A Yaksha in America

Yaksha: I am a Yaksha and this lake belongs to me. What is water? Tell me the answer and only after that you can drink the water.

Yudhisthira: Sky is the water.

- The Mahabharata

You may be asleep now.

Not only you,

Our fathers, mothers, children

Brothers, neighbours, enemies

Our dogs, cats, cows

And the dead we imagine

On the stones in the southern yard

All may be asleep.

Our continent our country our language

Our shrines, graveyards

Our bazaars, bathing ghats

Our martyrs’ tombs, our parliament

Our ministers, priests, poets,

Our revolutionaries, prophets

All may be in darkness.

Tonight too

You may have forgotten

All that you forget before you go to bed.

There might be leftovers on the table,

Water dripping from the toilet tap,

The fan in the sitting room rotating simply,

A midnight movie playing on the T V for nobody,

The front window open,

By which, your unconsciousness may be saying,

A light or a shadow is passing.

Now, you may be turning to the other side

Chiding me for coming late as usual;

Though asleep, you are careful to keep your gown tidy.

I’m now on the other side of the earth though

I can touch you now

I can close the book that remains open on your bosom

Switch off the song that glides over you.

Continents, mountains, the great oceans,

Strange customs and the unknown languages

Were between us

Only when we were lying close

Touching each other.

At Madison Square

I met a baby squirrel yesterday.

It hasn’t heard about our Vedas or the Epics,

It hasn’t read the Kamasutra, Arthasastra or the Natyasastra

It doesn’t know Vivekananda, Gandhi, or Jawaharlal Nehru

But, it knows you

It can understand our language.

Not only it,

The snow in Chicago

The rain in Iowa

The cold wind in Virginia

The trees on the Mississippi

All speak our language.

Now, sleep may have crossed the border of our country

It may be moving the route through which

Alexander, the lame Timur, Vasco de Gama and Viceroys came;

The Arabian deserts may be half asleep now

Europe may be readying for sleep.

A few moments from now on

When you get rid of morning hangovers

I too will have slept;

But this pain,

From which province of my body or mind it originates,

I don’t know,

Will remain awake even then.