handwritten · chennai · 2004

A Hundred

One hundred verses by CNR — on pills, potholes, politicians, and the particular comedy of turning sixty-six — written 4–17 Aug 2004.

100 poems
14 days
13 self-sorted categories
42 handwritten pages

In August of 2004, over fourteen days, my father sat down and wrote a hundred poems. Not about love or loss in any grand sense — about pothole speed-breakers, cardiologists, cell phones, Chennai's water tankers, and the particular indignities of turning sixty-six. He dated and timed each one like a lab notebook, sorted them into thirteen categories of his own invention, and drew a box around THE END when he was done.

This is his hundred, typed up at last — for anyone who could use a laugh about traffic, or growing old, or both.

— Gautam

His own table of contents

he sorted all 100 poems into these 13 categories himself — click one to jump in

No poems match that search. He probably still has an opinion about it somewhere — try another word.