The Town-Square Din

`
Horns hoot, bells scream
As they get in each other’s way
None willing to pause for the other.

Someone barks at a mike,
Some hear, none believe,
They’ve heard that lie before.

At the pan shop, a radio howls,
A wavering signal sings of love,
Love still exists, they say.

Utensils clatter as the twelve-year-old
Makes tea, the ten-year-old serves.

A goat tied at the post bleats,
As the busy butcher hacks and chops its sibling –
A lazy queue patiently waits;
Men talk, women gossip, children chatter.

At the corner, an urchin wails…

Not afar,
We trudge… along the sidewalk,
Pain drops trickle down
Along those wrinkle grooves.
No words are said, not a single sound is heard.
These silent words are just too loud.
`

Chandannagar, WB,

October, 2005

Reminiscences

`
A certain shade of a certain tree
A certain grassy green
Tiffin-break, a friend;

All float across
Like a distant dream
As if it never was,

Float across wafts
Of animated conversation,

We used to talk
Of such grave stuff –
Silly talk.

I remember
We had talked of the future once
Of parting too
But strongly believing
Somehow it would never be,
How silly!

It all drifts across;
And I smile
At that distant dream of silly things...

Maybe they're all that made me.
`

Mumbai, MH,

July, 2005

June, 2005 at BARC, Mumbai

`
The gray sky, dimly lit
By a million Mumbai neons
The silent dark hills
Peacefully soak in a light drizzle
The dust-laden foliage whisper words of gratitude
As the first monsoon wind tip-toes
Through the great city,
So quiet, so silent,
Careful not to rob her
Of her hard-earned silence and her meager slumber.
`

Mumbai, MH,

June, 2005

Dewdrops on grass

`
Winter and dawn.

And a droplet of dew,

Silent.

Clasps

Onto a rugged blade of grass.

Naive, I exclaim,

"How lovely the droplet.

How rugged the blade of grass."

You smile,

"Every drop of morning dew

Needs her grass to settle down,

And every weathered grass aspires

A moistened jewel in his crown.

Behold the lovely pair."

`

Pilani, RJ,

February, 2005