Kolkata Monsoon in a Slum

by Sarah Elizabeth Das Gupta

She had no idea of the time; 
she only knew it had been raining for hours.
She sat on the rope bed marooned 
by filthy black flood water, swirling around 
the one small room she shared
with Ma, Pa and her toddler brother.
Krishna was banging on a battered saucepan
competing with the monsoon rain
pounding on the tin roof.
By the lamplight, she watched bottles of oil,
plastic buckets, bobbing excitedly
in the deepening flood. Time to get out.

She stepped into stinking water
Already it was up to her waist. 
Krisha was heavy and trying to scoop 
the water with a spoon. 
He wailed as she wrestled it 
away from his chubby hand.

Outside a stream of water flowed 
through the slum.
Underfoot, she could feel the sludge
as she struggled to the road. 
The road? It was a dark river
carrying the city’s detritus.
She flinched as a dead dog floated past.
Krishna was sobbing,
his legs clenched round her waist. 
Crowds from the slums,
as they pushed through the torrent,
were making waves.
One surged over her head. 

Someone lifted her up. 
In the dim light, 
she recognised Pa’s face,
felt his familiar arms around them. 

Sarah Das Gupta is a writer from Cambridge, UK who has taught English in India, Tanzania and the UK. Her work has been published in all continents except Antarctica. She has been
nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart and a Dwarf Star<<