Musical South Asia

Siddhartha Shome

Music is food for the soul.

Like spice is to sweets

Blue to the sea

Candy for Halloween

The professor to a lecture

What cardamom is to our dishes

We yearn for songs to complete us.

As does the whistle of a sparrow

which perfects early mornings

I see my home in music.

The moment

I hear the mellow strum of the sitar

The calculated strokes of a piano

The melodious beats of the drum,

I see the gushing, green gardens of tea

Vendors and children alike in bustling streets

I taste the colorful and sugary laddus

An immortalized love set in architecture

The rich and aromatic curries

I am transported to my haven away from home.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: This poem was written as a free verse. While writing, I asked myself many questions about music, and what it meant to me. As a South-Asian man, I listen to Bollywood music daily, so each song brings me memories and experiences I’ve had before. From taking road trips across the country blasting “sad” songs like one called Kabira by Arijit Singh, to Shah Rukh Khan, I’m brown through and through. I’ve never written poetry before, so instead of thinking “poetically”, I tried to describe every feeling that reminds me of home and my roots.]