Crafting Poems

Babai and Aaji  - Arundhati Bhande 82 year old Babai Smiling through the day  With all her teeth still intact  32 to be exact  "I don't have a disease  Just some pain in my knee  The doctor's prescribed surgery"  One day before the surgery  She's packing for the hospital stay Still wearing her nicest saree,  still kneeling down to pray  "I am not scared of anything  I can walk it to the hospital wing  My heart still has songs to sing" My mother's mother, my Aaji,   passed away, she was  on her way  to pluck raw cotton from her farm   with a sharp pain in her arm Fell down to the ground  Fear never gripped her sound The hospital was too far  It stings us like an open scar   Women in my family  Have fought tooth and nail  With grit intertwined in their braid Lucky I am, to grow under their shade...

Red Eye Flight  - Arundhati Bhande  A red eye flight  Is a horrid night You’d rather sleep  And dream up a kite  You reach the airport  With your luggage-fort  A mile long queue but be a sport  Unlucky you are, they regret to report  “Your flight is 4 hours delayed ”  “Asuvidha ke liye bohot khed”  The other flights are extra-paid  And your patience starts to fade  You slump in a seat  And put up your feet  Your eyes shut tight  You're dreaming, flying a kite The day starts to grow Your brain is still a bit slow But the next thing you know You dozed off at the silent airport while Your flight has landed at the place you were  supposed to go! (Note:  Asuvidha ke liye bohot khed:  Sorry for the  inconvenience  caused)

Private Disco Party  - Arundhati Bhande  Do you remember that night after dinner? When we made a disco in your bedroom?  The light from our phone screens was  enough to light the room  And we dreamed up a disco ball You closed your eyes shut  I dressed up in my party best A silk top and a maroon skirt  You dressed in your comfy best Chequered  boxers and an old t-shirt  Pretending like we had never met before, but only for the first time in our disco  Inhabited by two lone dancing souls in a parallel universe shut-in by the window  With the blink of an eye and a little twirl, back into the bedroom, now your own We sat down next to each other, Listening to artists we had never known We answered questions about each other Answers that two strangers  could have never known Giggling at our silly drunken selves Now, like wisp vanishing in thin air the disco’s gone, so i...

Translation of 'Cremation' by Agha Shahid Ali in Marathi  (Cremation, Page 52, The Veiled Suite)  तुझ्या हाडांनी जळायला नकार दिला जेव्हा आम्ही तुझं दहन केल कोणी  विचार केला होता कि तू मेल्या वर ही जिद्दी राहशील [Attempt of a Hindi translation of the above] तुम्हारी हड्डियों ने जलने से मना कर दिया  जब हमने तुम्हारा  दाह संस्कार  किया  किसने सोचा था कि  तुम मरने के बाद भी ज़िद्दी रहोगे 

No Telephones That's When  -Arundhati Bhande  I swipe left and right, Up and down, type, check and send My grandmother's hand on mine Marveling at the technology so fine, A brief herstory through time as she begun to unwind I was about your age, when my mother died. For days I had wept and cried. There were no telephones back then, a luxury for the rich that's when a telegram of my mother's demise reached us later the next night  When I finally reached home, sweet mother of mine  had already been cremated I couldn't even say goodbye  I wonder if I had known in time A telephone call or a message  I could have at least  seen sweet mother of mine  for the very last time   (Note: This is a response poem to Agha Shahid Ali's poem- Today, talk is cheap. Call Somebody (Page 89), in the book The Veiled Suite)

Not One Home  - Arundhati Bhande  Age 22 Apartments Vacated 15, With Family 10, Without 5 Vacating an apartment comes easy to us now, We've learnt to live off cardboard boxes and how Living in the smallest town with no shopping mall To surviving in big cities with no relatives to call for help Some were home for years together,               13/68, A-501, A-601, D-5, E-14,  Some were home for a while,                            D-2, C-3, E-14, 2/144, 2/124, Some were home for a month,                          Room No. 101, Bed 1-A 101, Most weren't even in our name,                    But sheltered us for days to come                     A-221, C-228, 61 Lily They whitewashed...

There Were No Cheap Stars -Arundhati Bhande  What do you gift someone you've loved for a year? Something special, unique, maybe bizarre I turned to page 3.6.5. in Shahid's work and found Stars Searched extensively for an answer and found a website that commodifies planets and stars I looked, I scrolled, I clicked, I located but there were no cheap stars So much variety in the brightness of these stars I, a penniless speck on earth trying hard to negotiate, reduce and bargain for shiny specks, these stars Such a sweet thought to name a celestial body after a special somebody, but if you think far, who the hell gave us the authority to exchange pennies for stars? (Note: This is a response poem to Agha Shahid Ali's poem- Stars, in the book The Veiled Suite)

Should I Shave My Legs Today? - Arundhati Bhande It's summer, temperatures soaring in May I pull out a pretty yellow short dress, and wonder- should I shave my legs today?  Razor burns and cuts but need to slay All this pain, I'll make a mess, with summer, temperatures soaring in May Thank you, beauty standards for making me pay Hair removal adverts affect me I fess, they're pushing me to shave my legs today   Smooth and shiny skin was never my forte Just lather on some SPF 50, nothing less, cause it's summer, temperatures soaring in May It's a legit concern and not just a silly cliche MY winter growth causes THEM distress, is that a good reason to shave my legs today? I put on my short dress, I twirl, I sway A pop of red and here but not to impress,  bright and sunny, temperatures soaring in May and I have decided not to shave my legs today!

It’s Ticking - Arundhati Bhande I sit on the floor, my hands on the bed and my head on my left hand I hear ticking I write a letter to Noorie ‘Hi, how have you been? It’s been raining here Write soon.’ A month later Noorie replies, ‘Hi, it’s been raining here too, not water, something else. More later.’ It’s been a month I didn’t know what rains at her place But now I do My friend in heaven on earth, sat on the floor, her hands on her ears she heard ticking not a watch, something else. More never.

Andheri ka Andhera -Arundhati Bhande Andheri ke 11 baje ke andhere mein  Mai aur mera boyfriend  Haath pakad kuch aise chal rhe the Ki maano koi khauf na ho Aur khauf ho bhi kyun?  Woh Dilli ki koi sunsaan sadak thodi thi,   Woh toh Bombay ki jaagi hui sadak thi, chehel-pehel aur gaadiyon se bhari  Chalte chalte Humne andhere mein  Chandni ko dekha  footpath pe,  apna gajra theek karti hui  Gajra, gulabi top aur neeli jeans  Har roz ki tarah,  hum ek dusre ko dekh muskuraye  Bas mere khayalon mein,  Usne mere boyfriend ki oar dekha aur boli  “Aaj kaha le jaa rha hai, hero?”  “Picture dekhne, chalogi?”  Sharmate huye mere boyfriend ne poocha  “Aaj nahi kal”  Har roz ki tarah, Mere khayalon mein Chandni ke bahaane  Khair humne bhi behes nahi ki  plan badla aur Juhu pohonch gaye  Bhelpuri wale se ek newspaper udhaa...

Ghazal-e-Moving On -Arundhati Bhande  पहली बार मेरे बिखरे कपडे  यहां वहाँ नहीं  पर तुम नहीं हो   तो किसी ने कुछ अच्छा  कहा नहीं कल तुम्हारे लिए बेतुके सवालों की लिस्ट बनाई थोड़ी झिझक के बाद   पूछने को दिल चाहा   नहीं कई दिनों बाद  घर के एक कोने में नया लैंप सजाया जहॉं हमारा प्यारा - प्यासा कैक्टस अब रहा नहीं आज फिर   बिना झटके , धूल भरी चादर पर सोऊँगी 'फॉरएवर'    वाले धुले - साफ़ सपने अब यहाँ नहीं पिछले तीन दिनों से एक ही पन्ना ढूंढ रही हूँ तुम्हारा सबसे पहला लव - लेटर अब याद रहा नहीं आज शाम   पुराने शहर में नयी गलियां ढूंढेगी अरुंधती , तुम्हारी याद न हो जिस पर ऐसा कोई चौराहा नहीं

A  Winter Wednesday -Arundhati Bhande On a chilly winter Wednesday morning,   our lazy bodies lay next to each other as the sunshine played hide and seek with the flimsy curtains that caressed our sleepy faces, we escaped On a warmer winter Wednesday afternoon, we found ourselves in Rumi’s field "Beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing" my fingertips touched the length of your eye lashes, as you kept falling in and out of a sweet slumber On a cooler winter Wednesday evening, "When our souls lay down in that grass" you cupped my face in your hands, as I kept falling in and out of a sweet slumber On a cold winter Wednesday night, as the moonlight played hide and seek with the flimsy curtains, caressing our faces  "When the world was too full to talk about" we shared a silent dream