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A day before Ash Wednesday, Brian shared his poems with students of St
Stephen’s college at the SCR lawns, St Stephen’s College, Delhi University,
North Campus, New Delhi. As daylight dripped into dusk, students silently
filed in and occupied chairs – as if in a performance play – as Brian softly
plucked ‘Greensleeves’ – the Elizabethen tune -- on his classical guitar.
Robinson Raju, Final Year BA student at Stephen’s and the coordinator of the
event, introduced Brian as a traveller-poet at 6.30 p.m. -- the scheduled time
for the event to begin. In tribute to the synergy which made the gathering
possible, Brian opened with the hymn ‘You are my hiding place’ on the guitar.
BLOG : The first clutch of poems were from Brian’s blog and included the
Udaipur/Jaipur poems (Forthcoming in Journal of English Studies, University of
Kashmir, Srinagar, 2010) and ‘Morning Walk- Delhi South’ and ‘Autumn Woman’ --
two poems recently published in the debut issue of South Asian Ensemble
(Canada, Autumn 2009). Brian invited the students to contribute to the Ensemble
for which he is on the advisory board. The Stephen’s reading of 16 February
2010 is Brian’s 90th blog at www.lastbustovasco.blogspot.com
POEMS for CHILDREN: ‘Hymn to Ravi’ (Published by Oxford University Press,
Delhi, 2009) and ‘Barefoot Child’ (OUP, 2007) were read by Brian, bringing up
the rear with ‘Childhood’ (Parmal, Goa, 2009). The little boy in the poem who
pushes his tyre up the hillside and watches it roll down with glee recalled,
observed Robinson, the myth of Sisyphus.
LAST BUS to VASCO (Self-published 2006, reprinted 2007): Next, the group set
sail for Goa via Brian’s first poem ‘Requiem to a Sal’ (1989). ‘On the Run’ and
‘Sea in the Sky’ brought giggles with its staccato style leading on to the
lyrical ‘Sonya’ and the acceptance of ‘Bells of St Andrews.’ ‘Fugitive’ was
recited in Portuguese followed by the translation. ‘Praxis’ recalled the search
for the poetic voice. Social issues were showcased in ‘Londa Station.’ The last
poem in this section was ‘A Peace of India’ which was promptly followed by a
Portuguese song ‘En Costa tua Cabecinha’ and the riotous Konkani medley ‘Undra
Mhojea Mama.’
A PEACE OF INDIA (Forthcoming): A request for a poem from Bihar took us to
Brian’s poem on the Sonepur mela and its ‘absent elephants.’ The pungency of
‘Kamariya lachke lupa lup’ made many blush. ‘Kali Gandak’ on the ‘black river’
followed. Nainital was next with the pathos of ‘Gargia’ lamenting the tragic
death of a village girl to a speeding mini-truck in the hills: ‘You went away
/when we came to love you’, the first lines, made a deep impression on the
listeners. ‘Kundun’ an early poem, written in Dharamshala, evoked ‘The oracle
[which] warns / of imminent danger.’ ‘Deep South’ took us all South of the
Cauvery and a memorializing of the tsunami dead.
SAHITYA AKADEMI (2004): The moment of truth in Brian’s poetic career was the 14
poems published in the SA journal Indian Literature. From here Brian read the
much-loved ‘I am not alone’ and ‘Traveller’- a manifesto to his destiny.
Fellow-travellers were impressed with the plenitude of Brian’s themes. Among
his influences Brian mentioned, TS Eliot, Yeats, Pessoa, Sofia Andresen, and a
host of Romantic music composers with Schumann leading the charge. ‘Do you
write full-time?’ one student asked. Brian replied that he need to work so that
he could travel. Asked where he saw himself in the tradition of Indian poetry,
Brian replied, ‘I enjoy writing. Let’s leave the theorizing to someone else.’
