Tughlak
Not on pathways
Nor in parks and
gardens
But in
wilderness
And jungle nooks
Emerging from
nights
A silhouette of
life
Tiptoeing on
pathless stretches
Bent with broken
dreams
And opaque
visions
From the
cracking ribs
Of Tughlakabad
Smoke balls
From blind wells
Disengaging from
Barani’s diaries
Ageless
Friendless
And distant
Tales of murders
and intrigues
Strewn on the
line of horizon
Echo in his ears
each dawn
His steps
Measured and
heavy
Inch towards
The ocean of
meaning
Where sanity
drowns
And madness
Triumphs.
ANIMAL INSTINCTS
Elephants and Jarawas
Of Nicobar,
In tune with the
song of creation
Heard the
whispering earth
Felt her
rumbling belly
Smelt death
And escaped into
the
Heart of the
forest
Away from
tsunami,
Away from
The demon waves
that
Captured
civilized humanity
With their
cameras
Clicking
pictures,
Their
televisions blasting
A hundred
channels,
And virtual
reality dancing on
Their computer
monitors.
The Woman with a Baby
Lilacs and
tulips sprouting
From the slants
of her eyes
Her yellow face
Shimmering in
white sunlight
Her body, a
luminescent garden
Life within life
dancing on
Feather feet
The rising
belly, a tight sponge
Puffed into
lightness
Her hands going
in circles
Caressing the
baby inside,
On the cozy
pathway
Whispering
history in Portuguese,
Lingering pasts
In the ruins of
the fortress
at
Pasts hanging
with roots
From old
branches
Of banyan trees;
Whiffs of future
blowing
From the citadel
of the present,
Singing the song
of her body
The woman walked
Through smoke
and dust
Our eyes met,
Chinese with
Indian,
Entwined in
maternity
Not mediated by
English;
Tiny movements
rising
In our bellies,
Fish churning in
the ocean,
Birds flapping
wings through the skies
And eyelids,
drooping and batting heavy,
To enter
Or exit the
bliss of sleep.
End from the Beginning
Ensconced in the
leafy heart
Of the forest Jahanpanah,
Away from the
concentric paths,
Is an ancient
well
Dreaming in deep
sleep,
Hissing with
cobras and
Vipers
Beneath the
cover of thorny bushes;
Unseen and
unheard,
Still and
undisturbed
Through several
centuries
The blind
darkness captures
The madness
Of Mohammad Tughlaq
The king who
first created
And then
abandoned all he created
Who returned to Adilabad
The fourth city
of
Where breathed,
heaved and
Sighed the
forest
Throbbing and
blushing
With the break
of dawn
Inviting lovers
To come down the
spiral steps
Carved on his
chest,
To reach the
womb of time
And touch the
Beginnings
of history.
The
ocean’s floor has
Edges
The
edges of wrinkles
Of
our grandmother earth
That
crack
In
a flash
Shadows
emerge
And
dance
On
the edges
Of
the floor of the ocean
Pulling
and
Gently
nudging
The
fluid mass
All
this,
Below
the perfect calm of
Deep
waters
Shadows
that
Slither
And
transform
Into
primordial tongues
Of
fire in water
Ghosts
of
Naked
hunger
Rise
into the skies
And
the racing army
Of
dinosaurs
With
frothy mouths
Strike
the shores
In
frenzy
Gulping
sands, brick and mortar,
Husbands
and daughters, wives sons,
Uncles
and aunts,
Wrapping
them all into the underworld
But
not so for Maya
The
miracle girl
Floating
unscathed
On
Noah’s
The
effortless survivor
With
all her thirteen years
Resting
on the floating door
Separated
from
Her
house,
Thrown
far into the ocean
By
killer waves
Maya
biting her nails
Scratching
her head
And
dozing off,
Licking
drops of
Coke
from the abandoned can,
Amidst
reptiles,
Maya
clinging to the door
Of
innocence,
The
door to survival,
In
the face of tsunamis
Of the past and future, both.
Trial by Life
In the
operation theatre
Of the hospital
Anesthesia
awakened me
To
you;
All
at once, you emerged
from the pits of my being;
Like
lightning rose
The
voice of God
Blinding
the face of darkness;
Green
masks and cat eyes
Flashing
their dangerous competence
Ready
to terminate life
At
its root,
I
ran for your life
Salvaged
you from
The
murderous tools
Of
the doctor, that pursued me
And
entered my dreams forever
I
built a cocoon around you
Protecting
you from evil spirits;
From
the foetal state
To
your adult being
Rearing
you with
The
pain of repentance;
The
devil and God have
Battled
in me
We
both burn
In
the passion of your revenge
And
remain suspended
Between
life and death
As
if on the operation table
Both
of us
The
centre of the universe
With
green masks and cat eyes
All around us.