Tyranny

I boarded the train on the empty platform

Next station Dadar, there’s gonna be a storm

Trooped off with me are two lazy fellas

One asks for chewing gum, other says ‘khallas’

With loud hush, train enters station of Dadar

Suddenly alert, crowd starts to gather

The train pushes more people inside it daily

Like a thin boy stuffs burger in his belly

Showers of chitchat all over on me

Like a group of birds released to fly free

Jabbering of people healing each other’s wound

Hush of locomotive making the constant sound

When the pace of mind becomes that of train

The spirit of Mumbai is passing through everyone’s vein

Blinking towers peep constantly from windows so narrow

Thoughts flash and disappear like city’s sparrow

Smell stinks in, sometimes when we are lost

But we have to bear it for a while at any cost

Towers at a distance, standing so tall

Though hands help up high, they make you look small

Shallow water running hastily beneath the bridge

A bottle of water comes out of a bag, cold as if out from a fridge

The furthest of the towers touching black sky

Mesmerized by it, even the stairway to heaven will shy

Contraplex of words finally slows down in lull

Pace of the moving bogie tries to get consubstantial

The view of final station glitters in eyes

Ears get straighten up to hear shouting and cries

The crowd gets ready to wake up and serr

Hands look for support and legs move together

Bereaved and pent heads then emerged out of door

Looking for a space to rest their feet on the floor

Fickleness of crowd pushes me out

I jump off suddenly and can’t even shout

Two of my fellas appear jabbering thereafter

Even in the lair of platform I can hear their laughter

I march towards the bridge, but they now resist

Frenetic are their minds, I know so I insist

To save time they serr over the rail tracks

Can’t be assailant now, so I can follow ‘em at the max

On the other platform stands a tall shaggy man

I see his black suit and then I understand

Sternly he holds the three of us and walks

This time neither my admonitions work nor my talks

That feeling of guilt, and annihilating I am now

I pray and cry, but can’t stop his gibe somehow

He bereaved us to pay for our crime

The precept makes me angry and I refuse this time

But it’s hard to invigorate my lazy fellas, I realized

So, with a compromised covenant we decided to end this fight

Years of struggle and so many words of gibe

At the end of all this, I am still paying someone bribe

With a scornful way, I start walking away

Let the path take me anywhere and let my mind have something to say

I pretend to be cognizant but, have shame inside me

Somewhere deep in my mind

I decide to end this tyranny….