The two hills faced each other like fierce lions
One was the Tefah-nchang and the other, Beh-long
It all started like child play under the moon
The Tefah-nchangs returned from the market and found
To their greatest dismay their farms set on fire by the angry Beh-longs

The damage was as broad as long
And the Tefah-nchangs vowed. ‘This’ a flash in the pan’
They promised to react to the bolt from the blue
Yes, the Beh-longs had made bricks without straws
By leaps and bounds, the Beh-longs were already circled

The Beh-longs tried Fabian tactics to no avail
Instead as the wrestling continued,
They saw themselves being followed by their own shadows
Yes, they saw almost all their ridges running to the Tefah-nchangs
Then they realized they’d played to the gallery

Pour, the Tefah-nchangs’d even more fishes to fry
And‘d already plastered them to the Queer Street
Oh, they’d spoilt the ship for a ha’p’orth o’tar
Both ridges‘d become the Tefah-nchangs’
And the Beh-longs retained nothing else but their Dutch courage

With the King’s only remedy to make a clean breast of the show
They submitted themselves to the Tefah-nchangs as hostages to fortune
The rest is history; and the story is a long one
The bone o’ contention was the Whiteman
The Tefah-nchangs ‘d accepted the new man and his new ways

And defied the land, even refused to circumcise their girls
Rendering inter-marriage impossible
Old brothers became new foes
Cos o’ the Whiteman’s magic
Witch doctors had the last say

Yes; they detected a curse in the ridges
And the Beh-longs were commissioned
to burn-off the curse with the Tefah-nchangs
And restore the ways of the land
Their barking had been worst than their biting
And so they reaped the price of their pride in buckets

November 5, 2006

The Week of November 5, 2006        
Appreciation by Dr. Sutapa Chaudhuri
Aye Khuda by Julia Dutta
Bottled Happiness by Nalini Hebbar
Bricks Without Straw by Amin George Forji
Calisthenics by Jayati Gupta  
Choice of Destiny by Anila Jahn
Dream Stream by Jennifer Marie Bayer
Emptiness Unfolding by Daniel Menezes
Future by Ravi Pipal
How Could you be Life? by Dr. Morice Deogratias
Hyperbole by Kumud Biswas 
I Didn't Cry by Raymond G. Blais 
Illicit Desires by Archana Shukla
Life After Death by RD Ashby 
Quartet by Aparna Chatterjee
Some Say by Ericsson Olujimi Odegbami
Sonnet 7 by Shernaz Wadia     
Soul in the Shelves by R. Purushothamarao
Still Voyage by Tina Martin 
That is the Thing by TA Ramesh 
There are Moments... by Shashank Jha
 

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