In India, keep a sharp eye out for signs, which may say so much. “Quality provisions for ever” was the message of a sign I spotted in Kerala.

Quality provisions for ever

Here on the road between this place and the next,

With South India to the north, and to the south

A sea of fishing boats and hazy distances,

Shops and houses create a wavering line

Of unharmonious architecture,

Buildings that bear no relation

The one to the other, save for optimism:

A two-storey construction

Proclaims itself a tower;

A concrete box, its windows shuttered,

Is none other than The Excellence Hotel;

An eye surgeon lists his qualifications

In large and easily readable type—

A foretaste, perhaps, of what surgery

Might achieve; from time to time

A temple promotes its special god,

Or a Latin church its saint—

Religion is tolerant

In these latitudes, welcomes

Each new vision of how

We came to be where we are;

An astrologer offers detailed charts

Of a future that we universally

Hope will be better than today,

With its landscape of disappointments;

That sense of betterment

Is what enables people here

To tolerate, to believe

It’s worth continuing; worth bearing too

An unremitting and unforgiving sun;

Traffic, the demands of extended family,

Dishonest bureaucrats, the unattainable

Life portrayed in films and in their posters,

Where the hero is so much better looking

Than anyone one knows, and dancing

Is resolution and solution, all in one.

And then a sign that says:

Quality provisions for ever;

And that is what I wish my friends,

For whom I could wish, I suppose,

Reciprocated love, unconditional fame,

A place in the history books,

A job for life, with pension,

A lottery win or an unexpected award;

But, knowing these unlikely,

I wish instead something

That we all can understand

And is not wildly improbable:

Quality provisions for ever,

The simplest sign, as is often the case,

Goes to the heart of what we know

We all would have:

Quality provisions for ever.

Enough said; signs may fall silent now,

None will match its understanding

Of human needs and hopes;

None will deride it, none would

Say I wish for something else.