Poetry in the city.

[By Mayank Austen Soofi]

Cheery, chatty and confident—her friendly voice and her gently streaming batcheet are like that of a radio jockey. But then she is one of those RJs, and works in a “web radio,” here in Gurgaon. Mamta (pen name: Sweety Mamta) is also a poet. This evening, standing right in the middle of a crowded shopping plaza in the futuristic Cyberhub, she tells of a love poem she wrote some months ago: “ I closely observe the ups and downs in the relationships my friends go through.… but this prem kavita is not about any particular person or episode.” Having finished her master’s in Hindi literature from Hindu College last year, Mamta is not only fond of certain poets (Mahadevi Verma, Jaishankar Prasad, Agyeya, Shamsher Bahadur Singh), but also of particular words—saanjh (evening(, nayan (eyes), basant (spring), ritu (season), prem (love). What she adores the most though is a phrase she once spotted in a poem by Agyeya—hari bhichhi ghaas.

Acceding to a request, the verse writer starts to recite her poem around the madding crowd, uninhibitedly, raising her voice above the din, dramatising the lines with inflections and moods. Sweety Mamta agrees to translate it into English to share with us.

A Love Poem

We are like two poles apart
And yet, something common hangs between us-
The hours of endless chats
On randomness and lives
The times spent reminiscing
our daily strifes
We speak unfiltered, no layers between us
We laugh and share jokes without any fuss.

We are like two poles apart
And yet, something common hangs between us-
You getting upset when I feel the blues,
My eyes whispered secrets only you could know.
And when you turn sad,
I cross all the bridges to hold you in stillness and warmth.

We are two different people
Tied to each other’s heartstrings, now we know each other like the back of our palms
That you like the colour blue,
The blue of the sky when the sun is about to rise,
That I like to read books
Until I fall asleep late at night.
That you like your tea, the game of cricket,
And I like the winters and the rain
That you like the songs that remind you of Home
And I like the applause greeting my ears after my poetry performances.

We are two people now
attuned to each other’s minds and the spaces in between filled with happiness
And unbridled love.