Romantic India: A Biographical Excursion

By Mary Ranieri

An adventure that is work related:
Debbie and Jacques live and work in Allahabad for two years. Their adventures involve three different R & Rs from tropical Ahmdabad to frozen Tibet... dodging religious wars and Maoist Movements. The main incident of Romantic India involves a bunny girl, a hot-tempered member of the expatriate work team. A theme of arranged marriages underlies the plot.

The author has composed nine adventurous books of her own life and times, including biographies, poems, and essays.

This book will interest adults as well as young adults.

The jacket is a romantic harbor, antipathetic to the infected Ganges that begins with fresh mountain water of the Himalayas only to become polluted as it travels south.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514407936

Mary Ranieri

The author has composed nine adventurous books of her own life and times, including biographies, poems, and essays.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Mary Ranieri.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/15/2015

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PART 1

Other Roots

Freshets

Minding Trees

Reincarnation

Tribal Taboos

Awakening

OTHER ROOTS

Garlands encircle her throat and wrist

Like a banyan tree, attesting to other life-roots.

Her mind’s eye watches two rivers entwist

Afloat with biers that sound like windy flutes.

Now in America, Khomeini thinks

Of Mango scents, of Guava and Pear,

Mimosa blooms in puffy pinks

Falling on mansion, hut, and lair—

Snowflakes cleansing indecent land,

Masking smells—both humid and dank

Like Sandalwood and tamarind

Streaking yellow-reds along the bank.

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FRESHETS

Ancient Earth begets fresh air.

Playful droplets spray

On Hyacinth or prickly-pear

Or a Coral vine display.

Sylvan serenades send rhythmic waves,

Tapering into streams for all green things.

Aliens laugh at fairies curled outside their caves,

Indignantly daring droplets to spatter their wings.

Freshets still purify our air with flow

Just as freshets did so long ago.

Fairies now are rarely seen

Have eye-sights grown less keen?

MINDING TREES

I

Shiva’s saguaros

Giant prickly sentinels

Worn-out totem poles

II

One Peepul-tree leaf

Picked from Brahman’s triple urn

Parrots spirit love

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Painting on a Peele Tree leaf

REINCARNATION

Having felt earth’s wrath

And siphoned heaven’s dream,

Eternity’s path

Unwraps her silken sheen.

Another clone in a tomb,

Another cocoon,

Burning ashes on a bier,

Reclaim another sphere. . .

TRIBAL TABOOS

Seeking marrow from an infant bone,

Reading its pictograph from skin,

Or a faded mural on stone:

Tribal taboos no longer offend.

A tiny mummy clutches

Wooden shards of a relic toy.

We long to understand

This luckless boy!

AWAKENING

Skylark songs arise from nature’s core,

Her dream implores an ancient door:

Tempestuous love’s primordial flight. . .

Drum-beats permeating ether-light.

She enters that heavenly door,

Leaving behind all past folklore.

The veil of white has opened wide

For a happy, awakened bride!

PART II

A story of intrigue

PREFACE

This novel is based on a two-year residency in Allahabad, India.