Like a crown, I’d see her wear those Gandhi-like glasses,
Her palms wrinkled, glut with her affection
Her effulgence was so that it could sparkle even the darkest of rooms
Nani, you saw my metamorphosis, didn’t you?
with you, I grew up chanting ‘Johny Johny! yes papa’,
to lambasting patriarchy, reading ‘Daddy’.
For hours you’d listen to our silly prattles,
accompanied with your sweetest smile,
which I was addicted to,
maybe more than marijuana!
Ah! I know, never will I ever feel that zephyr again,
Of us, all scooched by your feet, to listen to your lullabies.
At the dawn of aurora, we would follow you, tip-toed,
To climb your favorite Mahogany tree
And reach the topmost canopy, almost feeling- ‘on top of the world’
There, I knew, at that moment, we were the happiest souls alive,
Our giggles echoed, bringing rain on the barren lands
But look at us now, we got lost in nostalgia, of reminiscing those moments
We try to climb that tree, ‘keep one foot here, another there’
but this trick won’t work now!
And this inertial elevator won’t find that canopy,
The canopy now is lost, lost forever.
Nani, you left us by the shore after eight decades,
too late they’d say
But how come, did we bury our bliss so early?
They said you were a bad wife,
but somehow you were a better person than me
Oh Nani, let me crawl back to you.