Bhilai’s Bandaged Heart:


I saw her first on a rainy day,

While waiting for a passing train,

In what used to be then the Nehru-Nagar intersection.


A strand of light had fallen on her purple scooty,

Precisely little subdued.

But she seemed a little arrogant,

Exactly like a side-walker,

Standing with an umbrella,

Facing the Mall Surya.


I was warm like the streets of sector 10,

Quiet like the roads of Forest Avenue,

Remote like the daylight Sector 9,

Not that I did not want her company,

While queuing for Maitri Bagh,

Or standing adjacent Satyam Bakery,

Or for long-drives through the Durg By-pass,

To where we’d have been,

Somewhere near the Shivnath cafeteria.


Sigh! I could only figure out she was

Cluttered,

Like the Indira Market store-stops.


Much-like Durg, she too aspired for the moon and the stars,

For someone who could get her the Globe Chowk bars.

So I knew our ways would part


I did not promise her

Our togetherness in CC,

Viewing sunset from the Jayanti,

Or an evening at her PG


I just prayed for our convergence,

Somewhere at the Y shaped Bridge,

In front of an IT building,

On top of our beloved city.

    Shikhar Shrivastava

    Written by

    Full time dream-chaser. Part-time cynical. Socially introvert. Old school. Nervous wreck. Utopian.