Chamelia & Harvey's Motor Bike

 

Stirring up music from Nickelodeon shop

Blossomed two lovers

Chamelia and Harvey from out

Of an Everlasting Sindh and Western Love Story

Dancing in an inviting embrace

To the music that played a nickel or dime

Into that special Nickel Melodeon box

Bringing out old music to the country folk of Sindh

Enjoying a beer mug

A plate of fried Palla spirit fishes and potato chips

Or Khadi chawal

With okra, cluster beans, turmeric, drumsticks

Lason and curry leaves

Whilst Chamelia the Sindh maiden

Danced with Harvey the rugged Westerner biker

To the sound of the melodious songs

Played on the nickelodeon juke box

Old and new classic songs

 ‘Meri samne wale Kidki meh

Ek chand ka tukda rehta hai’

‘Koya koya Chand Kula Asman’

‘Chandini Rathe’

Emerging key chords harmoniously

To the clinking sound of glasses twinkling

And tinkling

Cheering a toast to the lovers

Chamelia and Harvey

And couples dancing along

Chirz! To company

 

Soon Chamelia and Harvey

The Sindh belle and rugged American biker

Had to make their way

From their glancing spectators

For they were lovers on the run

Each coming from different backgrounds

Chamelia daughter of a rich

Sindhi merchant Mr. Lalwani

Mr. Lalwani a man with little or naught

Bright imagination

Viewing everything black or white

And nothing in between

Hated wasting time on futile love emotions

Even if he hadn’t any

As if he felt paralysed or drowned in a sea tub

He felt them worthless and unnecessary

Firmly resolved

 Chamelia only marry arranged suitor

Mr Mirchandani

Like out of a Cinemascope Movie

Where its theatre rolled the curtains

Upon the hero and heroine

All spectators ogling

Eyes agog at the melodramatic movie

Whilst she all hearts for the rugged biker

Who owned just a Harley

His silver Dragon Hornet Motor Bike

He borrowed from his best friend Chand

 

Harvey a westerner gleamed proudly

As he sat upon his sprawling silver bike

That had Silver Handlebars like its ghost moustache

With silver seat, silver handles

Silver wheels, silver guards

And a silver horn

It was so silver like his silver Sindh lover

Soul mate Navya Nayeli Champa Chamelia

Matching her silver

Gungro’s and silver chanyacholi gagra

With silver bangles an array

He had come for higher education

In this distant land of his mother’s roots Sindh

But fell deeply in love with Sindhi dame Chamelia

Like butter melted on fiery hot toast

The two set eyes for each the other

Starry dreams and extraordinary aspiring ambitions

To care and love for each another

 Ignited in them a burning passion

As one burning star

Both decided they run away

Like out of a Cinemascope Movie

Where its theatre rolled the curtains

Upon the hero and heroine

All spectators ogling

 Eyes agog at the melodramatic movie

 

The westerner wore his hood

His silver helmet and silver gloves

His faded blue jeans and a white T shirt

Hugging tightly to his V shape body

Covered his bulging muscles

On sinewy legs and his arms

He looked just like Sylvester Stallion

On a dragon horse

The silver dragon Hornet Motor Bike

Chamelia and Harvey

Mounted after sweet embrace

Of arms each around their bodies

After the engaging dance

Of the Nickleodeon box

And through the rugged desert

They rode onwards through

Its snaky lanes filled with cactuses

Tumbleweed and thorny saplings

Even lizards, scorpions and chameleons

That changed colour viewed them

Through their rosy lorgnettes

Stirring Black Cobras, Pythons

And poisonous rattle snakes

Along the sandy terrain

They had to get out of the Thar Desert

And board the plane

All the way to America

Where the rustic homeland of Texas called

Chamelia to her rugged lovers destined

Country home

 

Chasing the lovers the Sindhi Merchant

Mr Lalwani’s spies and hoodlums

Set out in search of the forsook lovers

They seemed to be on the right track

When asked Nickelodeon box

Restaurant owner

If they saw Chamelia with her unfortunate lover

In her silver chaniyacholi and his silver dragon hornet

Motor Bike

“Yes” unfortunately replied the

Innocent Shop owner

“On a silver dragon Hornet motor bike

The two set out from our inn

Just twenty minutes ago

To the eastern highway

From the Thar Desert”

Then pointed flourishing with Jupiter’s index finger

To unlucky Saturn’s direction

Shani grahi instead of Shub grahi

Their stars had unfortunately destined to crosspath

“This way”

 

The lovers Chamelia and Harvey

Had yet to reach to the forsaken

Eastern Highway Bridge

That like a rainbow was upturned

Cars, buses, Lorries and trucks

Bloomed, boomed and zoomed away

Only the bike had to take a special

Route from underneath

Where it loomed

Whilst Mr Lalwani’s spies and hoodlums

Spotted them just 500 meters away

They swerved the wheel

Of their big truck as they went up

The Highway Bridge

Thinking they would catch-up

With them swiftly down below

They made an error taking middle paths

Betwixt heavens Highway Bridge

And the path down below

 

Through seventh sense

Chamelia guided Harvey

Another route would be faster

To the airport

Right through the track of the cow farms

Smelling of Lavender and daisies

Ginger, cloves and cinnamons

Spices nice and dear to spicy lovers

Rambling on a

Silver dragon hornet Motorbike

Zipping and zooming

‘Twas through such a forest

The shortest route to take to reach

The airport in a jiffy

Without the rush or danger

Of being spotted by the truck

Of spies and hoodlums

 

They missed their chance the wretched

Truck and followed several miles

Missing the silver dragon Hornet motorbike

Hooray! Chamelia and Harvey

Made it to the airport

In the nick of time

Harvey patted the bike

Which he borrowed from his best friend Chand

He had no time to return his favour

But messaged on his telephone

A SIM card he made whilst in India

To pick up the blazing hornet dragon champ

 From the forlorn parking lot

He parked underneath wooded sprawling

Branches of rooted Nima and Ber trees

Upon the longest Bulrush grass ferns

Who thought only

They knew the secret of their narrow escape

 

But Mr Lalwani was yet not

So early to get disappointed

In great efforts he took

In finding his only daughter

And got a strange ring

On his telephone by a lady

Who was his old faithful friend

She knew he detested

The choice of his daughters love mate

 Like all annoying beldams of custom

And tradition

Thought all that Chamelia’s father

 Wished was for the best

She too affirmed and protested

About his daughters choice

‘Lovers at first sight’

As if ‘twere any of her blooming business

Seeing colours only black and white

And nothing in between

Made incredulous grownups so dull and lifeless

Even hopeless decisions they made

For incurable romantical teens

And so let out the secret of the bag

Of Chamelia’s worst fears

Of her escape route

Right to the terminus airport B Wing where

Hardly an hour was left

To board the plane to America

 

The father Mr. Lalwani

All set out to roost his empire

For he was a minister of fame and fortune

Anything he wished or so he deemed he could do

Even stop an aeroplane

He swerved in his aristocratic V.I.P Mercedes

And stopped right at the open

Gates of the welcoming airport

Then made an announcement

So harsh and whipping

Stirring up emotions of the

Moustaches of befuddled chiefs and police

And bemused Porters of the alleyway

Carrying customer’s big suitcases

To stop the aeroplane

The chiefs, police and porters

Looked dumbfounded

Who knows whether in favour

Or against the two forsook lovers

Chamelia and Harvey holding

 Each others hand in hand

Knew their chances of escape were slim

Dimmer than the morning sun

Rising through its window panes

And so tried turning back

Out of the Airports doorways

However the rich minister

And his hoodlums

We're waiting outside the door

And barged to meet his daughter

Cocking a rifle

Up the collar bone of Chamelia’s

Rugged suitor the American

 

Whilst escalating crowds paved way

The disturbing commotion of battlefield

At the airport

Betwixt the two lovers, villain father

And his hoodlums

Trembling in fear

 

Harvey not beaten

Refused to surrender

“Do or Die”

He exhorted to Chamelia

As she whimpered silently

A sigh “If you go then me too goes

Down in history

Like Laila and Majnu

Or Juliet and Romeo

Heer and Ranjha”

Their desperate pleas

Fell on deaf ears

But wait they protested

Hand in glove

Eye to eye

As if a grin showed through their

Befallen, brazen faces and winked

At each another as if they could outdo

The villain father and his

Treacherous imposters and reach out to

Their tainted silver dragon Hornet motor bike

Harley Davidson

The one that he parked underneath

The Nima and Ber trees

Upon the tallest Bulrush grass ferns

 

Seizing the moment

The father Mr Lalwani

Rang a gunshot first in the air

And then it would be right

Through his shoulder blades

To reach the heart that beat

Soundly in Harvey’s chest cavity

He shook asunder ripples through ground

As if shattering an earthquake it trembled

All furores!

And the wounded skies

As if it rained heavily and bitterly teardrops

The rugged lover Harvey like a grip of thunderbolt

Bolted with his chanyacholi lover Champa Chamelia

In her silver gagra and silver bangles an array

Chamelia shot faster than a deer running bare feet

For the slippers flew high up in the air

Harvey like a horse snorting fumes, arduous energy

And smoke around his nostrils

Dirt flying along girth of muscular calves and feet

Jolted together the two lovers

As if a narrow run through lovers lanes

Through skin of teeth, sheer grit and determination

A chink of renewed hope in broken shards of glass

Or a shred of salvation

In a tin can of worms!

To hop a ride upon the silver dragon hornet motorbike

To save their destinies

The future fate where deemed

They live or die!

 

The steed silver dragon Hornet motor bike

It still looked nicely tucked

Like a nickelodeon from way afar

Underneath the Nima and Ber trees

Upon the longest Bulrush grass ferns

 And remembered

He told his friend he hid the keys

On the strange stiles of the

Old cabin inside the forlorn parking lot

That stood discarded like a Booth Bangla Haveli

Sheltered beneath the sprawling

Branches of the Nima and Ber tree

 Upon the longest Bulrush grass ferns

Luckily his friend hadn’t yet came to take

The lover’s guardian silvery motorbike away!

 

Like a nickelodeon machine

It sputtered air from its pipes

And set on fire the ground

With blazing heat

Resounding it echoed

 As it took off “Broom Broom”

Zipping and zooming along

The dragon Hornet silver motor bike Harley

On a witches broom

Soon were off Chamelia

And Harvey the two lucky lovers

On the nickelodeon bike

As it sang in musical notes

Of motor bars it rhymed

“Vroom Vroom Virrroorrarrr Vrroom”

Chamelia holding her lover tightly

The rips across his chest

And six pack abdomen

His six biscuits like a sea biscuit God

Astride his fury horse

Silver Dragon Hornet Motor Bike!

They were out to paint the town red

This was their only chance to escape their fate

 

They reached the Sindh Railway station

Parking the motor bike and alerting his friend again

Through a distant telephone booth

He called and said

“Thank you Chand my best friend

Your silver dragon Hornet Motor Bike

Has saved our fate

Long gone to be dead by Chamelia’s

Wretched father Mr Lalwani

And his hoodlum hucksters of disgrace

Now we’re bound to another land

Thence from there we shall

Reach home to liberty land

Where shall we live happily ever after

Forever!”

 

They meant the land of

The Statue of Liberty

Soon as dusk

Enveloped with bright stars

The distant silver Chand among grey clouds

Grouping around it in clusters

Grinned at the lucky winners

I reckon like two guardian friends

Harvey’s best friend Chand and the moon!

Protecting the two lovers

Harvey and Chamelia

The aeroplane didn’t take off

 Chamelia’s father was

Imprisoned on grounds of cruelty

For deeming the citizens

Travelling abroad to miss their flights

And for firing pistol bullets

That was given to hoodlum bodyguards

For his blighted protection

 Tainted his name and status for being voted

Prime Minister

Along with his hoodlums

He learnt a lesson rightly

Whilst from the city of Sadikabad

The border city of Sindh and Punjab

The two forsook lovers

Set out from a different aircraft

And missed their adventurous

Spirit

The daring rugged lover’s

Silver dragon hornet’s fury motorbike

That saved them that rainy day!

 

“Harvey” said Chameliaji imploringly

“Do lets buy a silver dragon hornet

Motor bike in America

That flies us around the blooming towns

Trees and hedges, pathways to Paradise

Just filling fuel into its tank

It never forsakes our escape

To another land of freedom

Where we shall live

Forever in hearts

Of such a dragon flying

Hornet Nickelodeon

‘Broom Broom Vroom Vroom’”