[Reader-list] this indersalim STUFF from KASHMIR

[inder salim]

Hi
I am:

This indersalim stuff from Kashmir.

I am a  performance artist.  ( please include the 'theater
performances' here, though I am not strictly in the practice of doing
things on stage. ) The art-in-public- space, yes, I do, but the
definition is quite vast, so no big claims. I try to conceptualize my
action ( performance ) with ongoing conflicts (both political and
otherwise )  in mind, but as you know, the form incorporated changes
the dynamics of ' the action' even. So, I believe the the
unpredictability of doing a performance…

I enclose three poem pieces, the second one I ended with a little
performance at Performance poetry thing organized by Vivek Naranyan at
Sarai some days back.

My project is to organize performance art, to collaborate and initiate
performances anywhere in India or abroad.  So I am myself waiting for
a surprise or so. But meanwhile :


YAHAN MOOTNA MANA HAI*

Men keep on pissing near the wall
Till a graffiti grows:
YAHAN MOOTNA MANA HAI

And if men keep on pissing near the wall
They imagine reading a line
YEH PADNA MANA HAI**
Next to the line
YAHAN MOOTNA MANA HAI.

And if the fermentation of the
absorbed piss begins to
emit those nose wrenching fumes,
the complacent administrator's nose
comes closer to it
to arrange
an alternative in the
nearby vicinity.

And if a money generating
toilet structure
comes up a little away from the disgraced wall,
The text: YAHAN MOOTNA MANA HAI
Becomes idle and meaningless
Till some poorly paid workers of different
Political parties paste glossy
Posters of their masters underneath.

And once the colourful posters of
Politicians and their children politicians
Appear underneath the line
YAHAN MOOTNA MANA HAI
The artist-in-public-space
Inserts a word NAHEE***
In the line
YAHAN MOOTNA MANA HAI
At an appropriate place.

For some real men
to impart some real meaning,
To their age old habit
Of pissing in the public space.

* Yahan mootna manah hai = pissing is prohibited here.
** Yeh panda manah hai= reading this is prohibited
*** Nahee= not

……………………………………………………………………………….


Teri to lal hai * ( Yours is red )

The more you climb the more it will grow;-
On a magical tree,
This particular species of monkeys
in their own jolly great mood,
they simply kept on
Jumping and climbing
Climbing and jumping,
Till they decided to look down
To see the earth from above.

It was a point, less than the tree,
But quite far from  below.
That a two of the species
Happened to bend on their knees
To see each other as well.

It just happened that one was above the other,
And had a chance to see the
Downing Back of his brother.

* Aray, teri to lal hai, (yours is red)
Screamed the-one-below-the-above-one.

Heard by the wind, and by the leaves
And thousands of his own species,
The one-above-the-below-one, without fun,
Felt humiliated, stooped low, first inwardly
then outwardly, to identify…

But the-one-below-the-above-one
Kept on jumping and climbing,
And climbing and jumping,
Till it was air which supported his feet,
And his belief that he was different,
than the-one-above-the-below-one.

But, one day a return
Would make him understand
The meaning of
** Laet tulith chi sari gaeb.


**( in Kashmiri = Lift the tail of any sheep, all of them are female.)

The performance ended with the exposure of my buttocks, painted with
red through my pant torn from behind.
....................................................................................................................................

Cockroach

Trapped I was,
Not too exhausted in the toilet sink,
In which he was about to piss…

Periplaneta Americana Orientalis,
Perhaps, this is how a Zoologist
Would define me
By the length and breadth of my delicate antenna.

I was suffering:

And when he held in his hand
A melancholy, nozzle like thing
That was behind the zip,
I thought of a rescue operation…..

But a shimmering rope like thing,
Which fell next-near to me
Was only a mirage,--
Because the more I tried to catch hold of it
The more I was on a difficult ground.

Now what I was floating upon,
Was quite a blow to my hope,
Otherwise a usual thing to smell and taste:

I was aghast.

The shadow like thing stood there,
Watched my swimming abilities
Or perhaps, pitied my fate.

And when suddenly he pulled the chain
Again and again:

' O shit , this city is really dry '
I heard him saying before
The lights went off

..................................................-


please visit:
http://indersalim.livejournal.com
to navigate, press  EARLIER at page's bottom.