Ashok Niyogi
(Is my Afrikaans right?)
On mountain roads
When you make a left
You normally look right,
And this was a long long left
Believe you me.
So I took an occasional glance
At the plains of the Punjab,
Shimmering in the summer heat,
I was high up, you see,
In my mobile retreat.
I stopped my car
On the narrow road,
For a nip, just a sip,
And what do I see?
Streaks of lightning
On my left,
Tearing mountains apart,
Dark dark clouds
Coming low and fast,
Entire ranges vanishing
At the blink of an eyelid.
The first drop fell,
Big as water on a lotus leaf
Then nothing more.
For one second
That was an eternity,
Nothing more.
The rains came, when they came,
Like water in a car wash,
The berm started running away
In rivulets of mud,
The trees bent this way
My tiny car swayed
Weighed the possibilities
And stood its ground.
But I was human
Cowardly and cirrhotic,
With an inhuman desire to live.
It was primal, this fury,
Like an animal with unclean fangs,
The smell of the earth was so.
Suddenly the storm went away,
There was bright sunlight
The crickets came out straightaway,
In them I saw God.
