Badri Venkatesh

Writer and Director of National award winning shortfilm Vidiyalai Nokki and
Feature Films: Baana Kaathadi.Semma Botha Aagathey, Plan Panni Pannanum

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
CROSSING WITHIN

​When you find solace in weeping,
fierce wrath dissolves;
when you drift daily in laughter,
even tears melt away;
when you nurture anger day after day,
joy slips out of sight.
Transcend the smile, the sob, and the fury
upon the path of wisdom
and build a bridge to the world.

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

https://t.co/z8zxN67a6b

Subscribe to my account on https://t.co/aedvqEw14m

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
THE UNKNOWING GIFT AND THE SIXTH SENSE

​Without your consciousness ever knowing,
You give life to millions of microbes
Your very body becoming their home, their sustenance,
Making you, by nature, a magnificent provider.

​If you were to do this with conscious intent,
Would you not rise as a truly great human?

​So do it;
Let it become a nature mingled with your life,
Until it takes deep, enduring root in your days.

​If mere bacteria and viruses
Can turn you into a grand giver,
Why shouldn't the sixth sense, bestowed by the Supreme
Transform you into the ultimate provider of grace?

​— Badri Venkatesh

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
MUTHANNAN

​A comrade to one and all,
rising tall beyond the measure of years;
so even the stranger found quiet shelter,
he left no address
turning mere charity into an ethic of grace.
​Wearing righteous fury as quiet dignity,
conscious of his soul's fleeting arrival,
he proved to the world beyond ties of blood:
‘Through selfless giving, immortality is won!’
​And today, he stands etched in eternity
the uncle who walked as an elder brother,
my Muthannan!

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#HappyDiwali2026

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

TRANSLATION

Bowing before the Master is never an act of disgrace, but a celebration of his towering existence. Resting at his feet is a quiet endeavor to trace the path he walked and absorb the marrow of his lived trials. With undivided focus, he channels his inner sight to awaken direct perception within his disciples. Walking this soil as an earthly divinity, his grace flows like an unbroken tide. True learning demands no physical proximity, The pedagogue's very life is the scripture, and his presence alone an enduring benediction.

To my @ikamalhaasan sir
@RKFI
@turmericmediaTM

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity
#HBDKamalHaasan #Ulaganayagan #KamalHaasan

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

Cinema taught us craft, but Kamal sir’s scars taught us survival. Defeat was never his full stop, only the runway to rise again. Through every flicker of the 24 frames, he showed us that cinema isn't just an art form, but a mirror to every fractured, beautiful facet of human life. Happy Birthday to my guru and the eternal maestro.

#HBDKamalHaasan #Ulaganayagan
@ikamalhaasan @RKFI
@turmericmediaTM

P.S. Call it sheer audacity to place myself beside him in this frame. I am not here to ape the master—I am here to imbibe him.

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
THE CHISEL OF DESOLATION

​Did it sow emptiness upon the tongue
this sapless, subterranean bubble?
Desire turned into cold mechanics,
breath itself a withered burden.

​Can a waterless tree
cast any shade?
Such is the love kept
by moistureless souls!

​A human passage of the flesh
stripped bare of love
is like a strike from a serpent
in a reservoir of poison!

​Even in defeat, love anyway;
the broken one becomes the chisel!

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
THE EVER-EXISTING ONE

Who is this ever-existing one?
Performing a good deed this very day,
transcend the frontier of flesh and let your true presence expand;
witness the spark of the primal, boundless flame dwelling within you!

Sparing a tiny life and guarding the unplucked blossom,
that itself is the great virtue fulfilled this day.

The accumulation of all such virtues becomes
an immense, immortal, formless presence;
omnipresence is the very longing of the primal origin;
the state of godhood is the absolute perfection of creation;
and every god seeks only to make a god of you!

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

https://t.co/7diYbEr0qG

On wealth and more!!
Subscribe to my Substack account!!

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

https://t.co/Yf1FNLrIT7

Some facets of life are unsettling. Please don't subscribe to my Substack account if you want to get exposed only to the untruths of life alone!!

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
​THE UNCONTEMPLATED EXCAVATION

​For those untouched by rain,
what worth
can deeper excavation yield?
To hold the eye as mere device for sight,
does it not strip its sovereign grace?

​“Its utility alone is all,” decrees
a calculating humankind;
mistaking casted shadow for the flesh,
and light itself for shade,
they wander blind despite their sight, alas!

​Yet, as the peacock fans its plumage
the instant it beholds the rain-cloud,
and the senses drink the scent of the easterly wind
that primal shower of nectar poured upon the world,
all five senses awaken,
functioning precisely as nature ordained!

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

Nothing compares to the magic of watching cinema in a packed theater. While OTT has its place, films are fundamentally made for the big screen!

A tremendous thank you to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shri Joseph Vijay, for permitting 6 shows in the opening week. This is an extraordinary gesture of support that will go a long way in keeping theatrical cinema thriving.

Thank you, Sir! 🙏✨
@CMOTamilnadu @actorvijay @TVKVijayHQ @TVKPartyHQ @TVKHQITWingOffl
#TamilCinema #Savetheatres

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

https://t.co/pG30bOu3YO

On love and life!!
Subscribe to my account on substack

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
THE TESTIMONY OF VAITARANI

​They lay a sumptuous feast before the corpse;
Adorning it in fine, unblemished weave;
Wailing aloud to proclaim an unuttered love,
While the perished soul erupts in roaring laughter
Unheard by mortals,
Who shed futile tears through long watches of the night!

​The departed breath, though leagues away,
Turns back, merely to witness this charade!
Only because the foul stench of decay begins to rise,
Do they hastily commit the body to the pyre.
O dwellers of this earth,
Bestow all this before one perishes, not after!

​As the unburdened great soul crosses the Vaitarani,
Upon beholding thy radiant countenance on the celestial path,
We fold our hands in reverent benediction
O pure one, severed from a world of pretenses, depart!

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

https://t.co/5hRx0wPtzu

I am strongly opinionated. Shouldn't we all be?
Subscribe to my Substack account

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
THE FOREST OF THE LION

If thy foes grow not,
How then shall thou rise?

For a lion to hold sway,
A vast wilderness is needful;
And creatures that surge in defiance
Must daily abound!

Without an uprising,
No land ever takes shape!

He who heals affliction becomes the sovereign;
He who bears the torment becomes the savior!

The estranging foe and the searing rival
The alien and the adversary
Are they not the very catalyst
That seeds thy laurel of victory?

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

https://t.co/Ye9wABAtbz

Poetry is for the soul;
Writing makes the wild mind whole
Subscribe to my Substack account

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#BADRIVENKATESHPOETRY #POEMADAY #POETRY #POETRYLOVERS #POETRYLOVERSCOMMUNITY

TRANSLATION
THE BLOOM ON THE CRATER’S LIP

A home without lovers’ spats,
A circle of friends untouched by rifts
Are merely a staged play; an entity walking the earth without casting a shadow!

Shatter stagnant rage by clashing openly;
For the peace of the soul is a supreme treasure!
May the kindred spirit standing intimately close,
Dwell ever in grace, immersed in unshakeable peace.

Vindictive malice festering within is deadlier than a volcano;
Let the fire-spewing mouth tear open and erupt into calm!
Only when the molten lava, glowing white-hot,
Has poured forth and cooled
Can a crimson flower bloom upon the very lip of the crater.

[Badri Venkatesh @dirbadri]

#Badrivenkateshpoetry #BadriVenkatesh #poetry #poemaday #poetrylovers #poetryloverscommunity

TRANSLATION
PROOF OF LIFE

​He who knows no fear
has he lost all noble grace, or is he truly dead?
Your breath alone does not speak
of where your life abides;
to tremble in fear is the proof of life,
that alone is the pulse of the living flesh!

​A fearless man is a scourge upon the earth;
and though noble grace, shrinking in terror,
threatens to crumble into ruin,
inner fortitude rises there
becoming a luminous glory that protects
through centuries upon centuries!