Radhay
They told me that I was born To a princess Heir apparent, second in line To the famous throne of Mathura But then my maternal uncle Wanted me dead If I were really to kill him Why did the aerial voice warn him? Make him suspicious Put up his guard, So that he even got ready To kill my mother, the gentle Devaki? My father Vasudeva had to beg For her life, his wife’s life Promising to hand over All their children For Kamsa to kill in front of their very eyes
Did not the infant blood splattered stones Make them automatically abstemious? How could they risk producing Another kid, to whet the assassin’s greed? Why did they not stop At a son or two? Or did they want, the vaunted prediction To come true? Did they desire that Grandfather Ugrasena be freed, reinstated As the rightful king of Mathura In the place of his frightful King of theirs? What made necromancy Made them make me,
Radhikaya?
Yashoda is my mother, my only one It is her warmth I shared Her milk I suckled on Her hands bathing me gently Her lap I slept on Her lullabies soothing me To such deep sleep It is like the snoring of whales In kind waters
Nandagopar carried me On his back In his heart I learned all about cattle from him
A princess and her consort May be my blood parents Yet I am the son, the only son Of the chief of Vrindavan All desire is to be the best cowherd One my father is proud of
Yes, I am aware the gopis Want me to wed their daughters Let them live as daughters in law To the tender Yashoda Who knows only how to love.
Radhay
They may consider it so wrong Wicked even That you are the first women Who held me, loved me Apart from Yashoda Even Balarama’s Amma Rohini Never held me quite that way Looked at me through veiled eyes The way you did. Part mother, part lover Part friend, part companion Total teacher You taught me things You yourself did not know Maybe we taught each other As we both learned on the go. Radhey, Knowledge is divine
Thiruvathira Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi was born the XII Princess of the erstwhile royal family of Travancore.
