Untitled 15

summer holidays.
Atharva wakes to a screaming
table clock at 5;
after a cup of Complan to grow tall,
is at the swimming pool at 6;
at 8 is in the park to be a Tendulkar;
home at 11 for lunch;
cycles to an artist centre to be a Raza,
read dated  English classics to impress
friends of parents in air-conditioned drawing rooms.
for two hours till 7 goes round and round a
skating rink with hands hugging computers;
a bath at 8 for an hour in the puja room for prayers;
by 9 put to bed by a maid
when competitive parents return from work
or do not, caught at meetings to please
the boss.
Atharva is 20.
dislikes everything except the maid.
unlike Siddartha,
wandering the Way
after glimpsing the world.