Relations

Living here for decades, thousands of miles afar,/ I do wonder who our wider relations are?/ Do they sometimes think of how I’m getting on?/ Are they still around, have some of them passed on?

If I dug around, and sent invitations,/ Would there be hundreds of relations/ Enough to fill Allbless Baug on a good day/ With food and drink on offer, and nothing to pay?

Will there be a Cavasji, Khurshedji, Bahmanji, Jamshedji,/ Rustomji, Dhunjibhai, Muncherji, Sohrabji, Jeevanji?/ And that eccentric mustachioed Uncle who’d kept a Basenji?/ Are they left-wing, right-wing, don’t-give-a-damn-wing?/ Others with a keen interest in pretty well everything?

Are there ladies called Najamai, Ratanbai, Perinmai,/ A Frenymai, Alamai, Jalamai, Falanamai,/ Imposing matriarchs, others who wouldn’t hurt a fly?/ And there’s got to be one who shrieks like Jaijimai-ni-Aayi!

Generally I’d like to meet those like most of us,/ I’ve no great desire to uncover the rich and the famous,/ The bankers, the magnates, the industrial maharajas,/ But the one I’d particularly like to seek out, week in, week out,/ By enquiries direct or a-slanty, is the special, marvelous Auntie,/ Who made the most fabulous malai-na-khajas!

DHUN SETHNA

dhun@dhunsethna.plus.com