{"id":19036,"date":"2012-05-14T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=19036"},"modified":"2012-11-03T16:58:18","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T16:58:18","slug":"in-kudankalum-under-the-banyan-tree-aswath-vriksha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/05\/in-kudankalum-under-the-banyan-tree-aswath-vriksha\/","title":{"rendered":"In Kudankalum under the banyan tree:  Aswath Vriksha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>A Poem for the Women of Kudankalum Village<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I am Banyan, tree among trees&#8221; &#8211; <\/em>Bhagavad Gita<\/p>\n<p>Eyes of the world<br \/>\nbriefly flutter<br \/>\non this village<br \/>\na patch of baked mud<br \/>\naround a solitary Banyan tree<br \/>\nthis earth has bloomed in swaying blossoms<br \/>\nhundreds of women<br \/>\nsaris wrapped around their heads their bodies<br \/>\nfragile shields against sun\u2019s heat<br \/>\nwoven in every conceivable tint and hue<br \/>\nof nature\u2019s generous world<br \/>\nthey sit and plan determined<br \/>\nto save their seeds<br \/>\ncloistered in wombs wrapped in silk and cotton<br \/>\nno protection from radiation.<\/p>\n<p>they may not know how to write<br \/>\nor to read any human constructed language<br \/>\nbut they understand messages from their bodies<br \/>\nlike divine <em>Ashwath Vriksha<\/em><br \/>\nthey carry seeds of eternal life<br \/>\nunto countless generations<br \/>\nhidden in frail shell of their flesh<br \/>\nthey can read messages of the atom from<br \/>\nHiroshima to Fukushima<br \/>\nthey prepare to starve to save the future<br \/>\nto save seeds of life from mutation<br \/>\nto protect their eggs that carry promise<br \/>\nof life for every succeeding generation<br \/>\nthey sit and fast in sun\u2019s golden heat<br \/>\ntry to imagine the white heat of explosions<br \/>\npower of atoms divided<br \/>\ndust of deadly fallout.<\/p>\n<p>their message is simple<br \/>\nno nuclear plants<br \/>\ngo to the sea for power<br \/>\nreach to the sky for power<br \/>\nlet us live, fish, garden in our earthly paradise<br \/>\nleave the future to bloom in vivid colours<br \/>\nlet our granddaughters<br \/>\ntheir granddaughters<br \/>\ndance a tapestry of swaying flowers<br \/>\nwith sacred banyan<br \/>\n<em>Ashwath Vriksha<\/em><br \/>\nfor life eternal.<br \/>\n______________________<br \/>\n<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Theresa Wolfwood is the director of the Barnard Boecker Centre Foundation in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She organizes, writes and speaks on issues concerning peace, social justice, women, globalization and human rights. She participated in the World Peace Forum in Vancouver and was an international election observer in El Salvador in June, 2006. She co-coordinates Victoria Women in Black. She has written for Briarpatch, Peace Magazine, Peace News, Third World Resurgence &amp; other publications. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbcf.ca\/index.php\" >www.bbcf.ca<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Poem for the Women of Kudankalum Village<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am Banyan, tree among trees&#8221; &#8211; Bhagavad Gita<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kudankulam-anti-nuclear-satyagraha-india","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}