Dear Bombay — A Lyrical Dedication
Dear Bombay,
As the orchestra struck up in Prithvi, and the curtains were raised and the theater shone in golden, green and red lit up by the oil lamps from the high ceilings and low lanterns, comedians speaking of misadventures with a crooked smile.
Your music moves with a pulse which deletes the feeling of being incomplete from our kind.
Dear Bombay,
When another tale from Dharavi speak of reasons why — of haunted arias, gold dust at it’s feet, newborn hearts with unfinished dreams and yet refusing not to be on the brighter side of the street.
A million dreams with eccentricities, like eating salamis with strawberries, unfaltering revelations and myriads of creeds.
When you call for the night, all of your hustles are silenced by the sea.
Dear Bombay,
As stardom writes scripts of goodness and says never to take the goodness for granted.
You mock and mention again, half a truth and half a trial is no better than putting dreams in denial.
Dear Bombay,
Hushes pass, fast each train running from one end of time to the other end of rain.
In a city lit with another burned out crore, you better tell your story fast, your time which has arrived will turn sour.
Dear Bombay,
The tall walks and street talks and the diamonds and debts around Lower Parel makes a story for another bestseller.
As show stoppers rise and fall, before the launch of their next trailer.
Dear Bombay,
I refuse to call you Mumbai. For the reasons, you must ask your citizens why.
Dear Bombay,
Can you hear the streets of Bandra breathe?
Rhythms dancing with the stories of the masters, much faster than you wipe the tears from the eye glistening with a promise and belief.
Dear Bombay,
In the most unknown spaces I heard you cry;
The silent widow scream and another inner child fly.
You made me acquainted with your exhilarating graduates of this game called life, from besides shores of Hiranandani and Powai.
Dear Bombay,
By then I had started to understand why, you’ve shed the pride and paid the price.
For all that glamour, which at times is under disguise, each one rises with a story designed for their own kind.
