Three poems by Ravish Kumar
Today I feel like a small town….
And me, like a metro!
Yes, whenever I cross South Ex,
I feel like Karawal Nagar.
Shut Up! You are mad! In Delhi,
Everybody feels like Delhi.
It is not like that! Everything is not Delhi in Delhi! Just as
Love is not there in everyone’s eyes.
OK, so how did I become South Ex?
The way I became Karawal Nagar.
You are right……
If this Barapula flyover was not there,
the distance between South Ex and Sarai Kale
Khan would never have decreased.
Do you love me or the city?
City! Because you are my city!
***
In Sarai Julaina of South Delhi- in a village of Jats,
A city of nurses from Kerala have been established,
who work in Escorts, Holy family and Apollo.
With every rented rooms, their/her dreams kept on changing.
She kept taking care of heart patients but her own was stuck on the old landlord’s son.
She started loving Sarai Julaina so much, that she opened an eatery there – Malabar hotel.
There was no other way to wait!
***
I am only changing the room!
Not the city!
There are so many memories in this room in Pushp Vihar and you say that only the room has changed.
Look, tenants don’t have their own city.
Nobody knows, how many cities stay in the million houses of Delhi.
These poems have been published in Ishq Mein Sheher Hona, Rajkamal Prakashan, 2015.
Translated from Hindi by Rani Rohini Raman