Bangalore traffic jam

 

7pm, the day cools, the evening

hots up as shadows play hopscotch

on scorched asphalt.

No peeling rubber, just bumper to 

bumper madness and sputtering engines,

and the flash of Lord Ganesh

bobbing from rearview mirrors,

in the seething current of 21st century India,

one more swirling pinpoint

in a stationary river of stagnated transportation.

Part crushed rock, part yellow brick road,

dotted with kerbside Hindu temples

bearing the eager hopes of a billion people,

still believing in a four-armed god

with the head of an elephant,

good fortune to new ventures,

and the prosperity brought by machines.

No skill required here, no driving licence

as the slow wheels roll. 

Only luck, and the priests ritual blessing,

lighting coconuts, circling vehicles,

in the encroaching hazy dusk,

chanting, flowers, sacred flames,

the ritualized smashing of burning husks.

Crushed lemons, kerbside chai boys, 

green-banana sellers,

all seen through the cracked 

and grimy windshield,

bounced about through potholes

on worn out, patched up tyres.

High beam creatures of the night

that jump from Bangalores' shadows,

then vanish when you look.

The flank of a bony cow,

a mound of carted hay,

the crow-pecked corpse of a dog.

Scarf-bedecked teenage ghosts

on weaving motor-cycles,

kept safe by Vishnu and the

invincibility of youth.

Older, but not wiser men,

with worn and grubby chaddars 

draped over thin shoulders,

chewing high-octane masala tobacco

and scratching bedbug bites

to the screechy soundtrack 

of Bollywood love songs,

on tinny speakers competing

with the banshee scream of engines;

Bangalore traffic jam,

keeping the dead awake,

same as it ever was 

and ever will be.

Reviews

[Jane Taylor Hardy]

I want to travel to India and I have heard about their traffic jams. I rode this poem through the streets of Bangalore....such colorful imagery and descriptions....enchanting sounds and scenery....I loved this write in its entirety! I am supposing you have been there to have written such an exceptional depiction of a Bangalore traffic jam!

[Lydia Shutter]

There is comfort in the fact that some things never change....as if in a time warp. The way you describe the streets of Bangalore is nothing less than a magic carpet ride to the spot. The sights, smells, and sounds are vivid as is the spirituality that walks hand in hand with the scene. Exceptional write. Lydi**