मंदिर से मधुशाला तक / From Temple To Tavern

दर्शन कर मंदिर से पप्पू निकला था जल्दी जल्दी
कि सामने से आ रास्ता काट गई एक काली बिल्ली

घूरे जा रही थी वह चमकीली आंखों से वहीं खड़ी
‘पीछे से आकर मां बोली यह कैसी विपदा आन पड़ी’

मां का रास्ता न वह काटे दौड़ा पप्पू उसके आगे
पर बिल्ली भी उसके समांतर दूसरी पट्टी पर भागे

लगती थी वह आमादा रास्ता फिर से काटने को
पप्पू के मन में भी आते जा रहे थे तरकीब अनेको

न पप्पू रुका न रुकी वह काली मौसी बिल्ली
चकमा दे देकर मानों वह उड़ा रही थी खिल्ली

दौड़ते दौड़ते पहुंच गया वह एक मधुशाला के द्वार
जहां मिला उस बिल्ली को जूठे चकने* का स्वाद

शायद वह जा रही थी अपने चिर परिचित ठिकाने पर
पप्पू नाहक पीछे लग गया उस अबला को भगाने पर

वापस आकर मां को प्यार से उसने ढाढस बंधाया
‘आते हुए किसी अपशकुन को देखो मै टाल आया’

🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

From Temple To Tavern

Pappu had just come out of the temple after having darshan,
that a black cat coming from the front crossed his path,

While she was staring at him with her bright eyes,
his mother coming from behind exclaimed, ‘what kind of calamity lies ahead’,

The cat had not crossed his mother’s path, so he ran after the cat,
but the cat also started running parallel on the other side of the road,

It seemed that the cat was hell-bent on crossing the path again,
many tricks were flashing across his mind to shoo her away,

Pappu was not in mood to stop, and so was that black cat aunty,
who kept dodging as if she was making fun of him,

While running Pappu finally reached the door of a tavern,
where that cat stopped and got busy devouring leftover chakna*,

May be she was on her way to this familiar place of hers,
and he was unnecessarily trying to drive the poor cat away,

Pappu came back and consoled his mother affectionately,
‘look, I have sent back that bad omen successfully’…

• snacks consumed with alcohol

P.S. This was originally written for a prompt in Hindi, ‘Black Cat’. While a black cat crossing one’s path is considered to be good luck in many parts of the world, some in India consider it as a bad omen. Please note the poem has been written in a lighter vein and has nothing to do with anybody’s faith or superstition.

–Kaushal Kishore

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