Westgate Mall - A Symbol of Multiculturalism

http://www.indiawrites.org/india-and-the-world/revisiting-westgate-mall-in-kenya-a-symbol-of-multiculturalism/

On Uprooting and Relocating

VIZAG VIGNETTES

The airplane hovers over

Cranes, conveyor belts, cooling towers

Jetties and docks, flames and fumes

Welding sparks and city lights

The industrial gaze of Vizag

gears up to gobble me

*****

Black and white.. and red

Coal and sulphur... and iron ore
open-air stacks of fine dust

like giant heaps of rangoli

bedeck sidewalks

Toxi-city

*****

Polythene bags and frazzled fabric

Clog the roadside nullah

Barfed by thousand factories

Blackened slurry and slush; in it

wading unsullied, a snowy egret

*****

Harried existence

Uprooted, struggling to drop anchor

Waves wake up on shores, gently

Unhurried, unnoticed

*****

The houses I have lived in

Have made home in my psyche

And I, in turn,

Have lent them my Identity

*****

I buckle under the burden

Of the baggage of our itinerant lives

My pace slackened I lumber to a grinding halt

For the moment, I am content

To watch dolefully, as the world races by

*****


Often, lights fade out

And fans die on us

Mother of pearl moon

Beams on the patio -

Bay breeze fans sweet dreams

*****

Trawling language zones

from Kiswahili to Konkani

we  now sashay into
Rainbow Sagarika RJ's
Telugu desam

*****

Gongura and Thottakura

fiery Andhra chilli
Greens from hawkers' market

titillate the palate
and lure me to local flavours

*****

No buses, no autos, no school

Bandhs and blockades

Protests and price rise

Between Samaikyandhra and Seemandhra

The T-word threatens …

to disrupt “normalcy”, indefinitely

Unsafe streets

*****

Political collusion and Pollution 

incites disquiet...

Notwithstanding - 

On Dolphin Hill

I get my eye-piece of the pristine bay

And I am good to go

*****


On Dolphin Hill

You don’t count butterflies

You only feel them

flutter your heart!

*****

Uprooted from Goa

Washed ashore Visakhapatnam

Mandovi Hill to Dolphin Hill

From West coast to East coast

The journey comes a circle

Begins all over again

*****