Anjum Hasan

I saw her from a distance And recognized her That it is none But Anjum Hasan, An Assamese From Shillong, Meghalaya, A convent educated guy, A novelist and poet And an essayist From the northeast. Her persona is a modern man The protagonist From the hilly terrains Exotic and impregnable Speaking the Tibeto-Chinese dialects Of the seven sisterly states, Sometimes traversing into Through the passes, Opening the gates of the borders. Now she looks she a Bangalorean As is in Bangalore A girl from the northeast, A fictionist and poet And a criticism-writer, A modern girl from The northeast in Bangalore, But not so in entity With the roots of nativity left somewhere. Leaving the roots, Why not to look to Where she grew up, Turned into a woman Jane Austenian not, Hardyian too not, But a convent-ian From the northeast, A writer in the making, Going cosmopolitan.