Kedarnath Singh, do you remember Noor Miyan?
The fair-looking Noor Miyan
The dwarfish Noor Miyan
After selling surma at Ramgadh Bazaar,
he would be the last to come home. . .
What, you remember such trivia too, Kedarnath Singh?
You remember the school . . .
The tamarind tree.
The Imam bada . . .
You remember from the beginning to the end
the multiplication table of nineteen
Can you, from addition and subtraction on your forgotten slate,
deduce why
leaving your colony one day
Noor Miyan had gone away?
Do you know where he is at present?
In Dhaka or Multan?
Do you know how many leaves fall every year in Pakistan?
Why are you silent, Kedarnath Singh?
Are you weak in mathematics?
Translated from the Hindi by Pradeep Gopal Deshpande