Marina
Dr. Kondal Rao Velchala
MARINA The radio rang rhythmical
The radio rang rhythmical.
Marina beach looked like a sea beside a sea
With a heavy outpour of all kinds of people of all strata
of society
of Madras city.
Women sporting the most colourful costumes
As if on a display.
Oh! What a pleasure immeasurable it was
That breeze blowing from the Bay of Bengal
Mingling with the mix of the “Evening In Paris”!
At the coast - line, the upsweeps of the cigarette puffs
From the ‘Gold Flake cigarettes’
The vapours of “Masala Dosa” flavours
From the adjoining hotel
Sprung like the founts of curlish coils.
Lo ! the native dames
Their tense and tempered breasts in-nestling!
The unsatiated luscious looks of Ayyanagar girls
askansing.
The “Queen Mary’s” thick powder coated slick faces
dizz-dazzling!
I did not know whether my mouth was swelling
with the welling water or my heart was belling to tell something
Or my limbs were going crazy with the sensuous in-prickle.
Brand new models of American cars
Queued up in rows and rows
Gleaming in most effulgent colours
Like the beaming American belles
Enticing with their most amorous looks.
The day whittled and withered,
The sky burnt like a messed up black wire
Burning in fits and starts.
After some time, the crowd melted away
Except for the ‘scum’ and the ‘slum’ of the society …
The stray women willing to go with anyone
For a few pennies, morsels,
The gay Anglo-Indian girls
For a cheap cinema ticket costing a few chips,
A few, “The gentlemen” so called
Waiting for their own chances
This side and that glancing.
Beyond, the waves roared their uproar of disapproval.
The air moaned.
The stars nestled in the sky like the wish-whistling
Like the tears of earth teeming.
But in the man’s heart raged a maze of desires,
Like the rising flames from the raging fires.
