On reading Mumbai’s Ghazal by Raef Kazi

I dream of Delhi sitting in Amsterdam tonight
Glamor in the lawns, silk whispers to pashmina tonight

All that dust, never dulls the white gaadis and kurtas
This is Delhi we are talking about tonight

Tall red brick walls surrounding gated marvels
Ghazals soirees and an open grill for tonight

Khan Market is flanked by a temple, and a graveyard
But, it’s the bookshops that return in the dreams tonight

A talk at the Habitat, followed by a play at the Kamani
Maybe you and I can have sex at Purana Qila, tonight?

Raat ki Rani and Mogra spilling their youth
It is the forgotten smell of rain, in the snow tonight

Saptrishi spotted high in the sky
And, then on a Bal lehenga tonight

“Tell the maali to plant more gulab tomorrow”
“Those cuttings I got from the Bhavan tonight”

I can’t get over the trees of Delhi
They visit me often and tonight

Oh Das, you are lost in the houses and margs,
Babe! Let’s go for Murg ke Nazrane at Gulati’s tonight?

---