In the flowering memory
of a mystic India
singing birds on peepal* trees
bring love’s melody to me.
Sunburnt women
swaying rhythmically
to the waving grass,
carry brimming earthen pots
to huddled huts.
The ripe shading banyan*
swings monkey ropes down
to naked children fingers,
it’s boughs ache pleasantly
with the centuries
of sacred secrets
moulded in its bark.
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* peepal tree also known as the Bo-tree (from the Sanskrit ‘Bodhi’ meaning “wisdom”)
* banyan tree refers specifically to the Indian banyan tree. Indian merchants would conduct
their business under it.