Johannes Manjrekar (1957-2020) was born in Hameln, Germany and grew up in Mysore, India. His education consisted largely of insect collecting, bird-watching and swimming, supplemented eventually by a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. From 1989, he taught M.Sc. students in Microbiology and Biotechnology at Baroda’s M.S. University. Apart from being a haijin, he was a keen observer and photographer of insect and human society.

This page contains 168 haiku written between 2001 and 2017, arranged from the earliest to the latest.
There are 20 haiku on each page. You may use the Prev/Next button at the bottom of the page.
You may use the Comment button to leave your responses to the haiku.

along the pavement
snatches of the same song
from different radios

2001-02-2

sultry afternoon
iridiscent fly gleams green
or maybe blue

2001-04-1

windy
a floating leaf
turns butterfly

2001-07-1

hilltop
the clouds
rising to my feet

2001-07-1

monsoon clouds
a solitary
bright red kite

2001-08-1

monotonous rain
frogs singing
in many voices

2001-08-1

hot night
the moon nearly full
the mosquitoes too

2001-08-1

cloudburst
two men in the doorway
chat about war

2001-10-1

rain clouds
a kingfisher watches
the busy traffic

2001-10-1

Gandhi's birthday
constantly relighting candles
during the peace March

2001-10-1

morning chill
a spider's web gleams
on the barbed wire

2001-10-2

dry stream bed
clouds drift
above the train

2001-11-1

clear night
a fireworks flower
opens against the full moon

2001-12-1

morning radio news
a snail crawls up the front wheel
of the express bus

2001-12-1

funeral procession
a bee lands
on the flowers

2001-12-2

smell of newsprint
twenty beauty queens
with one smile

2002-01-1

burnt house
the owner’s name
on the iron gate

(After the slaughters in town)

2002-03-2

smoky moon
a cloud of insects around
the street light

2002-04-2

melting tar
silk cotton drifts
across the road

2002-04-2