By Ayushi Dubey
From behind the lens,
a mosaic of colours
burst open on the screen —
that is how my city
appears to be.
From behind the lens,
the past still holds
onto the varnish: you have
the new architecture on
the foundation of the ancient;
the recipes changing hands —
from serving kings to commoners;
the fish’s eye witness to the
clock hands of the city’s dust.
From behind the lens,
culture is overpopulated: you have
on every turn a man on his throne,
his food a part of the city’s soil now;
in every colony an ancestral craft
struggling to shout its significance;
all the lanes, streets, and buildings
once earth to footsteps of the legends.
But what is a city?
The tired ankles of common beings
trudging to cement its existence — for
we shouldn’t forget this simple fact:
Behind the lens, a person stands.
Behind the tradition, a person stands.