Lesh Karan: ‘For I will consider meri maan’

Lesh Karan reading ‘For I will consider meri maan’

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For all her rotis balloon

For meri maaⁿ makes the best murghi ki tharkari,
sujji ka ladoo, kadhi and everything

For she cooked us breakfast-lunch-dinner
even when she worked as a full-time-teacher

For now she invites us to lunch
and we salivate the 40kay distance

For meri maaⁿ showed me food is pyaar

For she was three when her paapa left

For now she gets dad to knead aata,
be her sous-chef

For meri maaⁿ was on the bus
when she saw her future pati

For she tried to arrange meri shaadi
covertly – got a guy to call me at work,
placed my profile on shaadi.com

For meri maaⁿ never insisted I have kids

For her pantry is the size of a baby’s nursery
filled with masala, lentils and bhuja mix

For she still makes me staples
like ghee and roasted-ground jeera

For she has ghee-soft skin at 73

For meri maaⁿ rubbed my back
when I had the monthlies

For she lives with referred dard in both legs

For she broke her hip at 68
playing chasey with my bhateeje

For meri maaⁿ no longer drives out of her suburb

For she says she doesn’t need friends
but will nag dad for company

For she tells me I never call
each time I do

For she lends me books
like The Power of Now, You are Enough
and the Bhagavad Gita

For meri maaⁿ took up painting in her 60s
painted gallery-worthy portraits
of Tagore and Gandhi

For she won’t paint anymore
says ‘hum se right nahiⁿ bane’

For her gulaab ke phool are the envy of the street

For meri maaⁿ can’t sleep
under a blanket of worries about her three kids

For she despises violence
but will watch the 6pm news

For she says ‘nahiⁿ worry karo, betta
sab theek ho jayega’

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Glossary

meri maaⁿ: my mother

roti: Indian flat bread

murghi ki tarkari: chicken curry

sujji ka ladoo: a type of Indian sweet

kadhi: lentil ball curry

pyaar: love

paapa: dad

aata: dough (also: flour)

meri shaadi: my wedding

shaadi: wedding

masala: spices

bhuja: Indian savoury snack

ghee: Indian clarified butter

dard: pain

bhateeje: nephews

hum se right nahin bane: I can’t get it right

gulaab ke phool: roses

nahin worry karo, betta / sab theek ho jayega: don’t worry, my child / everything will be ok

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Lesh Karan lives in Melbourne. Her words have been published in Australian Multilingual Writing Project, Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Island, Mascara Literary Review and Rabbit, amongst others. She is currently undertaking a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing at the University of Melbourne.