There  was no red signal

Of prohibition

still stopped sudden

The city which so far had the speed

of storm;

Precariously held on to the road

Balancing perilous on wheels

Taxi and private,tempo, tiger embossed double deckers;

All those who raised hue and cry

And came from all sides

Labourers, hawkers, shopkeepers,customers-

They all became part of a still picture

Done by the artist, stuck to his easel;

Everyone dumbfounded

Saw how a naked child crossed the road

From one end to another;

It had rained a few hours ago

At the Chowringhee;

Now the light had pierced through

the clouds

Kolkata seemed to be flooded by illusory light;

Peering out of the window of the state bus

Saw the face of the sky and saw you too;

Son of a mother

Beggarly

You the Jesus of Kolkata

Stopped the traffic by your spell;

The screaming millions,

The teething and gnawing of impatient drivers

Did not deter you;

You walk through

The passage

with death on both sides,

Like someone learning to walk,

Like humanity incarnate

too glad to learn to walk

Trying to get the whole world

Within your grasp;

Like by treading trembling

you were walking from one end to another

Of the world.

(Transliteration of a poem by Nirendranath Chakraborty)