I see the elements
Of Auden’s Look, Stranger and Masefield’s Sea Fever
In Adil Jussawalla,
A poet of the missing person,
Of Bombay the port city
Of harbours and beaches
And islands,
Of refugees and job-seekers
And settlers.
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O, palanquin-bearer, which way,
Has my little daughter gone,Gone away,O, palanquin, palanquin-bearer,My small daughter going,Going awayAfter boarding the palanquin,The palanquin,She getting ontoAnd you lifting itTo take away,To take away to her in-laws’ house,O, palanquin,Palanquin-bearer,Tell me, tell me,How the way,The way is,How far, how far,How, how will she,Take care, you take care ofMy daughter, my daughter,O, palanquin, palanquin-bearer!A small girl,…
Mahatma Gandhi
How to sayWas hegood,Was he bad?Gandhi the man,Gandhi the politician,Gandhi the great man,I could not know it,I could not judge it.
I,
The speaker, the listener,Speaking and speaking,The listener, listeningAnd listening,The artist and the audience too,I, I,Don’t you,Don’t you know me?
Just saw I him
And statrted I dancing,Hearing his name,Michael Jackson,Seeing his imageHanging on the wall,Such had been the magic of his nameAnd his rhythm of dance and music.With the cap overheadAnd the goggles on the eyesAnd a handkerchief tied around the neck,I going,Going and going,Coming not,A dancer in motionAnd emotion.Dancing on the waysAnd going,Waving at and kissing from…
Between one brother and another, I go it marking,
Not between one man and another,But between one nation and the other.With the coming of the sister-in-law,Saw I the rooms partitionedBetween one brother and another,Fatherly books being partitionedBetween one brother and another.Thereafter, they started talking about the partitionOf the pension money of the retired father,Started spying for the pass-book and the pension-moneyOf the fatherAnd the…
If they are not of society,
If they are not of the nation,Who are they?They are the narrow-minded people,The religious ghost haunts them,Fanatical and out-dated.Only religion and the religious ghost,The jinn on their minds,How narrow-minded and fanatical are they!Worship God, but not putting others into troubleAnd in this way which is but a type of mental disorder,If you do not obey…