Paltan Bazar

(dedicated to that very eclectic and chaotic part of my city..which we call Paltan Bazar.
i had been passing through this part for five years at a stretch and inspite of the noise and the stench..to my  surprise this morning i realised how much i had fallen in love with it...after all this spot..alongwith all the other spots in my hour long journey from home to college had attained so special a significance for me and my ruminations)

broken windows
plywood sheets on merry three wheelers
flies and beggars,
lies
lovers meeting, families departing ;
a harrowed and sweaty tourist lost in the chaos,
a confused new comer gazing at signboards ;

business laces the air, and  pavements.
sweetmeats in doubles-- split shops between split families;

honks and shouts, swears and smiles jostle for space,

a man blissfully sleeps in the shadow of the temple
where devotees throng... but the song of the gong

is drowned in the song of the nearby shops;
songs.... of little girls being defamed.

some yards, and a creek ahead--

a fair skinned sadhu narrates stories of distant lands--while

smeared in the white of the math,

his desi companions sing 'praise be the lord!'

Outside flows a clogged stream of filth

on whose banks sits a daily haat--

presenting life in all its shades--bright ,dark and wane

As an old lady

solitary, half-hidden amidst weeds, in an unkempt garden

perched atop a stone pedestal--

watches on--stone faced

the passage of  time,
 the antics of life flitting its fickle wings...

in the City of Sleep

as i stand on the shores of a new road
i grapple...i sweat..i cry
anguish stifles--
dreams sigh, and pass by
memories linger to welcome...another day gone stale
dreams sigh,
and pass by
and i wait for the shadow to crawl
on and on and on.
The shadow stinks
i recite songs from my memory
Songs--fragments of desires, of love, of lust gone stale.
Songs???
what songs do i croon?
wha..oh..what tune was it?

Songs............

i grapple with anguish. the shadow grows big
senses go numb,
and i hear voices in the wind.
Voices of long lost friends,
Voices of days that will no longer end.
I stand on the shores of a new road...a silky road,
The dark sun glowers brighter still.
forgotten voices wave their arms in the wind--beckoning, calling
come, Sarah come...life ends not with your body.
I step across the twilight zone,
the moon sends sparkles across my feet.
And I turn, one last time
bright life is still running its course
once-kins running away from shadows
grappling with their anguishes-- sweating, crying.


i smile.
i croon.
i join my friends , waving arms in the wind.
joining voices in the Eternal Song...

Shadows scare me no more.
 i myself am, a shadow in the wind
a shadow on the wall.
a shadow
a shadow,
in the City of Sleep.