An Ode To The Khada Parsi
Originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1
The whole goddamned world passes him by
pigeon shit blocks his eyes
a stubborn sore throat blocks his cries
he lives out living humanity
in a shroud of carbon mono dioxide
Seth Manockjee Cusetjee
An upright Parsi
Founder of the Alexandra Girls institution
Circa 1863 now looks like
A jobless chimney sweeper in disguise
Watches silently a city’s dead conscience
Apathy complacency and demise
A weeping sunset a somber sunrise
The erstwhile Parsi Panchayat
Is busy building towers at
Cusrow baugh
Pleasing Lord Zaratushtra in
Real estate sky rocketing
Mumbai skies
At the feet of this Parsi philanthropist
Families fornicate shit cook
As their seminal stained linen
In a public thoroughfare dries
A malignant tumour
Called municipal franchise
That I love the Khada Parsi
Should not take you by surprise
My adventurous childhood as a MIYA
Got its polish and sheen from
Keith Kanga, Rayomand Framroze
Naval Baria Pesi, Wispi,
Loving and living life full size
Khatau road Panday agiary
Those days no concrete Cuffe Parade sky rise
The Ghaswallas Unwallas
Soda Water Bottle Opner Wallah
All sport crazy Parsi guys..
All Bawi babes thought I was a Parsi too
Firoze hooked nose Muslim bawa baptised
At the Elphinstone College canteen free Rimzim Sosyo
Rasberry squatting like Eliot in the misty archives
Motor cycle Rustom, Dara Cyrus Burjor
Those men in their crazy machines zooming
Near Framroze Court at Marine Drive..
Girlfriend Armaity who ditched me to
Marry Porus lost love letters oh
Love too had a Prize..
So I love the Khada Parsi
Silent spectator battered heritage
Of a community
That boasts Parsi owned
In this case an empty loaded dice.
Parsi Panchayat snoring away
somnolent conscience is all I can surmise
Every time I pass the Khada Parsi
All such shoe laced memories untie
dedicated to Late Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest my childhood friend his mother Gwendolyn father Dossabhai Kanga of New Era Printing Press Worli.
Both his parents had predeceased him.
