Ode To Eleri Poem by Ahamad Ilyaas Vilayathullah

I bid goodbye to Eleri,
The green hilltop on the Western Ghats
In the far north!

I bumped into this sylvan
Hamlet with no intention!
Reluctantly though, I became
A part of the air, water,
Earth, and fire,
And continued to live there
With anxiety, bitterness, despair and hopes!

Made friends with Ajith, Bijesh,
Sijo, Jinse, Sabit, John, Shreni,
Ibraicha, Rajeev, Santhosh, Viji,
Krishnan, Krishnettan,
And so many others.

Many a hard nut I tried to water
And wanted to make tender
That they may germinate
And sprout one day.
So that they will grow into fullness
And bear fruits before long.

Many refused to open up and sprout.
Many, with eagerness, quenched
Their life's thirst.

Many a hand could I
Shake with warmth in heart
And smile on face.

Many I had hard talks with
Life and life's ideologies…

The Red Fort of Eleri,
Far from the Red Fort
In the capital city,
Has turned green and young now,
With the monsoon at the threshold,
Every tree, plant, shrub and grassy leaf
Has put on the green attire of velvet
And the floral smile of diverse hues,
Red, rose, yellow, blue, violet, white and so on.

I bid goodbye to this flora and fauna,
The human and the nonhuman,
The tall towering ones as well as
The dwarfish and tiny ones,
The undergrowths and the overgrowths.

Eleri will retain its red soil colour
For many more years perhaps,
But will have seasonal hues
Every spring, summer, autumn, and winter!

Eleri can't be the same colour
All through the year any longer!
The peacocks, the squirrels, the dog
Long tutored in the mercantile arts,
The sparrows, the butterflies,
The spiders, the scorpions, the sneaky snakes,
The scary and scared venomous friends.
All will be continuing here
For many more monsoon showers
And the evenings of lightning and thunderbolts!

Will they ever ask each other
For the wanderer who reached there
By mistake, who wooed the
Campus twilight too much?

I bid goodbye to this landscape
And everything there,
This murky June evening,
Wishing all, each and everyone,
The best of fortunes in
Nature's store for them!

*******

[Inspired on the occasion of saying goodbye to EKNM Govt. College, Elerithattu, (03rd June 2014) after serving its English Department, on and off, for two academic years]