Faster than sound,
if it arrives today—
where will it go tomorrow,
faster than light?
Sound, I can picture
as the tortoise in the current of time—
light, I can imagine
as the hare beneath the blue sky—
the two creatures meet,
and the fairy-tale clamour
of their unlikely pairing
echoes deep inside the earth—
racing by the rules,
who loses,
who wins,
the trading of kinship and honour
when the race is over—
only Kalidasa ever sensed it.
Sucheta Sanyal
How many times have you run
through the city’s many streets—
and still you look for
another road,
so you can grab the tram’s handle
with ease, at any stop.
Bound up in the shared streets
of the whole city, leaving one shared corner for another—
you’ll have to forget the ancient pair—
Kalidasa is no longer at your side.
By then—
Kalidasa has already stepped out
into the Earth’s Kumarasambhava—
30/4/2026
Poetry: Amitava Mukherjee
Illustration: Sumit Sanyal
Branding: Kaushik Bhattacharyya
Copyright © Amitava Mukherjee
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