One of many veterans of the Inbound Trade handed away just lately from a brief wrestle with most cancers. Anup Nair’s contribution to the trade as an expert and in varied positions significantly because the president of SiTE was certainly inspirational. Because the Managing Director of Inspiration India, he’s recognized for creating and delivering world-class incentive journey applications. It is a quick elegy in reminiscence of Shri Anup Nair – (A Journey skilled extraordinaire) by Shoba Rudra.
In reminiscence of Anup Nair – (A Journey skilled extraordinaire)
For Anup Nair…
Scatter my ashes by the Taj Mahal,
the place the marble glows, quiet, unbreakable,
even within the noon warmth. Let me change into
a part of one thing that waits and stays.
Take a handful of me to the Gateway of India
the place the ocean is stressed, a lung filling,
emptying, filling once more. The place the salt air
lingers, lifting and carrying,
as if it is aware of how all of us should be
slightly lighter, slightly freer within the wind.
At Amer Fort, discover me within the sunburnt partitions,
The silence and endurance, of the desert.
I’d prefer to be small and regular there,
to find out how sandstone holds its floor.
After which the Elephanta Caves, deep
within the shadows of carved gods,
which might be solely gods as a result of they keep in mind
methods to stand in darkness
methods to flip from stone into gentle,
endlessly shifting, endlessly fixed.
In Previous Delhi, slip me into the market air,
among the many smells and hues and the warmth,
Cease for a second by Jama Masjid,
so you possibly can lose your self within the hum of all of it,
a metropolis of voices holding its breath —
each hope and prayer, floating up
previous the minarets,
going someplace I’ll by no means know.
Let me drift to the floor of Nigeen Lake,
like lilies urgent up,
pushing towards nonetheless water, making an attempt to satisfy
the mountains that lean in shut
Simply part of me, resting
the place the world is small and the sky is broad.
Lastly, to the Arabian Sea, let me drift out—
the place each wave is each departure and return,
and start once more, like the whole lot we’re—
each misplaced factor, let loose, coming dwelling.
and when the daybreak comes, I’ll be there – quiet,
not gone, precisely—simply in every single place
I needed to be.
9 November 2024
