TRAVEL POEMS

VAISHALI

Nalanda to Vaishali
Only a birth's distance.

Still it felt farther.

While travelling
Distance increases
Not deceases.

DELHI

Here,
Resolutions
Made.

A one-eyed kite
Never flies above dollars
Executes it.

The tourist guide hesitated
To reveal the rest.

He seems to be
Afraid of someone.

KASHI

Tales of salvation
Told a lot.

Had Ganga possessed
THe fury of Kali?

While dipping in the river
No doubt,man.

Emerging out
Yes, what is it?

MUMBAI

The eyes of the city
Oscillates
Like a pendulam.

They don't show time.

Want to know ?

Keep a dead watch
On your wrist.

KUSHINAGAR

Though Sri Budha
Had dissolved
The soil lacks fertility.

Human corpses
Make soil rich.

The plants and trees here
Herald not luxuriance.

The dead
May not be human.

I'm mystified.

May not be God.

Then, what?

DHARAVI

Sea of tiny sheds
They call home.

Made of torn mats
Rusty tin sheets
Decayed palm leaves
And hopes.

Ganga of drains
Saintly mosquitoes
Himalaya of epidemics.

Not in television
Blank in tourism guide.

I wanna be there.

Where is Dharavi?

VARANASI

A Vararuchi
Among the commuters?

A Dharmaputhra?

Rails are old and beaten.
The trains
Never belong to this age.

Poem lingered lips.
An oldy asks,
ARE YOU RECITING MANTHRAS?

He was on his way to Kashi.

The train came.

In the rush
The old man thrown out.

Instead of manthras
He murmured curses.

I still hums verses.

ALAPPUZHA

Hands of backwaters
Wrap the universe.

The dragon fly flutters
Wings stuck in
His own life blood.


Alappuzha lies
As the heart of a sea bird
Soars far off.

NALANDA

There was a university,
The guide said.

A request.

Don't click cameras,
Please.

History has no rebirth.

Atrocious lies
Everything.

BOKARO

Day light

The steelcity
Doesn't glitter.

The people
Working in the plants
Seems civilised.

Their flaked lips
Moved like ratchet wheels.

May be indicating
Immigrated civilisation.

But people around
Resembled aborigines.

Worn out history smiles.

The civilised and uncivilised!

Resounds siren.

BUDHAGAYA

A bodhi tree
Scattered temples.

Saffron clad sanyasi
Pees in public.

An eccentric got
Enlightenment here.

At gaya
The railway station.

While walking along
The sleeping and huddled shapes
I've lost another dream.
(Damn the dream,who needs it!)

THIRUPATHI

A spot forgot
To be wiped out.

Shaved heads of men.

Anti smell of
Turmeric and sandalwood paste.

Holy manthras
Remained undigested
In the electric light.

A heaven
For slaves.

RAJAGIRI

The present
Scales the mountain
Enduring the unbearable cold.

It might be a slip out.

Is it the temple atop
Caught their fancy?

It can also be
The inborn trait
To conquer the heights.

Unbrushed morning yawns.

In a journey
Why did the resting place
Become afflicting?