O , Powai :

( Contributor  :  hcp  )

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End of the road,

For these non-animate
Buses and trucks
Full stop !

And yet
The very beginning of a road,
Of a career,

Of a search for happiness

-    material for most
-    spiritual for some,

To the thousands
Very very animate
Humans,

A place of work,
Of worship,
Of daily pilgrimage
Sacrosanct :

O Powai

These people breathe
Beneath your boundless, blue canopy,
An air, full of dignity
Of human labour,

And give you a soul,

These people,
Your children all,

O Powai

Give you a soul
To make you come alive,

With their joys and fears,
And their frustrations,
And their dreams.

They breathe life

In your machines,

In the glass and steel and concrete
Of your edifices,

In your asphalt roads,

In the red of your gold-mohur
And the greens of your lawns.

These people sweat
From dawn to dusk,

To deliver

No mere goods, but
Promises

Of a better tomorrow,
To the teeming millions
Of this ancient land.

Return to them,

A thousand fold

What they give you,

O Powai

Your soul.

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Written : 29  May  1970

Later published in Powai Pageant