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Covid 19 and The Last Kuru King : A Roseate Sonnet
Adorning Kalki on his crown, he bore the sins of his progenitors,
Insects were restricted in Parikshit’s abode, he was too cautious.
The last Kuru King was cursed to die snake-bitten within days seven,
He stayed recluse fiend forefended in a home no less than heaven.
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Tempted, on the seventh day, he tried to eat a fruit, punctured,
A tiny insect appeared, metamorphosed in Snake king, Takshak.
Kalki reinforced the curse, king was snake-bitten, died,
Just a little aperture made a curse flourish, fertile.
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Eons later, reincarnates again, Takshak the Serpent King,
Kalki holds the leash of death, lets us taste fruit of our sins.
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Remorselessly, Kalki is yet in our crowns, wronging our ilk innate,
Obituaries rain like those fecund tears, Iravati, the widow shed.
Sins, be ours or our ancestors’ have flourished in diminutive snakes,
Evil ! O’ Human, will trap you anywhere in any form, that’s your Death!
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Postscriptum:
Kuru Dynasty and Covid 19…
Pandavas and Pandemic…
Have I used these words and phrases together for merely alliteration? What are the similarities between these apart from being similar sounding? It’s about the last king of the Kuru Dynasty, Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna and the son of Abhimanyu. He was the only unborn progeny of Pandavas saved after the great war of Mahabharata. He was married to *Iravati, the princess of Madradesh.
King Parikshit, though unknowingly, carried *Kalki (Kalyug) on his Gold crown who incited him towards misdemeanors. He, thereby insulted a sage and was cursed dying snake-bitten. In spite of all the precautions and safety measures, the serpent king *Takshak invaded his palace and bit him to death.
Isn’t this story of the last Kuru king quite akin to the current situation led by the pandemic, Covid 19? A little loophole in precautions, hygiene or safety regimen may cause death. And we have seen enough of it. Enough!
The poem portrays the similarities between the situations King Parikshit had to undergo during those seven days of his confinement and the ones we have been facing since a year or more….Aren’t we responsible for instigating Kalki (Kalyug) to show his most ferocious face ever in the form of Covid? Parikshit did the same. He allowed Kalki to ride on his crown which led him to be bitten by the snake king, Takshak.
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What is a ‘ROSEATE SONNET’?
“It’s a new, experimental poetic form developed by Dr. Ampat Koshy in 2012. Like a classic Shakespearean Sonnet, it too has 14 lines in which first two quatrains are followed by a couplet. Then follows the ultimate quatrain which starts its first line with R, the second with O, the third with S and the fourth with E to form an acrostic that reads ‘ROSE.’ The couplet acts as a volte face, from where poem shows a paradigm shift.
This form has no other constraints like rhyme, rhythm or blank verse, unlike its earlier forms or variants. There is no fixed syllable count for the lines though I have followed all the rules being an aficionado of classic Shakespearean Sonnet.
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