Live-Streams of Bangalore Skies

And then, a sliver of the Bangalore sky -

cotton candy, gold or oceanic blue -

A horizon as wide as the space between my thumbs

Water tanks on the roofs of JP Nagar,

like cauldrons with the ingredients of twilight,

bouncing off my glasses

I tell them I am crying,

the way we do with a smiling face

when we meet an old lover we despise no more

Pigeons tug at chariots over HSR Layout,

wheel white clouds out of the frame

I missed the April rain,

The jazz-next-door rain, the hot espresso rain

And the sudden quarter-to-seven rain

And then, a touch of thunder -

Grandma’s flowerpots in Calcutta are dry

They do needlepoint in my dreams,

Stitch hometown sunsets to Indiranagar walkways

The storm flings itself at French windows,

paints my favourite cafe with mad brush strokes

Somebody sends me a picture

“It’s Friday afternoon over Ulsoor Lake -

you would have been chasing an auto beneath the sunset now”

To be thought of, in Koramangala,

atop Domlur Flyover, passing Church Street,

Under lamp-posts scooping spoonfuls

of the Brigade Road half-light,

To be remembered by the city,

like the smell of orange peels in the school anthem,

like a private memory in the heart of a song -

And you — you carry its voice to me

the ballad of the skies of Bangalore

My friends send me pictures and videos of Bangalore skies. This is for them. Take a look at my memories of the Bangalore sky — over Indiranagar, Brigade Road, Ulsoor and Cubbon Park — they are from me, to you.