Thanks Jane! 
 Hope this reads better...
 *Tell no one*
 Am hiding out here, tell no one

In the hollow trunk of the old banyan



>From adventurous Biggles to bird-eyed Miss Marples

I read them all up here, tell no one



T'was a summer dusk, the mali's son came up my den

He showed me what goes where, tell no one



7 summers later, they shot the Naxalite

I'd broken my heart o'er, tell no one



That long-abandoned house; that bow-bent banyan

I've snaked back here to moult, tell no one
  Tanu
May 17, 2005


   A friend had asked
 >story of a dark past?

 I'm sharing with you the background that generated this poem.
 A hollow in a tree trunk is a hide-out all children would love, I'd think. 

I had my own, in our garden. My mother was always after us to finish our 
home-works. We had to 'be lost' to 'find' our own space. 
 And back in those pre-TV days, story books were the main springboards for 
our imagination....Biggles, Miss Marples included.

 The mali (gardener/s) of our three childhood homes (sequentially) was a 
formative influence. And his son Shiuji, who was elder than me, used to be 
my playmate. It's sad that Shiuji died of tympanitis!. 

 The Naxalite. He wasn't shot dead. He was tortured so badly in prison that 
he became mad. They had pulled out his nails and worse... This was in the 
1970s, the Naxal movement was being brutally crushed by the West Bengal 
goverment. Some of the brightest young Bengalees died early deaths, 
including this bright chap from our neighbourhood. We were all very sad. He 
was a hero.

 The long-abandoned house is our Dishergarh house, which we left when out 
father retired in 1986.

 Having returned to India now, meditative at Amity, I imagine myself back in 
my favourite hide-out, like a snake crawling in to a cool, undisturbed 
corner, where it can safely slough off it's old skin and emerge renewed. 

 It's a hide-out. So TELL NO ONE, that's what I'm upto these days!
  Thanks again Jane! Am happy that you could relate.
 Warmly
Rinku


On 5/17/05, jane bhandari <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 
> 
> Just a suggestion...
> 
> 'From adventurous Biggles to bird-eyed Miss Marples'




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