Attipate Krishnaswami Ramakrishnan

Was he a Kannadiga Born in Mysore Or a Tamil, Who was he, Say, Say you? Who his father A Tamilian In Mysore Mathematical And astronomical Khagilshastri Or…? Who his mother, The wife of An Iyengar Brahmin, A Tamil or a Kannadiga Speaking which language? Whatever be that, he knew it well Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, English and Sanskrit, A South Indian polyglot he Settled in America. An expatriate academic Used to teach In the department of South Asian languages Interpreting Indian thought and culture. Having grown up In an orthodox Brahmin family Astrological and astronomical, He fell short of Turning into a magic man. And it added to his poetry, The so many rituals and rites Mind-boggling and confronting Coming in between Convention and modernity. Surely would have laughed at The Brahminical excesses, Letting them believe, But he taking to jocularly, If god is everywhere, where to live it, Step on? Attipate was a folklorist, But we do not know it Whether a folk dancer, Singer, musician Or painter? Ramanujan was but a joke man Poking fun at, A laugh man Laughing to burst the balloon, Humoring and polishing, Polishing and putting ironically. Double speak had been his job, To say it doubly With dual meanings, A poker and a blazer was he In his poetic statement.