Family
The sudden September rains,
Fast and ferocious,
Falling on the vast
Mumbai suburban sprawl,
Wet steps of a closed shop
Four street dogs,
Cuddled up close,
To each other,
Forgetting territorial differences,
Like siblings
All curled up,
Sleeping on the same
Narrow cot.
II
A few steps ahead,
Another shuttered shop,
Two humans in the classic
Pose of the homeless,
Sleeping anywhere in the world—
In the
Foetal positions,
Thin legs tucked in,
In sunken stomachs,
Covered with blankets,
The narrow steps of cold marble,
Their icy bed,
The two humans,
Dispossessed,
Totally
Dead to the
Early-morning
Hurrying world;
Two different families,
Located in the
Same urban
Indifferent
Space.
The distinctive and compassionate elements of Sunil’s work are , as expected , to the fore in ,” Family “. The unerring lens of his words gives the reader an unwavering view of our common condition into which we have been propelled by forces that neither know nor care. There is in Sunil’s work something of George Gissing.
As true of the suburbs of New York or London,to name a few………a necessary concomitant of the urban inequities that exists worldwide. The matter needs more of our serious reflection than anything else.