Barbet

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Mid-day’s heat:

Somewhere,

In the midst

Of the city’s din

If you pay attention

You can hear

Above the hawker’s cries

Beyond the truant kids

A coppersmith at work

 

Not bidriware

But the barbet

Tinkers an old dream

Reminding faintly

Beneath this veneer

There is another city

Of Mango trees

A kingfisher in the shadows

And Chatim’s delight,

The sepia city seems to stare

From an old photo left behind

In a musty book from yesterday

 

But all of this

Clouded by the gasoline

Of tomorrow’s Kolkata

Still shouting:

Cholche na Cholbe na

Receding softly

If you sit up and listen

To the coppersmith’s world,

Awakening us anew

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12th March, 2026

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