Vegetarian Delight (Poem)

Vegetarian Delight

What does the cyber pundit 

Munching on hamburger in an air-conditioned booth

Know?

About the taste of a stuffed hot green pepper

Made by Mallanna under the banyan tree

What does Kushwant Singh 

Who goes to sleep at sunset fully inebriated 

Know? 

About the thrill of gongura chutney

Hand made by the aunt in Guntur

For you and me

The salivating attraction in any

Vaishnava temple...

Freshly made steaming Pongal,

In Pittsburgh temple – it’s

The Eucharist of the Lord with three vertical lines  

Is that all? What about the maidens of Dhanur-masa?

A visual feast, with eyebrows like bow-arches

For that great poet (1) –

“The disrobed moong bean

Is having a romantic union with rice” 

Oh, the delicacies of long grain rice,

Coconut milk sweet pudding – their descriptions

Are known to only Srinadha (2)

The sweet taste of leftover rice

With mango pickle – the staple diet of

Sulurpet railway coolies –

Only Krishna, the companion of cowherds knows.

So what? Whether in biting cold North America

Or feet-burning sole-scorching south Indian remote village

What if, decent poets like Atri

Are vegetarian? So what? If they are

Gardeners?

What’s wrong? If great scientists like

Sir Chandrasekhar Venkata (Raman) relish 

Curd? Or, if they indulge in cooking 

Tur-dal?

(Translated from author’s original Telugu poem) Copyright 2022 by the author

1. Refers to the great poet, Kalidasa.

2. Telugu poet of 15th century

Original Telugu Poem