Jamun

Making their presence felt
after the first rains,
there are more Jamun trees

around Lutyen's Delhi
then there are people.
Hanging from low branches,

Lutyens' jamuns draw families
from as far as Burari,

who joke about the fruit
as being the final yield of the empire;

the bastard child left to prosper.

Their whiff is dizzying.
I rid my soles of it in July. By October,
I forget such an oddity exists.

Semal

Winter's dwindling
if buds on a semal
have bloomed into
little fire alarms

bruising a
clean sky.

collected and distilled
for male potency once
the flowers now rot
on neighbouring trees

friend compares them
to shuttlecocks

lovers wink at them
with affinity

if only the census
were taken in March
Semal would have
a caste by now.

Shahtoot

april queues them up
in tight knots

squirrels—born
amongst them—
smell like jam

preparing for civils, men
eat the fallen strips
with the eager hope

of having a face as
red as an inspector's

in delhi
no two-ponied amour propre
goes round a mulberry

civils: The Union Public Service Commission Exam, or the all India civil service examinations