Ranjan Kamath