Moon Light English Coaching Center;
O Lebal to Standard Lebal
SIGN ON KEDAR GHAT, AUGUST 2009
There shall be
no collisions
as long as every cow sports
five heads
twelve legs
eight wheels
ten bicycle bells
and one moo.
This pundit with the Cheddar cheese voice
has scratched his tummy
as long as that dog has dreamt
No board exams here.
The living are coached on dying,
the dead on rebirthing,
the priests on parody.
Manikarnika blazes
in an endless semi-final.
Pizza Hut
is just one thousand years old.
Each time he spits,
he unleashes a torrent
of juice,
snot,
stomach enzymes
and a Veda.
(Incredible India, you say.
The universe
in a globule of paan.
Profligate with
mucous and metaphysics.
Sparing only
Paul arrives from Kerala with brandy.
Returns with Gangajal.
(His sadhu friend and guide is ex-Naxalite.)
Maanya calls.
She asks where I am.
I am blank.
Before me, the hotel wallpaper –
a palm-fringed sea –
grey with the effluents
of those that have lain here before me
contemplating death
and room service.
That evening
(Lebal Eight)
we hunt,
we thirst,
we ache,
desperate pilgrims,
fevered seekers,
for just one millimetre
of riverbank
we can call
god-forsaken.