Matheran Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

In a moving car, with one leg crossed
Horizontally, he saw his shoe
On the bent leg lit up in sunlight;
That black shoe had bright patches
Of reddish brown dots. It shocked him
That he could polish brown his black shoes.

He then remembered wearing black
On last visit to Matheran
The green gem among hill-stations
In Maharashtra. There we
Do not have vehicles, but laterite
Soil, and horses. No asphalt
Road either. But a cute train
From Neral for three hours. It competes
With Ooty or Darjeeling, far bigger places,
For this dainty mode of transport
All the way up 21 km climb.

Washed his shoes in water
On return to Mumbai.

Unique Matheran is 100 km away
Notified by MoEF as an ecologically
Fragile treasure to protect, like Pachmari.
Only for pedestrians and horses
Those aristocrats of Nature
Who use legs, and not tire.

Even shoes wear Matheran’s souvenir
Shining proudly in the Sun.


D T Joseph
13.02.08