Kolkata Anecdotes

by Anuradha Majumdar

Through two poems, Anuradha Majumdar brings to life, the scenes from streets in the city of Kolkata. In both the poems, the daily tensions in a street are juxtaposed with lightness. The second poem, in particular, describes the daily anger, despair and hilarity that spread through pavements, people, traffic, animals and shops that fill a street.

#1
Late afternoon
Tensions run high –
Overhead
Crows watch the street
From TV cables, jury-eyed –
Four white Labradors saunter
Happy-tailed
Through a Kolkata
Traffic jam.

#2
Early morning sidewalk
The cha-walla’s kettle steams,
Morning walkers hasten their steps
Papers are bought, babus read
That exams are delayed again,
That the price of mustard oil
And fish will rise –
The sun climbs to midday heat
The cha-walla dozes in his chair,
Under his stall, two cats chorus
Whiskers taut and blistering –
Oblivious to passing protest marchers,
To the hum of rabindra-sangeet,
They leap out, in crescendo,
Torpedoing Bose-ginni’s path –
Mishti-doi flies out of her hand
Spatters the sidewalk
Trousers, bags,
Pandemonium explodes
The cats scat –
The TV salesman thinks
He’s in a new detergent ad –
Will Surf wash this whitest? Is it all a scam?

Inside his shop headlines are flashing
Bose-ginni looks at the screen, annoyed
With each uncertain day, words and truth
Get harder to synchronize –
She raises her eyes to challenge the sky
But her mind is suddenly blank –
A wide blue laughter spills across the pavement.

Anuradha Majumdar’s books include ‘Refugees from Paradise’ and ‘The God Enchanter’ and two books of poetry, ‘Mobile Hour’ and ‘Light Matter’. She has contributed poetry for art installation and choreography projects and participated in the Prakriti poetry festival. She has published short stories and also writes for young adults. Anuradha has also participated in the Literature-Cinema conference at the Focus India event in Rome in 2007. To know more about her and her body of work, visit http://www.anumajumdar.com

Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunnock_d/