The lake was sea The lake went unnecessarily emotional In the shadows of the banyan and men

Sitting on the rails of its embankment Who looked like birds flying on the sea. Its ripples pretended to be ocean-waves. The trees waved knowingly on the rim Their green hairs eating up the blue sky. We fished for hidden grandma stories. An auntie lent her gold in a cloth bundle. You need jewels, you jewels of women? Come to the lake and ask the lake auntie Who will lend hers to you for wedding. Remember to return them when done. You, betrayer, have not returned them? She is no more a jewel lending auntie. You can hear her sad silence in ripples . (The myth relates to the Ramappa lake , a 800-year old lake near Warrangal in Andhra Pradesh that has remained a part of the collective conscious of the peopl e through such interesting myths and folk lore in circulation in the area)