A Venture Outwards

Tondare street, beckoning outward

Face lazily grazed by the Sun

The little boy strolled out of his Bungalow

To be called back by a strong voice

Oh! Lal, stride not out - Kanna

Peace is best found indoors

Clearest butter and quietest tunes

Too bedecked you are for the outside

But mother, the world is a playground

The tree that was never cut

And the elephant that gave itself in

Are ever verdant in the forest outside

A butterfly trapped withers away

As does a flower kept in a vase

Grow does the sapling left in the yard

Into a forest, that yields the sweetest fruit

Saying so, the boy waded off, hair unkempt

Shirt half tucked out, not in defiance

But in celebration - Mother and all

Willing, at least until their neck!

Lo! Pune awaits

Notes:

The tree that wasn’t cut refers to the Daoist allegory of the tree that wasn’t chopped down since it was crooked and escaped the need to be ‘useful’ to the world; The elephant that gave itself in refers to the Buddha’s previous incarnation as a Bodhisattva, a white elephant that allowed itself to be consumed by hunters; through these diametrically opposed parables on ‘usefulness’, the Chinese explore two methods of transcendence.