Breathless Diwali

The sun had set but the stars weren’t out
It was too polluted for our sight
They’d taken me to the top of their apartment
Climbing concrete stairs, stepping over diya’s light

It was only the second day of it all
But the sugar rush had already kicked in
Barely slept, dazed from jetlag
This felt like a dream, fueled on adrenalin

A cacophony of sounds surrounded us
Alone on that rooftop, the sprawling city lay
A jungle of highrises, a maze of streets
Car horns and fireworks every which way…

I breathe

And the air catches in my throat, I can’t-
Swirling breezes carrying smells of smoke,
Cooking food, gunpowder, decay and flowers
A world I had dreamed of for hours and hours
And there it all was;

In the horizon’s haze city lights glowed
Each window a family celebrating
Colours colliding, a kaleidoscope of displays
And fireworks around us, showering, exploding
Millions around me, this world so vivid
Every sensory input buffetted with just so much
Millenia culminating in this modern patchwork
And here it was, hitting me on all sides

Too overjoyed to breathe, too enraptured to cry
What a dazzling moment it was – Mumbai