Forgotten Footsteps

First steps of a tiny scholar so cool

Trotting inside his new big school

Kids cry in rhythm and rhyme

Helping hands reach in time

Caring are the school attendants

Clasping the tender hands

Taking them in every step

Guiding them in every stride

Picking bags and tiny boxes

Laughing with the tiny tots

They make you sit, they make you stand

They make you walk, they make you talk

They do all with a loving heart

Helping kids in times of need

Their deeds are priceless indeed

They wash the floors and dust the doors

They sweep the rooms with the brooms

To keep the classes spic and span

Devoted to duty every passing day

They are the noble souls in a way

To be thanked in a better way.

NAMMA Chennai

NAMMA Chennai

A prominent metro on India’s map

I was born and brought up, pampered on its lap

People call it Chennai, the erstwhile Madras.

The serene city, the visage of cultural heritage

Has changed its façade over the decades.

The story of Chennai is very old,

It was a placid place for one to behold

The conspicuous tranquillity of Chennai  

Seem to have gone into oblivion for the best.

With swelling number of migrant heads

Dwelling and slogging with full of zest.

Missing are those myriad “Thennais” and “Thinnais”

That many a vagrant head would take respite and rest.

Funny bags hang outside for the milk sachets to go inside.

Gone are the days where even cats and crows were

Honest enough not to touch the milk bottles kept outdoors.

Gone are those grimacing little monkeys and snake charmers

Now we get to see menacing monkey-like bike roamers.

Roads wore a deafening silence, it was an age

Varieties of vehicles make all of it a mirage.

Gone are the chirpy sparrows squatting on our docile homes

To make way for chirpy girls chatting on their mobile phones.

Playful shrieking kids clasping i-pods are here to stay

Joyful squealing squirrels clasping pods have gone astray.

All around, I see restaurants and shopping malls, so modern

But, all I need to hang around around is a pretty garden

With butterflies and dragonflies abound.

I am in search of this Chennai fondly called Namma Chennai.