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| Ghoradongri station, Madhya Pradesh |
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| 'Dharakhoh' from A Peace of India: Poems in Transit. |
-Brian Mendonca
Pipal trees commiserate
as superfast Indians wait.
From sullen skies
rain beats down incessantly.
Mr. Sharma, sales manager
keeps everyone amused.
'Would you like to see our snaps in Leh?'
asks a newly-married woman travelling alone.
'Barish bahut tej heh ji.'
'Asman se gir ke
Khajur mein latke
Phir bhi bhatke.'
7 p.m. Ghodadongri
Ashwathaman wheels homeward.
Nanak dukhiya sab sansar.
Itarsi. Madhya Rail. 9.20 p.m.
'Your attention please
1027 Dn Dadar-Varanasi-Gorakhpur Express
is just arriving on platform number 2.'
Malkapur, Badnera, Pulgaon
Cotton fields wave
in the black soil of Vidarbh.
The ancient Godavari
glints in the breath of dusk.
Blase attendents
primly fold up coloured blankets
-the winding sheets of an odyssey.
Notes
This poem was written on the 2724 New Delhi-Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh Express in 1998. The train was stranded on the railway track because the way ahead was deemed unsafe because of incessant rain.
-Superfast or SF was a category of trains which were supposed to reach their destination quicker than normal trains.
-Barish . . .: (Hindi) The rain is very heavy Sir.
-Asman . . .: (Hindi) Idiom. 'Fell from the sky; got stuck in a date tree; still nowhere.' or 'Hardly has one ordeal been resolved, than another presents itself.'
-Nanak: 'Everyone is suffering in this world,' attributed to Guru Nanak Dev (1468-1539) founder of the Sikh religion.
-Ashwathaman: character in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The AP Express headed for Hyderabad is seen as Ashwathaman returning in his chariot.
-Godavari: river flowing through Central and South-Eastern India.
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Pic courtesy Indian Rail Info (top) and Brian Mendonca A Peace of India: Poems in Transit (New Delhi, 2011).
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