It was year nineteen sixty-two
Magic girl Waheeda
Of the tinsel town of Bombay
Had young reverberating hearts
Captured in her spell of charms
The haunting melody
“A lamp burnt somewhere
Somewhere a heart”
Flowed everywhere in the air
Monsoon wet
Filled with mist
I was just into college
When her look-alike arrived
In our midst
Same hairdo, veiled
Yet its front-line deliberately unveiled
To let a wisp of lock droop on a wide forehead
Eyes naughty, lovably cocky
Nose chiseled, sharp countenance
A total clone
That had me fallen
Head over heels
In a well of deep infatuation
And burning adoration
“A lamp burnt somewhere
Somewhere a heart”
I stood transfixed
As she passed
In and out of the college gate
Head bent, yet with a budding smile
That said she knew
Everything happening around
Soon it became a ritual
For me to wait at the gate
Motionless like a pillar
To see her pass by
Day after day
Without respite
So much so that
I became a part
Of the pompous gate
No one could any more
Tell me apart from it
She knew my presence
I was doubtless
How could my dogged devotion
Miss her attention?!
Yet never I could muster
Courage enough
To unbecome the pillar
And utter my heart
My silent worship
Consumed half a decade
Rains came, seasons changed
And every day she passed by
With that same budding smile
Watched by me, the worshipful pile
And on the last day
She looked directly into my eyes
Then bent her head again
Cupping her mouth
To suppress a laugh
And lo! I found her drop
A piece of paper on her path
As I ran with the winds
To capture the note
I saw her vanish from sight
In a darting haste across the street
That was the last
I ever saw of her
Perhaps, she got into wedded life
Hid in a burqa, mothered several kids
Sprayed attar day and night
Humming to motionless pillars in life
“A lamp burnt somewhere
Somewhere a heart”
And don’t you want to know
What her final note had said?
“Be bold, ye stupid, adieu!”
Me the eternal pile placed at a gate
