Listen! someone’s saying a prayer in Malayalam
He says there is no word for ‘despair’ in Malyalam.
Sometimes at daybreak you sing a Gujrati Garba
At night you open your hair in Malyalam
To understand symmetry, understand Kerela,
the longest palindrome is there in Malyalam.
When you have been too long in the rooms of English,
open your windows to the fresh air of Malyalam.
Visitors are welcome in The school of lost tongues
Someone’s endowed the high chair in Malyalam
I greet you my ancestors, O scholars and linguists.
My father who recites Baudlaire in Malyalam.
Jeet, such drama with the scraps you know.
Write a couplet, if you dare in Malyalam.
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Thank you.
If today is the first time you have arrived on The Road to Nara, you are heartily welcome ~ Namaste
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I will take this opportunity to introduce you to About me and importantly;
As a co-traveller, will take you through the Ten Lessons I learnt from several years on the road, before you coarse on your own Road to Nara.
Also read: 9 Most Popular Essays of 2022
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You might also like to know about My Little School Project. If you wish to come over for a visit someday, that you must, you will be heartily welcome here
If you would like to contribute to my travels, you can please do so here
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If you have anything to share, or feel like saying a hello, please feel free to write to me at narayankaudinya@gmail.com
To visit other long-term photographic works, please visit here.
To follow my walks through the rural Indian Subcontinent, find me at
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ROAD TO NARA 
“[T]here is no word for ‘despair’ in Malyalam.” The linguistics of a language says so much about its people. How can despair exist among people who face the challenges of life together as a community?
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Malyalam is an old old language and poetic at its root Rosa. You know I ll republish the post when I ll get back home once. Thank you.
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Beautiful poem dear Narayan 😊💖 Happy to say Malayalam is my mother tongue 😊💖💖💖
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aa.. I didn’t know this Krishna but you know it got published mistakenly as it’s not finished. I am letting it be ss of now but I ll come back and get it right. Thank you
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It’s ok. No worries 😊 Blessed day
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It is Malayalam 🙂
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Somehow I couldn’t finish writing this post Lekha but I ll come back and finish it once I get time.
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Reblogged this on anastasiakalantzi59.
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Thanks k
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Me too for your quite interesting and educating reading, have a healthy and productive week ahead. Best regards. 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Despite Narayan’s message that this post is not quite finished, and that he will publish it again, in time, one can already see the promise of another interesting and outstanding essay. The old language Malayalam is important to know about as humanity would be poorer without it. Just the one sentence “there is no word for despair in Malayalam” set the tone of the future fascinating details.
Thank you, Narayan, for this initial start of something much bigger and no doubt, wonderful coming soon.
Joanna
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😊😊 that’s a good one Narayan… I am trying to do exactly that for the last two decades, residing in Kerala and trying to come to grasps with this sanskritized language of the land of adi Shankaracharya! All the best to your Jeet with the couplet 👍🏼
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🙂 thanks for this beautiful comment sushmita. Aaa.. 2 decades, you must be fluent in malayalam then.
This journey here has been my strongest best inside a tradition that literally fed me music day in and day out. I am in love with chhenda.. so much so it has been difficult to spend my time looking on phone and editing. I feel high all the time 🙂
And this journey is only in the middle after two weeks.
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