Vasanthi Swetha. Cities and Love Stories.
Artist Statement: Faith to me means an ocean of knowledge just as the sea is salty when it touches your tongue and yet there is kindness in the touch of that water. Faith is the knowledge that there is hope beyond what we can see and there is peace in that kind of hope.
1. Cities
It has been
three weeks and one day
exactly
since I moved in here,
to a land away from home
to a language that I understand
and paint on my lips
like it was mine
but I know that it
isn't etched on my tongue,
after layers of undressing
these vowels and consonants
I will still say amma instead of mom.
I think cities are like people
they carry a scent of their own,
this city smells of wet earth, retiring leaves,
yearning and silence,
I breathe in this only to remember that
my city smelled of silence too,
once in a while,
and yet they are
so different from each other,
and that's when I realise
the people who inhabit these cities
perfume it with a million flavors
and yet its raw, original, native scent never
leaves,
even after a thousand showers from the sky.
They all ask me if
I have settled down,
I tell them I am, slowly,
but deep within I know
If I unfolded a map
and ran my fingers over it
and stopped when you ask me to,
my fingers would've stopped
but my soul would continue to wander,
for my soul belongs everywhere
and yet nowhere,
and that's a curse and a boon
at the same time,
but how do I tell them
that my soul never understands
what settling down means,
How do I tell them
my soul is made up of a million
cities
with the sound of my heartbeat being the only passport,
and that I travel along the coastlines
of my dreams
even if my feet is fixed on one land?
- Vasanthi
2. Love Stories
What else could make a city alive
apart from you learning to breathe in the forgotten corners of that city, carefully touch the
remains of a war like the immortal yearning to see someone who left without a goodbye
and write down the names of all the men who were a love story; almost a love story.
- Vasanthi