Cute Mujahedeen

By Nikhilesh Dholakia

I spotted them first
In Ho Chi Minh City
Dotting the phalanx of mobikes
Covered from head to toe
In flowing soft white Ao Dai
Slit stylishly high above waist
Feet planted, waiting for Green
Elbow length white gloves
Faces wrapped in Euro-scarves
Donning caps
Goggles piercing the traffic
Saigon sirens
Waiting to outgun
Hapless male riders on either side

Their Ahmedabad cousins
Swathed in a riot of color
Sometimes jeans, rarely skirts
Most likely in salwaar kameez
Chunnis wrapped from heads to necks
Colorful masks revealing only specs
Coming from all sides
Zipping on scooters
Usually single, sometimes a pair
Weaving, dodging
People, bikes, cows and cars
What’s that, a slung bazooka?
No just a tight-rolled umbrella
Warding pollution, protecting skin
Cute scooter-riding Mujahedeen

Ahmedabad, August 24, 2004

Bombay 2004

By Nikhilesh Dholakia

Islands of Opulence
Swaths of Destitution
Sleek new Mercedes
Decrepit tottering taxis
Ambitious bank’s Zen office in a “park in the sky”
Hovels of misery leaning on fat sewage pipe
Twenty-nine varieties of twelve-dollar martinis
Litter strewn unmentionables in front of shanties
Extravagant Bollywood billboards
Aggressive eunuch beggars
Cacophony of contrasts
Chorus of coexistence

Mumbai, August 19, 2004