By the river Sunakhari

 

By the river Sunakhari, I walk in early morn,

Village Tabakoshi is yet to rise,

I am on my own - the mountains, mist and me

And that hillside solitude – perhaps the biggest prize

 

A lonely tea stall, hangs by a cliff

An old lady smiles, I feel like a cup of tea

(Where else in this wide world, will you get a cuppa,

Amber gold for pittance, almost nearly free)

 

Sushma-ji is on her own – such is life here, she says

Spouse in the foothills, three sons, all away

One in the army, another a sommelier in the city

And the third a monk, who has been able to continue to pray

 

 She is happy on her own, there’s enough they return

And pumpkin and rhodos, to pass away her time,

‘A monastery will come up across the stream

Then all day perhaps, the bells will chime’

 

This is how perhaps it should have been,

At least, a part remains alive in these hills of mine

‘But don’t you feel lonely?’

Did I need to ask? The sun had already started to shine

 

It only shone brighter, Sushma-ji made a reply:

‘We all seek more, this the rule of life

You came to the hills in search of silence,

My son left the hills in search of a wife.’

 

Perhaps we all seek a journey, the need to seek -

The drive that makes us who we are

Millions of years of looking up –

And who wouldn’t want to reach for a star?

 

But where do we stop? The old lady seemed to understand,

‘Wherever you go, choose to be happy,’

And she handed me, my liquid gold

‘You can start right here, with a cup of tea’

 

The sweetest tea it was - laced with cream

Sugar and wisdom and the Sunakhari stream,

Teaching - to choose to be happy, wherever you are,

Hills, or city, in a faraway dream….

 

18^th March, 2023

Cover image - Sunakhari river, author's archives