Kala Ramesh

Vaulting Ambition

I remember a story about the Kasturi Mruga, a mountain musk deer. One day, it sniffs a breath of musk perfume. Pursuing the source of the scent, it runs from jungle to jungle, through ravines, and over hills. The poor animal becomes so obsessed that it can no longer eat, drink, or sleep.

Finally, starved, and exhausted, it wanders about at random, only to slip from the top of a rock and fall. The musk deer’s last act before death was to lick its belly. Its musk pouch, torn when it fell from the rock, pours out its perfume. It gasps and tries to breathe in the perfume, but it is too late. The perfume that the deer looked for externally was all the while within.

          this glass
          of green mango sherbet
          fresh in my mind
          the many roads I took
          to quench my thirst

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About the Author

Kala Ramesh is a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. Her 2017 book Beyond the Horizon Beyond was awarded a Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize Certificate.

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