Salman Rushdie, How Much Do I? Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

How much do I like you,
How do I love you,
Your golden-rimmed glasses
And the French-cut beards,
Just a little bit of
On the shaven chin?

O you, writer of
Shame, Satanic Verses, Midnight's children,
Joseph Anton: A Memoir, Haroun and the Sea of Stories,
The Moor's Last Sigh, The Enchantress of Florence,
Shalimar the Clown, The Ground Beneath Her Feet,
Luka and the Fire of Life, Grimus,
Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights!

One from Solan, Himachal Pradesh
And Bombay,
You an Indian
Domiciled abroad,
Post-colonial and surreal,
Saying the things of the gipsy heart
In a conversational manner!

Fragmentary, conversational and funny,
Salman is a man of guts,
Has the verve and strength to face
And to say,
Rebel and comment
And criticize
Unmindful of public repercussion.

Historical and narrative,
He is a post-colonial as well as a post-modernist,
A talkative man
Deriving from the sub-continent,
The fire, flame and frenzy of it,
The Partition drama and politics.