Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Asmaul Husna’s Poem City of Djinns I, Chanakyapuri
Poetry in the city.
[By Mayank Austen Soofi]
Her Dhaka is full of rickshaws. She often took late night rides in them to the old city, for a quick seekh at Bismillah hotel, or for a sherbet at Royal.
It is not as easy for her to get a rickshaw in Delhi—no rickshaws ply where she lives, here in the capital’s diplomatic enclave. Asmaul Husna, 31, is a master’s student of sociology (her second master’s) in South Asian University that hosts students from across the SAARC nations. She resides at the university hostel in Chanakyapuri. This dry-hot evening, the woman from Bangladesh is talking of a rainy evening in September last year, when she was new to Delhi. “I was in my balcony when I began writing a poem.” The silence following the rain “felt to me as if Delhi was taking a long, deep breath—it was both peaceful and passionate.” She stayed late finishing the poem, which finally gave her a sense of belonging to the metropolis. She shares that poem with us, which is a part of a series of several poems she has been writing, whose title is inspired from William Dalrymple’s book on Delhi.
City of Djinns, part 1
after long humid years
the city takes a breath
a long one
passionate
the city spreads arms
to give warmth
to make it a home
mellow and peaceful
brings comfort in darkness
lulls into sleep in daylight
the city engulfs the anxieties
consumes the deep sighs of the travellers
each of them who are yearning
for distance home and memories
it becomes the shields
for wounded birds
bruised hearts
and happy songs
the city ornaments herself in yellow
at night
sings songs
of nostalgic days
where a shepherd comes from the hills
a boatman returns to his lover
a painter yearns for unrequited love
a professor lurks in the colonial hangover
a town boy hums Bob Marley
a lost girl carries the burdens of herself to rest in a non-existing place called home
a woman unchains the heaviness of unbearable expectations
the lullaby of the city
puts asleep
trees, dogs, lost souls
the cacophony of ethereal life
continues
Poet from Dhaka
1.
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