My City/ Mera Sheher

My city is like long lasting argument.

I live in a metropolitan city, the elite capital of India. And despite all the opportunities and resources it has provided me with, my satisfaction with this town is way too low. The high rise buildings and shallow people, fast paced life but short-lived happiness, expansive houses and miserable damp slums. The ambivalence resides in its atmosphere. The suffocated freedom is what people sip with evening teas. My city is like a never ending debate. With hundreds of questions in our mind to hundreds of them on the tip of our tongue. We never stop questioning.

 मेरा शहर एक लम्बी बहस की तरह है|
सड़कें – बेतुकी दलीलों सी,
और गलियां इस तरह
जैसे एक बात को कोई इधर घसीटता
कोई उधर|

जो भी बच्चा इस शहर में जनमता
पूछता कि किस बात पर यह बहस हो रही?
फिर उसका प्रश्न ही एक बहस बनता
बहस से निकलता, बहस में मिलता…

पर नींद में भी बहस खत्म न होती,
मेरा शहर एक लंबी बहस की तरह। “

– अमृता प्रीतम

About Amrita Pritam. This lady was a gem. And her life was no less than a blockbuster movie plot. She fell in love with another great writer and lyricist, our beloved Sahir Ludhiyanvi but married a lovestruck Artist. Her verses in Hindi and Punjabi are worth praising for their simplicity and elegance of thought. This poem of hers was an accidental discovery for me. But it came to me and has stayed with me since. This piece comforts me, that even though my questions are unanswered but they aren’t stupid. This world is infact stupid. Well, she’s right.

//Until next time

–SB