GOST Poem and "Small Things" Song

Esthapappychachen Kuttapen Peter Mon

When she slipped under the river, all the noise was gone

A foreign ambassador in pointy, beige shoes

A boy on a train with nothing left to lose

Orangedrink lemondrink icecream rosemilk

A hole in a boat on a river that wilts

Drifting slowly toward the Heart of Darkness

Comrade Estha, the puff-wearing Marxist

Ambassador Rahel, the little stick insect

Given up for a rose, a rose for the princess

Wrapped in the curtain at the airport in Cochin

The world was too loud all she needed was a moment

A moth’s cold leg on a love-starved heart

Two egg-twins, twenty-three years apart

The same red blood flowing through the capillaries

Esthappen Yako and Rahel the airport fairy

Love in Tokyo supports a drooping fountain

She touches him, her heart is pounding

He’s a little man, who lives in a caravan

He touches her, their lives are narrowing

Love Laws broken

Truths unspoken

A voice awoken

A closed book open

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2MGwYSYAMyoNFJ1bDFONFRYNjA

Reflection

This creative project was truly meaningful to me, as I was able to gain a more profound understanding of the symbolism in The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, and its context through poetry and music. I am fascinated by both spoken word poetry, especially as it relates to hip-hop, and world music, and I was able to explore and intertwine these two interests through my project. In addition, through my process of creating the instrumental song that is crucial to my piece, I was able to research traditional Indian music and musical instruments, as well as learn to use Audacity, an extremely handy sound editing program.

Music plays a significant role in The God of Small Things, from the idolized Sound of Music soundtrack to the stirring rhythms of the Kathakali dancers. I was able to connect with this meaningful piece of God of Small Things symbolism through my creative project, in which I listened to traditional types of Indian music and included the tabla, sitar, and bansuri instruments, as well as a tanpur cadence in the background in my final song.

The poem portion of my piece was intended to be an exploration through symbolism of the relationship between Estha and Rahel in light of Estha’s Re-return and their intimate reunion. As the two are often called “egg-twins,” the poem alternates between both of their perspectives, eventually culminating in the moment in which they make love and taking a more omniscient viewpoint. The poem takes a creative lens to the symbolism in the novel, especially surrounding the aftermath of the defining moments in the twins’ lives, including Estha’s encounter with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man and Sophie Mol’s death. In an attempt to emulate Roy’s masterful style, I switched back and forth between symbols and time periods in my poem, seeking to achieve the chronological dissonance and passionate emotion that make The God of Small Things so successful as a novel.

Lastly, through my interweaving of music and literature, I gained a more experiential understanding of where the line between rap and poetry lies. (My work definitely could not be categorized as rap, although it is spoken over music and has a rhythmic meter.) Roy’s prose could definitely be described as poetic in nature at times, but the element of rhyming added a new dimension to my understanding of her work. Overall, this project was very meaningful to my understanding of The God of Small Things, especially through the lens of symbolism, and the experience of researching and creating my own take on traditional Indian music was both memorable and enlightening.