It is namaste that greets me
wherever I go around the world
seeing me in saree that looks different
in my own country where saree being the national dress
as women move about in pants and T-shirts
and my bindi which is another incongruity
largely round in my forehead shining red
which too has become obsolete in my country
where women go with no marks on the forehead
or the bare minimum being a tiny dot
that is not visible from a distance long
but could be noted in close quarters
with a salaam I an shown a place not at the back
but given to take a prominent position
right in the front among the very important
granting me great respect and warmth
which others in modern attire do not get
Proud to be in my own attire with the saree
draped around with pleets and folds
a perfect dress in which I feel at home
whilst the other modern attires seem something out-of-place
very much alien to me while I wonder
how people move about in such forms
that get tight and strain the muscle
forsaking the comforts of the loose
almost an enviable six yard cloth
that needs no stitching and requires no fittings.
Like my sari namaste is also so loving to me
keeping me at home at any part of the world
as I tend to wander all over the world
while a salaam chooses a precious
salutations that make me know that I am being
acknowledged by my Muslim brothers as well
Namaste ans salaam are an integral part of my life.
having one foot in the Indian subcontinent
and the other planted in the Malaysian peninsula
Categories
Meenas Poems 