The Lost City

 

     

                                 

                                   

  

                                       

                                      

                                              

1.    A city with lakes spreading thousand petalled delight

Filled with lotus blossoms red, blue and white

Welcoming flying birds with feathers bright

With nimble swimming colored fish in waters clear

With soft fragrant breezes in tranquil atmosphere

The banks dense with green trees and charm

In brief, a fit paradise pure and calm.

 

2.    A city with teeming parks and rows of trees green

With pure salubrious cool breezes clean

A city well-known for beautiful flowers

With plenteous water and drizzling showers

Where tourists come to escape from blazing heat

A city with wide pathways smooth and neat.

 

3.    A city with thriving commerce and trade

Where various artists their talents displayed

Where industries rose without harming Nature’s wealth

Without endangering public health

Where royal patrons inspired modern trends and change

Without violating tradition and cultural range

Where people from different regions live in peace

Sharing their skills and live with harmonious ease. 

 

4.    Where are those thousand blue lakes gone?

Where are those gardens and trees that once shone?

Where are those spacious lawns and bowers green?
Where are those pools and shining wells serene?

Where is that balmy cool breeze fresh and soft

Where are those cool arbors and historic spots?

No merry twittering cheerful sounds of birds I hear

No space to walk through, enjoying fresh air, I fear.

 

5.    What made this cool paradise vanish into thin air?

What now I see a dry, congested city beyond repair

A confused maze of buildings with no space between

Unplanned cancerous spread of skyscrapers seen

The fabled lotus-laden lakes with breezes cool

Encroached and shrunken to stagnant pools.

Gardens and lawns displaced by shops and noisy trade

No broad-branched trees spreading panoramic shade.

 

6.    The highways choked with vehicles, too hard to pass

For hours waiting too hard for people to cross

So many hurdles, too exhausting we feel

The curse of unplanned vision, ignoring public weal

So many lives are lost in this mad rush of traffic indeed

Hasty decisions of selfish minds often mislead.

Now not so easy to set right this chaotic state

Impossible to restore vast space and lakes, too late. 

 

7.    Most of the lakes vanished; those that remain

Became cesspools where effluents are drained

Swelling with fluffy clouds of foam befouling air

No water springs; an arid stretch of blocks everywhere

Thousands of trees hewn and burnt for enough space

For buildings, firms and malls leaving no trace

Loud sounds, tall mansions, and cars, people deemed

True progress: lost treasures of Nature can we redeem?

 

8.    Dried up borewells and rivers and no water-trace

Dry weather with burning heat people have to face

The city overcrowded cannot meet our needs

Traffic rush, pollution and diseases it breeds

Too many firms and industries spoiled the charm

Raising so many problems, dangers and alarm;

Can we bring back the former glory of the past

In this pollution-ridden congested city vast?

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  21st June, 2024                  Somaseshu Gutala

Note : The future fate of any modern ultra-modern cosmopolitan city in our country is portrayed here. Overurbanization with commercial attitude and lack of planning and vision, makes our cities congested and unlivable. Unless urgent and timely measures are taken the modern cities are bound to face many problems which will affect our future generations and disturb the equilibrium of nature endangering the existence of flora and fauna. So let us pay heed to the warnings given by scientists and technological innovators and live in harmony with Nature and limited sources available to mankind.

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