MAGIC IN RAJASTHAN

                           Fantastical Raj Mahal.

                         THE NAILA

He lays his head on my lap. India is outside the window like a dejavu, untouched since last November. The clouds are dark above Jaipur, the pink city’s late monsoon. 

We return to the Naila Bagh Haveli, where we feel home under the ceilings with Maaza and Moong dal in the lobby

THE NILE

Perhaps I desire a garden on the Nile where I can plant my roses. A geographer on an armchair to point me towards Bethlehem. 

None of these luminaries to illuminate my spelling mistakes on letters I write to those forgetting me. 

A Maharaj, one rather large, to lend me rubies as large as pomegranates.

Steps that lead to Mother.

And maybe an altar. 

Yes, that too. 

THE SAFARI

We became a race obedient to the stars, smelling for the rain, mantras with a softer tone to please the Goddess.  In the hunt I dressed for Hollywood. In death I saluted a babyhood, became woman and waited for instruction. In the desert I was a camel, in the jungle a Lion.  On earth a child, in heaven ready to try again.

GALLERY

I heard about Diana when a man dreamt of my mother. 

Could you have been an Amazonian warrior in one life, a muse in another. 

So I become a spectator in your gallery of incarnations. 

 CENOBIO DEI DOGI 

 I got over my Adolescent sadness when I found out about karma, that perhaps I was still suffering from the spoils of my last life and he was gallant because of his.

So we became wizards and hid in pink houses on the Riviera.

THE ORIENT EXPRESS

The whistle announces the train's departure.

The light bulb flickers, its battery still sore from the time a Russian magician attempted time travel in compartment 28 of the Orient Express. 

CAP DU EDEN ROC

Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden 

Now the Eden was a Roc on the Riviera. 

And Adam´s legend was luxe,

and Eve caused parlour talk for every bygone era.

It all went from auspicious to Ritzy,

but there was a spark to it all,

especially when you could dive into it all,

into the blue of sea, the blue of eternity. 

VENICE

I wore the muse of another man,

because in Venice the muse was never I

and the man always another. 

BLUE IN A PINK CITY

I saw who I wanted to be in the mirrors of the Palladio in Jaipur

But there was fear too, a fear of always feeling blue in a Pink city. 

The Narain Niwas Lobby 

The closer we get to Jaipur the more pink the sky turns.

Stripes of rose, six stripes to be precise.

Pink blessings over the pink city, heaven constantly throwing pink petals, and the same wonderful peacocks cry at the pool of the Narain Niwas. We seem to be the only guest, I say I want to wear 

red lips tonight and he says, do. 

He looks handsome in India, exhausted by the bazaar, dinner in the Palladio, shivering with the loss of the sun.  

Blue lips, Pink city.

                                  IMPERIAL

“The smell of the Imperial hotel. The smell I associate with worshipping the Goddess and all her deities. I have breakfast with the smell of the Imperial hotel. The smell I associate with worshipping the Goddess and all her deities. I have breakfast surrounded by the fragrance.” 

                                  PARIS BAR 

Paris bar. No french waiters. Berlin

                          RAJASTHAN HIGHWAY

We thought we would drive through the Thar desert this September. The drive is traffic full, his right mirror broken, the goats look at us thoughtlessly, candy sold inside walls, bangles shimmer in their boxes, police drink chai in pink cups, the alphabet painted on the walls.It's karma on the highway

VENEZIA

If only Noah embarked in Venice and opened the gates to hoards of horses and flamingos, 

to drink the canals dry so gondoliers no longer could lead us to dark corners and empty our pockets.

And if the canals were dry there would be a path to the lobbies, not separated from us by rich waters, for the rich quarter.

And if penguins owned cafe Florian?

Perhaps then I could be allowed the dignity of sitting, and not banned to stand. 

The fire of dragons would melt the golden lions on every door, and then the golden lions would roar.

And then the owl hoot and the wolves cry,

for only Venice and I. 

BIZARRE ON BAZAAR ROAD

Bags of spices overflowing their edges and spilling on earth for the roosters to peck on.

An iron fan spinning a sort of lullaby in the decks where the women run their fingers through curry powder and masala.

Stardust is what it could all look like for me, a foreigner. 

RAJASTHAN ON THE RIVIERA

And it was afternoon on the Riviera when they smelled 

an unfamiliar perfume and heard the roar of a Tiger. 

Silence, fear, curiosity, awe. 

It was the parrot that spoke, and it called, 

“A Queen! A Queen on the Boulevard." 

SOHO HOUSE UTOPIA

There is a magical sadness to the construction of the building, raw concrete walls and columns left bare, left timeless, with falling chandeliers in the shape of a crown not yet placed.

GATSBY'S DELHI

If Fitzgerald had ever taken Zelda to Delhi,

they would have hired a Chauffeur to drive them in a Rolls Royce to Rajasthan but then Zelda would have pointed to the Bullock Cart and said,

"I want that!"

BOMBAY´S BOLLYWOOD BLUES

I tell him this is the best hour of the day, 

hour of the life, dimmer of the lights.

And shimmer of the sunset on the bay. 

Specks of reds and hues of blue, 

the dignity of camels, the measured strut of a cow, 

the sizzle of oil, the shiver of saris when the ladies bow.

Bangle melody, karma tragedies. ”

EL FENN

In Morocco you drop Kennedy and become Onassis

because the twilight must by nature be another twilight then that of America. And the Atlas mountains must be another pink and pink must also be the dust, the spice sprinkled on couscous and the perfume of twilight, if ever twilight were a perfume.

Then twilight was gone, disappeared with the flutter of an eagle’s wing. 

GUCCI CLASSROOM 

Perhaps had I worn beautiful clothes in the classroom,I would have learnt to be a lady.Had there been flora and a Cheetah,

I would have learnt to have an imagination.

Had I been able to see the sky I would have caught all the shooting stars and fulfilled my dreams.