Train Journey to Orissa - ( 1970 poem by V.K. Shenoy)

  

Notes from a diary  :  "Orissa Calls"
At Langiya Sora CPI emblem on walls
Temple on hill at Venkatachalam
A hoarding Ad. for Sapat Malam.
Baffaloes bathing in the Andhra river
Cows crossing on the Orissa brook
Red, green and blue this note is fake
Black birds on the Chilka lake.
Two dozen vultures on coconut trees
Cattle skeletons in the fields.
Hundreds of herons on yonder grove, 
On the housetop there is a crow.
View of Chilka, train from Rambha,
Pure gold sheet for tall Dhwaja Stumbha.
Great Krishna, Grand river,
Neighbour's son has some fever.
Last year heavy floods, 
This year bumper crops.
Paddy fields, at 180 degrees
Mean temperature is 31 degrees.
Bitter cold at R.Udayagiri,
Dirty hotel at Chandra Giri.
Rocks and fields, an hour-up hill walk.
Down we come like a rolling stock.
Blue and green birds, white and brown waves,
Here we see the Khandagiri caves.
                --------    0    --------
- V.K.Shenoy

66 years in photography