The Boorima Wrapped In A Shawl
The Boorima Wrapped In A Shawl
Out in the lanes of Old Camac street
Where the roads bend into anonymity
Wrapped in a shawl I see
An old grandma, away from all festivity.
While the city delights, Drowned in ecstasy
Boorima in the shawl lies huddled up in a corner.
Lost in anonymity.
Nobody knows where she comes from;
Nobody knows where she belongs.
The city is busy, The streets fill with revelry
Old Boorima cannot resist the cold
Wrapped in a single shawl
She doesn't protest
For she is too old.
As I step towards her to lend my jacket
She looks up with curious intent eyes
''Son are you back?" She Says"To take me home with you..."
The gleam in her eyes is gone the moment I say "No"
"I'm not your son you see! I'm just concerned about you though!"
She lifts her face and this is all I behold
Wrinkles everywhere
She is very very old
I offer her bread, I offer her food
She refuses instantly,
"All I want is my son," She says, "Can you bring him back to me ?"
"Who is your son ?" I ask "Where doe he stay?"
"I don't know," she says,
"But this is where He left me yesterday."
"Boorima come with me,
I Know a place, you can put up for the night.
And tomorrow you can come back here
To look for your son at this site."
She refused to come, befuddled though at my sudden requests and pleas.
"My son will come, he told me so!"
And refused to come with me
Helpless I had to leave her there,
She refused to come with me.
Next morning bundled up in a corner
I saw that Booriima in a shawl
Exactly where I had left her
But she uttered no word as I approached.
She lay all very still.
'"Boorima! Boorima! Are you awake?" I cried
But Boorima lay very still, not a sound did she make
As I stretched my hand out
A cry held me back
"Arre Babu," the Janitor said," The booriya died in the shivering cold!"
All night She had waited
But her son never came
And the city steeped in revelry
Did not hear her muffled cries!
The Boorima wrapped in her shawl died .. Waiting...
For indeed she was very old.
The Boorima wrapped in her shawl had died...
For indeed she was very old!