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ParamakudiSix Poems: Ravikumar

January 16, 2012

tags:Dalits,Paramakudi,police firing,Tamil Nadu

byShivam Vij

In September last year, the Tamil Nadu police killed six Dalits in a firing incident in Paramakuditown of Ramanathapuram district. This guest post by RAVIKUMARis a set of six poems on theParamakudi killings. The English translation by RAVISHANKER is followed by the Tamil

original. For more on the incident, see articles in Kafila archives by V. Geetha and Bobby

Kunhuand over at Atrocity News,a fact finding report (.pdf).

1.

There are prescribed rites

To take around the corpses

When death strikes.

Some bodies are taken away in army vehicles.

Some bodies in decorated chariots.

Some bodies in sandalwood coffins.

Even if they are with no power or lead no easy life,

When their bodies traverse the streets,

http://kafila.org/tag/dalits/http://kafila.org/tag/dalits/http://kafila.org/tag/dalits/http://kafila.org/tag/paramakudi/http://kafila.org/tag/paramakudi/http://kafila.org/tag/paramakudi/http://kafila.org/tag/police-firing/http://kafila.org/tag/police-firing/http://kafila.org/tag/police-firing/http://kafila.org/tag/tamil-nadu/http://kafila.org/tag/tamil-nadu/http://kafila.org/tag/tamil-nadu/http://kafila.org/author/vijshivam/http://kafila.org/author/vijshivam/http://kafila.org/author/vijshivam/http://kafila.org/2011/09/24/desecrating-memory-the-paramakudi-police-shootings/http://kafila.org/2011/09/24/desecrating-memory-the-paramakudi-police-shootings/http://kafila.org/2011/12/31/a-casted-drive-paramakudi-to-pasumpon-bobby-kunhu/http://kafila.org/2011/12/31/a-casted-drive-paramakudi-to-pasumpon-bobby-kunhu/http://kafila.org/2011/12/31/a-casted-drive-paramakudi-to-pasumpon-bobby-kunhu/http://atrocitynews.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fact-finding-report_paramakudi.pdfhttp://atrocitynews.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fact-finding-report_paramakudi.pdfhttp://atrocitynews.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fact-finding-report_paramakudi.pdfhttp://atrocitynews.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fact-finding-report_paramakudi.pdfhttp://kafila.org/2011/12/31/a-casted-drive-paramakudi-to-pasumpon-bobby-kunhu/http://kafila.org/2011/12/31/a-casted-drive-paramakudi-to-pasumpon-bobby-kunhu/http://kafila.org/2011/09/24/desecrating-memory-the-paramakudi-police-shootings/http://kafila.org/author/vijshivam/http://kafila.org/tag/tamil-nadu/http://kafila.org/tag/police-firing/http://kafila.org/tag/paramakudi/http://kafila.org/tag/dalits/

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The vehicles have to give way

The seated have to rise in respect.

The rules are for humans.

But, even animals have their rites.

We observed a corpse.

One man to hold each hand,

One man to hold each leg,

It was carried thus.

The head kept bobbing up and down.

From where the bullet entered the body,

Blood kept streaming

All the way.

Words kept streaming from the mouth.

Dreams kept streaming from the eyes.

If it was treated as a human,

It would garner respect.

If it was the body of an animal,

It would join a feast.

We observed that corpse.

From beyond the moving clouds,

God too must have observed.

The body of an untouchable.

We observed

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But,

When the storm blows from the direction of the fortress,

When the dead bodies are soaked in the rain of blood,

The butterflies are not to be seen at all.

Children do not realize this.

When the wind ceases to blow,

The butterflies start flitting around again

And start preaching to the

Corpses lying in the bushes

the virtue of liberty.

4.

As someone somewhere scrawls on a wall

As someone somewhere obstructs someone

As someone somewhere seethes in anger

As someone somewhere draws a gun

As someone somewhere convulses and falls.

Some said it was only one.

Some said it was ten.

Some enquired whether

They died from the lathi blows

Or fell in the firing.

On the roads, in the side streets,

In the open fields,

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Like the wind under

the shady trees,

Everywhere, we confront

The bad news.

When the Government says A,

They retaliate with AA.

From now on it is time for

Statistics and

Enquiry Commissions.

Thus runs Time!

5.

His voice resembled

Someone on the FM radio.

What registered in my mind was

Just the word Death.

It was soaked in blood.

I wiped my ears.

My fingers came smeared with it.

Wiping with my palm

the blood that overflowed from the wireless,

I ruminated on what I had heard.

Death Death Death.

That singular word

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Kept repeating itself.

I turned it into a lamp.

Carried it home.

6.

He said Paramakudi.

They said it is the name of an eatery.

He said Paramakudi.

They said it is the hometown of an actor.

He said Paramakudi.

They said it is the abode of the Goddess Parameswari Amman.

He said Paramakudi.

They said, Wait, the bus will come soon.

He keeps crying out.

They keep conversing.