Tears Of The Gods! Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

Once he wore his nine-tasselled towel
around his hip bearing a drum at front of his midrif
he would sing aloud to invoke Lord Ayyanar,
half-buried at the outer base of the bund
of our village rain-fed tank,
to help him beating the drum
for moving the feet of his three daughters
with parrot-topped brass pots over their heads.
People near and far took his troop
at the time of festivals, being mesmerized
by the mavis of his dancing angels. 11

But he never gave up the service
of drumming up on the ghouls-howling tank bund
when the moon was out and hid.
The sound could be heard
by the sleepless elders of our village.
He would swim across the river
and reach the village on the other bank

to alert them for raising the river-bank,
and escape the wrath of the swelling river,
when floods from the western ghats
came in a roaring fury
and made a breach in the tank bund. 23

Covering himself with a hessian to bear the cold,
he would sing seeking the grace of the Lord
to save him from the hoodwinking elves
and protect the tank from breaching
Or else the paddy fields would be going dry.
Once he fell ill and lay at home.
The morning brought him news of a miracle.
Some theatre-goers to the nearby town
who came back after midnight,
asked him why he went unheeded
with a spear in his hand
in that dead of night on the bund.
The tank-keeper shed tears
thinking of the feat of the Lord on his behalf. 36

The breeze ruffling the watery surface
would lull him to sleep;
but snakes on the bund would hiss at him;
and he would dither and dodder along
humming the name of the Lord several times.
When thunder rumbled, he would shout
“Arjun had ten names” to thwart it.
Dredging leaves and flowers over the idol,
he would offer his thanks and prayers
and walk his way home in the small hours.
His forefathers had hewed out this career
for some sheaves of reaped paddy
at the time of harvest from every family.
But God willed to relieve him from this duty
by giving him only daughters.
Leaving them at his hovel in the night
he would go to guard the bund. 53

Once the inflow to the tank was heavy
and the bund breached and overflowed the river.
He swam across the violent river as usual
to reach the other bank for waking up his villagers.
He had hair-breath escapes in the past
yet he served for his family’s pride.
The cloudy dawn brought his sad daughters
on the northern bank of the river
while the whole village was looking silent
into the merciless river from the southern bank.
An old one said he heard his shouts in the night.
Another said he came in his dream drumming aloud.
But was nowhere found the nine-tasselled drummer.
Rains seem reluctant to pour in that region
and there has been no question of a successor
to that wonderful keeper of our village tank. 69