What are you reading?
asked little Somu,
a year younger than I was
It’s a Science book,
I said, turning away from him
If it’s a Science book,
the little rascal said,
why are you hiding it behind
another science book?
Mind your own business,
I said,
Hardly taking my eyes
off Vatsyayana’s classic
I’ll mind my own
if you tell me what it is;
otherwise dad
will come to know of it-
and you won’t be able to tell
him to mind his own business
Oh! I said, angry and afraid,
and I threw down my books
(the cover book and the hidden book) .
You’re too young for such things.
But he looked at me
as only a dangerous blackmailer can
and I yielded to his request -
I would summarize aloud each chapter
for him as I finished reading each
(That’s the trouble when
fate throws you in
with siblings who don’t read)
And day in and day out
over the next few weeks
I summarized the Kama Sutra –
no, I don’t think I summarized,
I extemporized,
I added details, I confess –
for the benefit of non-reading Somu
that silly pumpkin of a brother
who didn’t understand a word of what I said!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem