dropping work
madhavi made field trips to
sick father in between normal
and critical.
sweeping floors on a sunday noon
her mobile spelt the end.
she was late for the last act.
brothers and sisters were luckier.
absences cost jobs.
dear father made death dearer.
undyed, unwilling father dear was
asleep when his dear left.


..........



an orphan, santhosh whiles hours and hours
of time on a dead stretch of concrete.
climbs the jamun and mango;
flies kites;
is adept at cycling;
humours the elders at cards with drinks and smokes;
shapes cricket bats from mango crates;
strong at lagori, marbles;
is everyone's bell-boy.
crawling up a coconut curving out of the housing society,
glimpses homes with TVs, internets.
some have spotted him on moonless nights
climbing skies.
helping a builder nail exit notices on shanty doors,
santhosh is a swagger, a street elder.



.........

a desinned, coffee-toned priest
girdled in a chalk line of sacred thread,
waits before a locked house of god.
magpie robins on a mango tree
make company.
a cook's tricks to prayers cost
him the job.
denied of a roll of paan,
a dot of supari,
a fingertip of tobacco,
is upset.



..........


at Kasi,
Siva and Kali,
wading the Ganga,
light diyas in time;
residents of the burning ghats,
smear ashes of time.
framed,
the tale, at chintan's watch repair shop,
with cured clocks on walls,
chiming differently.


........


a municipal official in an auto
with cycle outriders,
checks out market road
cleaned of vendors.
he cuts corners;
they go back to theirs.
smiles smear market road. 

alphonsos tip stalks.
still heads, a daring pink.
await the fall.

..........

in the garden of the primary school,
a peepal and banyan waltzz,
holding 3-year olds in their arms.
a summer breeze stolls by.


...........

loud humans.
mash, marinate, munch silence.
scar earth.


..........


signs in the summer morning
on koyal raga,
the koyal, from the mast tree,
requests an audience.



..........


the Drive and the Sea,
city-bred, city styled,
unstitch a loneliness.


...........

at the cracked, 19th century  sanatorium
a banyan is housed with
stoned sadhus.


.........

under a laburnum tree
wiping one's face on leaves.
an office rush stares.

.........

lightning.
sharp edged.
sky all monsoon.     

a may morning sun zooms in
on a meditative sow,
her squealing brood,
beside a sealed, plastic bin.
a sparrow on a coral wood tree
emailed the moment.

...........

10 years ago when the bank branch opened,
shiela was the first official,
alice her first client.
shiela has greyed;
alice is cottony.
spend daily whispering moments.


...........


meditation hall.
fenced gardens.
flowers shine the sun.


...........


kudremukh forests.
cold walks.
still streams.


..........


the banyan on station road,
is older than its roots.
hard to prove, though.

........

cormorants in arrow-head, wavy
formations.
fly out in the mornings.
fly in, in the evenings.


...........