Mongoose in the City

 Wait, is that a mongoose,

Right outside my apartment?

I quietly stare outside my balcony

Beneath a neem tree, discarded furniture

Heaps of plastic rubbish

And yet, surviving therein, a mongoose

 

Not one, but an entire family

Four pups, a mum,

Basking lazily in the city’s sun

Gambolling in the dirt and greens

And I, overwhelmed with emotions

Wonder what is it I feel?

 

Sheer joy at witnessing

Urban wildlife?

Amazement of finding

Mongooses?

Or just something unexpected

Not guard-railed by human lines

 

I spend the afternoon

Just watching, meditating

The animated movement

Of the critters

And wonder at my city

And the magic in hidden corners

 

But something disturbs me

Isn’t that a closed factory compound?

Were they not talking

Of raising new apartments?

What will happen

To my mongooses?

 

Attachment – that human folly

For something I did not

Even know existed

A few hours back,

And I, a visitor –

Do I even have a right to take sides?

 

Until in the susurrus of the neem tree

The city seems to assure,

They have survived this long,

They will continue

Sometimes, perhaps

Its best we remain unaware…

8th August, 2026

(Inspired by true events)