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Writer's pictureShailja Chandra

Maroubra Moon - An ode to Gulzar from Sydney, Maroubra Beach

Updated: Jul 30, 2020



It will begin to bleed any breath now, Sun, the departing knight

To nest in the abundant womb of a tepid November night

On page 71, ‘Gahnati hui kokh ko mehsoos kiya hai’, in me shivers life

Maroubra-moon just reports ‘on-duty’, in a uniform patchy-silver-white


Like white frills sewn on edges, waves ebb in and away with reverence

Bowing to footprints of the day left on gold-speckled-sand

I reminisce the touch of his feet, a sense of veneration tides in me

Making me one with the deep-blue abyss of Tasman sea


Just then her eyes find me and Pukhraj, ah those vintage wrinkles

A book in Hindustani at the beach, her eyes little quizzical


My smile is carried to her by gold-bronze rays of the retiring Sun

She waves back and a fit-happy-Aussie life continues her run


Breath, pulse-rate, heartbeats - all in order, all harmonious

Ah, but 5 decades of Gulzar-less-ness!


Today, I shall let her hold ‘Pukhraj’, on the return-loop of her daily run

Just as the Southern star signals to the moon ’time to stand in for Sun’

Just as the day extinguishes and Maroubra-moon is the new Tzar

I shall say to her, ‘THIS is Gulzar’


Timeless as the Southern Star, in him resounds a multiverse

Limitless as the Tasman, in him let’s immerse

Our fugitive imagination is captivated by his words of high potency

Words wearing badges of immense honesty, integrity, transparency


Sanctity of emotions reside in his verses, like divinity in the temple

Imagery tranquil like twilight’s lamp, imagery with unmatched mettle


Earthen scent wafts from the rustic milieu his words paint

He imbues in us deep longing for longing and for pain poignant


Gulzar is an alchemist - I shall say to her

Only he can fuse perceivable senses into ethereal


In the fecund soil of his imagination, words flourish and prosper

On touching ‘Satrangi’ fingers of this septuagenarian gardener


In the moon-drops of his verses is locked the CODE of life 

In the womb of his imagery quivers the DNA of time

The switch of night and day is in his jurisdiction alone

Gulzar remains the sole custodian of Maroubra-moon!

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