The Old and The New

Every year more lights, more glamour, more Ritz: this is development in the making

All things new... well, not quite

Foregrounding this progress,
I still see grandmothers in saris bejeweled by laurels of jasmin on their way to puja

Young children still weave rusting  bicycles between the rickshaws and nonplused bulls that block the traffic

An organic shop and ayurveda clinic take up battle positions opposite big pharma and a greasy fast food restaurant in the same plaza

Middle aged men in local tartans spit out their tobacco near two dolled-up eye candies on an affluent shopping spree as they spot four young men crammed onto a single vespa

And while the latter evade police for want of helmets, topi-wearing religious missionaries wander from Mercedes to Lexus to take donations for welfare projects that validate their sense of righteousness

Clearly humanity can't escape itself;

and what's wrong with coexistence anyway?

I sip my cappuccino and smile with the gods