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2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big highways like big businesses,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are saved by yearly bailouts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And greasy wads of bills being slid into pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, my street is filed in the government records<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As \u201ctoo small to succeed,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in a few weeks,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
will be cut open<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and sold for parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It may not have seen gun battles and strafing-runs during the two European wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are smoking cannons: the Charminar cigarettes<\/p>\n\n\n\n the weeping man chain-lights trying to remember the face of his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The twilight is for the boy and the girl,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who held hands for the first time<\/p>\n\n\n\n On my gully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 5 AMs, somedays bullhorns blare Tamil songs,<\/p>\n\n\n\n To coax the sun out of sleep,<\/p>\n\n\n\n only the village clown is coaxed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n into the small street,<\/p>\n\n\n\n in the still-dark,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and dances drunk only on Illayaraja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evenings belong to a gang of boys,<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a large concrete slab for wickets,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fighting over the batting order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The royal motorcades might have all passed over highways,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flanked on both sides by loyalists waving small flags,<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the gully is the one the king ran into<\/p>\n\n\n\n When fleeing insurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People get speeding tickets along numbered highways,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driving the pedal of their cars to the floor,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rushing without a fight towards the wide open mouths of cities,<\/p>\n\n\n\n where they are busy making and handing out trophies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only the chosen come to the gully,<\/p>\n\n\n\n and are shown the named road that stretches onto a mud road,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which then disappears namelessly into real adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only they hear the haunting silence of the dead ends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n which lulls to sleep whatever is on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing on his blog will ever be behind a paywall. But if you want to support this kind of writing, consider subscribing using this link. You might need a credit-card for the transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/v2\/resize:fit:700\/1*WxB3PYt86Jb-gyye71gdtQ.jpeg\")
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