ALLAHABAD 

The holy confluence,

A stream of humans,

The Naga Sadhus

Emerging like a huge stratus,

The Saraswati, Yamuna and the Ganges,

Lined with innumerable shanties,

Ramblings of the holy chant,

To this day haunt.

The city that houses Anand Bhavan,

Ancestral house of the Nehru clan,

City of Akbar Allahabadi and Bachchan,

Dharamvir Bharti, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan,

Artist Ramchandra Shukla,

Flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia,

The waters of the Sangam bred them all,

Their stories and works still enthrall.

I too connect it to Alfred Park,

The twenty seventh day of a February dark

Of the year nineteen thirty one,

When rounds were fired from guns,

A traitor had given away the location

Chandrashekhar Azad and Sukhdev were surrounded by armed men,

Sukhdev escaped,

Chandrashekhar fell down fighting, killing himself with his last bullet.

The second oldest city 

Can be traced down in History,

Georgetown, Tagoretown, Mumfordgunj, 

Civil Lines Chowk and Lukergunj,

A seat of literary and artistic heritage,

Tales of freedom fighters and their courage, 

Along with the many Bengalis draw me toAllahabad,

So does the "tesu ke phoolon ki Holi" and artistic bonds.

©®Madhumita