Poet Profile

A. Thiagarajan

A postgraduate in English, A. Thiagarajan taught in colleges in India and retired recently from a bank. He has been writing in English and Tamil since college days, though quite a lot of them remained on the paper he wrote on (that is, when not consigned by him to the waste paper basket). Nuances of relationship between individuals, mental pain and cruelty we inflict on each other and ourselves are his obsession. Interests include finance, Sri Aurobindo, and mythology. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Rama. His son Ganesh works in the United States.

Awards and Other Honors: Editor's Choice, The Heron's Nest X:3 (2007)

evening train . . .
an empty lunchbox
on the window seat

autumn evening
I lightly touch
my son’s first scribbles

queue for darshan--
she mumbles her prayers
at a roadside puddle

cold evening　— 
changing my teacup
to the other cheek

hot afternoon
the carter wipes his hand
on the donkey’s back

road puddles　—
umbrellas dip
at each passing car

Credits: "evening train" - White Lotus 3 (2006); "queue for darshan" - tinywords.com (June 19, 2007); "hot afternoon" - Editor's Choice, The Heron's Nest X:3 (2007); "autumn evening" - The Heron's Nest VIII:2 (2006); "cold evening" - The Heron's Nest IX:2 (2007); "road puddles" - The Heron's Nest VIII:4 (2006)