Kala Ramesh

The Blue Jacaranda

Language: english

The Blue Jacaranda
Tanka Prose: as the name suggests – prose embedded with tanka

I was your maid. You remember me?
The one who used to tie your shoelaces and make the chapathis and that potato curry for you? Pack your lunch and escort you to the bus stop.

The school bus would come to our street corner somewhere around 8 am daily.
Your smile, as you wave goodbye, asking me to be there waiting when you get home in the evening.

You had a loud voice.

In case you feel like seeing me, do come over. I stay at The Jacaranda Old-age Ashram. No 18, Queen's Lane, Pune-411009.

Ask for Shalini bai.

Everybody here knows me well and they know you too. I keep talking about you to all the inmates. I posted a similar card to you a year back, but I'm thinking it didn't reach you . . .

      restless night . . .
      turning and tossing
      the repeat
      mindsong
      as the ache sinks deeper

Kala Ramesh

photo © The Poet

* , Chennai, India
lives in: Pune, India

Kala Ramesh is a poet and editor. She writes and teaches haiku, tanka, haibun and renku to children, undergrads and senior citizens. In charge of haiku and other allied short forms of poetry at Katha, I Love Reading Program, Kala Ramesh is also an external faculty member of the Symbiosis International University Pune since 2012, where she teaches Japanese short forms of poetry to undergrads — a first in her country.

Passionate about taking haiku to everyday spaces, Kala initiated the ‘HaikuWALL India’ project, which has graffiti artists paint haiku on city walls. Starting in 2006, she has organised five haiku festivals in India so far.

photo © The Poet

Her love for haiku and her many initiatives culminated in the formation of ‘IN Haiku’ in 2013 — bringing Indian haiku poets under one umbrella to
promote, enjoy, and sink deeper into the beauty and intricacies of haiku and allied Japanese short forms of poetry.

In collaboration with artists, musicians, and dancers, Kala has given several readings in public places. She created the ‘Rasika’ form, an eight-verse renku (collaborative linked verses) fashioned after Matsuo Basho’s non-thematic style.

Kala is Editor at Under the Basho (USA); Editor of the Youth Corner, Cattails (USA); Ex-poetry Editor of Katha.org (Delhi); Editor of Haiku and Short Verses, Muse India (Hyderabad); Deputy Editor-in- Chief, World Haiku Review (UK) and serves on the editorial team of Living Haiku Anthology and Living Senryu Anthology (USA).

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