‘Badai’

Last night, there I was-

at the slum-dwellers’

urban marriage hall.

It was a sumptuous badai.

Marriages are made in heaven,

that is true.

Else, how could Geeta have known,

she would one day be married

to Bhairavi (Bhairav), her clandestine love for long.

They were in love

since their surrogate mother

had brought them

to their slum-house,

simultaneously.

Geeta was picked from

under a vegetable shop

at Mathura road.

And, Bhairav had a story.

He was thrown like a stone

by his (her) crooked father,

when mother Mary,

the incarnation of Nirmala

stood there, scolded the father

and brought Bhairav

to his new home.

Mary was Marjina,

but charity gave her the name.

She was kind to her children.

She felt her utmost for them,

died when they were

a little hurt.

Few of them, for avarice sake,

took to evil practices,

but some of them

work well at offices,

government and non-government.

There are also chemists

among them, cosmeticians,

unpublished writers,

brilliant students.

Geeta was taught Home Science,

and she deliberately felt

about making a home

with Bhairav,

like others.

She talked to me about

her adoption plan,

and how to proceed

to bring home a child.

They were all very candid

at heart and mouth.

Really pure by instinct

and soul.

She said she should

make the best upbringing

of her child.

This is influence of Mary,

I thought.

Bhairav did works as a clerk;

at a bank, I do not know.

A handsome income

with fringe benefits

come to him, I hear

for his meticulous tasks

at the office.

Both talked to me

for about an hour.

Mary came to me

and asked to offer blessings

to her children.

I said, I have

already done

with the accomplishments.

As Geeta liked to read,

I gifted her a book-

King Solomon’s Mines.

May be, she could gather

more wisdom by emulating.

At departure time,

as they went to their new home-

Bhairav has taken a rented house

at Okhla-

both cried, especially Geeta.

I was watching, and

didn’t know when tears rolled down.

Mary asked if I cried,

I said, it was only an eye problem.

I hope she understood.

Badai ended

I came back home.

Last night, it was comfortable

for the wind and rain,

but I slept little-

all hodge-podge stuffs.