Five gold coins and a puja souvenir

*****   Five gold coins and a puja souvenir *****

The curtains are finally lifted..

Roadside speakers have got the new chartbusters played

And the handsome pandals painted in gold and jittery red .

The streets have worn the look of a new bride...

Colorful tubes dangling from the wires

And the crowds decked up in their best attires...

Straddling along, enjoying their lazy rides.

A little far from the hustle bustle of the town

The old man entered the thatched low-roof hut.

In his creaking wooden bed did he sit down,

Keeping aside the burning tobacco-butt.

He took out a pouch from his shabby khadi kurta

And started counting the day’s earning..

Off the last remaining idols of Maa Durga.

The coins jingled...

A  tiny tot rushed in

And into grandpa’s cot.

With sparkling eyes, and a heart that grew quick wings

Did she search over the untidy bed -

For the packet she knew...would have her puja-time dreams.

That, just like these past years

Maa Durga would have listened to her bed time prayers,

And lent the frail man five coins of gold

Her puja souvenir that would enfold.

In the light of the flickering oil-lamp,

Her little eyes lit up in joy unbound...

As she pulled out the golden-haired doll and the red dress

And in no time ran down the narrow lane

Off to the nearby pandal with the busiest crowd.