A Ticket From The Heavens Poem by Ravi Panamanna

(The life of Padmashree K.J. Yesudas, the renowned Malayalam film singer of India is something phenomenal. It is part of history. He had a very humble beginning. The following poem relates to one of his early episodes. When he was called for a recording in Chennai during his early career in the 1960s, he hadn’t the amount to meet the ticket fare from Cochin to Chennai and a man from heavens helped him with a ticket. Here I am trying to catch the spirit of that episode.)

******************************************************************************

The whistle is blown
The flag is finally flown.
And from the shores of yore
Begins a journey unto the hearts of generations.

Listening to the clatter of wheels,
Feeling for the distant lash of waves,
He cuddles up into a corner
Gathering within all the singing dales.

And the train picks up winds,
It is now catching up the clouds.
Out of the window he glances
And feels life as an endless dream.

Wheels play a rhythm
Hamlets whistle a song.
He hums unto the rising star
A tune deep out of his heart.

And he finally reaches the shores,
Meets the winds and waves at bay.
It was the beginning of an endless cascade-
A singer unto decades and beyond.

Behind and beyond the plains
Lay a thought of indebtedness,
A tale of sixteen rupees
A ticket from the heavens
A friend as large as the sky.

And reclining on his past
He now peeps unto his modest beginning.
The whistle is blown
The flag is finally flown.....

Before and beyond the winding tracks
Lay a throbbing heart,
A dream of soothing winds,
A song for all ‘morrows,
A dawn for all dawns.
But that ticket from the heavens-
It goes beond all richness, pastures and melodies.