The itinerant

(Pune, 2011)

There were stars the other day

When I was walking down the road,

Crossing the bridge that led

Over the river that runs nearby.

Stars that shone down upon this place

That I now call my home.

Home is a difficult expression;

The definition keeps changing,

Like the arrow of a compass

That travels North, East, West, South.

As I have travelled, and stayed

Across this country.

Evening by the river Hooghly,

Another time, another place.

We sat down watching the Bridge in the distance

As the falling sun played

Its colours over the horizon.

Peripatetic city- celebrations, grief, love, betrayal,

Wrapped in the miasma

Of festivals, processions and life.

We watched from the café as life went by

In Calcutta.

Cut to another time, another place,

Torrential rains,

Roaring waves of the Arabian Sea,

Hills in the distance.

And the Netravathi river winding through

The edge of Mangalore.

I sat and watched the scene

From the riverbank,

The flowing current reminding me that

Life is about change and moving on.

And so I moved on

To the shore of the Hussain Sagar,

The huge Buddha statue in the middle

Tranquility in the cool evening air.

The evening air moved on and rustled across

The walls of the Charminar,

And the Persian cafes in old Hyderabad

Where I would see life passing by,

Slowly, gently,

As it had for ages.

And, moving further on, foggy, surreal city,

Night at daytime,

The banks of the Yamuna are clouded in mist

At nine in the morning.

The fog brushes past

The old, decrepit monuments

Proudly standing erect

In the heart of Delhi.

Chaos in the city,

The freezing air made life miserable.

And then the ball rolls,

The scene changes

To the banks of the Pavana river

On the edge of Pune.

These very banks

Where Ganesha statues

Are brought in huge processions,

Then hoisted, lowered, immersed

In the month of Ganeshotsava.

Devotion, faith

Mingling with mirth and exuberance.

I have been through it all

In different locales-

Love, happiness, frustration, betrayal,

Success, failure, money , penury;

Only the backdrop keeps changing,

The protagonist remains the same.

The itinerant wanders

Across his country,

Slightly weary of it all

And not knowing

Where the journey would end.