Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 8, Number 1. May 2025. ISSN: 2581-7094
Delhi, City of Migrants
--- Malashri Lal
Tathastu
Buddha Purnima’s resplendent
moon
glowed over the summer greens
turned brown by the scorching
sun,
yet the mellow moon brought
people out on their
divided terraces.
The Sikh merchant remembered
his grandmother’s tales of the
Partition.
The Bengali neighbour thought of
the joblessness in Kolkata that pushed him to Delhi,
The Kashmiri carpet seller on
the next terrace dreamt of his lost valley,
The Tamilian lady softly sang a
Vandana to the moonlight,
The Rajasthani lad longed for
the moonlight flooding mustard fields.
Neighbours all, packed into
urban cubes, holding on to privacy
refusing to pull down cultural
barriers,
each an island of displacement,
compulsion and opportunity
isolated in their patches of
terrace territory.
Buddha Purnima brought them
seeking ethereal light
No glance or word was exchanged
by the five neighbours
In this city of suspicions
The Buddha said, Tathastu
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