Maui was discharged from Manipal Hospital yesterday. She is recovering. Thanks to all your phone calls, blogbacks, SMSs, emails, beer toasts.... thanks much.

One of these nights, I wrote a few poems on the lounge sofa on the 11th floor of the hospital. The floor, aptly named, "Deluxe" is pretty swanky for a hospital. So, here's one to the other half of our country who will never make it to the 11th floor.

the farmer's wife

tulip hands and lotus feet
pouring rain and hail and sleet
knee-deep water in the field
a little prayer for tomorrow's yield

she sows rice and she sows wheat
tulip hands and lotus feet
works the morn, she works through dusk
she knows her grains from her husk

her purple lips, they seldom speak
but when they smile, rainbows bleak
tulip hands and lotus feet
mother of six, wife complete

trust in thee, my Lord, to keep
what you sow is what you reap
the Gods stop and pay their offerings sweet
to those tulip hands and lotus feet