Poetry: Ganesh Puthur

Ganesh Puthur

Seeing Howrah Bridge From Mallick Ghat

To see Howrah bridge From Mallick Ghar 

Was more than a necessity after seeing it

In an acquaintance's instagram post. 

With its gigantic metallic ribs

countless vehicles passing 

And colorful lights casting its reflection 

On the turbulent surface of Hoogly river.

 

As I walk through a small pocket road

To find the way to Mallick ghat,

I feel silence enveloping me 

Only to be broken by barking street dogs 

Little perplexed by seeing a stranger.

It was night 

A deserted flower market

But the smell of Jamanthi flower

Still stranded, overcoming the malodorous drains 

Filled with urine and dirt. 

An old man wrapped in a shabby scarf

Showed me a small path,

Barely one could walk with 

Single room - houses

Sans doors on either side.  

I can hear the cry of Hooghly

While standing on the Mallick ghat,

Moaning about being reduced to a huge sewage canal.

People sleeping on the stairs of the ghat

Mosquitos on a run to suck different blood groups

And two young men carrying a bin

Filled with food wastes 

Throwing ruthlessly into the river’s womb.

Returning from the Ghat

Walking through the narrow lane,

The flower market and a few suspicious eyes.

Climbing the stairs to Howrah bridge,

I see a fakir playing ektara,

Is this just another sorrowful music

Or this city’s heartbeat?

***

A Night and A Day

Sorrowful nights climbing the doorsteps knocking the window shields

like an unintended guest reluctant to leave you

Or like raindrops falling like tear drops from the clouds

traveling through the curved edges of the earth.

A lantern is lit, spitting shadows on the wall

But it can’t erase the darkness with its tiny flame

Because it is like a firefly in wilderness

Staring at emptiness with the little phosphorus left.

Nature’s will is to last till the sun rises.

 

I can hear birds murmuring about the sights they saw last eve.

About the deep green forests, children playing in the meadows.

I see the dew drops sliding through the leaves

Making the soil beneath it wet and lively.

The sharp rays from the sun bringing happiness

For not just me but for all.

Isn’t this life in a glimpse?

A seesaw constantly moving between happiness and sadness,

Between light and darkness.

It is, but the seesaw keeps moving.

 

Now, the sun is all set to set

To welcome the definite hours of darkness.

Later the darkness will pave way to the light

And this cycle is to roll till the very end.

***

Bio: Ganesh Puthur, a bilingual poet in Malayalam and English, is a recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2023). He has published two anthologies of poetry in Malayalam, "Achante Alamara" and "Amma Varakkunna Veedu," and his English poems have appeared in esteemed publications like The Muse India, Poems India and the Borderless Journal. A native of Kerala, Ganesh also holds a Masters degree in History from the University of Hyderabad.

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Setu, March 2024