अरविंद ओझा की कविताएं

Summary

The poem reflects on the transformation of a city from a natural, peaceful environment to a polluted, noisy, and crowded urban space. The speaker laments the dirty sky, which obscures the moon, and recalls a time before factories and sirens dominated the landscape. Now, the city is filled with noise, and even the air has changed. Faces have turned dark, and sunlight never reaches the offices, factories, or closed rooms, leaving only darkness. The speaker asks for the window to remain open so that, upon death, they might escape far from the city. The poem then focuses on a broken window in the speaker's rented room on an upper floor. Years ago, when the speaker's daughter was very young, there was a neem tree outside with a creeper, flowers, bees, and children playing in its shade. Cows would moo. Then, an official arrived with a new plan, and the tree was cut down. The bees left, children went indoors, and a busy market developed. People became skilled businessmen and buyers. Electric and telephone wires were strung near the window. Now, the speaker no longer sees the dust that a neighbor used to sprinkle with water every evening, nor the black road that was built. Only crowds, people, identical faces, hands, and gestures are visible. The speaker's daughter has grown up and goes to school. Today, she hung a large calendar on the broken window, showing mountains, a river, and red and yellow flowers.