Childhood

How many are proud of saying

Watched the empty sky at night

Studded with stars-farming birds

Animals, flowers?

Dirtied hands with cow dung

Mopped the ground, swept with

Broom, sprinkled water?

Jumped the compound wall

Climbed the trees, played

‘I spy’, plucked flowers?

Lying on your back in the open terrace

Talking to your siblings, counting the dots

In your mother’s sari, [stars- sky]

Trying to fold your father’s dhoti.

Asking riddles, smelling the night

Experiencing the stillness in the air.

With the chirping of the birds

Announcing the birth of

Beautiful dawn?

We’re gifted folks

The new generation misses all

These small minute things.

The multi-storeyed buildings

Ever threat to safety has snatched

The beauty of a village.

These petty ‘ashas’; go to villages

Experience for a day, you will be blessed

With a nectar of Indra Log!

March 22, 1998.