‘Name Journeys’ Like Rama I have felt the wilderness but I have not been blessed with a companion as sweet as she, Sita; loyal, pure and true of heart. Like her I have been chastened through trial by fire. Sita and I, spiritual sari-sisters entwined in an infinite silk that would swathe Draupadi’s blush. My name a journey between rough and smooth, an interlacing of banyan leaves with sugar cane. Woven tapestries of journeys; travelling from South to North, where the Punjabi in my mouth became dislodged as milk teeth fell and hit infertile English soil. My mouth toiled to accommodate the rough musicality of Mancunian vowels and my name became a stumble that filled English mouths with a discordant rhyme, an exotic rhythm dulled, my voice a mystery in the Anglo echo chamber— void of history and memory. Raman Mundair |
Compare how poets present ideas about identity in ‘Name Journeys’’ and in one other poem from 'Worlds and Lives'.
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