Monument

 

‘Did you see the Monuments?’

My friend asked.

From our vantage point

In Barangaroo,

He showed not one

But five bobbing towers,

Arabesque, colourful,

Nodding in the waters.

 

‘They add colours, don’t they?

‘And they are tall!’

He smiled,

Trying to somehow fit

Five monuments for the fishes -

Giant totems

In the jamboree

Of the Harbour

 

But I have been distracted

By the mention of ‘Monument’ –

I am not looking at five

I don’t see colours

I see one, white tower

Without the frills

But standing real tall

I see ‘the’ Monument

 

Ochterlony’s Monument

Celebrating martyrs

Of many wars;

Has been standing for 200 years

Not shaky but firm

Almost like a lighthouse

In an infant city

In a different world

 

The harbour celebrates

The motion of its monuments

It accepts the past,

Gracefully gliding into the future

But I fail to dance,

I am looking at the sixth tower

Rigidly planted in time

I only salute, and move on…

 

19^th August, 2026

 

Monuments for Fishes is a permanent floating artwork by Australian artist Mikala Dwyer, installed at Watermans Cove in Barangaroo in 2026. Its five brightly coloured, 18.6–22.6-metre-high forms were inspired by fishing floats and pay homage to the coastal fisherwomen who have fished these waters for thousands of years. They are designed to rise and fall with the tides and sway with the harbour, while an underwater structure provides reef-like habitat for marine life.

The Ochterlony Monument, now known as the Shaheed Minar, stands on Kolkata's Maidan. Completed in 1828, the 48-metre monument originally commemorated Major-General Sir David Ochterlony and his military victories, particularly the Anglo-Nepalese War. Its unusual architecture combines an Egyptian-style base, a Syrian-style column and a Turkish dome. In 1969, it was rededicated to the memory of Indian freedom fighters and renamed Shaheed Minar, or Martyrs' Monument.