Adil Jussawalla

He taught classes I didn't take

At St. Xavier's

But I went to anyway

He was different, with ringlets of long hair

Young like us then

Not trying to hide it either

My chosen Political Science classes were deep

Taught by a serious-minded Oxford educated Jesuit

Who didn't let his biases creep into the exposition-

Eng. lit. was fun the way Jussawala taught it

He experimented

In small doses-

Jussawalla became a noted poet

With very little poetry put out

But he encouraged many-

Published some of mine in Debonair

Where he was Literary Editor

And where Imtiaz Dharker would draw

Portraits of the poet-

Classy

In an uncaring tumult

A roar

Of dhanda

In Amchi Mumbai ruled by VP Naik

Cleaner greener and steadier than now

For eleven long years...

Adil's written another book at last

His third in some fifty years-

He talks still of his struggles

At publishing poetry

Of print

Why print in 2012?

Welcome to cyberspace biddu.

Google, Shoogle, pad this pad that

And the kindling of Kindle.

For music it's the same story

Download to glory

You Tube it all

And leave the paper and vinyl and whatever it is they make CDS out of

To the bins of history.

Vanity, if that's what it is

Has found comfortable rooms now.

Gautam Mukherjee