A Village Trip

From afar, we saw them –

Cheerful, gay and clothed in various hues,
The women were waiting outside their second home.
The eldest among them opened our bus door
To welcome us warmly
And embrace us with their collective love!

We bent our heads down

To enter their humble workplace
Rows upon rows of near-rusty sewing machines
Yet, on the walls hung their vibrant creations –
Bags, pouches, gift baskets, iPhone cases
Short of imagination they weren’t, for sure!

The sharp contrast hit the visitors

For how grateful these women were
For the little nothings they possessed!
The children, more than happy with an old tricycle
Donated by a mother whose child was now a teenager.
Sometimes, it’s the small things in Life that matter…

(Composed in Panchgani, October 2015)

Where Are The Children?

Winding along the narrow road up the hillside,

On the right, an amusement park –
But wait! Where are the children?
A little further, a near deserted village
With cows and stray dogs roaming about…

In the third house along the road,

A family of three – just seated for lunch,
But hey, where are the younger ones?
The three at the table ate silently.
The grandmother peers at her son,
Who was taking a break from the farm
To mourn his young child’s passing
In the accident along the busy hillside –

The school bus taking the village kids

To the town school nearby
Had crashed into the hillside,
Wiping away an entire generation
From the now silent village!

(Composed in Panchgani, October 2015)

Vagabond - a poem in 7 minutes

Searching, researching – for a lost soul

Where could she be hiding
After all these years?
She left one sudden morning
While the Dal
Was still simmering on the hob…
The main door left ajar
For the maid to come in
And discover she had left!

Vagabond! Be the vagabond you’d always wanted to be,

Said someone to her one day
At a café, where she was going through travel books.
Her mind was made up that very instant –
THIS wasn’t the life she wanted to live.

She wanted to run, to be free,

To escape, to be a Vagabond.

(Composed in Panchgani, October 2015)