They are rebuilding Kolkata on every street

They are rebuilding Kolkata on every street.
Brick by brick by brick.
The old crumbles, dying and diseased…
They are rebuilding Kolkata on every street.

They are putting up flyovers and malls now.
Marble and glass and steel.
Old lovers with broken arthritis…
the city has forgotten how they feel.

The lake seems tired and morose,
small puddles on smaller streets.
Shadows grow longer everyday
and old rickshaws are obsolete.

A fog of memory and nostalgia descends,
and it is darkness all around.
A solitary tree by an abandoned heap of sand
thinks of all that is lost and found.
A quaint little tea-shop, lonely and lost,
stands on a forgotten ground.
Only hazy images remain, some snippets of conversation…
a carefree laughter, hair caressed by the breeze.
She is lost in these lanes of time.
Her eyes forgotten, her smile eclipsed.
So, I search for her in the pages of my youth
and I wonder if someday we’ll ever meet.
Then I look around and feel sad,
for they are rebuilding Kolkata on every street.

1:45 PM
21st July, 09