I wish to downsize my living and move to my hometown where I grew up. To do that, I have bought a tiny apartment with plenty of sunshine and southerly breeze. At old age what more do we need than that? The town has changed though. My old school is still there with a new and spiffy look I had not seen before. All school friends have faded out; some from memories and some out of this world almost like the thickets being vanished with their birds and fireflies. There’s no horizon to see the sunrise or moonrise but there is no shortage of brooding high-rises like eyesores. Lusterless stars blink half heartedly. They seem to be scared of manmade light. Local markets have thinned making rooms for big malls where young ladies in designer clothes tip tap the mall floors with their stilettos. Whatever happened to the beautiful Saris? Stray dogs are aplenty but not so with the cats. Where have they gone? People are moving into small or big apartments selling away their ancestral properties to promoters who are always on the lookout with their hawk eye for such lands to erect their skyscrapers. And quiet flows the Ganges, here, as before like the Changeless God. I wonder though if the Ganges-dolphins are still there like they used to be when I was a child.
Through a pall of smoke
Two bluetail damselflies dart
Towards a wetland
Posted for dVerse Hometown Haibun hosted by Mish
sumanar/lekha 