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A collaboration over too much coffee.
coffee and pen

13 December, 2004

The Bombay Train Song!

He hangs on dangling handholds
As the train sways and careens
Endless nondescript buildings unfold
Their secrets as the tired warrior returns.

The day is over the night falls
Thickly through the barricaded windows
The man’s sleepy head lolls
On his shoulder in a dream disturbed.

The days are a hard white collar brawl
The sleepless night stretches ahead
There’s no space for a fly to crawl
The morning paper is still unread.

You who sleep standing
Don’t drool on his shirt
It will cost him a lot of spending
If you pour on him all your dirt.

Plastic bags, umbrellas, Tiffin
The rack is full and the seats overflow
What is that smell Peter Griffin?
Is it the Sewri sewers overflowing?

Beware of pickers of pockets
Who surround and slash with knife
Careful of your arm’s sockets
Lest they dislocate and misery make life.

Welcome to Bombay’s bustling trains
Hold on fast as if you are insane!

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Makes me wonder why are trains everywhere the same? Dangerous, filled with people on the verges of social scale (no offense), dirty, and a reflection of what the world has come to.

The poem catches this honestly and brings home the truth of a world within itself, on wheels.

14 December, 2004 11:15  
Blogger Pragya said...

Hey John!

Like I said before, Bombay or NYC, trains are the same everywhere!

My co-worker was accosted by someone who was determined to snatch her back pack from her yesterday, in the NYC subway. She was pretty freaked out but as determined to keep it.

Miseries on wheels is right! Can't live with them, can't live without them!

14 December, 2004 19:25  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I never post comments...but had to this time... coz I think what you write has a very down to earth sense and is not the wannabe post modern kind of stuff that can often be read at Caferati .

25 December, 2004 16:18  

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