Ruminations, What Does Daruwalla Keep Ruminating?

Daruwalla ruminates over the mob psychology Going by the rumour Holding them, Fear and suspense Lurking in, Areas placed under curfew, Police patrolling the streets And parading, Having a deserted look, Shoot at sight prohibitory order Given, Doubting Thomases whispering, Talking secretly With the Alsatian dogs Sniffing. Accident, tragedy, death, Disease and violence, The poetic codes of Daruwalla, The tragedy man With the books of tragedies only In his book-stall, The morgue man Counting the dead Or the guard of The post-mortem house, The Doongar Vari man, The hawk man, The kite man, The vulture man of Indian English poetry. A policeman by profession Already unsentimental Beyond description, A Parsi at heart, Deriving from the Tower of Silence, Call it the Doongar Vari or the Cheel Ghar Upon which they Place their dead For the birds of prey To cleanse forth the flesh, His is a mythic ice and mysticism Of ancient Iran Of the days of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism And the Avesta.