by M. Mohankumar
I don’t know why, of all the thousands of people
who wear the jubba in this vast country,
I alone should have the word prefixed to my name.
I’ve been wearing it for a long time,
precisely how long I can’t tell you…
Pure white cotton, flowing down to my
knees, over a white cotton dhoti.
I wear it for its sheer simplicity: no collars,
no cuffs, not many buttons to be done-
or undone. And, incidentally, it makes
a short man like me look taller.
But why, I wonder, should one be known
by the kind of dress one wears rather than
one’s own christened name?
I’m a modest man. I stake no claims to
sobriquets like ‘Kesari’ or ‘Swadeshabhimani’.
But, sir, could you not have called me Master,
going by my profession? Or Artist,
painter that I am, teaching so many?
Sometimes I feel I am partly to blame.
If only I had put on, say, Bermuda shorts
and a T shirt and Adidas outdoor shoes
and a felt hat (to cover my bald pate), and
walked down the road, now and then,.
startling the onlookers, perhaps I’d have
earned a more pleasing nickname.
Mohankumar has published seven volumes of poetry in English. His poems have appeared in almost all reputed literary magazines in print in India. His first collection of short stories in English, ‘The Turning Point and Other Stories’ has been published by Authorspress, Delhi . Mohankumar retired as Chief secretary to Government of Kerala.
