Away from You, on a day like today.
It's funny how we try to feel at home,
away from home.
We fool ourselves,
with the usual-
festivals and films,
food and friends.
Imprudently we believe,
we carry you with us
where ever we go.
You.
You, the one with a billion and some voices
that call me today,
as I try to make peace with myself.
So, how do you feel today,
with streets agog with your (my) countrymen,
frenzied and euphoric?
Did you miss me?
I worry, you didn't.
But I did.
Acutely.
I missed the air about you,
the pulse, the beat,
the rouse;
while we shed tears of joy,
albeit, away from you.
Oh, tell me again,
how do you feel, today?
What does it look like,
to see a billion and some faces smile bright?
Do tell, India, how does it feel like?
[Such a proud moment. Such a wonderfully proud moment. And I'm away from my beloved country.
Congratulations and celebrations, fellow Indians. How does it feel like, eh? :-) ]
Comments
@D: you lucky thing, you...to be amidst such euphoria!
@DM: the verse pretty evidently states my answer to your question DM. My heart is always at home. And India is my ONLY home.
I have been in Dubai, visiting my only sister, since 24 March, till 22 April.
But I did not miss India, when we won in the World Cup. For cricket has ceased to be a sporting game and degenerated into a business.
But I do respond to the longing emotions of expats like you. Only that, victory in cricket does not "rouse" my patriotism.
Your poem is one more proof that a wonderful writer lies throbbing inside my dear KG, waiting to bloom like Gray's flower of sweetness:
"Full many a flower of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
Taken from "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray.
In your case, the desert is Sydney.
Come back, my dear KG, to the land of the glorious Oriya people. Your land beckons.
Peace and love,
- Joe.